Lakeshore removes fluoride from water supply

Residents of Lakeshore will no longer find fluoride in their tap water. 

Town council unanimously decided Monday to stop adding it at the Stoney Point water treatment plant, effective immediately.

Mayor Tom Bain says people's teeth should be fine.

'There is no need for any concern ... there's plenty of fluoride in toothpaste.' — Tom Bain, Lakeshore mayor

"There is no need for any concern. Council had a report from our administrative group that recommended doing that, based on the fact that if you're using toothpaste, there's plenty of fluoride in the toothpaste and in fact there could be health concerns if a person gets too much fluoride," Bain said.

However, Medical Officer of Health Dr. Allen Heimann said fluoride should not be taken out of public water.

"I think it would be beneficial for all of the water be fluoridated," he said. "It is still recognized as an effective public initiative."

Heimann said fluoride in water is more effective than toothpaste because water is routinely consumed whereas teeth cleaning is an additional step which needs to be taken.

Heimann said 81 per cent of Lakeshore's water is not fluoridated. He called council's latest decision "a financial one."

Fluoride was never added to Lakeshore's other water treatment plant in Belle River.

Bain said the town has been in the process of phasing out fluoride.

"We've been phasing out for the last couple of years reducing the amount of fluoride that was in there," he said. "The plant that we had in Belle River, we weren't putting fluoride in that water anyway. So the Stoney Point was really the only plant of our two that were putting fluoride in."