Fluoride: a chemical byproduct with a complicated past (and future)

👋 Welcome back to the Medium Newsletter
Issue #231: 2024’s video game of the year, a history of hunger strikes, and texting thank yous

Recently, government officials and pundits have begun reexamining the use of fluoride in public drinking water. The anti-fluoridation crowd often points to published studies that claim to connect fluoride to a myriad of health risks, including increased cancer rates and, a hot topic right now, lower IQ scores in children.

There is plenty about fluoride’s use in drinking water that can sound like the stuff of conspiracy theories (so much so that it was once invoked in anti-communist propaganda). The fluoride added to our drinking water is often sourced from phosphate companies, which produce fertilizers. Because it is a naturally occurring chemical made of fluorine minerals (it’s in the periodic table of elements!), fluoride is essentially a byproduct of their mining practices. So, critics are also concerned about the quality of fluoride produced in that way, as well as the pollution caused by those industries. (This also why you may sometimes hear it referred to as “an industrial waste.”)

Fluoridated water is also used to fuel the conversation about “governmental overreach” or personal choice, as it is difficult or impossible for some to truly opt out of public water that has been fluoridated.

Even so, many public health officials are confident that the kind and level of fluoride recommended by regulatory agencies is safe. Critics call those studies about negative health effects and IQ scores unreplicable or irrelevant, as they often are examining a level of fluoride that is at least two times over the suggested maximum amount. (Too much of a good thing may be bad for you? You don’t say…)

Fluoridated water (within healthy limits) is also a public good. “After all, the promise of fluoridation was never just about preventing cavities — it was about ensuring that everyone, regardless of income, education, or race, could maintain basic dental health,” says Dr. Jess Steier, a public health scientist, in a story on Medium.

And yet: Robert F. Kennedy Jr., the Trump administration’s nominee for head of the Department of Health and Human Services, has said one of his first official acts will be to “advise all U.S. water systems to remove fluoride from public water.” Here’s a punch list of facts and resources I’m keeping an eye on in the midst of it all:

• The recommended amount of fluoride to be added to public water is 0.7 parts per million. Overly fluoridated water (above 1.5 parts per million) is not endorsed by any health professional.
• Internationally, many cities that have defluoridated their water also provide free dental healthcare or provide fluoride in other ways, such as in salt.
• The act of fluoridating municipal water is not federally mandated. One way to find out whether your local water system has fluoride is to check the CDC’s website, My Water’s Fluoride, but some states may have their own resources.

Personally, I’d love to know more about how fluoride is purified before it enters our water systems. What about you? What concerns do you have about the dental health of our communities, and what solutions do you want to see?

— Carly Rose Gillis

More around the web

• Last week, Astro Bot (a video game about a robot obsessed with reclaiming parts of a Playstation 5 from a green alien) (yes, it’s that meta) was honored as The Game Award’s Game of the Year. Ben Ulansey shares some context as to why it grabbed the gaming community’s adoration in these times: “It’s a smile-inducing band-aid on a planet that feels sometimes like it’s bursting apart at its seams.” (Fanfare)
• I’ve been watching the FX show “Say Nothing,” which is based on the real story of two women volunteers for the IRA who performed a hunger strike while they were imprisoned by the British in the 1970s. John Oakes, author of The Fast: The History, Science, and Philosophy of Doing Without, adapted some of his research into a post for the Hell World newsletter. In it, he explores the history of this political action, describing it as “jiu-jitsu politics that inverts the power structure and can undermine authority more effectively than a bomb.”
• Sonification is the act of bringing infographics to life through sound. It’s a part of pursuing a “multi-modal” strategy of learning, which can be especially effective in improving memorization skills. Don’t believe me? Give a listen to the examples featured in this Medium story by the Science and Technology Facilities Council (STFC) for an unforgettable way of learning about the intensity of black holes or how galaxies are formed.

A dose of practical wisdom

I recently attended a webinar that featured a conversation with Amy Blankson, author of The Future Of Happiness, who shared a few extremely useful strategies for managing stress and increasing optimism in day-to-day life. My favorite: scroll through your phone’s contact list and find seven people in your social circle that you appreciate and text one person per day to thank them. The list and the scope helps with decision fatigue; once you have the list in front of you, you’ll find it hard to not do it. (I’m on day 5, and it’s working!)

Deepen your understanding every day with the Medium Newsletter. Sign up here.

Edited and produced by Scott Lamb & Harris Sockel

Questions, feedback, or story suggestions? Email us: tips@medium.com

Like what you see in this newsletter but not already a Medium member? Read without limits or ads, fund great writers, and join a community that believes in human storytelling.