Media Releases

Water Taste Test Results Released!
Posted by Children's Museum Admin (cmadmin) on Wednesday, 5th September, 2007 at 1:40 PM
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Kitchener, ON - To help educate about the uses of fluoride in our drinking water, the Museum had using its current traveling exhibition, SMILE:The Tooth and Nothing but the Tooth to raise awareness of the issue by tracking visitors' responses - young and old - to be the judge on the best tasting water in our community.

The program, which served to educate visitors on the controversy of adding fluoride to some Municipality's public water supply, has allowed visitors to taste tap water from around the Region. For the past two weeks participants have been testing the taste of tap water from Cambridge, Kitchener, Waterloo, in addition to one brand of bottled water, without knowing which is which. Kids and adults reported which water tastes best to Museum staff who have been recording and tallying the results.

As people in and around the Region may or may not know, fluoride is added to the water supply in the City of Waterloo, but not to the water supply of the City of Cambridge or Kitchener. While some people praise the use of fluoride in the water supply as it aids in dental hygiene, others condemn its use.

"It's easy to see the points on both sides of the debate," said David Marskell, the Executive Director at the Museum. "While fluoride is hugely important for good dental hygiene as shown by our exhibit, SMILE, some people worry about essentially medicating a mass water supply with a particular chemical. Our intent has been to raise the issue with people and it is interesting to see which one the public enjoys best in terms of taste."

The results have come in this afternoon and it seems the majority ruled, that is 36.6% of visitors, chose Kitchener tap water as the best tasting. In second place was a brand of bottled water with 26.6%, then Waterloo with 23.3%, placing the City of Cambridge last with 13.3% of votes.

SMILE, the Museum's current traveling exhibit, runs through until Labour Day.