We have all heard the saying too much of anything is a bad thing. Well that is the case when it comes to the issue of drinking water that contains
fluoride ion in it. Fluoride has been proven to reduce cavities in children, and dentists have stated that having small amounts of fluoride in water only helps strengthen children's teeth against decay. However, it has been found that certain health problems have developed as people continue to drink fluoride containing water, including cancer. Because of the health problems that have been identified to be caused by fluoride in drinking water many people have started campaigns against having fluoride added to drinking water, stating that they already get the needed amount of fluoride from toothpaste and the additional fluoride they are getting from drinking water is doing more harm than good.
I think one issue with adding fluoride to our water supply is that it makes it difficult to regulate the "dosage" that everyone receives. That being said, I'm not overly concerned that our government is trying to poison us. However some people are, and there are a lot of conspiracy theories regarding fluoride in water. The fluoride predominantly is made as a phosphate fertilizer byproduct, and people thus say that it's a toxic waste that's added to water.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I found an interesting comparison online (on a completely biased blog post) between fluoride addition in water and Hitler using fluoride as a poison in concentration camps.
I think it's alarming that anything should be added to our water for our health without a unanimous vote from the scientific community. But reiterating what Sabrina said - I think it's a bit of an overstep to assert that our government is trying to poison us with this addition. Government has always been pretty bad at trying to do things that are good for us! No conspiracy there!
ReplyDeleteIt seems like the fluoride contend is determined by state. Here is a website that debriefs the different regulations for adding fluoride to water: http://www.fluoridealert.org/mandatory.html
ReplyDeleteOnly 12 states have laws that mandate statewide fluorination of the water!