this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2024

513 points (98.7% liked)

News

23301 readers

3366 users here now

Welcome to the News community!

Rules:

1. Be civil

Attack the argument, not the person. No racism/sexism/bigotry. Good faith argumentation only. This includes accusing another user of being a bot or paid actor. Trolling is uncivil and is grounds for removal and/or a community ban. Do not respond to rule-breaking content; report it and move on.

2. All posts should contain a source (url) that is as reliable and unbiased as possible and must only contain one link.

Obvious right or left wing sources will be removed at the mods discretion. We have an actively updated blocklist, which you can see here: https://lemmy.world/post/2246130 if you feel like any website is missing, contact the mods. Supporting links can be added in comments or posted seperately but not to the post body.

3. No bots, spam or self-promotion.

Only approved bots, which follow the guidelines for bots set by the instance, are allowed.

4. Post titles should be the same as the article used as source.

Posts which titles don’t match the source won’t be removed, but the autoMod will notify you, and if your title misrepresents the original article, the post will be deleted. If the site changed their headline, the bot might still contact you, just ignore it, we won’t delete your post.

5. Only recent news is allowed.

Posts must be news from the most recent 30 days.

6. All posts must be news articles.

No opinion pieces, Listicles, editorials or celebrity gossip is allowed. All posts will be judged on a case-by-case basis.

7. No duplicate posts.

If a source you used was already posted by someone else, the autoMod will leave a message. Please remove your post if the autoMod is correct. If the post that matches your post is very old, we refer you to rule 5.

8. Misinformation is prohibited.

Misinformation / propaganda is strictly prohibited. Any comment or post containing or linking to misinformation will be removed. If you feel that your post has been removed in error, credible sources must be provided.

9. No link shorteners.

The auto mod will contact you if a link shortener is detected, please delete your post if they are right.

10. Don't copy entire article in your post body

For copyright reasons, you are not allowed to copy an entire article into your post body. This is an instance wide rule, that is strictly enforced in this community.

founded 1 year ago

MODERATORS

[email protected]

513

As bans spread, fluoride in drinking water divides communities across the US (kffhealthnews.org)

submitted 7 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

371 comments fedilink hide all child comments

…

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.

(page 3) 50 comments

sorted by: hot top controversial new old

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 months ago

Fun fact: spreading conspiracy theories about the evils of fluoride in the water (it's mind control! pollutes our precious bodily fluids!) was one of the talking points that crypto-fascists threw against the wall to see if it would stick- if you recall the line about your "precious bodily fluids" in Dr. Strangelove, that was a nod to that particular vein of conspiracy theory that was making the rounds in the far-loony fringes of what was then the Republican party

[–] [email protected] 19 points 7 months ago (1 children)

I had great teeth as a kid, but then moved out to the boonies with well water, 5-6 years later I started getting cavities (while still getting fluoride at the dentist twice a year). My teeth have been nothing but problems since.

Now our town water refuses to add fluoride and a bunch of my son’s school mates already have fillings in kindergarten.

load more comments (1 replies)

[–] [email protected] 52 points 7 months ago (12 children)

Americans won the battle to bring back measles

Now they’re fighting to bring back tooth decay

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

Guys doubling fisting 64oz Big Gulps won that war ages ago

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments (11 replies)

[–] [email protected] 56 points 7 months ago (8 children)

We need to stop letting the village idiots make policy.

[–] [email protected] -3 points 7 months ago (4 children)

Funnily enough, the idiots do have a grain a truth here, that grain just happens to be an example of the internet's favorite, Dunning-Kruger.

Excess flouride does have profound negative effects on intelligence. Several hundreds times the levels you get positive effects for tooth health from, and thus well beyond the scope of flouridation programs. There are also other notable side effects from flouride toxicity, so it'd be quite noticable.

There are even several regions of America and China where they need deflouridation treatments for ground water, but the conspiracy types never seem to mention those.

They also don't seem to note that flouride toxicity, like lead toxicity, leads to both decreased intelligence and increased aggression.

How making the working class angry and dumb makes them easier for the owner class to control and profit from never seems to come up.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 months ago (2 children)

How making the working class angry and dumb makes them easier for the owner class to control and profit from never seems to come up.

Ask the folks at the Jan 6th riot. Trump played them all like fiddles.

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 13 points 7 months ago (1 children)

Lead exposure also causes reduced intelligence.

Leaded gasoline was still a thing when I was a kid.

Lead paint chips are delicious.

And those Stanley cups that suburbia is raging over, also contains lead.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 months ago (1 children)

You should probably read the whole thing, but, you know, the lead, I get it

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 months ago (2 children)

We need to stop letting the conservatives make policy.

FTFY

[–] [email protected] 21 points 7 months ago

You just repeated what OP said.

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments (6 replies)

[–] [email protected] 43 points 7 months ago* (last edited 7 months ago) (4 children)

Not this shit again. This pseudo-scientific nonsense has been debunked numerous times already. You would think that this would be a dead conspiracy theory but here we are debating this once more. This is what happens when you have an scientifically illiterate population.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 months ago (5 children)

On a more positive note if they lose their teeth they might have less luck at reproduction. Problem fixes itself, fingers crossed

load more comments (5 replies)

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

I wanted to watch the video, but piped isn’t working. Can you help with another link, 🔗 or not, no biggie?

load more comments (1 replies)

load more comments (2 replies)

[–] [email protected] 15 points 7 months ago

Oh good. Whats old is new again.

Flouride conspiracies are old hat compared to most of the bullshit thats been bandied about in the past 10 years.

load more comments