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Health officials delayed report linking fluoride to brain harm

• mensetmanusman 3y ago
  I learned this too late: after brushing, don't rinse your mouth clean with water, leave the toothpaste residue on your teeth all night to improve effectiveness.
• hammock 3y ago
  What is it about this report that no one is calling it a conspiracy theory anymore? Edit: why am I being downvoted for this?
  • ahahahahah 3y ago
    Science.
    • hammock 3y ago
      There are 85 studies… The science has always been there. A Salon article hasn’t been though. Is that it?
    • thsksbd 3y ago
      [dead]
    • colpabar 3y ago
      [flagged]
  • ajkjk 3y ago
    > Edit: why am I being downvoted for this? I think because you presumed that everybody was calling it a conspiracy before, which is patently untrue? (Correct would be: some people were, and some people still are)
• snovymgodym 3y ago
  It's worth thinking about the fact that virtually the entire EU gets by with non fluoridated water.
  • esperent 3y ago
    It's in other products instead. I think it depends on the country, but usually salt and toothpaste. I don't think there are any developed countries that have stopped fluoridation entirely.
    • hosteur 3y ago
      It’s in toothpaste but you don’t eat that. I have never heard of it being in salt. Maybe you think of iodine?
      • nulbyte 3y ago
        Several countries have flouridized table salt. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24308394/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24308394/
    • ricardobeat 3y ago
      Only two countries, Germany and Switzerland, have fluoridated salt.
      • hammock 3y ago
        Salt fluoridation schemes are reaching more than 100 million people in Mexico, Colombia, Peru and Cuba as well as 85% of Switzerland and 67% of Germany.
        • ricardobeat 3y ago
          That was in the context of “the entire EU”.
      • makeitdouble 3y ago
• paddw 3y ago
  So we know that there is definitely little benefit from ingesting fluoride, and also that we can not rule out negative effects from ingesting fluoride. This seems like... a bit of a big deal?
  • celdon25 3y ago
    It's been known for awhile, but you'd get labelled as a conspiracy theorist for any mention of it.
    • FooBarBizBazz 3y ago
      It goes all the way back to Dr. Strangelove at least. There's a whole bit in there about it.
      • desiarnezjr 3y ago
        This organisation was big on that conspiracy (??) theory: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Birch_Society
        • vharuck 3y ago
          An article about their role in the original referendum on fluoridation in Wichita: https://www.kansas.com/news/article1101667.html https://www.kansas.com/news/article1101667.html And a Fresh Air interview with a historian who recently wrote a book about the John Birch Society: https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2023/05/17/1176658584/fresh-air-for-may-17-2023-how-the-birch-society-radicalized-the-american-right?showDate=2023-05-17 https://www.npr.org/programs/fresh-air/2023/05/17/1176658584...
  • mc32 3y ago
    I think The Netherlands took it out of their potable/tap water some while ago (like in the '70s).
    • 3y ago
• ttctciyf 3y ago
  This reminded me of an old CAQ/CAIB article I read in the '90s on the impact of fluoride as an industrial pollutant. I found a copy[1] hosted at a site operated by the "Fluoride Action Network", which is also hosting other alarming claims such as: > • As of July 18, 2022, a total of 85 human studies have investigated the relationship between fluoride and human intelligence. > • Of these investigations, 76 studies have reported that elevated fluoride exposure is associated with reduced IQ in humans. - https://fluoridealert.org/studies/brain01/ https://fluoridealert.org/studies/brain01/ There's a historical link between fluoride alarmism and the far right, famously parodied in Kubrick's Dr Strangelove in the person of Brig. Gen. Jack D. Ripper[2,3] who instigates a nuclear response to the communist conspiracy to impurify America's bodily fluids via fluoride. The CAQ article at [1] explains this: > Oscar Ewing, as Federal Security Agency administrator, was a Truman “fair dealer” who pushed many progressive programs such as nationalized medicine. Fluoridation was lumped with his proposals. Inevitably, it was attacked by conservatives as a manifestation of “creeping socialism,” while the left rallied to its support. Later during the McCarthy era, the left was further alienated from the opposition when extreme right-wing groups, including the John Birch Society and the Ku Klux Klan, raved that fluoridation was a plot by the Soviet Union and/or communists in the government to poison America’s brain cells. > It was a simple task for promoters, under the guidance of the “original spin-doctor,” to paint all opponents as deranged–and they played this angle to the hilt. For example, one widely distributed dossier on opponents “listed in alphabetical order reputable scientists, convicted felons, food