[human]

Our laws need to be reviewed for this. I think the whole idea of adding fluoride to drinking water to improve dental health is a good and older example of this. If I will receive any form of therapeutic I should have to give my consent. We are starting to have stronger laws for personal data than for our bodily autonomy it seems.

[AgentME]

Isn't fluoride in drinking water a massive public health success? Bringing that example up makes me wonder if our laws are right to enable more success stories like that. (Not staking any position on whether the OP story about contagious vaccines meets the necessary safety bar. It's conceivable to me that it could go either way.)

[AmericanChopper]

Fluoride in the water, and all of the examples of fortified foods don’t seem like directly comparable situations to me. There’s nothing that compels anybody to drink the water provided by their local government over any other water, or to use iodized salt over non-iodizeds salt. Drinking tap water in general is weird to me as I grew up in a place where that was certainly not something people did. But in any case, there’s no compulsion to drink tap water, no requirement to prove to others how much tap water you’ve consumed, no consequences for failing to drink tap water, and a number of readily available alternatives for anybody who doesn’t want to drink tap water.

[michaelmrose]

Yes it is and parents post shows exactly why uneducated folks shouldn't be given a direct vote in pretty much any aspect of public health beyond voting for the folks in charge and those folks hiring actual subject matter experts to make such decisions.

[jinpa_zangpo]

"Sixteen case-control studies that assessed the development of low IQ in children who had been exposed to fluoride earlier in their life were included in this review. A qualitative review of the studies found a consistent and strong association between the exposure to fluoride and low IQ. ... Children who live in a fluorosis area have five times higher odds of developing low IQ than those who live in a nonfluorosis area or a slight fluorosis area."

https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18695947/

[Timothy055]

Fluorosis is a condition where there’s so much flourine in the water that one’s teeth start getting brownish yellow spots. That’s not the level used in most water supplies. The study itself groups slight fluorosis areas with nonfluorosis as having no effect. US water supplies are usually managed to ensure no fluorosis even when the water is fluorinated. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dental_fluorosis

[jimmygrapes]

Just to add to the other comments, I recommend looking into the "why" fluoride is added to water. I'm currently on the go so I can't provide references, and I'm sorry that it is hard to find due to the prevalence of crazies writing blogs about fluoride, but the general summary is that is was a happy mistake of resource extraction effluent which had more benefit than harm at first, and has now been found to maybe even out instead of being slightly beneficial (depending on your values). The Canadian study linked in a sibling comment addresses that last bit.

Iodine in table salt is probably a better example.

[verve_rat]

You know there are places in the world where fluoride is removed from the drinking water because the natural levels are to high, right?

Fluoride is naturally occurring in water, some places add more, some places remove some to get to the desired level.

[_lx4l]

I didn't consent to that.

The earth should distill all water for my consumption.

[human]

I did not know but thank you for pointing it out. I know that different cities have different levels of chemicals in the water. Is there a science on the best composition for water? What if we added antidepressants to water? Would that be ethical?

[verall]

What about iodine in salt?