By Canadian Press

Petition by RFK Jr. fan prompts water fluoridation vote by Montreal council

Nov 21, 2024 | 12:38 PM

MONTREAL — Municipal officials are considering an end to water fluoridation on the island of Montreal in a move spurred by a petition from a resident who claims he has the support of Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

A council representing Montreal and the suburban municipalities on the island will vote this evening on whether to stop the practice in the six West Island suburbs that treat their water with fluoride.

The Montreal agglomeration council says it began to study the issue after receiving a petition in 2020 from resident Ray Coelho, who says he has spoken to Kennedy on a few occasions.

Kennedy, a vaccine skeptic who has been tapped by U.S. president-elect Donald Trump to be his health secretary, claims that fluoride is an “industrial waste” linked to a range of health problems, and has said the Trump administration will remove fluoride from the U.S. public water supply.

Heidi Ektvedt, mayor of one of the affected communities, says the city only told her about its plan in September, four years after receiving the petition, and she says residents haven’t been consulted.

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The Montreal water department says its recommendation to stop putting fluoride in the water is based on technical and economic factors, though it notes that public health officials are in favour of fluoridation as an effective way to reduce tooth decay.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Nov. 21, 2024.

The Canadian Press