WaPo: RFK Jr. wants fluoride out of drinking water. Oregon shows what's coming.

[Dennis Donovan]

WaPo - (archived: https://archive.ph/nZlPz ) RFK Jr. wants fluoride out of drinking water. Oregon shows what’s coming.

Fluoride is added to water to strengthen teeth and reduce cavities, but communities are abandoning the practice because of health concerns.



By Fenit Nirappil
November 20, 2024 at 6:00 a.m. EST

LEBANON, Ore. — Longtime denizens of this town of 20,000 recalled widespread tooth decay among children before the city council voted to add fluoride to the drinking water two decades ago. But a group of residents remained unconvinced.

They urged neighbors to do their own research, insisting it would reveal that the substance embraced for generations to improve oral health was actually a dangerous toxin that could harm their organs. They shared photos of corroded pipes and scarred arms they claimed were damaged by the acidic, concentrated form of fluoride. Was it worth $25,000 a year in tax dollars for the city to put fluoride in drinking water?

The skepticism prevailed on Election Day as Lebanon voters narrowly voted to remove fluoride from the water supply, mirroring how more Americans are starting to question a practice experts have lauded as one of the greatest public health achievements of the 20th century.



Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a longtime vaccine skeptic whom President-elect Donald Trump has chosen to be his Health and Human Services secretary, wants communities across the nation to follow Lebanon’s lead. Days before the election, Kennedy said the Trump administration on Inauguration Day would advise water districts to remove fluoride, which he referred to on X as “an industrial waste associated with arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease.” Despite medical organizations characterizing Kennedy’s assertions as unfounded, Trump quickly supported the idea in an NBC interview.

/snip

[PCIntern]

1. Well, shame I'm in retirement age because

I’d have a never-ending supply of work

When I was young, I practiced in Delaware County Pennsylvania, which is not fluoridated, and I would see horrors in one day that I did not see in Philadelphia county in years, not once.

[livetohike]

7. I grew up in the suburbs of Pgh. I remember lining up

for fluoride treatments at elementary school in the early ‘60’s. Then our town started adding fluoride to the water. Not sure what year.

[Buns_of_Fire]

2. Bob is gettung THAT close to ranting and raving about

medical advances sapping and impurifying our Precious Bodily Fluids.

[hatrack]

4. "Ice cream, Mandrake?! CHILDRENS' ICE CREAM??!!??!!"

[Omnipresent]

3. But fluoride helps kill "Brainworms"!

[eppur_se_muova]

5. What ignorant, alarmist garbage. OF COURSE the "acidic, concentrated" form causes damage -- it's an ACID, morons!

AND of course, it's concentrated ! Without the acidity and high concentration, you wouldn't see corrosion or burns (the burns are associated mostly with HYDROGEN FLUORIDE, not fluoride salts) ! That's like saying you shouldn't ingest baking soda (sodium hydrogen carbonate) because the ACID FORM -- carbonic acid -- corrodes marble buildings, given years to work. It's sort of like saying iron is dangerous because molten iron causes severe burns ! Absolutely unbelievable what some people regard as "evidence" and logic.

Fluoride may be FOUND in some industrial waste -- almost every element is, at some point -- but it's a naturally occurring chemical found in a few natural water sources, which is what led to the discovery of the benefits of low doses of fluoride, and some of the minor complications due to higher concentrations. More severe toxic effects are rarely encountered from natural sources in the US, due to the mostly low concentrations found here. Fluoride forms a virtually insoluble mineral solid with calcium ion, which is where most of the fluoride on Earth resides. That keeps it out of most natural waters, since calcium ion is ubiquitous in nature. Municipal water supplies test for natural fluoride, but those who rely on well water must take their own precautions. In areas where groundwater percolates through volcanic rocks, fluoride levels may be dangerously elevated -- apparently this is very common in some parts of India and China, where people rely heavily on untreated, or poorly treated, groundwater. Volcanoes are responsible for much of the soluble fluoride on the surface of the Earth; fresh eruptions or outflows can raise fluoride concentration to unhealthy levels, but older volcanic formations are likely to be depleted in fluoride through erosion and percolation. Fortunately, we're not Iceland.

The old saying "the dose makes the poison" isn't always all that true, but it certainly is with fluoride. It takes less than 1 ppm (part per million) of fluoride to protect teeth, but several ppm can cause mottling of teeth. Still higher doses cause more serious problems, but unless you work in a chemical plant or live downwind from an aluminum smelter, it's excruciatingly unlikely that you will EVER encounter higher concentration of fluoride than found in treated municipal water supplies. Saying fluoride is "associated with" so many conditions is true weasel language -- HIGH DOSES can certainly contribute to all those conditions, but 0.7 ppm isn't going to do it.

Ironically, the benefits of fluoride do not appear to have any evolutionary basis: there appears to be no process of natural selection which results in efficient use of fluoride -- it just happens, by coincidence, to have a beneficial interaction with hydroxyapatite, the main mineral component of teeth. Animals with no fluoride in their diet or water survive without it, but then most die of other causes long before poor dental health could ever do them in, so there's little to no evolutionary pressure on any adaptive mechanism to better deal with it. Besides, there's not enough fluoride available in most environments for any adaptation to matter. Humans discovered the benefits of fluoride in large part because we live so damned long when we use our tools and organizational skills to isolate ourselves from Nature, and because we enjoy such a high standard of living relative to the wild that we can notice otherwise minor things like a little tooth decay. Unfortunately, some in our society insist believing that everything natural, including tooth decay, is just "the way God intended it", and we shouldn't try to improve on it even when we know damned well how to do so. Such people should avoid going to doctors and dentists, and refuse aid from paramedics if they are in an accident; to do so would violate God's will.

[Iggo]

6. I wonder what he thinks about the nitroglycerin pills I carry around every day.

[PCIntern]

8. You're a terrorist threat..

Off to ze camps.

[Johnny2X2X]

9. This will be an absolute disaster.

It's a post truth world we're living in. People cannot tell reality anymore. I've seen the anti fluoride materials, they're garbage and rely on readers not reading things thoroughly. Same with 5G nonsense. Our culture has been taken over by the "do your own research" mantra when they aren't really talking about actual "research", they're talking about reading a few social media posts and one faux article.

Healthy teeth is a huge factor towards overall health. Fluoride in our water has been a godsend for people and now that's possibly going away, probably to the poorest populations first. I don't even know anymore.

[Blue_Tires]

11. Post-truth will be Donnie's true legacy to the world

[Sneederbunk]

10. So General Jack D. Ripper was right?