faddists, scientific organizations, and the Ku Klux Klan.” I should note that CAQ has itself been attacked as communist propaganda, (and for that matter, some of the studies linked on the fluoridealert site are Chinese in origin.) Nonetheless the article[1] has some interesting and (to me) surprising information on the politically entangled history of fluoride. An excerpt: > One thing is certain, the name of the company with the biggest stake in fluoride’s safety was ALCOA–whose name is stamped all over the early history of water fluoridation. > Throughout industry’s “roaring 20s,” the U.S. Public Health Service was under the jurisdiction of Treasury Secretary Andrew W. Mellon, a founder and major stockholder of ALCOA. In 1931, the year Mellon stepped down, a Public Health Service dentist named H. Trendley Dean was dispatched to certain remote towns in the West where drinking-water wells contained high concentrations of natural fluoride from deep in the earth’s crust. Dean’s mission was to determine how much fluoride people could tolerate without obvious damage to their teeth–a matter of considerable concern to ALCOA. Dean found that teeth in these high-fluoride towns were often discolored and eroded, but he also reported that they appeared to have fewer cavities than average. He cautiously recommended further studies to determine whether a lower level of fluoride in drinking water might reduce cavities without simultaneously damaging bones and teeth, where fluoride settles in humans and other animals. > Back at the Mellon Institute, ALCOA’s Pittsburgh industrial research lab, this news was galvanic. ALCOA-sponsored biochemist Gerald J. Cox27 immediately fluoridated some lab rats in a study and concluded that fluoride reduced cavities and that: “The case should be regarded as proved.”28 In a historic moment in 1939, the first public proposal that the U.S. should fluoridate its water supplies was made not by a doctor, or dentist, but by Cox, an industry scientist working for a company threatened by fluoride damage claims.29 Cox began touring the country, stumping for fluoridation. 1: https://fluoridealert.org/content/fluoride-commie-plot-or-capitalist-ploy/ https://fluoridealert.org/content/fluoride-commie-plot-or-ca... 2: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4XhhTF7vRM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4XhhTF7vRM 3: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKR32ImWYzw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rKR32ImWYzw
• alakep 3y ago
  I don’t brush my teeth because I don’t want the residual fluoride there. It’s healthier to just slosh some vodka around to kill the germs (this wouldn’t work with kids, but hey they’ll lose their first teeth so who cares).
  • alliao 3y ago
    whiskey work better apparently due to acidity
    • jorvi 3y ago
      Neither are a good idea but vodka is virtually pure water and alcohol. Whisky has a bunch of other stuff in it, including sugar.
    • s0rce 3y ago
      Whiskey is only very weakly acidic, likely having no impact compared to neutral unbuffered vodka.
  • AequitasOmnibus 3y ago
    I hope this is poorly conveyed satire. If not… good God. Apart from the hygienic value in brushing, whether you agree with it or not, halitosis is an offensive smell to most of the public. Some of the worst breath I’ve ever had to smell came from alcoholics whose spirit of choice is vodka.
  • throwaway2990 3y ago
    I’m very much anti fluoride in drinking water. And did not buy fluoride tooth paste for my kids until they learned to spit. But 1) kids brush teeth to form a healthy habit, and protect their gums. Kids who do not brush teeth often develop gum disease which can cause tooth loss in the future as adults. 2) residual fluoride isn’t anything to worry about. Just spit the toothpaste out. If you’re super worried about fluoride then look for calcium fluoride toothpaste which is not poisonous. 3) sloshing vodka or whiskey around doesn’t remove plague from your teeth and you will suffer tooth decay regardless.
• epgui 3y ago
  As a biochemist, this seems to be a very complex issue that has been unnecessarily politicized. What happened with this report is interesting in and of itself, but I would not draw any conclusions (or make any inferences) from this, frankly.
  • yeeeloit 3y ago
    As someone who comes from an area with clean fresh water, that does not contain added fluoride, this is not a complex issue. It's simply not a question that comes up. People have good dental hygiene here. To my mind, yes sure you can over complicate the entire debate, but all of that is irrelevant in the face of these basic points: - Is there a chance that fluoride ingestion could be detrimental to human health? - Can tooth decay be prevented by diet and brush/floss with good quality toothpaste? Presumed safety of chemicals (at the behest of organizations) to human/environment until proven otherwise is shocking to me. They irony of all this is that if you want to buy good quality toothpaste you are forced to import it from overseas, due to the FDA limiting ingredients in toothpaste.
