Fluoridation

Long ago, to simplify my choices, I decided I would support the political candidates and causes that did the least harm to ordinary people like me. Science said that fluoridation helped people without much money, so I supported it. The main opponent of fluoridated water was the John Birch Society (which later morphed into the Koch Brothers/ Tea Party). The Birchers also told us that Eisenhower was a Communist. Today the anti-fluoridation movement  comes from that part of the political circle where the crackpot right melts into the paranoid left, the segment where everyone suffers from fourth-stage science denial.

In any case, the anti-fluoridation movement has reached my town, a town that lightly fluoridates its water to prevent cavities in poor children and adults who lack access to dental care. In the United States about 200 million people use fluoridated water and many have been using it for 60 years. That's a solid test, and today fluoridation is endorsed by the National Cancer Institute, the World Health Organization, the Surgeon General, the American Dental Association, and my wife, who took up using fluoride when young and has not had a cavity since. Fluoridation is resisted by people who believe they know more than medical history, more than the National Cancer Institute, the World Health Organization, etc.  And these deluded people have put fluoridation up to a public vote, which is like holding a vote to determine if the sky is blue.

The science behind fluoridation has been settled for decades, but there will always be John Birchers and other paranoids who argue otherwise. For me it comes down to this. If you care about people and their pain and find world science credible, then opposing fluoridated water does not make sense. Scientists tell us that if fluoridation in our town is stopped, cavities will increase among poor children by as much as 30%.  And that will happen to them no matter what ideology we preach.