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.
Why not just brush their teeth? I’m pretty sure fluoridated toothpaste is much easier to come by than fluoride drops.
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.
We’re comparing toothpaste to fluoride drops, not fluoridated tap water.
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.
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.