Rutland resident Jack Crowther has been a longtime critic.

“You’re putting a drug, a medicine, in our water to treat tooth decay without the informed consent of the people,” Crowther said.

“Mandrake, have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water?” strangelove-wow


“THEY’RE PUTTING MEDICINE IN THE WATER!” frothingfash


Also related, a Richmond, VT waterworks employee secretly lowered fluoride levels in the town’s drinking supply for a decade.

EDIT: I should’ve updated this a month ago, but the town voted to keep fluoride.

  • SorosFootSoldier [he/him, they/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    Fluoride? Cute. We were talking about that in the 90’s. REAL conspiracy heads know they’re putting MICROCHIPS in the water, nanometer size so you slurp them right up. The only water that’s safe is water that’s been sitting for at least a good week or two, you want it brown with the little squirmy things swimming in it, drink that raw water white man.

  • anarchoilluminati [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    4 months ago

    I only recently watched Dr. Strangelove for the first time a couple of years ago and I laughed my ass off when he started ranting about how Commies don’t drink water as I sat there drinking whisky. Such a great movie.

    Love water though.

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]@hexbear.net
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    Unlimited actual literal genocide, ie line up every fucking one of them who has ever existed and dubois-finger-guns every fucking one of them, to the John Birch Society.

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    manhattan it is 1960, the CHUDS are braying for more cavities from their sodie pop

    manhattan it is 1990, the CHUDS are braying for more cavities from their sodie pop

    manhattan it is 2024, the CHUDS are braying for more cavities from their sodie pop

    is this shit astroturfed by fucking dentist trade comissions or some shit? these people weren’t fucking alive when this decision was first made. you’re big and strong! fluoride didn’t ruin you!

  • Evilphd666 [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    Its an element not a “medicine”. Its found naturally already in the water.

    Vermont water system fluoride

    5 systems already have >0.60 ppm naturally.

    Even more private well systems naturally have over 2.00ppm which is the MCL concern level and reccomend expensive reverse osmosis treatment to remove the naturally high levels of “medicine”.

    Why test a private water supply?

    There are geographic areas in Vermont where the naturally occurring fluoride level in the groundwater exceeds the recommended guideline for fluoride of 2.0 parts per million (ppm). The Health Department recommends a reverse osmosis water filtration system to reduce fluoride exposure to a level less than 2.0 ppm in private water supplies that exceed that level.

    It is very important that prescriptions are NOT written for children who may already be receiving high levels of naturally fluoridated water. The only way to know for sure is to test the well water for its level of natural fluoride BEFORE prescriptions for supplements are written.

    Bit idea -

    Let’s call it elemental sicko-hexbear-woke. We are putting the WOKE in the water and turning people WOKE so Joe Biden will win again.

    • oregoncom [he/him]@hexbear.net
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      So you know that fluorosis is something you can get with too much exposure from just environmental sources, and yet you still want everyone to get an uncontrolled dose of it from the tap water. What do you expect people with fluorosis to do, only drink/bathe in distilled water? What do you expect people who need more fluoride do? Start chugging tap water until they get enough?

      Isn’t it better to just it in the toothpaste so everyone gets exactly the amount they need.

        • oregoncom [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          It makes all of your bones brittle and joints arthritic. if you wann dunk on me just dunk on me, don’t make fun of people suffering from severe illnesses.

          • Thordros [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            Skeletal and dental fluorosis are two very different things. You’re describing what happens when you drink contaminated groundwater, or work in certain industries without proper PPE. Properly treated fluoridated water can cause dental fluorosis, which typically just causes cosmetic blemishes on your teeth.

            • oregoncom [he/him]@hexbear.net
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              I didn’t say you can get it from tap water. But if you do get it from other sources it sucks that now you have to also avoid all tap water.

              Also There are places with naturally high fluoride concentration in the water with skeletal fluorosis as a major issue. Guess what happened when burger brains convinced them to fluoridate the water even more? It became a bigger issue.

              Just put it in toothpaste.

