Anyone else gets reminded of General Jack D. Ripper in Dr. Strangelove?
Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water
501–510 of 1001 posts
Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water
#502Putting fluoride in water promotes freedom. That sounds crazy, but let me justify it. If you are poor you can't go anywhere or buy anything. You're not free if you're poor. If you are sick, you may be confined to a hospital bed or not feel good enough to do anything. If you are sick you're not free. Putting fluoride in water reduces dental costs and incidence of cavities and therefore tooth infections, particularly a…
Adding fluoride to water was revolutionary in the 1940s, but its benefits have significantly declined since fluoride toothpaste became common in the 1970s. While fluoridation made sense when products containing fluoride weren't widely available, it is much less effective and necessary now. Sure, some countries and communities may still see benefits from it, but widespread fluoridation doesn't seem necessary in many p…
Not true. Every time I see a dentist here in Queensland (non-fluoridated water) he asks me where else I lived as my teeth are so much better than what he usually sees, and if drilling my teeth are much harder than most Queenslanders.
My early years were spent in Melbourne, where fluoridation was introduced around 1970. That's the only time I lived with fluoridated water, for about 3 years. yet dentists can see the effects 50+ years later.
I don't use a toothbrush or toothpaste, and haven't ever really, as my ASD makes it unbearable.
Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water
#503Earlier quoted context omitted.
The missing context here is that the science and established benefits of fluoride aren’t a culture war political football in those countries. These countries largely publicly recognise the benefits of fluoride, but don’t add it because: - Some countries opt for intake via supplementation. - Some have a naturally sufficient supply in drinking water via natural processes. - Some even need to reduce the abundance of flu…
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Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water
#504Earlier quoted context omitted.
In Germany having salt with added fluoride is very common. There is salt without it if you don’t want it though.
That is not true. You are probably thinking of iodine. Actually fluoride is prohibited in children's toothpaste in Germany because of its suspected neurotoxicity. EDIT: I checked. It is possible to buy salt with added fluoride in Germany but it comes with the health note "Zusätzliche fluoridhaltige Präparate sollten nur auf ärztliche Empfehlung eingenommen werden.", which means you should only use it on recommendatio…
You are right, iodine is the more common one. Fluoride is a less common additive.
Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water
#505Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is difference between banning and just deciding putting fluoride in public drinking water too. Who are they banning? Themselves?
Water treatment is usually done at the municipal or regional level. The state government is declaring that towns and cities may not do this. The alternative would be each and every municipal water authority deciding on its own.
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Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water
#506Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps, vitamins, micro doses of aspirin, and other low level medical treatments should also be added to water, for the benefit of the silent poor and sick.
Should we not treat water at all? Should we instead all like off ground water or rivers and lakes?
Do you think there's a difference between a/ treating water to make it clean and b/ adding minerals and vitamins for the benefit of others, whether they want it or not?
Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water
#507Earlier quoted context omitted.
There is difference between banning and just deciding putting fluoride in public drinking water too. Who are they banning? Themselves?
Water treatment is usually done at the municipal or regional level. The state government is declaring that towns and cities may not do this. The alternative would be each and every municipal water authority deciding on its own.
The horror.
Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water
#508Earlier quoted context omitted.
This started out as an interesting and fair take until “…enough to supplant it”. Freedom from the government is the original vision and one of the core principles of America assuming that anybody that wants smaller government just wants to supplant it is a massive misunderstanding of most Americans today and certainly the founding principles.
We can read this country's founding philosophy directly: We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.— That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men , deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,—That whenever any Form…
Yeah, that’s just the start.
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
This demonstrates an intentional effort by the founders to strictly limit federal authority by explicitly enumerating government powers and leaving everything else beyond federal reach. It underscores that their conception of freedom involved a government that was deliberately restrained, designed primarily to safeguard individual liberties by minimizing governmental interference, rather than merely protecting from outright tyranny.
Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water
#509Earlier quoted context omitted.
There's a huge difference between "no longer as necessary" and "let's ban it".
You can add fluoride in your own water if you want to. Nobody is preventing your own freedom to drink fluoride.
No, they're banning communities from making the decision for themselves. Government so small it fits right into your drinking tap!
Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water
#510Earlier quoted context omitted.
What I love about this comment is that one person thought "of course every other country just does the right thing when the US doesn't" and posted it, and then a bunch of other people thought "of course every other country just does the right thing when the US doesn't" and upvoted it, and not a single one of them thought to check what the "right thing" is. Meanwhile, back here on Earth-1, there's no right thing, and…
IIRC _some_ of the European countries that “do not fluoridate their water” have naturally occurring fluoride levels in their water, obviating the need for them to do it.
In fact, many countries even have a maximum permissible limit for fluoride in tap and bottled water.
In France, for example, the limit is 1.5 mg/L in tap water. https://www.anses.fr/en/system/files/NUT2007sa0315q.pdf
Supplementation mainly concerns iodine for non-marine salts. Sea salt naturally contains iodine and fluorine. Salt from salt mines contains much less. For this reason, iodine deficiency was relatively common in the Alps until the beginning of the twentieth century.
To my knowledge, there is no debate or controversy on the subject. Endemic goiters are exceedingly rare and are linked to behavioral and eating disorders.