Skepticism, Science & Pseudoscience
In reply to the discussion: Youtube scientist C0nc0rdance addresses the pseudo-science against flouridation of drinking water. [View all]Boston_Chemist
(256 posts)You can be as rhetorically skeptical as you please, no one will ever stop you from concatenating words in whatever way you please. But you have not, and will not, address the issue of uncontrollability of the dosage of fluoride in municipal water supplies. As I said, mixing is a tricky business, and perhaps you can expound for whomever is reading this as to how uniform mixing is achieved at the city level. Perhaps you can even teach me, but I doubt that very much.
And, while you are at it, could you also explain to all interested as to how the fact that different people are affected differently by the same dosage? There are millions of people exposed to a theoretically uniform concentration of F(-) in the supply (and I do mean theoretically), and each has a somewhat unique sensitivity to this drug.
Another issue, also related to concentration, is that of the non-uniformity of the water supply system, in the regions that are between the households, and the main water reservoirs (where fluoridation occurs). This, like each person's sensitivity, has not been controlled for due to its nearly unsurmountable complexity.
I suppose you can't scramble an omelet without also breaking a few eggs:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_fluorosis
And, from a CDC study on the topic (citation taken from the wiki article):
http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5403a1.htm
"Enamel Fluorosis
Very mild or greater enamel fluorosis was observed in 23% of persons aged 6--39 years (Table 23, Figure 18). The prevalence of fluorosis was lowest among persons aged 20--39 years (Figure 18). Non-Hispanic blacks had higher proportions of very mild and mild fluorosis than did non-Hispanic white participants (Figure 19). Posterior teeth were more affected by enamel fluorosis than were anterior teeth (Figure 20). A nine percentage point increase in the prevalence of very mild or greater fluorosis was observed among children and adolescents aged 6--19 years when data from 1999--2002 were compared with those from the NIDR 1986--1987 survey of school children (from 22.8% in 1986--1987 to 32% in 1999--2002) (18). "