Seat Belts Save Lives

Legislation is generally enacted when it comes to public policy revolving around health and safety issues to make the country, the province or the municipality a better place for its residents. In Canada, running lights in vehicles are always on, ensuring good visibility in traffic, making it a universal, not a choice option. It is illegal to decide not to fasten seat belts in a moving vehicle. It may be uncomfortable, but it's a life-saving device.

Folic acid and other vitamins and minerals are added to certain foods to increase the odds of a healthier population. Vitamin D for healthier bones for milk-drinking children; fortified cereals and breads for optimum health opportunities for the public. Children are routinely inoculated against measles, whooping cough, diphtheria, tuberculosis. Treatment plants make our drinking water potable.

And since the use of fluoride in drinking water universally there has been a huge drop in the incidence of tooth cavities and decay in the general population. Particularly among children. It is now rare for a child under the age of 10 to have more than one or two cavities, unless they're addicted to sugary sweets and neglectful of tooth hygiene.

It was an intensely controversial subject, whether or not to embark on this bold, new experiment; putting fluoride into the public's supply of drinking water, decades ago. But common sense prevailed against the naysayers, those who warned the public would suffer from exposure to the chemical, and we've never looked back.

Its use is heartily endorsed by dentists and doctors and their professional bodies.

But it seems there are sadly backward places that still exist in their insistence that the state, or the municipality should not be permitted to force anything on the population. So the clever folks who populate Calgary and their municipal council decided to vote on the issue. And the anti-fluoride activists triumphed.

"It's about freedom. It's about choice and it's about people taking ownership of their own health, not having it imposed on them."

Right, Calgarians now have the freedom to visit their dentists far more often than previously. But this is their freedom we're talking about, their choice and their determination to live free and as they will. They will doubtless have reason to regret that choice, but that's what they chose.

On reflection, at some future date, when the sad statistics come in, and their children's teeth reflect their choice they can always recall the euphoria that accompanied their victory.