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Dorval finally will resume fluoridating water
Alycia Ambroziak
The Gazette
Thursday, June 26, 2008
It apparently takes a lot of time to put fluoride back into drinking water.
In December 2006, Dorval Mayor Edgar Rouleau wrangled consent from the Quebec government to let the city decide whether to resume fluoridation of the town’s drinking water.
At that time, the mayor thought it would take only a few months to get the system back in place.
In March of 2007, Rouleau was told fluoridation would be reinstated by June of that year.
In September 2007, he was told it would likely be at the end of the year.
Then he was told it would be in the spring of 2008.
Now, he’s hoping it will happen this summer.
“They are testing the system now,” Rouleau said last week. “If the tests are positive, the system should be up and running by the end of this month.”
Dorval had fluoridated its water for 50 years, until 2003, and stopped only because its equipment needed modernization.
But when the city of Dorval asked for permission to upgrade equipment to reintroduce fluoride to its water, the city of Montreal objected, claiming Dorval – a demerged city – did not have the right to use a $400,000 provincial grant for that purpose.
Montreal has never fluoridated its water, even though the Quebec government supports the practice.
In December 2006, the provincial government amended the law so that Dorval council, and not Montreal’s island council, had the final say about fluoridation of its water.
Since fluoridation was stopped in Dorval in 2003, public health authorities said a study had shown that cavities doubled among Dorval kindergarten students.