Medical freedom vs. public health: Should fluoride be in our drinking water?
Medical freedom vs. public health: Should fluoride be in our drinking water?
Misinformation campaigns increasingly target the cavity-fighting mineral, prompting communities to reverse mandates. Dentists are enraged. Parents are caught in the middle.
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%.
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Fun fact: In Sweden it's (and I think it has always been) illegal to put fluoride in drinking water. Presumably because it's illegal to manipulate drinking water in any way. I don't think there is a ban specifically on fluoride, but maybe.
That doesn't sound right. Is everyone in Sweden drinking untreated water? That sounds incredibly unsanitary.
What do you mean by untreated? Unchlorinated? In Europe, many countries also chlorinate their water, like the US. But not all do, because some have naturally clean water. Like the Netherlands, Scandinavia, Iceland.
I just mean the usual water treatment practices to ensure safe drinking water. At minimum I would expect filtration to be happening since you don't want particulates floating around in it.
Ah. Yeah that still happens. Also in the Netherlands. But no chlorination or any other kind of additions.
No, of course not. Our drinking water is some of the best drinking water in the world. It's very clean and good.
We don't add chlorine though. We just have really good filtration and processes and likely fairly good water to begin with.
I believe our sewage treatment is also excellent.