    • bsder 3y ago
      Citing: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24308394/ https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24308394/ which recommends flouridating salt. "Children and adults of the low socio-economic strata tend to have substantially more untreated caries than higher strata. Salt fluoridation is by far the cheapest method for improving oral health." Sure, good for you that you're in one of the higher socioeconomic strata who can take care of their teeth. Not everyone else is.
      • zackees 3y ago
        [dead]
      • hammock 3y ago
        >recommends flouridating salt That is a scary recommendation. Would be very hard to avoid fluoride if restaurants, packaged food etc all used fluoridated salt
• pessimizer 3y ago
  There are significant lobbies now trying to put both statins and lithium into the tap water.
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  • Blackthorn 3y ago
    Statins on a wide scale could make for the single greatest life expectancy increase we could get anywhere...that would be awesome.
    • pessimizer 3y ago
      I hear that every few years from press releases written by people who sell statins.
      • Blackthorn 3y ago
        Doesn't make it wrong.
        • throwaway290 3y ago
          Not wrong, merely irrelevant.
    • Valmar 3y ago
      Statins are dangerous... they block cholesterol, which incidentally, is fundamental, crucial, even, to the formation of both cell membranes and innumerable important hormones. They are no solution at all. Just a fad.
    • logicchains 3y ago
      The effect of statins is incredibly modest at best: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/article-abstract/2790055 https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamainternalmedicine/articl... . Anyone telling you otherwise is doing so because of financial incentive, not from following the actual science.
• thsksbd 3y ago
  [dead]
• vallismortis 3y ago
  Twenty years ago, I moved from Michigan (a state that uses fluoride) to Mississippi (a state that doesn't use fluoride). My dentist at the time told me that I was going to end up with tooth decay if I stayed down there for more than a few years. Sure enough, five years later I moved back to Michigan and ended up with a cavity in an unusual place. My (new) dentist in Michigan was completely unsurprised. He said there are two problems with tooth decay in Mississippi: 1. They don't use fluoride in their water. 2. No decent dentist would ever work in Mississippi. Fifteen years later, with no changes in dental hygiene in my entire life, and I've had no other problems with my teeth. Anecdotal evidence, maybe. But that is my experience.
  • dhbanes 3y ago
    I think the fact that fluoride is beneficial to your teeth is a settled fact. However, the issue being discussed is fluorides impact on brain health.
    • adrian_b 3y ago
      Fluoride is beneficial only when applied externally on the dental enamel, where it converts the hydroxyapatite synthesized by the human cells into fluorapatite, which is less soluble in the acids contained in food or excreted by bacteria. On the other hand, ingested fluoride has no benefits, because it cannot reach the tooth enamel and when in too large quantities it has bad effects, e.g. it may cause bone damage. Brushing the teeth or washing the mouth with something containing fluoride is very good, drinking water with fluoride is very stupid.
      • XorNot 3y ago
        Can you point to one single data point which has found any negative effect on human bones from excess consumption of fluoridated water at town water concentrations? This should be easy since it's been done at enormous scale for decades so a huge quorum of people have spent their their lives drinking fluoridated water.
        • 3y ago
• DoreenMichele 3y ago
  FYI: The CDC recommends breastfeeding infants, as breastmilk contains significantly less fluoride than fluoridated drinking water. If breastfeeding is not possible, the CDC also endorses using fluoridated water in infant formula, though it suggests mixing the formula with low-fluoride bottled water to lessen the risk of dental fluorosis. Infants who are fed formula made with fluoridated tap water can have three to four times higher fluoride exposure than adults, warned Lanphear. He added that before an infant's teeth erupt, there's no benefit to fluoride exposure. "There are vulnerable groups we have to be worried about," he said, "and that's not being brought out adequately by these agencies."
  • s0rce 3y ago
    Hmm, its been a while since I worked in the area of dental fluoride (was part of my PhD) but my understanding was systemic exposure pre-eruption was still beneficial. This (possibly biased source) agrees: https://www.dentalcare.com/en-us/ce-courses/ce334/pre-eruptive-vs-post-eruptive-fluoride https://www.dentalcare.com/en-us/ce-courses/ce334/pre-erupti... Excess exposure can cause fluorosis but nothing to do with the brain.
