Donald Trump said Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s proposal to remove fluoride from the U.S. water systems "sounds okay" to him, raising alarms for public health.
  • Former President Donald Trump said that Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s proposal to remove fluoride from the U.S. water systems “sounds okay” to him.
  • Kennedy, who is poised to play a health policy role in a potential Trump administration, recently wrote, “The Trump White House will advise all U.S​. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.”
  • According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “the safety and benefits of fluoride are well documented and have been reviewed comprehensively by several scientific and public health organizations.”
    • kinkles
      79·
      30 days ago

      I’ll take the:

      According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, “the safety and benefits of fluoride are well documented and have been reviewed comprehensively by several scientific and public health organizations.”

      …over your:

      fluoride only helps out when used topically (like in toothpaste). Drinking it may actually weaken your bones, supposedly.

      • Rutty
        28·
        30 days ago

        This is a good take, I liken it to iodine in salt.

        However, I worry about the effects of fluoride in groundwater. I don’t know if I should be too concerned about that per se, but I hear some plants hate it and that and it says in the ground for like forever.

      • forrgott@lemm.ee
        562·
        30 days ago

        You have anything says that ingesting or actually helps? That’s the part I find kinda weird, and that quote doesn’t address that specific issue. Using it on the surface of your teeth is shown to be helpful, I get that; but drinking it is a whole different ballgame… Besides, I thought the fluoride in the toothpaste was the reason you’re not supposed to swallow?

        • shackled@lemm.ee
          41·
          30 days ago

          You can always use examine.com to start base level research on most substances. It tries to cover the most common questions and link the research papers most relevant to that question if available. Excerpt below, but I recommend scrolling through the whole page. It also discusses maximum safe daily levels, toxic levels, and symptoms when you exceed those levels.

          Fluoride (from drinking water, supplements, tea, or dental products) is absorbed by the small intestine, and about half is excreted via the kidneys. Absorbed fluoride in the blood can bind with apatite in bone and teeth, becoming fluorapatite. Blood and bone concentrations of fluoride are in equilibrium and are impacted by bone remodeling activity and age.

        • g0nz0li0@lemmy.world
          21·
          30 days ago

          Casually states without evidence that fluoride was only introduced to keep people docile, then demands citations on rebuttals. Looks like we got ourselves a full blown case of the MAGA.

            • g0nz0li0@lemmy.world
              111·
              30 days ago

              Are you so singularly interested in proving you are right that you don’t bother to read or try to genuinely comprehend what other people write when they are calling you out for your bad behaviour?

              The source you posted doesn’t mention anything to support your statement about fluoride originally being used to test if it could keep the working class docile. The fact remains that you are asking others to source themselves despite being unwilling, unable, or disinterested in doing so yourself.

              Still I am glad you’re voting for Harris 🙂

        • kinkles
          17·
          30 days ago

          That’s a fair question. I Googled around and arrived at a couple different gov health websites (National Institutes of Health, Cleveland Clinic) which mention that, while high levels of fluoride can be harmful, the amount put into the US drinking supply doesn’t approach that threshold.

        • inkrifle@lemmy.world
          141·
          30 days ago

          Fluoride, when swallowed, can be distributed throughout the body, which includes being in the saliva that covers the teeth. Nevertheless, fluoridated water has been shown with more than enough evidence to improve the quality of teeth in humans compared to its risks (if any) and removing it in water will reduce those benefits.

          • forrgott@lemm.ee
            125·
            30 days ago

            I’ll go ahead and press x to doubt. First, no, it absolutely will not go everywhere in your body. Chemistry/biology doesn’t work like that. Second, the amount of fluoride you’d have to ingest to still have an effective amount in your saliva would be well past the safe limit (by the way, only poisons need to have a safe limit; aka fluoride is not good for you). Finally, it’s in our toothpaste, we don’t actually need any more than that.

            Putting it in our water has no benefits. Really. But you do you, man.

        • ABCDE@lemmy.world
          351·
          30 days ago

          Because you came out with baseless conjecture which was debunked decades ago which you could have educated yourself about at any time, hiding behind “may” and whatever other nonsense you thought would make you sound reasonable.

            • Djtecha@lemm.ee
              21·
              30 days ago

              You made a claim without any backing evidence. If people keep telling you to fuck off and you keep wondering why, well here’s someone telling you why.

            • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
              11·
              30 days ago

              Meanwhile, in communities where fluoride has already been removed from the water…

              If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. In that simple statement is the key to science. It doesn’t make any difference how beautiful your guess is, it doesn’t matter how smart you are who made the guess, or what his name is … If it disagrees with experiment, it’s wrong. That’s all there is to it.

              -Richard Feynman

                • Catoblepas@lemmy.blahaj.zone
                  12·
                  30 days ago

                  Very rude of that community to not conform to what you wanted them to do instead of just experiencing the effects of unfluoridated tap water, smh.

                  If you’re going to nitpick their methodology I’m sure you won’t mind sharing your own published studies on the matter, right? TIA.

                  • forrgott@lemm.ee
                    113·
                    30 days ago

                    Eh, this was fun, but I’m getting bored. 😉 I’m kidding. However, that’s less a study and more a statistical analysis. One that failed to correct for any known issues that might cause unexpected results. I did find an interesting link earlier, I might try checking some of their sources. If I find anything interesting, well… I’ll have forgotten about this, so maybe I’ll update, maybe not! 😝

    • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
      16·
      30 days ago

      The reason why you’re being downvoted is because you’ve provided some outlandish claims without any source.

      I honestly remember my parent’s talking about these exact things in the 80s. It’s absurd to claim that in the interceding decades no reputable science has supported these claims.

      Science is sometimes wrong, and from time to time we have to improve our understanding of things, but great claims require great evidence.

        • fine_sandy_bottom@lemmy.federate.cc
          8·
          29 days ago

          I’m not suggesting that you care about down votes, but you seem to think the down votes imply people are angry or have “lost their minds” whatever that means.

        • orgrinrt@lemmy.world
          61·
          30 days ago

          Well, you actually begin with a good example of another outlandish claim. They are right? I don’t suppose you can back that up? If not, that’s just an unbacked claim. Outlandish, of course, is subjective, but I’d say it sure is just that.

          The one you claim is outlandish, is, indeed, outlandish. I agree with your point that this is what the ruling class would do, if we remove this thought experiment from any context and real-life bounds. They 100% would. If they knew they’d get away with it.

          I don’t believe they would, in reality, though, get away with it.

          So while that point is logical in a detached sense, it still is as outlandish as everything else.

          Edit: What’s up with this .ee instance by the way? Has anyone else noticed that a lot of commenters and comments like this happen to be from there? Contrarians, completely weird takes, oddly common “I’m a leftist, BUT…” comments, and a lot of third party voters and enthusiasts. I’ve noted it earlier but this finally made it hit. Does anyone know some context that they’d have time and energy to share?

    • resin85@lemmy.caEnglish
      16·
      30 days ago

      https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9542152/

      In summary, we observed significant and consistent differences in dental caries experience in the primary dentition between Grade 2 children in Calgary (fluoridation cessation) and Edmonton (still fluoridated), Canada, 7‐8 years following cessation in Calgary. Our findings are consistent with an adverse impact of fluoridation cessation on children’s dental health in Calgary, and point to the need for universally, publicly funded prevention activities including, but not limited to fluoridation.