The Food and Drug Administration on Tuesday announced it will begin the process of pulling prescription fluoride drops and tablets for children off the market. The supplements are usually given to kids at high risk for cavities.
The federal government and some state legislatures are increasingly drawing attention to what they claim are the risks associated with fluoride, a mineral that’s been used for decades in community water systems, toothpastes and mouth rinses to prevent tooth decay.
Dentists fiercely contest the notion that the harms of fluoride outweigh the benefits.
This is even more nuts than removing fluoride from municipal water systems. At least with that, parents who believe the science that their kids’ teeth will be better off with targeted fluoride treatment can buy the drops and tablets, and those who are afraid for some reason can choose to just not use it.
This is just trying to ban access to fluoride entirely, despite research showing its benefits and the distinct lack of significant harm. Madness.
What next, are they going to criminalize sending fluoride drops/pills through the mail, like mifepristone?
Calgary, AB Canada removed fluoride and a decade later added it back after seeing the effects of its absence.
Well yeah. These are extremists, absolutists, radicals. Their dogma must be simple and without exceptions. If they admit even one scenario where fluoride has more benefits than deficits, their whole ideology and worldview crumbles. Nuance is an existential threat.
Narcissism as a fascist dictatorship of a whole country.
The mechanisms of narcissism and of cults are remarkably similar.
They just banned it in Florida, with Meatball DeSatan calling it “forced medication,” and that if parents want their kids to have fluoride, they can give it to them. Now they want to ban those products, too.
So now we’re just going to reconfigure our entire society to indulge the fantasies of conspiracy theory weirdos?
Until Americans get off their couch and do something, yes.
I kinda buy the “forced medication” argument, but rather than removing the municipal water requirement, I think the municipality should provide water filters for those that want to opt-out.
I think the evidence is fairly clear that, in this case, opt-in should be the default as it protects VASTLY more than it harms.
Nah, I’m perfectly ok with “forced medication” when the societal benefit vastly outweighs the side effects. Mandatory vaccination, nutritionally supplemented food for children to aid in development, minor things like fluoride that reduce healthcare costs and promote long-term health, bring it on.
Giving credence to unsupported “skepticism” undermines the necessary faith in public infrastructure. Faith is a careful word choice here. I don’t expect the average person to really understand the benefits and chemistry and p-values, as much as I’d like them to. Some things just need doing because you trust the authority saying so. (And right now there are precious few American authorities worthy of trust.)
I can’t agree. Bodily autonomy isn’t a compromise position for me, and I think “faith” is a vice, not a virtue.
It’s not a compromise it’s the cost of a functioning society. Measles. Smallpox. Polio. Whooping cough. There are extremely real costs to “personal choice” in the face of disease. Those costs are quite often passed on to children. Rickets. Fetal alcohol syndrome. I don’t think parents should be free to make harmful choices for their offspring.
Faith is the compromise. I wish that every single adult had the education, interest, and wherewithal to make ethical and well-informed decisions about themself and their dependents but that’s not the world we live in.
Bodily autonomy doesn’t allow parents to make choices for children. It does allow people to make choices for themselves. Nice try at shifting those goalposts, tho.
The context of this thread is healthcare for children.
No reason to reconfigure anything. They have droves of people willingly agreeing to and gobbling this shit up. Our society is fundamentally broken
You could make a great movie about the fluoride prohibition of the 2020s.
[Opening shot: A dark, rain-slicked cityscape. Neon signs flicker. A child’s toothbrush lies abandoned in a puddle.]
Narrator (gravelly voice): In a world where fluoride is forbidden…
[Cut to a sleek black SUV speeding through a checkpoint. Inside, a woman in a lab coat loads a capsule into a hidden compartment behind a false toothpaste tube.]
Narrator: …one syndicate dares to keep the smiles alive.
[Cue dramatic music. A warehouse door slams open. Inside: crates of fluoride tablets, glowing faintly blue. Armed guards in dental scrubs patrol the perimeter.]
Agent Plaque (sternly): “They’re dosing kids in back-alley clinics. We need to shut them down—permanently.”
[Montage: high-speed chases through suburban cul-de-sacs, a drone crashing into a jungle gym, a slow-motion shot of a fluoride pill flying through the air and landing in a glass of water.]
The Molar (smirking): “You can take the fluoride out of the pharmacies… but you can’t take the sparkle out of the people.”
[Cue epic music drop. Explosions. A toothbrush sword fight. A child grinning with unnaturally white teeth.]
Narrator: This summer… the fight for dental freedom begins.
FLUORIDE WARS: THE SPARKLE SYNDICATE
Coming soon to a theater near you. Brush responsibly.