Misinformation campaigns increasingly target the cavity-fighting mineral, prompting communities to reverse mandates. Dentists are enraged. Parents are caught in the middle.

The culture wars have a new target: your teeth.

Communities across the U.S. are ending public water fluoridation programs, often spurred by groups that insist that people should decide whether they want the mineral — long proven to fight cavities — added to their water supplies.

The push to flush it from water systems seems to be increasingly fueled by pandemic-related mistrust of government oversteps and misleading claims, experts say, that fluoride is harmful.

The anti-fluoridation movement gained steam with Covid,” said Dr. Meg Lochary, a pediatric dentist in Union County, North Carolina. “We’ve seen an increase of people who either don’t want fluoride or are skeptical about it.”

There should be no question about the dental benefits of fluoride, Lochary and other experts say. Major public health groups, including the American Dental Association, the American Academy of Pediatrics and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, support the use of fluoridated water. All cite studies that show it reduces tooth decay by 25%.

  • john89@lemmy.ca
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    6 months ago

    🥱

    Or, give people the option to choose for themselves.

    Scientific consensus has been wrong many times before, and it will be wrong many times again.

      • john89@lemmy.ca
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        6 months ago

        Right.

        Let’s put any amount of contaminates in our drinking water just so people can “filter them out.”

        Someone mentioned arsenic earlier in this thread, and I think I can find some study that says arsenic is good for you. Let’s add it to our water and anyone who thinks it’s harmful can just filter it out.

        Also, I’m adding my fecal matter to the water supply to improve people’s microbiomes. They can just filter it out if they don’t like it.

        • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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          6 months ago

          Fluoride is not a contaminant, but please do find a study that says arsenic is good for you. This should be interesting.

          • john89@lemmy.ca
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            6 months ago

            Fluoride is not a contaminant

            Says who?

            https://gizmodo.com/hey-remember-when-people-used-to-eat-arsenic-as-a-heal-1676316276

            It’s not a study, but there was a time when people believed arsenic wasn’t poisonous. There were most likely scientists back in the day advocating for its usage. You can find their work if you’re really interested.

            A more recent and easier to research example would be all the “studies” saying lead is safe. Do I have to specifically point to those, or can you understand my point without it?

            • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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              6 months ago

              It’s not a study

              Okay, so note what you claimed.

              There were most likely scientists back in the day advocating for its usage. You can find their work if you’re really interested.

              It’s not my job to prove you aren’t lying.

              • john89@lemmy.ca
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                6 months ago

                I mean, if you don’t want to understand then you won’t understand.

                I’ve done my part. If you want to replace arsenic with lead, then will it make sense?

                Probably not because you don’t want to understand.

                Also,

                Fluoride is not a contaminant

                Says who?

                You conveniently ignored this part.

                • Flying Squid@lemmy.world
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                  6 months ago

                  If you want to replace arsenic with lead, then will it make sense?

                  Sure, if you can show me a scientific study that claims that lead is not a contaminant.

                  You conveniently ignored this part.

                  Correct. I will continue to until you show me the scientific studies you claim exists or admit you made them up.

                  • OrgunDonor@lemmy.world
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                    6 months ago

                    Ohhh can I partake in this.

                    Fluoride contamination, consequences and removal techniques in water - https://pubs.rsc.org/en/content/articlehtml/2022/va/d1va00039j

                    See look at the scary headline, and the first sentence - “Fluoride contamination has created a drinking water crisis globally.”

                    Only downside to this paper… it kinda mentions how great it is for humans to consume low levels of flouride.

    • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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      6 months ago

      I’m struggling with this.

      You’re saying that because science was wrong about something else, it must be wrong about fluoride?

      I think that if you really dig into it, you’ll find that arsenic use wasn’t supported by science, but rather snake oil salesmen.

      • john89@lemmy.ca
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        5 months ago

        it must be wrong about fluoride?

        This is where your confusion comes from. I never said it’s wrong about fluoride.

        My point is that unless you understand the science yourself, you have faith in other people who do. Scientific consensus has been wrong in the past, and it will be wrong again in the future.

        Everyone saying with such certainty that fluoride is good or bad without understanding the science themselves just highlights how most people treat science like a religion.

        • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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          5 months ago

          most people treat science like a religion.

          That’s just not true. By it’s very nature, what we describe as “science” is reproducible. That means faith is not required.

          • john89@lemmy.ca
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            5 months ago

            If you understand the science yourself, then you’re correct.

            The problem is that most people don’t understand the science and just have faith in other people who might.

            • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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              5 months ago

              No, my point is that because “science” is reproducible, you do not need faith in the people producing said science, nor do you need to understand it.

              You merely need to confirm that it has been reviewed and accepted by other people who do understand it.

                • fine_sandy_bottom@discuss.tchncs.de
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                  5 months ago

                  Semantics.

                  To me, faith is belief without evidence.

                  The science is the antithesis of faith, because it’s a system of evidence and confirmation.

                  If you want to water “faith” down to mean the acceptance of evidence which you have not personally tested then it becomes meaningless. That’s flat earth stuff. “I personally have not seen the curvature of the Earth therefore it is flat”.

                  • john89@lemmy.ca
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                    5 months ago

                    because it’s a system of evidence and confirmation.

                    It’s a system that has been routinely wrong before.

                    Do you think it’s never going to be wrong again? That’s having faith.