AYLMER, QUEBEC | At the last Gatineau city council meeting several citizens, including representatives from the Lakeview Terrace Residents' Association, raised the question of the city putting fluoride in our drinking water. Council is considering a city-wide fluoridation program for all municipal water.

These residents were from Aylmer (wouldn't you know it?), and they raised important questions that were not answered clearly. Those for and against the change should want to know the answers. Fluoride is a chemical that we are all going to be drinking, unless we buy our water.

The residents wanted to know why the change is being made in the first place.

• What convinced the councilors that this would be a good thing to do now?
  
• What were the studies which supported it, and, most importantly, where are those studies?
  Can the public read them in their entirety?
  
• And why not?

  Most of us know nothing about fluoride, its benefits, and its side effects. We can Google it, but shouldn't we be reading from the same book that the city is using? Shouldn't we citizens be convinced, just as city council was convinced? After all, we pay the bills. The city shouldn't be afraid of this. We are ready to be convincedÉ

  The residents also wanted to know why council, or the administration, is fast-tracking this change. Since fluoridation is something that will be imposed on every person in Gatineau -- it's not like snowplowing or street repair, this will do something to every person's body -- and since it is so persuasive -- intrusive is a better word -- and since it is so controversial (Europe has recently discontinued all fluoridation), because of all this shouldn't the city be proceeding more carefully, more slowly?

  And should not the Precautionary Principle be up front in all of council's deliberations on health? This principle recommends the utmost caution in anything dealing with large numbers or large environments.

  Surely the fourth largest city in Quebec is not hoping to rush this past before the citizens hear about it?

  It's not clear information that arouses people, it's fear of the unknown that works people up and causes all sorts of problems to arise. To hold back information would be anti-democratic, and something none of us will accept. But governments are known to distrust public discussion because it can lead to delays and difficult requests.

  This is an elitist attitude, which Gatineau doesn't need.

  At question period, the tax-payers presented to the councilors various studies and references which are critical of fluoridation, and they made several other technical points before the meeting proceeded.

  What remains is: why is the city doing this at all?

  What's the rush?

  Where are the documents and studies?

  And when are public consultations on introducing fluoride to be held, and will they be held early enough to allow councilors to consider all the information before deciding?

  Answers to these questions would calm public fears, even end the discussion entirely.

  
  
  
  

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  Copyright © 2008 Fred Ryan/Log Cabin Chronicles/04.08