I’ve been at this job for 13 years now and whenever I meet friends and family outside of the water industry, they naturally ask me what I do.  After I deliver my elevator pitch about the CWWA, I can see them trying to think of a question to ask me.  It is almost always one of two questions – what do you think about fluoride? or – what’s going on with the monitoring for covid?

 

On one hand, I am happy they are interested and have questions, but on the other hand, I laugh because those are the two issues that are NOT really part of what we are about.  These are both public health issues, determined by the provincial/territorial or local public health authority.  Neither fluoride nor wastewater monitoring are essential parts of water treatment or wastewater treatment. Rather, they are external actions that have been connected to our systems.  Fluoride is added for community dental care and wastewater monitoring provides valuable data to health authorities.  That’s ok, because ANYTHING that gets people thinking about water systems is a good thing and can lead to other discussions.

 

Fluoride has always been a topic of interest in the public with that level of interest rising and falling based on opposition and fear mongering – none of which has ever been supported scientifically or any questionable science disproved.  And even though it is a decision of the municipal council and/or health authority, we at the utilities are the ones that implement the program.  And as the trusted community water experts, we are asked about its safety. This is why the CWWA has prepared an Information Sheet and Speaking Notes on Fluoride.  These Notes are available for all of members to support their spokesperson or communications team to answer questions about fluoride – what is it?  Why do we add it? Is it safe?  But we make it clear that we are not the scientific researchers.  We base our comments on the research provided by Health Canada in the Canada Drinking Water Guidelines and by other trusted organizations like the Canadian Dental Association and the World Health organization.

 

Wastewater monitoring is a much newer topic, but it captured a lot of headlines during the Covid-19 epidemic. Again, the local health authority takes a sample from our wastewater intake BEFORE we start our treatment.  This scientific method was begun prior to Covid-19 to gage drug use in some communities.  Health Canada ran a pilot project to track marijuana, cocaine and methamphetamines.  This new process could track the increased or decreased presence of these drugs in communities and could then direct health and/or policing programs.  This quickly proved as an effective way to track Covid-19.  It is still being used, to a somewhat lesser degree, to still track Covid as well as other viruses.  Again, this is not part of our treatment process, but we are happy to cooperate – as long as the costs are appropriately borne by the health units and not by the utilities.

 

Watch for our new Fluoride Information Sheet and Speaking Notes to be released soon and welcome these discussions as a doorway to so many other water topics.