This past week, the University of Northern BC was host to a small health fair. I was generally impressed with the quality of information being presented, that is, until I came across the fluoridated water booth.
The booth was being run by an elderly couple claiming to be from an organization called The Coalition for Safer Water. As far as I could tell though, they were spouting illogical half-truths.
At first, I gave them the benefit of the doubt and let them present their arguments against fluoridated water. However, with a background in chemistry I was able to refute most of their claims.
For example, they claimed that fluoride causes dental fluorosis, a health condition that can ruin the teeth of children.
A quick look at the water analysis reports, available online, for downtown Prince George in February 2010 shows that the concentration of fluoride was 0.05 mg/L.
The city of Prince George website also states that anything above 1.5 mg/L can cause dental fluorosis. That's 30 times under the allowable limit.
They quickly left off trying to convince me with their pseudo-science and began a fear based argument. They linked fluoridated water with Nazi Germany and Communist Russia and finally, fell back to the argument found most commonly in mental hospitals.
It was a conspiracy.
Thomas Spanning
Prince George
