Dear CDW Secretariat/Health Canada,

The recent Health Canada review for the Canadian Drinking Water Quality Guideline (CDWQG) called "Fluoride in Drinking Water" or "la fluorore dans l'eau" is now available for public comment:

English: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/consult/_2009/fluoride-fluorure/index-eng.php
French: http://www.hc-sc.gc.ca/ewh-semt/consult/_2009/fluoride-fluorure/index-fra.php

Regarding dental fluorosis, this review reports:

1. French translation: La fluorore dans l'eau p62
"Des données indiquent que dans certains cas - dans la région de Niagara, par exemple - la prévalence a augmenté de façon spectaculaire entre 1994 et 1998"

2. English translation: Fluoride in Drinking Water p54

"There is evidence in some instances-for example, in the Niagara region-of a dramatic decrease in prevalence between 1994 and 1998."

The French version actually states the OPPOSITE to the English version.

No citation is given for these claims, as required by any legitimate scientific review. The astonishing number of unverifiable claims without citations made in this document are simply not acceptable, based on the basic tenets of scientific procedure.

I demand that an erratum notice be posted immediately on the Health Canada web site and the Ontario Ministry of the Environment website, and that a correction be made to the pdf file. The CDW secretariat should also advise all respondents by email of the error and its correction and the source reference for the data which can be verified by the Canadian public in an open and transparent manner.

A failure to deal with this error promptly could be perceived by taxpayers, who have paid for this deeply flawed review, as an attempt to provide different and opposing information to the English-speaking population, compared to the French-speaking population.A failure to provide research citations that are available to the public, could also be construed as an attempt by the CDW secretariat to deceive the Canadian public.

Sincerely,

Carole Clinch BA BPHE
Spokesperson & Research Coordinator
People for Safe Drinking Water

My response to Health Canada's new report: Fluoride in Drinking Water

Submitted yesterday and available online at http://fluoridealert.org/re/connett.canada.11-11.09.pdf

A link to the Dr. Peter Cooney presentation in Dryden, Ontario, re-found.

Thanks to Christopher Maingot for re-finding the link to Dr. Peter Cooney's presentation in Dryden, Ontario on April 1, 2008. Dr. Cooney is Canada's Chief Dental Officer and thought to have masterminded the selection of the 6-member "expert" panel which prepared the groundwork for Health Canada's scandalous defense of its 1.5 ppm drinking water standard (i.e. defending fluoridation in Canada) as we described in yesterday's bulletin.

If you have 30 minutes to spare try watching this video and wonder - along with us - how an earth this man was ever appointed to be Canada's top man on dental health!

The link: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4888471756915953833&hl=en#

For the record, after hearing from Dr. Peter Cooney the citizens of Dryden voted overwhelmingly to halt fluoridation in Dryden. Dr.Cooney was equally unsuccessful in trying to persuade the Thunder Bay councilors to start fluoridation, even though he insisted on meeting each one of them one by one.

Paul Connett