The City of Calgary is delaying the reintroduction of fluoride back into the drinking water supply until the first quarter of 2025.
Fluoride was expected to be back in the city’s water by September, but the city said on Friday that construction of the required infrastructure upgrades at the Glenmore and Bearspaw water treatment plants is now expected to wrap up in the first quarter of 2025.
In November of 2021, city council approved the reintroduction of fluoride after a plebiscite was held that showed 62 per cent support for the mineral to be added to the drinking water in Calgary.
That vote overturned a 2011 city council decision to remove the mineral from municipal drinking water.
However, this is the second delay from the city, as it was slated to be reintroduced in 2023 but faced roadblocks in the cost of the plants.
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This also comes as a recent research study from the University of Alberta published in the Canadian Journal of Public Health indicates that the cessation of water fluoridation has had adverse effects on the dental health of young children.
The population-based study included all children under the age of 12 living in Calgary and Edmonton, which are non-fluoridated and fluoridated respectively.
Of the 2,600 children who received dental treatments for cavities requiring general anesthesia, 65 per cent were from Calgary.
It noted a considerable rise in dental treatments for cavities requiring general anesthesia per 10,000 children in the age groups of 0-5 and 6-11 years.
“The risk of dental treatments under [general anesthesia] was also positively associated with post-cessation time,” the paper reads.
The paper concludes by stating discontinuing water fluoridation “appears to negatively affect young children’s oral health,” and can lead to a “significant increase” in cavity-related dental treatments in that population.
Calgary will join Edmonton, Lethbridge, and Red Deer as the Alberta municipalities that include fluoride in their drinking water.