Fluoride occurs naturally in water as it leaches (dissolves into water) from rock formations, or is introduced via human activities like chemical, steel, glass and cement manufacturing. 

Because fluoride is a naturally occurring mineral it is found in low levels in most drinking water sources in Canada.

Depending on the water’s natural levels of fluoride, treatment plants may either add fluoride to obtain benefits for oral health or treat the water to reduce the level of fluoride to meet federal and provincial requirements for safe drinking water. 

The maximum allowable limit set out by Canadian Drinking Water Guidelines, to which Alberta adheres, is 1.5 mg/L. In some parts of the world, due to specific geologic formations fluoride levels can reach 57 mg/L, resulting in elevated occurrence of skeletal and dental fluorosis. 

Skeletal fluorosis occurs when fluoride accumulates in bones, causing a non-life-threatening disease in which bones increase in density and become brittle due to structural changes from addition o fluoride. Case studies of crippling skeletal fluorosis from North America are extremely rare, and all include as a likely cause the long-term consumption of drinking water with elevated concentrations of fluoride (2.4-7.8 mg/L), well above the maximum allowable concentration set out by Health Canada of 1.5 mg/L. 

Only children whose teeth are developing under the gums are at risk of developing dental fluorosis and only at concentrations higher than the Health Canada guideline limit of 1.5 mg/L.

A Health Canada review of available science, supported by the 2007 Health Canada expert panel, concluded the amount of evidence behind other purported health effects, such as cancer, IQ deficiency, bone fractures, and developmental toxicity does not support a link between fluoride exposure at Canada’s maximum allowable limit of 1.5 mg/L and any of these adverse effects.