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It is a scenario playing out nationwide. From Oregon to Pennsylvania, hundreds of communities have in recent years either stopped adding fluoride to their water supplies or voted to prevent its addition. Supporters of such bans argue that people should be given the freedom of choice. The broad availability of over-the-counter dental products containing the mineral makes it no longer necessary to add to public water supplies, they say. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says that while store-bought products reduce tooth decay, the greatest protection comes when they are used in combination with water fluoridation.
The outcome of an ongoing federal case in California could force the Environmental Protection Agency to create a rule regulating or banning the use of fluoride in drinking water nationwide. In the meantime, the trend is raising alarm bells for public health researchers who worry that, much like vaccines, fluoride may have become a victim of its own success.
The CDC maintains that community water fluoridation is not only safe and effective but also yields significant cost savings in dental treatment. Public health officials say removing fluoride could be particularly harmful to low-income families — for whom drinking water may be the only source of preventive dental care.
“If you have to go out and get care on your own, it’s a whole different ballgame,” said Myron Allukian Jr., a dentist and past president of the American Public Health Association. Millions of people have lived with fluoridated water for years, “and we’ve had no major health problems,” he said. “It’s much easier to prevent a disease than to treat it.”
According to the anti-fluoride group Fluoride Action Network, since 2010, over 240 communities around the world have removed fluoride from their drinking water or decided not to add it.
LOL! I’ve been drinking distilled water primarily for 25 years! You can order it for your water cooler from Sparklett’s.
Sorry, you’re right, I was a bit… hyperbolic. You can drink it every day without problems since 1) it’s not as pure as we like to think it is and 2) you can easily get all your minerals and stuff from your food.
The danger is if you decide to chug a bunch of water for one reason or another. It’s easier to give yourself water intoxication with distilled water, essentially because the osmotic pressure is so much higher relative to the inside of your cells. This isn’t actually a problem most people have to worry about, water intoxication is pretty rare, but I’m used to thinking in terms of hardcore athletes. It would be foolish to drink only distilled water for a marathon, for example.
That all sounds about right, appreciate your candor.
After 25 years, just this last year I started getting rib cramps which I suspect are a mineral (electrolyte) deficiency caused by distilled water (+ bad diet of UPF), so it’s not necessarily completely without problems if your diet sucks. I started taking a mineral supplement and the cramps went away.
You drink distilled water, which causes you issues you have to remedy by taking additional supplements.
Clearly your stance is not viable for general populations. You sound like people that don’t want to allow blood transfusions because it makes them feel icky and fringe cases exist of it going poorly.
Did I say distilled water should be what the general population drinks? Did I say we should replace tap water with distilled water?
My mineral deficiency is due to a bad diet of primarily ultra-processed food and maybe exacerbated by nearly 3 decades of distilled water consumption. Oh, and it was cramps, fluoride causes brain damage.
Someone who gives themselves mineral deficiencies should absolutely not be listened to when it comes to general public health issues lol
Fluoride in the doses allowed in water doesn’t cause brain damage, you sound like an anti-vaxxer.
So you’re making 100% perfect health choices and we should listen to you?
By drinking distilled water I’ve avoided lots of pollutants including fluoride.
And how do you know what doses people are getting?
Lol just like an anti-vaxxer. Where’s your evidence of water having dangerous doses exceeding regulations or what exceeding the levels the utility says they use? Bonus points if you’re able to find levels that exceed what’s actually safe for humans.
Why should I have to provide evidence of dangerous doses of drugs in my tap water. Don’t add drugs to tap water.