this post was submitted on 22 Nov 2024
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Science Memes

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top 36 comments
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[–] RacerX@lemm.ee 1 points 16 minutes ago

This post written by Big Fluoride.

[–] sudoer777@lemmy.ml 1 points 46 minutes ago

dihydrogen monoxide is also dangerous, we must ban it as well

[–] sit@lemmy.dbzer0.com 2 points 2 hours ago (3 children)

Toxicity is a big word. What about small long term effects?

Lithium is prohibited in eu outside of psychiatric therapy, too. But it might be an essential nutrient (small doses).

My trust into the official narrative is limited.

[–] frayedpickles@lemmy.cafe 1 points 5 minutes ago* (last edited 5 minutes ago)

You're replacing the word science with "narrative" because that's what your far right deep state overlords have told you to do. Wake up sheeple!

However you described toxicity as a big word, so I doubt you are....a thinker.

[–] Zetta@mander.xyz 4 points 1 hour ago

You don't need to place any trust in any narrative, there are scientific studies on the topic.

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 2 hours ago

“Essential” is a bigger word than “toxicity”.

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 hours ago

I believe the objection to fluoride is that it is a tranquilizer that keeps us from achieving glory through violent uprising... or sweet sweet dentist profits.

[–] 4oreman@lemy.lol 11 points 10 hours ago

This is a conspiracy by fluoridians.

[–] aeternum@lemmy.blahaj.zone 11 points 10 hours ago

Yeah but I read an article on a bullshit website. I think some no name website knows more than a toxicologist

[–] wolfshadowheart@leminal.space 10 points 10 hours ago

Back when I was in college, people didn't like fluoride because it calcifies the pinneal gland. I assume that rhetoric has only been further exaggerated over the years

[–] Corno@lemm.ee 12 points 19 hours ago
[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 39 points 1 day ago* (last edited 22 hours ago) (1 children)

The fluoride added to water gets it up to 0.7mg/liter.

That ends up to be 2 or 3 drops in a 55 gallon drums worth of water. Not much.

Fluoride is a natural substance and is found in many areas drinking water already. Many areas in much higher concentrations than 0.7mg/liter, so realistically people all over the world have drank fluoridated water for thousands of years.

You have to well over double the 0.7 before any health issues may appear and the first to appear is at about triple the concentration in kids under 8 years old who drink it for years getting spots on their teeth. The spots are only superficial.

Going into concentrations even higher than that CAN cause health issues when drank for longer periods of time. All of those cases being from naturally occurring fluoride, which actually effects somewhere north of 20% of the world's population.

Which makes the argument that fluoride in our water keeps us passive as being extra stupid, since water sourced around Columbia (the country) is far higher than .07mg/liter and Columbia seems to be caught in violence and turmoil and instability quite a bit over the decades.

*edit: Colombia

[–] Reyali@lemm.ee 11 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

Small note: the country name is spelled “Colombia,” and spelling it correctly means you don’t need to specify which one!

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 5 points 22 hours ago

Fair enough!

[–] solarvector@lemmy.dbzer0.com 31 points 1 day ago (1 children)

It's not about toxicity, it's about mind control! Fluoride makes you passive. But you know this since you're a tool of the government pushing poison.

Just bleach your teeth like normal people! You know, with the bleach under the kitchen sink.

(Don't actually do this)

[–] chillBurner@lemmy.ml 10 points 1 day ago (1 children)

Like the ol' General said / s

We can no longer sit back and allow Communist infiltration, Communist indoctrination, Communist subversion and the international Communist conspiracy to sap and impurify all of our precious bodily fluids.

Fluoridation is the most monstrously conceived and dangerous communist plot we have ever had to face.

[–] walden@sub.wetshaving.social 27 points 1 day ago

Toxicologist, toxicity, minuscule, fluoridated -- your big doctor words are just trying to trick us!

[–] thesmokingman@programming.dev 17 points 1 day ago* (last edited 21 hours ago) (2 children)

I want someone who knows about these things to respond to this 2012 metastudy that ties naturally fluoridated groundwater to neurological problems. I have used this the past decade to say “well the science is unclear;” I found it back then (2013 at the latest) when I was trying to disprove a crank and really questioned my shit. There was a(n unrelated?) follow up later that questioned the benefits. Since this is very far from my area of expertise, I’m not championing these; I just want to understand why they’re wrong or at least don’t matter in the discourse.

(Edit: for the educated, there could be a million ways these are wrong. Authors are idiots, study isn’t reproducible, industry capture, conclusions not backed up by data, whatever. I just don’t have the requisite knowledge to say these are wrong and therefore fluoridated water is both safe and useful)

Update: great newer studies in responses! You can have a rational convo starting with these two that moves to newer stuff.

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

You want some fancy rebuttal to a single linked study that the article states was a bunch of partials thrown together, that came from a country famously known for half-assing and cutting corners to get ahead? The country that was caught mixing lead into ground Cinnamon to sell it for a higher weight? The one where buildings sit half done or the cement falls apart by the time it's together? The ones who lay sod over cement in order to pass the amount of vegetation present on new construction?

That's the article you could and and latch onto in order to believe? Are you even aware that fluoride occurs naturally in water and that about 40% of all the drinking water across the globe already has around the amount the US gets theirs up to, or a larger amount(some places so large they do actually cause health issues)? It's literally been drank for thousands of years.

But you trust an incomplete study from China more than anything else? Why?

[–] thesmokingman@programming.dev 4 points 15 hours ago (1 children)

I’m was just hoping for a solid rebuttal, not necessarily a fancy one! If you’re able to explain why the criticisms you mention mean that specific study is bad, that would be great! I’m assuming you’re not from China and mistakenly think wherever you’re from doesn’t suffer from similar issues, meaning we can only trust you as much as the article.