              • Thordros [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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                There are places with naturally high fluoride concentration in the water with skeletal fluorosis as a major issue. Guess what happened when burger brains convinced them to fluoridate the water even more?

                I’m really not getting your point. Water treatment would address this. And if you don’t have proper water treatment, you don’t have fluoridated water, right?

                Are you saying there are places that are incorrectly treating their water? If so, I agree, that should be fixed.

  • Assian_Candor [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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    fuck-around

    Unfortunately it’s the kids who will suffer disproportionately. Fluoride supplementation isn’t really needed for adults, we get enough from our toothpaste, but it’s important for healthy tooth development in kids

  • M68040 [they/them]@hexbear.net
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    Real communists have only ever drank Tarkhuna their entire lives. When all your bodily fluids have been replaced by it, you know The Specter has embraced you.

  • atturaya@lemmygrad.ml
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    Vermont outside of Burlington is just an awful place. Rutland especially was one of the centers of the opioid epidemic in New England, so you’d think these officials have something better to deal than fluoridated water.

  • oregoncom [he/him]@hexbear.net
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    Water fluoridation is fucking stupid. Fluoride can cure cancer and make you immortal for all I care it’s still stupid to put it in all the tap water. Of all the tap water you use how much do you actually drink vs washing things? And you know what’s a way more efficient of getting it on your teeth other than drinking water? Toothpaste, which already fucking has fluoride in it.

    Hmm, we have substance that’s good for your teeth. Do we put it in the toothpaste or do we spend millions dumping it in all the fucking water?

    • regul [any]@hexbear.net
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      Damn if only there were any research pointing out water fluoridation as one of the most cost-effective public health programs in the history of humanity.

      Fluoride is cheap as shit.

      • M68040 [they/them]@hexbear.net
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        Not to mention it really pisses off the conspiracy crowd. “To own the chuds” will always be my first concern in decisionmaking and it has a track record there.

        • oregoncom [he/him]@hexbear.net
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          Giving myself fluorosis to own the chuds. It’s not just chuds that oppose fluoridation it’s pretty much everybody outside of the US.

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        If it’s cheap as shit give everyone a packet of fluoride to smear on their teeth. Also I don’t care about whatever “line goes up” justification there is, it’s just still a roundabout and wasteful delivery method to put it in the tap water. There’s no way to control dosage and it’s wasteful. Also municipalities fuck up the quantity of fluoridation pretty regularly.

        Besides the practical concerns water fluoridation would never pass an ethical review if it were proposed today. People should be able to consent to what medicine they’re taking. It’s banned in almost every country other than the US for a reason.

        Also dentists aren’t real doctors. They don’t go through med school and most of the research they publish isn’t nearly as rigorous as regular medical research. Same fuckers came up with the bright idea to put mercury in tooth implants.

        • Saeculum [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          That creates hundreds of millions of waste packets every year surely.

          It might be wasteful, but it’s probably not more wasteful than packaging and shipping all these packets.

          It’s banned in almost every country other than the US for a reason.

          I can’t find anything to suggest this is true.

          • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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            Also like, if you’re homeless or something you’re probably not getting your toothpaste in the mail or however and there aren’t many places to brush or a way to keep a clean tooth brush. So some fluoride in the tap water really does help there.

        • fox [comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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          Mercury isn’t used any more in fillings but you do know that alloying a metal changes its properties, right? Like, sodium and chlorine will fuck you up real bad but your body will die unless you imbibe salt.

          Also, do you get this frothingfash mad over iodine in salt? It’s all the same shit, cheap and efficient solutions for vast and expensive problems.

          • farting_weedman [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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            That’s a pretty weak response.

            Metals and metalloids are generally not metabolized safely and the few that are stand out and get specific mentions in rda lists like iron and zinc. There isnt a recommended daily allowance of mercury or lead, don’t eat or breathe them.

            Only table salt gets iodized, not kosher, pickling or road salt. Iodization is like a million times more focused and efficient than fluoridation.

