4 ms·

Fluoride in drinking water is a kind of truly marginal level of harm that’s perfectly designed to trigger paranoid libertarians. A tiny amount of fluoride is h

by burke 3y ago

Fluoride in drinking water is a kind of truly marginal level of harm that’s perfectly designed to trigger paranoid libertarians. A tiny amount of fluoride is helpful for bones and especially teeth. Fluoridated toothpaste covers this need perfectly, but many people don’t use it. Fluoride in drinking water covers this need also but (arguably) brings along small risks of symptoms of slight excess fluoride consumption. The amounts that are actually put in drinking water do not seem to have any significant negative effects, and it seems reasonably clear that the population positive effects dominate, but being non-consensually subjected to a marginal risk of negative effect in order to achieve a positive outcome for the population is exactly the kind of thing that reliably provokes this kind of reaction from the paranoid libertarian set.

chiefalchemist 3y ago
If you look at these CDC pages: https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/basics/cost.htm https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/basics/cost.htm You'll notice one key thing is missing: Side by side comparison with communities that don't have fluoride in their water. That could be other countries. Or better, rural US communities that for the most part use well water. Those controls exist. Note: Better diet also has an impact on oral health, and diet over the last 75 years has also improved. I'm not saying not including that comparison is wrong, but as "the science" goes, it does feel odd that something so obvious is not included.
ipaddr 3y ago
They have studied it and it does cause issues. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34597567/#:~:text=Excess%20amounts%20of%20fluoride%20ions,related%20problems%2C%20and%20chronicle%20issues https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34597567/#:~:text=Excess%20a....
deleted 3y ago
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by burke 3y ago

chiefalchemist 3y ago

If you look at these CDC pages: https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/index.html https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/basics/cost.htm https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/basics/cost.htm You'll notice one key thing is missing: Side by side comparison with communities that don't have fluoride in their water. That could be other countries. Or better, rural US communities that for the most part use well water. Those controls exist. Note: Better diet also has an impact on oral health, and diet over the last 75 years has also improved. I'm not saying not including that comparison is wrong, but as "the science" goes, it does feel odd that something so obvious is not included.

ipaddr 3y ago

They have studied it and it does cause issues. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34597567/#:~:text=Excess%20amounts%20of%20fluoride%20ions,related%20problems%2C%20and%20chronicle%20issues https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/34597567/#:~:text=Excess%20a....

deleted 3y ago

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