It would be great to have some citations for that so I can point to things when I get into these discussions! That was part of what I asked for. You seem really passionate about this so you must have that available to help me out. Thanks!

I’m not sure you read my post if you think I trust any of the studies I linked more than anything else. It might be good to reread it!

[–] ColeSloth@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

You stated you've used this one half ased article in order to claim "the science is unclear", which just announces that you're a troll or a simpleton. You're giving weight to a Chinese blip of an article and holding it up to an equal value against the loads of research and data that shows its safe.

If someone was holding a penny in one hand and 50 pennies in the other, would you say it was unclear which hand was holding more?

[–] thesmokingman@programming.dev 3 points 5 hours ago

I don’t think you understand what “outside my realm of expertise” means. I’m not trolling, so I must be a simpleton. As a simpleton, my general perspective has always been that it should be safe to ask questions about things you don’t understand so you can better understand. In this case, it’s very simple to say “from my uneducated eye, this appears to be a strong source that contradicts; that doesn’t seem to jive with the narrative so can someone help me understand why it doesn’t?” You seem to feel simpletons aren’t allowed to ask questions or grow, so we’re done here. I will take my specialized, domain-specific knowledge (which I’ve forgotten more about than you will probably ever learn) and sit in my simpleton castle knowing that’s all I ever get to know because it’s not okay to ask questions on the internet in a community based on discourse.

[–] Chuymatt 5 points 1 day ago

The Takeaway I’m getting from both of these studies being talked about Is that things are very unclear. The Cochrane group is very well regarded for conducting Meta studies and finding flaws in previously held understandings. The term high fluoridation is mentioned many times, and it’s unclear what that is meaning.

Vitamin A is an incredibly important molecule to many biological processes in the human body, but we do not want to supplement it, aggressively, as it can become toxic. Fluoride is noted to be beneficial for enamel hardening. No one is recommending taking large amounts of it. The second link you have points out the important questions, what is the actual danger, and who is in danger the most?

[–] zephorah@lemm.ee 3 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Next headline will be how fluoride contributes to autism and it will have just as much evidence as the vaccine bit does. How is this even a thing? Is ground zero on this RFK?

Meanwhile, all the people who can’t afford dentists will have even worse teeth going forward. Make America’s teeth British again.

[–] Robust_Mirror@aussie.zone 9 points 20 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) (3 children)

Well look at the statistics:

Fluoride:

  • Water fluoridation in the United States began in the 1940s
  • By 1949, nearly 1 million Americans were receiving fluoridated tap water
  • In 1951, the number jumped dramatically to 4.85 million people
  • By 1952, the number nearly tripled again to 13.3 million Americans
  • In 1954, the number exceeded 20 million people
  • In 1965 an additional 13.5 million Americans gained access to fluoridated water.
  • By 1969, 43.7% of Americans had access to fluoridated tap water.
  • In 2000, approximately 162 million Americans (65.8% of the population served by public water systems) received optimally fluoridated water
  • 2006: 69.2% of people on public water systems (61.5% of total population)
  • 2012: 74.6% of people on public water systems (67.1% of total population)

Autism:

  • First recognised in the 1940s
  • During the 1960s and 1970s, prevalence estimates were approximately 0.5 cases per 1,000 children.
  • Prevalence rates increased to about 1 case per 1,000 children in the 1980s.
  • 2000: 1 in 150 children
  • 2006: 1 in 110 children
  • 2014: 1 in 59 children
  • 2016: 1 in 54 children
  • 2020: 1 in 36 children

Seems pretty clear cut to me.

/s because people think I posted this in seriousness.

[–] aStonedSanta@lemm.ee 2 points 14 hours ago* (last edited 14 hours ago)

They need to do stuff like this often in HS to show students how you can bullshit truths and make its facade of truth feel legit.

[–] Objection@lemmy.ml 5 points 19 hours ago* (last edited 19 hours ago)

Not sure if you're being sarcastic but if not, then I'm about to blow your fucking mind

STOP EATING RICE!

NAME YOUR DAUGHTER SARAH, IT'S THE ONLY WAY TO SAVE THE AMAZON! AND WHATEVER YOU DO...

...DO NOT NAME THEM TRISTEN

If we shut down flights to Antarctica, inflation would've been solved yesterday.

[–] DevopsPalmer@lemmy.dbzer0.com 5 points 19 hours ago

Let's ignore the better diagnosis processes and just take two trending upward statistics and make a broad correlation and call it fact.

[–] ristoril_zip@lemmy.zip 5 points 23 hours ago (2 children)

but what about my precious bodily fluids?!?

[–] mxcory@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 23 hours ago

"Have you ever seen a commie drink a glass of water?"

[–] leftzero@lemmynsfw.com 1 points 22 hours ago

I don't avoid women, Mandrake, but I do deny them my essence.

[–] Eiri@lemmy.ca 3 points 22 hours ago (1 children)

Before even wondering about the health effects, we should ask ourselves whether it actually achieves the desired goal. I doubt that.

If it doesn't, we don't even need to wonder about safety; we'll just stop burning money.

[–] Umbrias 1 points 3 hours ago* (last edited 3 hours ago) (1 children)

yes fluoride diffuses into enamel and chemically and mechanically hardens it. this effect is strongly linked to better dental outcomes for children and adults. also, tons of places actually remove fluoride to the needed levels because it is naturally higher.

[–] Eiri@lemmy.ca 1 points 3 hours ago

That's good. My first instinct would've been that what's in toothpaste is plenty.

[–] FUBAR@lemm.ee 1 points 20 hours ago

The question about this is that the same can be said about lead. Do we want to consume that?