As bans spread, fluoride in drinking water divides communities across the US
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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.
Weirdo
How?
Downplaying the usefulness of Flouride, writing it off as though to imply it’s some kind of scam, while even acknowledging its usefulness is a fucking weird take.
“Yeah we added it to the water supply because it prevents people teeth from falling out but GUYS did you know they get it from companies that don’t want it? What a fuckin SCAM huh?” Is how you comment comes off
I was going to help improve public health, but then I learned we'd have to pay someone money in order to do it, so I chose to keep my hands clean of such a disgusting act.
Europe has seen near-identical falling rates of tooth decay in the past fifty years without mass fluoridation like the US.
Introducing industrial waste to the water supply is generally referred to as a bad thing. Incentivizing the nitrogen fertilizer industry by making even their waste profitable is also a bad thing. Forcing medical procedures on people so that tax dollars can be funneled to the private sector is not good either.
You keep saying waste, I would argue it's a byproduct. Like whey from milk.
You're username, for one.