Very recently, 77 Nobel laureates signed a letter to US President Donald Trump, urging him to reconsider Robert F Kennedy's (now one of the most famous critics of water fluoridation in the US) candidacy for Secretary of Health and Human Services due to the utter "lack of credentials."
There are two crucial points of the world scientific community regarding RFK:
- He has no experience in medicine, science, or management, so RFK in that position would be as efficient as a miner in the bakery.
- Kennedy is notorious for the long experience of spreading conspiratorial anti-scientific theories. For instance, he has a strong anti-vax position in questions of crucial life-saving vaccines that can prevent measles and polio.
Another RFK's favorite horror tale – is a theory about "hazardous" fluoride in the drinking water that allegedly causes "arthritis, bone fractures, bone cancer, IQ loss, neurodevelopmental disorders, and thyroid disease."
It's unclear whether the Nobel laureates' letter will succeed, but we have an example of what could happen if it doesn't.
What If?..
The Times published an article about Calgary – a city in Canada with about 1.4 million citizens. In 2011, city counselors voted to stop water fluoridation due to the expense of this practice. After that, numerous local studies showed a significant increase in cases of caries in children. Additionally, the number of children who received intravenous antibiotics to cure dental infections increased seven times in 2018 compared to 2011.
In 2021, during a local referendum, voters decided to return to fluoridation practice. This is not a single case of implementing water fluoridation in developed countries; for instance, recently, the British Dental Association reported that they plan to introduce this practice in some UK Regions that have problems with dental health.
Still, The Times article also notes that the connection between tooth decay and fluoride is sometimes not clear-cut. Thus, Denmark and Belgium, which do not add fluoride to drinking water, have a better situation with national dental health than the US, where fluoridation is (at least still) widespread.
Unnecessary Alarmism
All speculations around water fluoridation being harmless, generally, are based on conspiracy and paranoia. Although large amounts of fluoride exposure may lead to some health consequences, according to a very limited group of studies, the benefits for dental health of the recommended fluoride amount in drinking water (0.7 milligrams per liter) are undeniable.
We have already described the proven importance of fluoride for dental health in previous articles (check them below the text!), and for now, it's essential to recall historical cases of effective fluoride usage:
- Michigan was the first city in the world to implement water fluoridation practices in 1945 due to low natural levels of fluoride in the water. After 11 years, tooth cavity cases in children decreased by 60%.
- Australia started fluoridation in 1953, and today, more than 90% of the citizens consume the chemical in drinking water. According to studies, this decision reduced dental caries in children by 26-44%
It's fair to remember children's fluorosis – a condition that often becomes a point of special alarm between "fluoride opposition." However, these concerns are usually overblown because, commonly, this condition only affects tooth enamel, creating harmless white spots on it. Severe cases, in turn, are rare in areas with recognized safe levels of fluoride in water.
In fact...
... We have plenty of evidence-based conclusions about fluoride's effectiveness against a few questionable papers regarding its effect on children's IQ and a bunch of conspiracy theories from Robert F Kennedy and his colleagues in worldwide "fluoride" opposition.
While we expect new insights from this science vs pseudoscientific alarmism confrontation, check the latest articles about this topic.
