While I acknowledge it is not a "solved" issue, I find it bizarre nonetheless, simply because it is so disproportionately low-stakes compared to the amount of controversy around it. Increased risk of cavities versus tentative evidence of losing 1-2 IQ points at 1.5 mg/L? Sounds like a Monty Python sketch to me that people would get so worked up over this.
The risk of cavities is reduced by using toothpaste or mouth washes with fluoride, not by drinking fluoridated water.
Almost all fluoride from the drinking water does not have any effect on tooth enamel, because it has contact with it only for a few seconds, except for an infinitesimal fraction that may exit again the body in saliva.
On the other hand, the harmful effects of fluoride in drinking water are certain and it cannot be predicted exactly how much water will be ingested by someone, i.e. which will be the harmful dose of ingested fluoride.
The only argument of those who support water fluoridation is that most people must be morons who cannot be taught to wash their teeth. I do not believe that this theory can be right.
> The risk of cavities is reduced by using toothpaste or mouth washes with fluoride, not by drinking fluoridated water.
it always surprises me how willing people are to just make something up and be confident in doing so. We've know for almost 75 years that water fluoridation reduces tooth decay[1] and yet here you are straight up denying that.
Do you just not care if you are correct? or do you know you aren't but are driven by the beliefs you already hold?
> Almost all fluoride from the drinking water does not have any effect on tooth enamel, because it has contact with it only for a few seconds
The contact via toothpaste or mouth wash isn’t all that much longer, so why would they be effective if fluoridated water isn’t? People intentionally wash out toothpaste and mouthwash after this short contact.
Im sorry, but I think it’s ridiculous that thinking something that knows off an IQ point or two isn’t a big deal.
For one, we’re literally making everyone slightly less intelligent. While it’s a very small factor, I sure as hell wouldn’t want that for my daughters.
For two, IQ is easy to measure. Through that, we know it’s affecting the brain during development. How else is it affecting it? We don’t know.
Weighed against potentially higher risk of cavities pretty much only during childhood and the math seems incredibly clear to me. I feel like the only reason we haven’t banned adding it to water supplies is because people have a knee jerk reaction to anything that sounds even vaguely anti-vax nowadays.
The fact that until 10 years ago the US allowed significantly higher levels should be a really big deal to people.
I’m on reverse osmosis well water so it doesn’t matter to me personally, for what it’s worth.
IQ points is just an indicator that could be measured consistently. Who knows what else is going on.. and statistically (especially depending on the distribution) 2 IQ points is quite a lot. After all 50% of the population fall into the 20 point range in the middle..
Of course it comes down to whether the relationship actually exists. But picking a slightly higher risk of cavities when the other option is potential mental impairment (however mild) seems like a no-brainer..
you're really genuinely shocked that people would get worked up over chemicals being added to their drinking water without their consent? chemicals which have not been conclusively proven to be non-toxic? chemicals which are already in toothpaste giving people the choice to use them anyway?
flouride naturally occurs in water all over the world, and if you don't want any chemicals in your water you should be drinking distilled water. Almost nobody does, because "chemicals in the water reeeeeee!!!" is just a mindless idiotic shreak, not anything insightful or debatable
having to resort to childish attempts like this essentially invalidates anything "insightful" you might want to say. if you can't see that manually adding safety-unproven chemicals to water without people's consent is a weird and unethical thing to do, then that's fine, but don't embarrass yourself and everyone else like this
> if you can't see that manually adding safety-unproven
Nobody is doing that, so maybe don't embarrass yourself like that?
> without people's consent
Also not happening. Consent was established when it was voted on, and if people want to change their local policies they are always free to do so. People that object against majority are also free to drink alternative water from the free market instead of relying on socialist handouts
If you want to have an actual, good faith debate about the pros/cons of a specific additive that's wonderful. But you didn't, you reduced the entire thing to "chemicals bad because chemicals". But, more significantly, so too has the US's administration which Utah is following suit on. The US is full on "feels not reals" government mode.
my friend at this point you are just wildly throwing whatever pops into your mind into the air and hoping it sticks somewhere
when was it voted on and by who? tell me.
you're also aware that people pay for water, it's not free? quite an odd thing for an adult to not know
"good faith debate". from someone who started making mocking autism noises in the middle of a normal conversation? that's what I suggested was embarrassing, you simply didn't read my comment because you yourself have no interest in having a good faith discussion and you're just blindly throwing terms like that as a way of dismissing an opinion you disagree with.
"chemicals bad because chemicals" I never said anything of the sort, this is a strawman you invented to strengthen your struggling argument. there have quite literally been studies linking increased fluoride to toxicity. it's not "chemicals bad because chemicals" it's "there have been studies suggesting this chemical may be toxic so why are we putting it in drinking water without a public consultation in the last 70 years?"
>The US is full on "feels not reals" government mode.
okay and here we have your real motivation. 90% likely you quite obviously don't give a fuck about fluoridated water or human rights, you are pissed about the current executive branch and you're looking to take it out somewhere. this "debate" is over.
To straw man, you could argue that 1-2 IQ extra might have a large affect on the salary as everything is relative.
If you are on the lower IQ scale, a ten point reduction would double your likelihood of doing crime.
I put in a spelling error in the above paragraph of 215 characters, you still understand it but what was your perception of me from this very small error?
What rights of minorities have been targeted? If the only example is trans rights, it's dumb to think it's a simple issue of trampled rights. There are two competing sets of rights, you grant one set you take away from the other. There isn't a good solution.
If you think all the people advocating for small government must be fools or hypocrites, you don't understand the issues an any depth.
Why do trans people not count as a minority being targetted?
I'm curious, what rights are "granted" by making it illegal for doctors to prescribe puberty blocks when they as a medical professional and a child's parents as their guardian agree they're the best medical course of action for a child?
Saying "it's about granting and taking away" like rights are some zero-sum game feels like it's ignoring the complexity of these issues more than what I'm saying.
> What rights of minorities have been targeted? If the only example is trans rights, it's dumb to think it's a simple issue of trampled rights
So it's not an issue of trampled rights if it's just trans rights, yet you can't come up with a reason that trans rights need to be restricted to ensure freedom of others. And it's being disingenuous to call you out for saying trans rights don't matter when you say this...
Example: trans rights in sports. You let them play, you take away the rights to a fair playing field for women born women. You don't let them play, you take away their right to play sport. There isn't a good solution.
You knew the example. You know why society restricts people below 18 from all kinds of things. You are the very definition of disingenuous.
Trans people playing on the sporting team they want to is not "rights", and your focus on it to deflect from the very real issue I brought up is telling...
I don't mind being called "the very definition of disingenuous" by you.
It’s not at all the same, that’s a terrible example. Child vaccinations help reduce the Rt, regardless of whether the benefit to the individual is significant. Statements to the contrary have just confused the public. (biochemist)
