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Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

bbc.com

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Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#81

Post by habosa »

TMWNN wrote: post #21
codybontecou wrote: post #18

Hawaii does not add fluoride to their water. Utah may be the first to out-right ban it, but there are quite a few local communities and cities that opt-out of adding it to their drinking water. https://chatgpt.com/share/67e8572d-c5f4-8000-9393-c2e894c922...

The US is, according to Wikipedia, among a small minority of countries in which a majority of people drink fluoridated water. Various European countries have discontinued doing so. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation >

Many other places fluoridate salt. There’s many ways to get flourish (toothpaste being the best if you can get people to use it correctly) but the evidence that mass fluoridation of some kind is good for dental health is enormous.

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#83

Post by robocat »

jiggawatts wrote: post #43
jedberg wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The link between fluoride ingestion by children and pregnant women to lower IQ in children has been known for years Not at the levels it is found in water in the USA. Those studies were done in countries with much higher levels of fluoride.

The relationship appears to be linear down to zero, but it’s very hard to study near those levels. From what I’ve seen, the best current science is that the fluoridation levels in typical western countries are reducing average IQ by about 0.5-1.5 points. For reference, adding lead to fuel was far, far worse.

Any citations?

I suspect it is hard to control for confounding correlations - specifically I would guess it is more likely that poorer areas are flouridated. HV electric power lines and nuclear stations have the issue that poorer people are more likely to live next to those, and poorer people have have worse health outcomes so it falsely appears that both of those cause the health problems.

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#84

Post by abletonlive »

jedberg wrote: post #14
WillPostForFood wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not following closely, but is this pseudoscience? https://hsph.harvard.edu/news/fluoride-childrens-health-gran... https://ntp.niehs.nih.gov/whatwestudy/assessments/noncancer/...

Those are based on countries with much higher levels of fluoride than the USA adds. Follow up studies have found the levels in the USA to be perfectly safe and in fact beneficial since poor people don't get dental care like they do in other countries.

> levels in the USA to be perfectly safe

because everybody drinks the same amount of water right?

ridiculous position to argue from.

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#85

Post by habosa »

I’m disappointed in the news media fails to mention the cascading effects of dental health. Yes, the primary and direct benefit of fluoride is to have a healthier mouth.

But having a healthy mouth is far from the end goal, imo. If your mouth is full of cavities you’re more likely to build up bacteria that cause downstream effects as serious as heart disease. Also if your mouth is routinely uncomfortable you may gravitate towards soft processed foods and away from healthy whole foods like fresh fruits and vegetables.

I know water is not the only way to get fluoride into people. But these politicians who are trying to take it out of the water are just saying basically “it’s fine, let’s do nothing”. They’re not going to fluoridate the salt. They’re not going to run public health campaigns stressing the importance of regular brushing. They’re just willing to let people’s teeth rot to score points.

It’s disgusting, and no matter how you feel about the water you should be able to see that these people are not on your side.

https://www.mayoclinic.org/healthy-lifestyle/adult-health/in...

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#86

Post by apothegm »

Speedy218 wrote: post #74
jiggawatts wrote: post #44

I initially dismissed it as the same category of stupid as anti-vax beliefs, but it turns out that there are a decent amount of good studies showing a link between fluoride in water and (slightly) lower IQ when pregnant mothers ingest the fluoride. Note that there is no significant effect after birth. The idea is to remove fluoride from water and advise pregnant women to use fluoride-free toothpaste. Everyone else ca…

> but now it is “overmedicating” a vulnerable fraction of the population. Makes sense, but the intention also is that many people do not brush their teeth, or at least do not brush them as often as they should, and so fluoride is added to drinking water to compensate so people's teeth don't start to fall out at an alarming rate.

Sadly, an alarming percentage of Americans don't drink water. I’ve spoken to way too many people who think water tastes wrong because it’s not sweet enough.

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#87

Post by singpolyma3 »

apothegm wrote: post #86
Speedy218 wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> but now it is “overmedicating” a vulnerable fraction of the population. Makes sense, but the intention also is that many people do not brush their teeth, or at least do not brush them as often as they should, and so fluoride is added to drinking water to compensate so people's teeth don't start to fall out at an alarming rate.

Sadly, an alarming percentage of Americans don't drink water. I’ve spoken to way too many people who think water tastes wrong because it’s not sweet enough.

I've heard this and it doesn't fit in my brain. They never drink water? Ever?

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#88

Post by [deleted] »

jiggawatts wrote: post #44

I initially dismissed it as the same category of stupid as anti-vax beliefs, but it turns out that there are a decent amount of good studies showing a link between fluoride in water and (slightly) lower IQ when pregnant mothers ingest the fluoride. Note that there is no significant effect after birth. The idea is to remove fluoride from water and advise pregnant women to use fluoride-free toothpaste. Everyone else ca…

[deleted]

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#89

Post by boringg »

timeon wrote: post #76
elif wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Fluoridation, imperial measurement, 20% tips, taxes added at the register, and circumcision are the weirdest things Americans think everyone does.

> 20% tips Is this real?

When i read it now it is ridiculous how high the tip rate is. Yes 18-25% a lot of them tip on the taxed total bill which is bananas

Re: Utah becomes first US state to ban fluoride in its water

#90

Post by tayo42 »

poisonarena wrote: post #25
tayo42 wrote: post #15

> Republican state lawmaker Stephanie Gricius - who introduced the bill in the state legislature - has argued that there is research suggesting fluoride could have possible cognitive effects in children. It's kind of amazing to say something like that then be so inconsistent on things that will have real outcomes that make life better for kids. They're all for cutting school support and social services.

is Utah cutting school support and social services?

Is there a reason to expect this republican to hold views that differ significantly from the rest of the party?
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