    • newZWhoDis 3y ago
      None of the studies I have seen properly account for the lifetime effect, and instead only deduce lack of harm from flawed isolated studies. It’s in the entire water supply. You were gestated in a womb of a woman consuming highly fluoridated water. You were fed formula made with fluoridated water tuned to dose a 200lb man when you were 8lbs. The water you drank as your bones were growing was similarly overdosed The food you eat is washed in fluoridated water. The coffee and beer you drink is brewed with fluoridated water. The bread you eat is made with fluoridated water. Basically, the dose is insanely wrong from the get go and then it’s applied to everything so there’s no way to accurately measure exposure. Then factor in the bell distribution and you are massively overexposing huge numbers of people a few standard deviations out.
      • arcticbull 3y ago
• quinto_quarto 3y ago
  "Mandrake, have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water?" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr2bSL5VQgM&ab_channel=Jacob https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qr2bSL5VQgM&ab_channel=Jacob
• throw28523 3y ago
  [flagged]
• TheAceOfHearts 3y ago
  Adding fluoride to water has always seemed weird to me, since you can't control for how much water someone is drinking or account for different bodily factors like age and weight. I wonder why the European solution of adding it to salt isn't the default, especially given that iodized salt is already so popular and commonplace. As a general rule of thumb, I think it's interesting to scrutinize dosage recommendations and compare regulations between countries. If someone claims that the science on some topic is well settled then health officials in multiple countries should arrive at roughly similar results. If there's a discrepancy between the suggestions made by health officials in the US and EU, it's worth asking why.
  • nathanwh 3y ago
    Don't you have the same problem with the salt that you have with the water, no way to tell what dose everyone is receiving?
    • para_parolu 3y ago
      My guess it easier to buy different salt but hard to get second water pipe.
      • Thorrez 3y ago
        >A Reverse Osmosis (RO) system can remove 85-92%* of fluoride in your water. https://www.paragonwater.com/does-reverse-osmosis-remove-fluoride/ https://www.paragonwater.com/does-reverse-osmosis-remove-flu...
        • mixedCase 3y ago
          An RO filter is not accesible to the majority of the population.
          • Thorrez 3y ago
            But it's a lot cheaper than "get[ting a] second water pipe."
• LispSporks22 3y ago
  I once found myself stuck in a biker bar west of Dallas. I had to listen to this old timer Hell’s Angel go on and on about fluoride conspiracies. Some of them are pretty wild - “fluoride is created by nuclear weapons construction as waste and the government has to get rid of it somehow, so in the water it goes” for example. The rest of the evening is a little hazy but I remember that. Incidentally, I used to think Hell’s Angels were just retired dentists.
  • Obscurity4340 3y ago
    They (ADA) were sort of Mafia-ish in South Park
  • zkms 3y ago
    > fluoride is created by nuclear weapons construction as waste and the government has to get rid of it somehow, so in the water it goes Like some wild conspiracy theories, there is a kernel of truth to this one. Namely, the fluoride used in water fluoridation is indeed an industrial byproduct -- except not from nuclear weapon manufacture, but from the production of phosphate fertilizer. From the CDC (which is definitely on the pro-fluoridation side of things) website https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/engineering/engineering-shortages.htm https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/engineering/engineering-sho... > The three fluoride additives used for water fluoridation are derived principally from phosphate fertilizer production.
    • clintgriess 3y ago
      [flagged]
• emodendroket 3y ago
  This seems like it is ultimately a result of the politicization of the issue: it becomes difficult to have an honest conversation of the merits and demerits of something if you know there’s a political faction ready to seize on everything you say and take it out of context. Not saying that makes it right, but it’s an outcome we could anticipate, I think.
• yownie 3y ago
  >But the report did find a possible link to cognitive harm at approximately two times the current recommended water fluoridation level, records show. This is more a report about consuming excess fluoride from other sources that water. >Because many common foods and drinks contain fluoride, consuming them along with fluoridated water could amount to harmful exposure levels, these experts say. I do wonder what the other common food and drinks could be
  • FollowingTheDao 3y ago
    Black Tea.
  • cubefox 3y ago
    > I do wonder what the other common food and drinks could be They are listed in the article
• pkphilip 3y ago
  Health officials, believe it or not, are like any other human beings - in that they also have their own agendas and sometimes those agendas may be in direct opposition to the well being of others. I am surprised that anyone is surprised when news like this comes out.
  • deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
• dukeofdoom 3y ago
  This guy posted a video a few weeks ago, claiming to be sick from being over exposed to chlorine in drinking water in Mexico. He believes the combination of highly chlorinated drinking water and swimming daily in a chlorinated pool caused his symptoms. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeWdEr1XyTw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeWdEr1XyTw My friend is convinced her autistic child was over exposed to aluminium or other metals...but maybe it was fluoride. These things need to be investigated. We know that Lead exposure is widely known to cause harm to the brain, so other metals could have similar effects. Babies having a much smaller mass, would be much greater risk of ingesting toxic amounts or slow dose environmental exposure through things like aluminum cookware. A substance might not be toxic on its own, but in combination with another substance in the environment could be highly toxic, but affect only some small percentage of people that come in in contact with both. Like we know many prescribed drugs, can't be mixed with alcohol, because they become toxic if you do.
  • RugnirViking 3y ago
    > These things need to be investigated are you assuming they haven't been? that people just bunged in chlorine into swimming pools without a second thought? that nobody has thought to look into heavy metal exposure in babies? If anything, the issue is the opposite. All of these tests have been repeated so many times, often by honest scientists, but also often by biased companies, that people struggle to find the truth and instead find whatever they want to believe (and its usually something about how all the professionals are stupid and dumb but they personally are special and right) How do you think those labels about mixing drugs with alcohol/grapefruits/whatever else came about? if it goes into your body, it needs to be tested.
• NeuroCoder 3y ago
  Are places generally adding more than the recommended level of fluoride in their water? How much water do you have to ingest to reach the maximum recommended exposure? Given how bad people are at drinking the recommended level of water, I'm curious how they accurately assessed outcomes based on what I assume are relatively few data points
• nathias 3y ago
  maybe just brush your teeth
  • VerminOctopus1 3y ago
    maybe do some basic thinking about public health policy
• yarg 3y ago
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6923889/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6923889/ - Developmental fluoride neurotoxicity: an updated review https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3956646/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3956646/ - Water Fluoridation: A Critical Review of the Physiological Effects of Ingested Fluoride as a Public Health Intervention https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8930857/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8930857/ - The use of hydroxyapatite toothpaste to prevent dental caries > In vitro and in situ studies are demonstrating promising results of HAP toothpastes on the remineralization of enamel lesions and preventing/reducing demineralization. Specifically, research appears to demonstrate either its superiority or equivalency to fluoride toothpaste as anti-caries agents. I'm not sure how conspiratorial I'm being, but for years I've felt that the fluoridation of water was more about the dilution of neurotoxic industrial waste product and not oral health. Regardless of whether I'm on or off base in that regard, I see little reason to continue to use something that - at best - will only react with pre-existing enamel, when hydroxyapatite toothpastes can actually fix damage (albeit to a limited degree).
  • verisimi 3y ago
    > I'm not sure how conspiratorial I'm being, but for years I've felt that the fluoridation of water was more about the dilution of neurotoxic industrial waste product and not oral health. "CITIZEN, please check yourself into a fema retraining facility! The government is there to serve us all for the greater good." Nevermind the double speak, where the term 'the greater good' means the good of those people who consider themselves to be greater than you.
• Slava_Propanei 3y ago
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• suction 3y ago
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• raverbashing 3y ago
  Looks like the future neuralink test subjects have come into force against fluoride. But of course people forgot the history of water fluoridation and the risks of dental cavities (of course, for modern countries I guess it makes more sense to have it in dental products than just in tap water, but I don't buy the moral panic) > The report found that a link between typical levels of fluoride added to water and possible harm to brain development is unclear... the report did find a possible link to cognitive harm at approximately two times Well good think we are at the current level and not at two times it then
• kukkeliskuu 3y ago
  Discussion on fluoride is interesting, but isn't the real news the censorship of the research results?
• tonis2 3y ago
  All foods are full of sugar, government does nothing, children get teeth issues, government solves it, by adding fluorine to our drinking water, adding more to our toxic overload.
