Comment 27611

By adrian (registered) | Posted November 30, 2008 at 21:23:27

seancb, you're taking my comments out of context, either deliberately, or because you didn't read what I wrote particularly carefully. It should be clear that I was referring to tap water, and the choice people have of whether or not to consume it.

Grassroots, it's precisely people in poverty and the working poor who benefit the most from fluoridated water, since they are much less likely to have access to dental care. Try explaining to people living in poverty that they can take fluoride pills if they want to prevent tooth decay, or that they can go see a dentist, instead of getting this great benefit for free in their water, and tell me how that goes.

Those of you opposed to fluoride in tap water: why are you not also opposed to chlorine in tap water? Don't all of the same arguments about choice, mass medication, etc., apply to chlorine? According to the myhamilton website (http://www.myhamilton.ca/myhamilton/CityandGovernment/CityDepartments/PublicWorks/WaterAndWasteWaterDev/Drinking+Water/TreatmentDistribution.htm) the process at the Woodward plant is as follows:

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The water treatment process consists of pre-chlorination, screening, clarification by means of coagulation with polyhydroxyaluminum chloride, floccuation by mechanical mixing, followed by sedimentation. The filtration process has been upgraded by the addition of granulated activated carbon (GAC) in the filters to remove taste and odour. This condition is usually present in the water in the late summer, when algae are abundant. Chlorine and ammonia are added to the filtered water to bring the combined chlorine residual to approximately 1.3 mg/L. Hydrofluosilicic acid (fluoride) is added to the drinking water to promote dental health.

What if I don't want pre-chlorination? What if I am morally opposed to coagulation with polyhydroxyaluminum chloride? What if I believe that ammonia is caustic (it is) and I don't want it in my water?

Why don't I have the right to get totally unadulterated water? Can't they just pump water directly out of Lake Ontario and into my house?

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