The Current - Fluoride set to flow again in Calgary Water

Episode Date: June 27, 2025

Fluoride is returning to Calgary’s drinking water. The city removed it more than a decade ago, but after a public vote and years of planning, it's back. A city councilor who once voted against fluoride explains why he’s changed his mind.

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Available now. This is a CBC Podcast. As of Monday, fluoride will flow in Calgary City water once again. City Council first voted to take the mineral out in 2011. And in the years since, the debate over fluoride has intensified. As figures like Robert F. Kennedy Jr. claim it's bad for human health. But studies continue to show that fluoride does prevent tooth decay, and it's safe for human

health in the small amounts that are put in drinking water. In 2021, Calgary residents voted in favour of putting fluoride back in their water and some Calgarians say it will make them happy when they turn on the taps next week. I think that's a wonderful advancement. I'm so happy to hear that the City of Calgary is going to be putting fluoride back into the water.

It seems like unnecessary to take it out. I think it's good that it's being put back in. Giancarlo Carrà is a City Councillor in Calgary. He voted to take fluoride out of the drinking water back in 2011. Now he's glad it's being added again to the city's supply. John Carlo Carrot joins me now. Good morning. Hi Susan, how are you?

I'm good, thank you. So how are you feeling about putting fluoride back in? I'm feeling good about it. I will tell you that, you know, I think water fluoridation helps dental health. And we have proof in Calgary because we took it out 10 years ago and we watched dental outcomes for our population get worse, measurably worse over the course of that 10 years. I'm also fiercely proud because the citizens of Calgary voted to put it back in in a pretty large number 62% in in the plebiscite

that we held alongside the municipal election in 2021 and that I think is a remarkable thing in an age of weaponized disinformation and anti-science sentiment and you see the nonsense that's happening south of the border. Why did you personally change your opinion? Well, I don't think I changed my opinion on fluoride. I mean, I never acknowledged that it wasn't sort of helpful. I just thought that it doesn't help as much as I think a lot of the ardent proponents of fluoride think it does. I mean, the basic level of magnitude is that if a person's going to get two cavities over the course of a decade, fluoridated water will reduce that to one. We tracked that our increase in dental caries was increasing more rapidly than our fluoridated city to the north, Edmonton.

But what the reports don't always point out is that Edmonton has a higher level of dental caries and that has everything to do with the fact that they have a poorer population. And so, you know, people who are adamant supporters of water fluoridation, but who are silent on universal dental care, I don't think are tracking the numbers appropriately. Is it fair to say you're fully on board now? Well, I am, I am. I mean, I believe that we should have universal dental care.

I know that when you put fluoride directly, apply it topically to teeth, it has a massive benefit towards preventing dental caries. But if you dilute it and wash the entire universe with it, it has a much less effective outcome. And it costs money for municipal governments to put fluoride in water. And we're not in charge of public health, really. And it's not, you know, so we took it out 10 years ago because we had a, I think, you know, a thoughtful conversation with Calgarians

and we were trying to spend a lot of money on significant changes to the kind of city we were living in. And we wanted to be responsive to the population and there didn't, you know, now people want it back in and it clearly helps. And so I it now people want it back in and it clearly helps. And so I'm happy to put it back in, especially when you juxtapose the fact that, you know, 10 years ago we weren't having an anti-science, you know, conversation like we're having now.

Yes, I wanted to ask you about that. Of course, in that 10 years, the public debate around fluoride has become more political, some would say. Thanks to the likes of Robert Kennedy Jr. when you talk about fluoride in Calgary, is it still possible in this environment to have a nuanced conversation about it? Well I try to just have nuanced conversations but yeah I think it's it's we live in a world of social media bubbles of weaponized disinformation and of rising anti-science sentiment So, you know, I take a bit of fierce pride in being Canadian and being a Calgarian That you know, we looked at the data and we saw through the noise and the major the overwhelming majority of us said

Yeah, let's put it back into our water. There is a cost for municipalities. It's complex. It's difficult. You know, it is public health is a provincial responsibility in Canada. And one of the reasons why we took it out is because municipalities have so many things that are not our responsibility downloaded onto us by, by other orders of government, and we have the least financial capacity to do it. So it was taken out sort of as a cost saving measure because we didn't believe

it was the most effective you know public health measure that exists and we're putting it back in because it is an effective you know it's not the most but it is an effective public health measure. Yeah, there's so much debate about what else is needed in health care. Fluoride in the water won't change issues with dental health across the board. You know, just in the minute and a half we have left, what other public health solutions would you like to implement that may improve dental health to a greater degree? Well, I think we need universal dental care, right? People who come at you and say like you took the fluoride out

of the water and children's teeth are rotting out of their faces. Those kids are not going to be helped by water fluoridation. They need dental care, right? And that's what we should be focused on, right? And on the flip side, you know, people who are freaked out about, you know, a naturally occurring mineral at low concentration levels, they should be worried about like microplastics and stuff like that. I mean, it's weird that fluoride is such a flash point. Do you think we can tone down the anti-science rhetoric in politics?

You've talked about it. I would hope so. I think that voters need to realize it is no longer about right versus left. It's about whether we are electing people who believe in governing versus whether we're electing people who just want to play this rage baiting game of political contest. And I think if you're, if you're not into nuanced conversations, if you're not seeking to find complex solutions to complicated problems, we shouldn't be electing people like that. But you know, right now,

people are living in bubbles. They are worried about the state of the world. And I think they are, they are susceptible to rage baiting and I think you know conspiratorial conversations about things like fluoride I think scratch and itch and I think we have to I think we just have to realize the world is infinitely complex and we have to have nuanced conversations. Well that's a good point to end. Thank you John Carlo. Thank you Susan. John Carlo. Thank you, Susan.

Giancarlo Carray is a City Councilor in Calgary.