• mihaaly 3y ago
  >> This January, Birnbaum issued a scathing legal declaration as part of the lawsuit, writing, "The decision to set aside the results of an external peer review process based on concerns expressed by agencies with strong policy interests on fluoride suggests the presence of political interference in what should be a strictly scientific endeavor." with >> Despite this unusually rigorous review process, a network of health officials and influential dental groups argued that the NTP had failed to address several issues raised by the NASEM review committee. Health officials and dental groups have interest on fluoridation for political reasons? I don't buy it! I would imagine a self interst focused dental and profeccional helthcare group would argue for the decrease of fluoridation so more income comes from the work on decayed teeth. If it is meant of interest of their patients then that is just desirable! Also health officials and dentists are not the typical polititian group I picture in my mind. I'd sooner call them scientists than politicians. (if meant about scientific politics then should say so - including themselves and that why they push despite widespread scientific critics). I am telling this with having only topical use of fluoride - with good results -, and with no desire for water fluoridation but also knowing that topical may not be sufficient enough for children and the broad population. Somehow the feeling is that the NTP and Birnbaum is the manipulative and polititian here. Just a felling though, based on this limited and filtered report, but based on quotes.
• dm808 3y ago
  This extensive review has been available since 2006: https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11571/fluoride-in-drinking-water-a-scientific-review-of-epas-standards https://nap.nationalacademies.org/catalog/11571/fluoride-in-... Neurotoxicity, especially in the presence of iodine deficiency, which is common, has been clearly documented. Toothpaste level exposure is enough to lower IQ in iodine deficiency.
  • ycombinete 3y ago
    So does that mean that it’s fine if we’re not iodine deficient?
• bob_theslob646 3y ago
  It's fascinating. Having gone through 301 comments and there really hasn't been any deep discussion at whether or not fluoride has been linked to brain harm.... There are little debates about drinking water. I'm disappointed..I'm gonna to have to do some digging.
  • VerminOctopus1 3y ago
    This is unfortunately not the place for deep, thoughtful conversation on topics not directly pertaining to tech
• theknocker 3y ago
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• r3trohack3r 3y ago
  I’ve heard from someone who worked in a water district that they didn’t add fluoride to water for dental health, that was a spin they put on it. Not sure how true it is though. After the city treated and purified the water, they needed something to add in to keep it from reacting with the city’s pipes. Otherwise the water will eat the pipe and you get dirty water full of pipe delivered to the tap. They needed something that was cheap, relatively safe to drink, and available in large quantities- fluoride checked those boxes. Supposedly they came up with the dental spin to sell the solution to the public.
• jscipione 3y ago
  Once again the conspiracy theory has become a conspiracy. If you get your news and information from Alex Jones you would know about this since at least 2008 making you a well-informed citizen, but if you only get your news from places like Salon you have been misinformed.
• aftbit 3y ago
  A reverse osmosis filtration system will remove the majority of ions from water, including fluoride. This enters into another scientific debate though, as some suggest that you are also removing beneficial minerals from the water at the same time.
  • thebigspacefuck 3y ago
    My filter has a cartridge that adds beneficial minerals back in
• blurbleblurble 3y ago
  Fluoride increases precipitation of calcium onto tissues. It's very straightforward. Some parts of the brain are directly exposed to the blood and get easily calcified. In particular, parts of the brain associated with regulation of circadian rhythm are known to get calcified in the presence of higher fluoride. This has been known and understood for a long time. I'd like to take this as an opportunity to voice frustration with "rationalist skeptics", who for the longest time have ridiculed critics of mass water fluoridation. Maybe it's because they're really into the comforts of orthodoxy moreso than skepticism? Using bullying and ridicule to reinforce unfounded scientific/medical orthodoxy in the name of "skepticism", or even in the name of "evidence" that you don't have... It isn't scientific no matter how much you'd like to believe it is.
• winrid 3y ago
  TIL black tea concentrates fluoride since the plant absorbs it. Also this is kinda scary if true... https://assureasmile.com/fluoride-in-your-water/fluoride-in-tap-water-imported-from-china-untested-before-use/ https://assureasmile.com/fluoride-in-your-water/fluoride-in-...
• shushpanchik 3y ago
  What does "possible link" mean? p<0.05?
• clintgriess 3y ago
  [flagged]
• cheeseomlit 3y ago
  I wonder why it's been so difficult to stop blanket water fluoridation. Maybe something to do with corpos having a cheap way to dump toxic waste from fertilizer production that would otherwise be expensive to dispose of: https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/engineering/engineering-shortages.htm https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/engineering/engineering-sho... >The three fluoride additives used for water fluoridation are derived principally from phosphate fertilizer production. Plus we don't just drink fluoridated water- we bathe in it, we cook with it, our pets drink it, we water our lawns with it, its everywhere. I recall trying to find studies on the effects of these non-drinking uses years ago and not finding much. Again, I wonder why.