AI Summary:
- Utah is poised to ban fluoride in public water systems, pending the governor’s signature.
- The bill prohibits adding fluoride to public water and repeals previous related laws.
- Federal health secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has criticized fluoride, influencing the bill.
- Studies on fluoride’s impact on children’s IQ have mixed results, with some showing negative effects and others showing no harm.
- Major public health groups support fluoridation for dental health benefits.
- The anti-fluoridation movement has gained popularity post-Covid-19.
- Similar legislation is proposed in Florida, emphasizing the importance of consent in public health measures.
I’ve seen this parks and rec episode
When I was younger, I was confused as to why fluoride was in water, since we would receive regular fluoride tablets in grade school. I’m sure not every school does that…
Get some baking soda toothpaste and some fluoride rinse and you’ll be okay.
What’s the point of baking soda toothpaste if you’re going to use fluoride rinse anyway
Dentists’ wet dream.
Up next in Utah, higher dental insurance premiums, copays, and deductibles.
Or not even cover it all
Dental issues increased in Calgary and they voted to put it back.
This is the way. The idiots have been coddled for generations. They need to have the experience of their teeth rotting out for themselves.
And what about the other 49% they dragged down with them? You’ve also just made everyone’s dental insurance 10x more expensive. Thanks!
For anyone in a state without fluoridated water, you can get fluoride drops to put in your/your children’s water.
Why not just brush their teeth? I’m pretty sure fluoridated toothpaste is much easier to come by than fluoride drops.
Because adding fluoride to tap water provides measurable benifits regardless of socioeconomic status.
In addition, other countries where municpal water is not as developed, they will add fluoride to salts and other consumer products.
We’re comparing toothpaste to fluoride drops, not fluoridated tap water.
Because your logic is flawed coming to that question. It insinuates that one is needed over the other. This is not a fair comparison because toothpaste and fluoride suppliments are purchased and flouridated tap water costs almost nothing to consumers of municipal water. All sources must be taken into account for public health programs like this.
I grew up with well water and we didn’t have naturally occurring water.
Our doctor prescribed us a chewable tablet we took every night after dinner.
Didn’t get my first, and only, cavity until I was 35.
My ex-wife who grew up with me had a dad who was “they’re putting gay vaccines in our fluoride to turn our cavities to queers” type and they didn’t …. Cavity city.
If you needed one last excuse to get out of Utah, then let this be it.
I bet the idiots have shares in the dental industry though.
Want to see what happens when you do this?
https://www.aihw.gov.au/reports/children-youth/childrens-headline-indicators/contents/indicator-7
Notice the two states with the highest rates of dental decay are Queensland and Northern Territory?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation_in_Australia
Yeah, those states didn’t get flouride in their water until around 2012.
Such a coincidence…
It’s also completely silly because many places have naturally fluoridated water!
Yes but what about all the autism. Or mind controlling. Or whatever the hell it is that fluoride is evil for?
Conservatives are concerned that the miniscule chance of fluoride reducing children’s IQ is enough to cause children to grow up to be conservatives.
Makes you listen to pop music.
Hahaha😂
RFK Jr. has criticized fluoride
Yeah see, that right there is the only thing you really need to see that the ban is a bad idea.
Utah poised to overtake UK as butt of bad teeth jokes.
EU countries don’t add fluoride to the water supply. At least half of the US seems to have cognitive impairment, by the way they vote.
Maybe they’re on to something?
/s
important to note about the “not adding Fluoride” bit: many countries have to remove fluoride from drinking water because there’s too much of it…
We believe that water fluoridation is the single most effective public health measure there is for reducing oral health inequalities and tooth decay rates, especially amongst children.
From your link:
This was published under the 2019 to 2022 Johnson Conservative government
And if that doesn’t tell you all you need to know, then let me continue: UK is not part of the EU. Aside from some provinces in Spain and Ireland, no other EU country adds fluoride to the water supply.
I invite you to find a more recent publication that disputes the one I’ve linked.
UK is not part of the EU
You were the one to reply to UK comment, stay consistent at least.
They should put lead back into gasoline as well, while they’re at it…and asbestos in a baby powder.
Slaps dental premiums this baby is going places!
next up (unless it happened first): no more data collection or research about statewide dental health
Insurance companies will still collect it since they need to pay out for a lot of this shit. We’ll also be able to quantify this impact by looking at dental premiums and copays. They’ll eventually go up in states without fluoridated water.
Or decline renewing your insurance.
Good Guy Insurance.
“Utah now has zero reported cavities! We were right to ban fluoride.”
Somewhere there’s a cabal of dentists sitting around a table in a dark and shadowy room cackling madly
Obviously fluorinated water is fine but having never grown up with it, it seems kind of unecessary. Maybe stop shoving sugary food and drinks in everyone’s faces would have a better impact?
This is more targeted towards the poorest and least educated of the community. Eating healthy and having a stable home with healthy habits is expensive.
This is anecdotal.
Public health management isn’t really the same as making health related decisions for yourself and your family.
As a public health measure fluoridation of water is an undeniable success. It has reduced the incidence of dental cavities by about a third, with better results in rural and poorer demographics.
So rural and poor communities dont have access to healthier options or proper dental care and the solution your country picked was to put fluoride in the water instead of trying to actually support the poor.
What a country.
Hmm. You realise we’re talking about Australia right? We have some of the best universal healthcare, and social security in the world.
Additives like fluoride in water, iodine in salt, and folic acid in flour disproportionately benefit people with lower incomes because in many cases their nutrition and other health care is not great due to lifestyle preferences, or co-morbidities that are resistant to health interventions like substance abuse or mental illness or cultural norms.
Another problem in Australia is low population density. A small town might be several hundred kilometers from the nearest dentist. If everyone in that place agrees to fluoridate the water, where’s the harm in that ?
We do have government funded free dental services, although I admit the wait times can be considerable.
While I understand that it’s a useful, effective measure, I’m amazed that it’s needed at all. Most of Europe, despite having a comparable or on paper lower wealth status, has never heard of this as far as I can tell, and the introduction of the practice isn’t being discussed. What gives the US needs it?
Interesting. I didn’t know that.
I’m in Australia BTW, about 90% of our water is fluoridated.
There’s lots of information about various countries here:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Water_fluoridation_by_country
I think a summary to answer your question is that it varies by region, in some areas there’s enough fluoride present in the water naturally, in others fluoride is added to table salt, in some there’s just no support for this measure.
That makes quite a lot of sense, yeah. Different regions be different, who woulda thunk :D
In Europe, it varies by geology and country. Some places add fluoride to water, some to salt, some rely on fluoride toothpaste or mouthwash. https://ec.europa.eu/health/scientific_committees/opinions_layman/fluoridation/en/l-2/1.htm
Define “unnecessary “. Seriously.
Children’s ice cream, Mandrake!
They’re just protecting their precious bodily fluids
