this post was submitted on 02 Mar 2025
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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.
top 50 comments
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[–] njm1314 1 points 11 minutes ago

Somewhere there's a cabal of doctors sitting around a table in a dark and shadowy room cackling madly

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 hour ago

Slaps dental premiums this baby is going places!

[–] Naevermix 13 points 4 hours ago* (last edited 4 hours ago)

The tooth fairy economy is about to face an inflation crisis.

[–] [email protected] 22 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

Want job security? Become a dentist

[–] anon_8675309 -1 points 2 hours ago (1 children)

Get some baking soda toothpaste and some fluoride rinse and you’ll be okay.

[–] Argonne 3 points 2 hours ago

What's the point of baking soda toothpaste if you're going to use fluoride rinse anyway

[–] indomara 35 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

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!

[–] [email protected] 15 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

Yes but what about all the autism. Or mind controlling. Or whatever the hell it is that fluoride is evil for?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 2 hours ago

Conservatives are concerned that the miniscule chance of fluoride reducing children's IQ is enough to cause children to grow up to be conservatives.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 6 hours ago (1 children)

Makes you listen to pop music.

[–] BigBrainBrett2517 0 points 3 hours ago
[–] SpiceDealer 39 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Oh for fuck's sake, how many times does this bullshit have to be debunked?!

Here's a paper that puts this nonsense to rest.

And if that's too "elitist" for you here's not one but two Youtube videos.

[–] [email protected] 13 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

People are going to be whining about cavities, in fact people who went flouride free toothpaste and complained they got cavities and blamed in on the effectiveness of the toothpaste

[–] douglasg14b 5 points 4 hours ago

It's because critical thinking is a dead skill in this country.

We have essentially trained an entire generation to not rely on critical thinking skills anymore. And apparently in the process of graduating a second generation of the same.

It is the plot of Idiocracy. Where the people don't even understand the things that affect them on a day-to-day basis they just know that "it's what plants crave"

[–] Raiderkev 1 points 7 hours ago
[–] [email protected] 4 points 12 hours ago

To finally stop the conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

[–] cley_faye 7 points 14 hours ago (1 children)

Sadly, this is unlikely to lead to the death of people, so it won't be reverted in a week, but have long lasting effects. I guess it's not a problem as long as there's a decent health infrastructure to hold up the increased issues, right?

[–] DarrinBrunner 3 points 3 hours ago

Uh, yeah. About that last part...

[–] [email protected] 173 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Dental issues increased in Calgary and they voted to put it back.

[–] [email protected] 87 points 1 day ago (2 children)

This is the way. The idiots have been coddled for generations. They need to have the experience of their teeth rotting out for themselves.

[–] [email protected] 32 points 22 hours ago (2 children)

And what about the other 49% they dragged down with them? You've also just made everyone's dental insurance 10x more expensive. Thanks!

[–] indomara 4 points 13 hours ago (3 children)

For anyone in a state without fluoridated water, you can get fluoride drops to put in your/your children's water.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 11 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Why not just brush their teeth? I'm pretty sure fluoridated toothpaste is much easier to come by than fluoride drops.

[–] Bahnd 3 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

We're comparing toothpaste to fluoride drops, not fluoridated tap water.

[–] Bahnd 1 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 2 hours ago) (1 children)

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.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

We're not comparing with fluoridated tap water because that's not something you can control as an individual. At most, you can put pressure on your city to add it in. Until that happens, and even after that happens, you still need to put in work to care for your own teeth. It's very unhelpful to tell someone living in a city with unfluoridated tap water to just choose fluoridated tap water. They do not have that choice.

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[–] [email protected] 29 points 20 hours ago

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.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Shit; the serial killer sympathizers, racist, cousin fuckers, are about to add this to the list

Sorry to all my brits, I know this hits home.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 17 hours ago (1 children)

To be fair, you can have more cavities and still not eat rocks

[–] pyre 7 points 14 hours ago

you underestimate how fragile teeth can be

[–] [email protected] 101 points 1 day ago (4 children)

next up (unless it happened first): no more data collection or research about statewide dental health

[–] DarrinBrunner 1 points 3 hours ago

"Utah now has zero reported cavities! We were right to ban fluoride."

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[–] [email protected] 0 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (2 children)

Uh, here in Oregon it's already been banned for a long time. This headline is sus.

[–] [email protected] 23 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago) (1 children)

The difference is in verbiage. Oregon doesn't require it, but Oregon also doesn't ban it and leaves it up to municipalities. Utah is trying to actively force municipalities to not be allowed to use it.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 6 hours ago

Ah makes sense.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

It isn't banned in Oregon. Many communities have simply decided not to do it. Hillsboro recently voted to stop fluoridating their water, for example.

This would be the first time an entire state has literally banned the practice.

And it's stupid. There are maps of the US that show which states have the lowest/highest rates of dental caries. The states with the lowest rates just happen to have mandatory water fluoridation, and the states with the lowest rates of fluoridation all have the worst dental health. Meanwhile there's zero evidence that drinking fluoridated water has negative health effects.

[–] goombakid 2 points 3 hours ago

Wanna add that Columbia County has fluorinated and chlorinated water.

[–] [email protected] -2 points 6 hours ago

Ah gotcha. And yeah I agree it's dumb to not fluoridate our water but toothpaste companies need to be able to upcharge on extra fluoride toothpaste and dentists need work right? /s

[–] [email protected] 12 points 18 hours ago

I've seen this parks and rec episode

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