Water utility announces it’s ditching fluoride—then reveals it did so years ago
- Thread starter JournalBot
- Start date
Isn’t this a perfect opportunity to study the science further? You have an entire community of people that were essentially given placebo (thinking their water is fluoridated, but wasn’t). So these people would not have made any change to their brushing or fluoridation habits.
Now, what health impacts can be measured now after 2 years, versus in earlier years?
Now, what health impacts can be measured now after 2 years, versus in earlier years?
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Resistance
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
Just imagine the outrage if a previously non-flouridated water source was surreptitiously flouridated.
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Resistance
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
That sword cuts both ways, people can buy water without fluoride to protect their feelings.
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A sad thing is my top hit for Alcohol Free Mouthwash is “Crest Pro-Health Advanced Mouthwash, Alcohol Free, Multi-Protection” advertising a “New Fresh Flavor” with associated fresh packaging. It still has Fluoride in it but the mention is only in the active ingredients instead of twice on the front label.
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Just out of curiosity, how much do I need to brush my teeth to make up for a loss like this, or more specifically, how much toothpaste do I need to eat like so much Elmer's Glue?
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I mean, yes but the Dr. Strangelove characterization was based on real political movements with a lot of power and money. It wasn't supposed to be a fantasy, it was supposed to be "if we take the loony bins who have a lot of power at their word, this is how bad it could be" Anti-fluoridation was big in the John Birch society types back in the 1950s, and was deemed a communist plot.
In the 70s through the 90s, it became a lot less culturally relevant, so to people who first saw Dr. Strangelove in the 80s and 90s, it might have been seen as a bit of absurdist satire, picking something outlandish to be paranoid about. And of course it is absurd, but people watching it in the 60s would have recognized it as something absurd that real people promoted.
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Good Christians should accept nothing less than crucifixion.
If it's the Right Way for Jesus to bring Redemption...
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Grew up out on well water. I'm the only one with most of my teeth. My siblings, my uncles, all have dentures. Hell My uncles had dentures by the time they were 25. I do recall for that I took fluoride tablets the dentist prescribed. But that was during a time Dad was fully employed. So maybe that small stretch helped my teeth.
Oddly enough after college, I didn't get to a dentist for.....a very long time. Lack of insurance, fear of the dentist, and when I finally did, 3 cavities but none so bad that I was in any pain.
Oddly enough after college, I didn't get to a dentist for.....a very long time. Lack of insurance, fear of the dentist, and when I finally did, 3 cavities but none so bad that I was in any pain.
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Oh I'm sure it would have a delayed reaction which the rubes would say "see it didn't hurt nothing"
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I was ready to chalk it up to Alabama Alabama-ing, but yeah. This shit oozes out into all the cracks and crevices.
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Actually, Ripper's character was implicitly an adherent of the John Birch society. Rabidly anti-Communist, conspiratorial, against the civil rights movement. Trump's father was a big fan. Trumpism and the JBS have big overlaps.
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The way I learned about dental hygiene, there are alcohol/antiseptic mouthwashes, and there are fluoride mouthwashes, and they're supposed to be used differently, so I don't think it makes sense to put them both in the same product.
Antiseptic mouthwash kills bacteria while you're swishing it around, and then you can rinse out the residue with water. But for a fluoride mouthwash, after spitting it out, you're supposed to leave the residue in your mouth and not eat or drink for about half an hour, so that your teeth have time to absorb enough fluoride.
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Of all the things I love about living in Portland, OR, one thing I utterly hate is how we’ve long been held captive to the anti-fluoride conspiracy theorists.
Whenever legislation comes up to fix that, the scare machines crank up their output to overdrive and convince enough rubes to vote against it… again, and again, and again…
Anecdotally, I’ve heard from countless people I know (as well as random folks online), about stories of folks who’ve moved here recently going to the dentist, only to have the dentist reply that ‘you must not have grown up here’ due to the fact they grew up in a place that fluoridated their and their teeth are jacked up as a result.
Seriously depressing the number of ways we’ve stepped backwards in public health in the last several decades thanks to a mixture of conspiracy theorists and lobbying from industries that seek to make money off of the the harms that come from said roll backs.
Whenever legislation comes up to fix that, the scare machines crank up their output to overdrive and convince enough rubes to vote against it… again, and again, and again…
Anecdotally, I’ve heard from countless people I know (as well as random folks online), about stories of folks who’ve moved here recently going to the dentist, only to have the dentist reply that ‘you must not have grown up here’ due to the fact they grew up in a place that fluoridated their and their teeth are jacked up as a result.
Seriously depressing the number of ways we’ve stepped backwards in public health in the last several decades thanks to a mixture of conspiracy theorists and lobbying from industries that seek to make money off of the the harms that come from said roll backs.
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We actually have the makings of a pretty amazing natural experiment here if someone can sample dental records before and after the change several years ago.
Which is what I would say if didn't already do this experiment in goddamn 1945.
