Jason Markusoff
Calgary Herald
January 11, 2011
Council will delay deciding on the future of fluoride in Calgary’s water system until a public hearing later this month, but one aldermen questions whether members’ minds are already made up and that a hearing would be largely ceremonial.
Ten of 15 aldermen had lent signatures to a motion Monday that would have ended Calgary’s 20 years of fluoridation without any formal public input.
But amid deluges of hundreds of e-mails and calls from across North America on the divisive issue last week, as well as criticism from the mayor, council decided a Jan. 26 hearing will let experts and residents hash out the debate that mixes health, science and ethics.
As they embraced the idea of a hearing, many aldermen expressed their determination to remove the additive from city water — a juxtaposition Ald. Gael MacLeod found upsetting.
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