this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024
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It is a scenario playing out nationwide. From Oregon to Pennsylvania, hundreds of communities have in recent years either stopped adding fluoride to their water supplies or voted to prevent its addition. Supporters of such bans argue that people should be given the freedom of choice. The broad availability of over-the-counter dental products containing the mineral makes it no longer necessary to add to public water supplies, they say. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that while store-bought products reduce tooth decay, the greatest protection comes when they are used in combination with water fluoridation.

The outcome of an ongoing federal case in California could force the Environmental Protection Agency to create a rule regulating or banning the use of fluoride in drinking water nationwide. In the meantime, the trend is raising alarm bells for public health researchers who worry that, much like vaccines, fluoride may have become a victim of its own success.

The CDC maintains that community water fluoridation is not only safe and effective but also yields significant cost savings in dental treatment. Public health officials say removing fluoride could be particularly harmful to low-income families — for whom drinking water may be the only source of preventive dental care.

“If you have to go out and get care on your own, it’s a whole different ballgame,” said Myron Allukian Jr., a dentist and past president of the American Public Health Association. Millions of people have lived with fluoridated water for years, “and we’ve had no major health problems,” he said. “It’s much easier to prevent a disease than to treat it.”

According to the anti-fluoride group Fluoride Action Network, since 2010, over 240 communities around the world have removed fluoride from their drinking water or decided not to add it.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

I am SO tired of being at the mercy of idiots.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You can't trust this stuff. I only drink water straight from the creek and- excuse me, my diarrhea is acting up.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

What a bad faith argument.

Most people who want to avoid fluoride in their drinking water use reverse osmosis.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Then I guess there's a solution and we don't need to remove it for everyone else.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (3 children)

Why should people have to resort to using reverse osmosis to avoid fluoride in their drinking water?

Also, good job pivoting instead of admitting you were arguing in bad faith.

I expect you to keep doing that.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Why should people have to suffer at the hands of idiots who want to ban fluoride in water?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

That's a loaded question because people do not suffer without fluoridated water.

Do you want to explain how they suffer without fluoridated water? That way you're talking specifics that can actually be debated upon instead of generalities where people need to make your arguments for you.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

No you're wrong. It's no loaded. Lack of fluoride increased the risk of tooth decay. https://www.msdmanuals.com/home/disorders-of-nutrition/minerals/fluoride-deficiency

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The addition of fluoride (fluoridation) to drinking water that is low in fluoride or the use of fluoride toothpaste and supplements significantly reduces the risk of tooth decay.

Jeez, you really can't read, can you?

I don't expect you to be capable of making worthwhile arguments, so I'm just going to end this here.

Goodbye.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The point is that there are people that cannot regularly afford fluoridated toothpaste or for some other legitimate reason cannot brush their teeth as often as is recommended. Fluoridated water is the best and only dental care many Americans get, and it doesn't carry any harms that are even meaningfully measurable.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)

What? We put fluoride in water because people can't afford toothpaste or brush their teeth? That's news to me.

So you're saying that there's no point in having fluoridated water if you have proper dental hygiene?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

So you're saying that there's no point in having fluoridated water if you have proper dental hygiene?

Nobody said that.

For someone who keeps accusing others of arguing in bad faith you sure do seem to enjoy doing it yourself.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

The epidemiological data shows that even people with adequate dental hygiene and healthcare access benefit from fluoridated water. Communities with fluoridated water have lower rates of tooth decay and associated oral diseases across all socioeconomic strata.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)

The UK used the same argument to stop the addition of iodine to salt. "People already consume enough dietary iodine". You know what happened? Thyroid diseases are on the rise in the UK again, slowly creeping back to early XX century levels.

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago)

Fluoridation is part of a communist conspiracy to sap and impurity all our bodily fluids.

Powerful men have been worried about it since the Cold War.

Great, if dramatic, video on the subject: https://piped.video/watch?v=J67wKhddWu4

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

God i wish my community fluoridated its water. Just had a kid, and anything to help prevent cavities is amazing, and low levels of floride is such an easy, risk free and cheap solution.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

WTF? No, you shouldn't want it added randomly to the water. I grew up with well water and my teeth are fine, don't buy into the bullshit.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

N=1 case study from a radically biased individual or multiple rigorous studies by people who understand public health. I just don't know what to believe!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (4 children)

No, people shouldn't have the right to choose if fluoride is added to their water. People are stupid. You vote to remove something that will greatly help children that can't vote. The government's job, sometimes, is to stop stupid people from hurting others and their selves. That's the reason you can't drink raw milk or use lead gas.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 7 months ago

The raw milk thing is actually part of the reason the FDA was formed!

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

That's the reason you can't drink raw milk or use lead gas.

You can get raw milk if your state allows it. The federal government bans it, but only has regulatory authority over interstate commerce, so it can't be moved across state boundaries, but you can get it if it's made in-state.

I mean, I think that you're mostly aiming to expose yourself to listeria, but if that's what someone wants...

My guess is that dairy farmers have an interest in promoting it in that if they can sell it, it gives them a market without much competition.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_raw_milk_debate

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

can we compromise on drinking raw milk with flouride added?

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Yes they should. Ingesting fluoride is bad for you, and it doesn't help your teeth to drink it. That's why small children's toothpaste doesn't have it, because you can't trust them not to eat it. It's only good when applied directly to the teeth, which can be accomplished on a daily basis by using toothpaste with fluoride and/or a mouthwash containing it, both of which you don't drink.

Fluoride is removed from my drinking water by my reverse-osmosis filtration system, along with all the other contaminants like PFAS and lead. I've been drinking fluoride-free water for 10 years, and my teeth are beautiful and healthy. Anyone who drinks bottled water is also probably drinking fluoride-free water since those companies mostly use the same filtration method to produce their bottled water.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

That's not a peer reviewed study - its somebody's editorialized book report.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

https://www.hindawi.com/journals/tswj/2014/293019/

Link to original article. Cheers to you for citing your sources, but the authors here are massively conflating the effects of industrial fluoride exposure with residential water fluoridation in an attempt to prove a position they began with.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago (14 children)

We live in the time of the most readily available and advanced information yet continually make the dumbest fucking decisions.

“Cavities…yeah….goddamn hadn’t had one of those in awhile, we should bring those back.”

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago

What are you talking about?

People get cavities all the time, and it's because they don't brush their damn teeth.

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

What makes more sense?

A) Large corporations (not known for their wisdom, concern for our well-being, or compassion) found a profitable way to deal with a hard-to-manage waste stream (from fertilizer production) by convincing government leaders (not known for their scientific understanding or compassion) to buy their waste and dilute it to where it no longer needs to be managed as toxic material?

B) Your government leaders are actually concerned about tooth decay.

Lol downvotes. Really guys? Water fluoridation is the one issue both Democrats and Republicans agree on and are doing the right thing for the people? You're being lied to, and fiercely defending the ones lying to you.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (1 children)

I'd love to say something sensible, understandable and concise.

But this post is like someone shouting "WHY DID MATHEMATICIANS MAKE THE √ SYMBOL TICK SHAPED?!", convinced they've found a way to prove that 2+2 is not 4.

There is so much to unpack there. Properly responding to every explicit and implicit grain is like reasoning against a beach.

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