The Fluoridation Trials were incredibly robust. They ran for 15 years and paired cities that introduced fluoride with a control city that did not introduce fluoride, usually a neighboring city with a similar water supply. They also included cities that had high levels of naturally-occurring fluoride already in their water because they also wanted to test if there was a difference between naturally occurring fluoridation vs treated water.
One control city Muskegon, who was paired with Grand Rapids, MI, withdrew from the study after only 6 years because the effects in Grand Rapids were so positive that the city didn't want to wait another 9 years for the study to end to introduce fluoride. That effectively ended the study for those two cities but they continued to gather dental records for both. And 9 years later in 1960 Muskegon had "caught up" to Grand Rapids in terms of dental health, despite starting so much later.
Good general overview:
https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/timeline-for-community-water-fluoridation/index.html
Which is what I would say if didn't already do this experiment in goddamn 1945.
The Fluoridation Trials were incredibly robust. They ran for 15 years and paired cities that introduced fluoride with a control city that did not introduce fluoride, usually a neighboring city with a similar water supply. They also included cities that had high levels of naturally-occurring fluoride already in their water because they also wanted to test if there was a difference between naturally occurring fluoridation vs treated water.
One control city Muskegon, who was paired with Grand Rapids, MI, withdrew from the study after only 6 years because the effects in Grand Rapids were so positive that the city didn't want to wait another 9 years for the study to end to introduce fluoride. That effectively ended the study for those two cities but they continued to gather dental records for both. And 9 years later in 1960 Muskegon had "caught up" to Grand Rapids in terms of dental health, despite starting so much later.
Good general overview:
https://www.cdc.gov/fluoridation/timeline-for-community-water-fluoridation/index.html
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I live in Alabama. It’s super corrupt. This sort of thing doesn’t even really surprise anyone, and the Fox-pilled majority eat it up.
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I thought mouthwash was insufficient in part because dietary fluoride is incorporated in teeth before they've fully erupted, and there's no way to compensate for that with surface-level exposure to it.
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I expect that most well water is not fluoridated and so that would be an easy check over long periods?
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Insomnomaniac
Wise, Aged Ars Veteran
Alabama, you say? Somebody tell them fluoride will help keep their smiles as white as possible.
Bet they start looking for the "on" switch then.
Bet they start looking for the "on" switch then.
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I'm curious if their financial records show purchases of fluoride for all the time that they weren't fluoridating.
*Edit: Grammar
*Edit: Grammar
Last edited:
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Checking in from North Alabama. Our local water utility has also announced they discontinued fluoridation with only 30 days notice.
No sign yet of a reduction in rates from all that money they saved.
No sign yet of a reduction in rates from all that money they saved.
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Considering all the ICE facilities that have been set up, I'm sure once Trump's war on humanity is over, we can find a place for all the MAGAs to be housed as they serve their prison terms.
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This type of thing usually leans to the right these days, but here in Portland fluoridation still fails every time it's put on the ballot. The anti-fluoride people buy a lot of ads along the lines of "keep Portland water pure, without additives", failing to mention that chemicals are already added to it. It's entirely deceptive.
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I imagine that, by this point, the fluoridation systems are either barely functional or outright non-functional due to neglect or even purposeful (and unlawful) dismantling.
Since the body was in violation of the law by not informing the public, I would hold the individuals that voted for the changes to be personally liable for the system reconstruction costs.
Further, if sufficient evidence is produced that an individual suffered dental harm as a result of this unannounced change, then those costs too would be distributed among the voting members to pay in restitution.
That is the only way to both achieve justice and to deter future unlawful and rogue acts.
Since the body was in violation of the law by not informing the public, I would hold the individuals that voted for the changes to be personally liable for the system reconstruction costs.
Further, if sufficient evidence is produced that an individual suffered dental harm as a result of this unannounced change, then those costs too would be distributed among the voting members to pay in restitution.
That is the only way to both achieve justice and to deter future unlawful and rogue acts.
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Yes, the US media is completely in the tank for conservatives.
Did I miss the months of wall to wall coverage about a certain presidential candidate's mental defects? Oh, wait ...
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I wonder if anyone from Alabama can answer a regional question/hypothesis for me:
I would suspect that fluoridation would be popular in Appalachia, and that the opposition to this is coming from wealthy lowlanders?
I would suspect that fluoridation would be popular in Appalachia, and that the opposition to this is coming from wealthy lowlanders?
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It's not hard, the League of Women Voters puts out handy guides you can find online and in most public libraries. And this both sides-ism has to stop.
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Someone here should learn to read and then buy a bottle of mouthwash and read what's on it.
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.. don’t worry Trump will fix it !
Deciding between two political parties too difficult for you ?
(even when the differences are spelled out in simplistic jingoistic slogans)
How about ONE party !
Tired of having to listen to all the both side-ism ??
How about all Fox on all the channels all the time!
( or you can always switch OAN when the infomercial are playing)
Tired of having to go back to the voting booths again and again every 2 or 4 years???
TRUMP WILL FIX IT!
“You won’t have to do it anymore. Four years, it will be fixed, it will be fine. You won’t have to vote anymore.. In four years, you won’t have to vote again. “ - DJT July 2024
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