Calgary is resuming with fluoride, and Quebec fact of the day

The taste and smell won’t change, but starting on Monday something was different about Calgary’s water supply — fluoride is back in the taps across the city in Western Canada.

Fluoride, a mineral found in water, has widely established dental benefits shown to strengthen the tooth surface, or enamel, and help prevent decay.

Calgary stopped adding fluoride to its water supply in 2011, deciding that the cost to treat its system with the mineral outweighed the benefits.

But a push by city residents coupled by worsening oral health among children has led Calgary officials to reverse course…

In Canada, roughly 39 percent of Canadians have access to fluoridated water, a government report says, and availability varies greatly across provinces. Less than 2 percent of the population in Quebec and British Columbia, the second- and third-largest provinces in Canada after Ontario, fluoridate their water.

Here is more from the NYT.