          • oregoncom [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            I literally have mercury fillings. A metallic alloy isn’t the same as an ionic compound. Yeah alloyed mercury isn’t as bioavailable as organic mercury or even just pure mercury, but there are still studies that show that mercury alloy implants give off mercury vapor. There is not “safe dose” for mercury vapor even if it’s miniscule amounts since it does stay in the body for a long time like all heavy metals.

            idk why everyone is all of sudden super defensive of dentists. Fake ass profession one step above chiropractics.

            Iodized salt is literally what I’m proposing to do with Flourine. You can get iodized salt or kosher salt. It says in the label how much iodine you’re getting so you can control your dosage. If fluorine is good for your teeth then put it in the fucking toothpaste like they already do. You can control how much you’re getting and it’s not just getting dumped into the fucking environment in large quantities for no fucking reason.

        • LesbianLiberty [she/her]@hexbear.net
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          If it’s cheap as shit give everyone a packet of fluoride to smear on their teeth.

          jesse-wtf

          Besides the practical concerns water fluoridation would never pass an ethical review if it were proposed today. People should be able to consent to what medicine they’re taking. It’s banned in almost every country other than the US for a reason.

          jesse-wtf

          It’s widely practiced in other countries like the UK, all across South America, Malaysia, ROK, Ireland, Spain, China, Singapore; the rest of what you’re saying is comically wrong but this part is incredibly easy to demonstrate how wrong you are.

          • oregoncom [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            Water flouridation isn’t done in China. In certain regions the fluoride level is naturally high and there is a problem with fluoridosis in those regions. In like the 70s they did flouridation and then stopped once they realized it made fluoridosis rates go up slightly.

            A lot of the countries you’re talking about don’t artificially fluoridate their water, they just have naturally high(ish) fluoride levels and get listed as “fluoridated water” in whatever source you’re using.

            UK

            I guess water fluoridation does fuck all for your teeth then lmao. /s

            Wtf is someone with fluorosis gonna do? Drink only distilled water until it goes away?

        • Dolores [love/loves]@hexbear.net
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          There’s no way to control dosage

          too bad we don’t know how much water people drink & can’t calibrate relative to that. one of life’s great mysteries

          it’s wasteful

          great point, we don’t know when people are using water in a way that necessitates chlorination, we should just send everyone untreated water & they can treat it at their discretion when it’s really necessary. stop the waste!

          • charlie [any, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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            great point, we don’t know when people are using water in a way that necessitates chlorination, we should just send everyone untreated water & they can treat it at their discretion when it’s really necessary. stop the waste!

            I love how your bit ended up squarely libertarian, lmao

          • macerated_baby_presidents [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            too bad we don’t know how much water people drink & can’t calibrate relative to that. one of life’s great mysteries

            Some people are sweating in the sun and drinking lots of water to replace it; some people are hydrating almost exclusively with bottled sparkling water. There is actually great variation among how much tap water people drink. You know how some people are getting iodine deficiency even though we supplement table salt, because they’re using sea salt for all their home cooking?

            Not to say that fluoridated water isn’t better than nothing. But I don’t see how it can give everyone a perfect dose.

            • Dolores [love/loves]@hexbear.net
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              you don’t need a perfect dose, just less than would give people fluorosis, which is a fucking lot–people usually get it from eating toothpaste which has a concentration 1.000 times that of the recommended amount in water

                • Dolores [love/loves]@hexbear.net
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                  yeah fluorosis is a medical condition, someone might need to do special things during treatment, what a wild proposition. but you don’t absorb fluoride through skin so the bathing will be fine lol

                • MayoPete [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.net
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                  You’re in a forum filled with Socialists and Communists. We support the greater good and government services that help everyone. This is one of those services.

                  I don’t care that five people have some rare condition that makes it hard for them to drink tap water if the tap water being treated is helping literally hundreds of millions of kids have healthy teeth! We can’t let perfect be the enemy of the good!

                  I’m also not going to call for banning trains just because some kid is in therapy for locomophobia.

                  Pick a better hill to die on.

            • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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              The amount of fluoride it requires to do any damage is astronomically high and it being in water means you will piss it out too fast for it to be an issue. So you’re safe from too high of a dose. If you’re not eating ionized salt and also are somehow not getting any dietary iodine elsewhere, that’s weird and you can tske supplements, same with fluoride. If you don’t drink tap water it means you’re paying for your water which means you brush your teeth often anyway.

          • oregoncom [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            too bad we don’t know how much water people drink & can’t calibrate relative to that. one of life’s great mysteries

            Everyone knows that every single person drinks exactly the same amount of tap water and get the exact environmental exposure of Fluoride and also have the exact same body mass.

            great point, we don’t know when people are using water in a way that necessitates chlorination, we should just send everyone untreated water & they can treat it at their discretion when it’s really necessary. stop the waste!

            Debate pervert harder.

        • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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          Please tell me how to get everyone an individual packet of fluoride to put on their teeth. Are their fluoride depots spread all throughout this great land? How will the homeless access these packets? How about all of the waste from these dingle serve packets? Also it’s not medicine, it’s a mineral that is already part of your teeth and re-minerlizarion is necessary to maintain enamel and stuff. To say fluoride is medicine means that literally all nutrients count as medicine, so should the government stop putting water in the tap water? Cause guess the fuck what water is? Lava. Geologically speaking ice is a rock. So fundamentally there is no difference at all between the two. So running water in general is the government forcing medicine into you apparently.

          • oregoncom [he/him]@hexbear.net
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            Holy shit this is the most debate pervert argument I’ve ever seen.

            Fluorosis is real thing you can get that fucks up your bones. It’s a real issue in parts of the world with naturally high fluoride levels/ industrial contamination. I’m not saying you can get Fluorosis from tap water, but if you do get it from environmental exposure tf are you gonna do, only drink and bathe in distilled water?

            Please tell me how to get everyone an individual packet of fluoride to put on their teeth

            Toothpaste is already fucking fluoridated idiot. You act like what I was talking about is some impossible task when it already exists. Also homeless people usually don’t have access to tap water genius. That’s kind of one of the major downsides of being homeless, no access to any plumbing/running water.

            • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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              Homeless people can easily access tap water. I am friends with numerous homeless people and noe have died from dehydration nor are they buying bottled water. You go anywhere and either fill a bottle in a public restroom if that’s around or any fast food place cause legally they have to provide water and that water will be tap water because it’s essentially free.

              So you’re saying these fluoride packs (and I was using your own words there, dumbass) are toothpaste which means you need a tooth brush. So those are also available for free and as easy to access as running fucking water? The difference in infrastructure to provide the exact same thing based on a concern you have that isnt real is astounding. Are you sure you’re not a libertarian?

              • oregoncom [he/him]@hexbear.net
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                I’ve literally been homeless before. 1. Just because they legally have to doesn’t mean they will. 2. Going into a fast food place 5 times a day to beg for water isn’t very practical. Also a lot of fast food places actually filter their water to be softer which removes minerals including fluoride.

                • GalaxyBrain [they/them]@hexbear.net
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                  1. They will cause it’s easier to just give you the water than get into an argument with someone they already feel uncomfortable around. There is nothing practical about being homeless and you still have to do it. And at least here they just use tsp water unless it’s somewhere more upscale, Wendy’s is giving you tap water. Regardless you’ve yet to mention any solution to getting the homeless toothpaste, a clean brush and a place to brush up. Failing thst any chance of drinking tap water which is way more likely is a positive. There is no downside to any of this and you are weird and wrong.
    • TheDialectic [none/use name]@hexbear.net
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      Also, in someplaces they remove the fluoride from water. We are animals that evolved to drink water from pools on the ground. Our bodies want it to have minerals. This is giving our bodies what they need

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      Come on, the fluoride study groups in that study are mostly above the federal recommendations, and if anything the proper reaction is a slight reduction in fluoride use in water, not a complete withdrawal. It’s useful for tooth health which can save you from infections of the jaw and other issues

      This also assumes that measuring by iq makes any sense whatsoever for toxicology.