Oddbean new post about login | logout Ok, assuming you are correct in what you claim, excuses for why we don't have evidence supporting your position is not evidence for your position. That's just faulty reasoning, and making epistemological leaps for the sake of arriving at a conclusion you prefer.
It may be faulty scientifically, but the point remains that government has no business deciding that for an individual who can indeed just buy rinses with fluoride in them
That's a fair argument, but that's not the argument that was being made at the time I wrote this. I think informed consent is the strongest and most valid argument against the flouridation of tap water, and it's a point that certainly should be debated.
The problem is that the concept of informed co sent and fluoridation of tapwater are mutually exclusive. If you go to the slippery slope of this or that outways informed consent, then you open up a whole can of worms were government get's to decide what's good for you.
In general, I agree. But water flouridation has been official US policy since 1951, and it hasn't led to any slippery slope. I don't think it's reasonable to believe the government is all of a sudden going to start adding random shit to the water premised on the addition of flouride.
The bit about people being able to purchase flouride rinse is troubling territory because not everyone, and not every family has the funds to commit to a longterm, purchased régimen of flouride rinse. That gets into the issue of the benefits of flouride only being attainable by those with means. And the absence of flouride is associated with an elevated need for dental care. And who is least able to afford extra dental care? The very people who may be unable to afford flouride rinse. So it creates a class division in which the people who need flouride the most due to limited resources are the people who will be subject to dental care they cannot afford due to the lack of flouridation in the water. So, I think there's this socioeconomic angle that shouldn't be waved away when considering the issue in its totality.