Letter to the editor

I submitted the following to my local newspaper's editor this week. I've discussed it further in another post.

A letter in last week’s News (“Toothpaste a healthier cure”) included several inaccurate and misleading statements about the practice of fluoridating community drinking water. Since its inception, numerous studies have demonstrated fluoridation’s ability to reduce dental caries among children and adults. The letter writer quotes a Journal of the American Dental Association article that purportedly challenges the benefits of this practice, yet the paper’s authors concluded that evidence of fluoride exposure during enamel formation was indeed associated with fewer cavities. (The quote, it appears, is not actually from the JADA article, but from an anti-fluoridation group’s online press release.)

Despite allegations linking it to cancer, hip fractures, and decreased intelligence, there is no credible evidence associating fluoridated water with any significant health problems. While some of these myths may be more contemporary than the 1950s-era propaganda that stigmatized fluoridation as a Communist plot, they are equally egregious.

In the previous century our lives were greatly improved by several public health developments, among them improved sanitation, food safety, and family planning. Yet, these fundamental advances continue to be attacked. Tobacco companies reap huge profits from cigarette sales. Nearly 90% of U.S. counties lack access to abortion providers. Television personalities promote debunked theories about the dangers of childhood vaccines to concerned and credulous parents.

While these capitalists, crusaders, and conspiracy theorists may not share mutual affiliations, they profess a common philosophy that rejects the reasoned application of the scientific method. Organizations and journals with unassuming titles (e.g., Fluoride) espouse obscurant anti-intellectual agendas. These groups are not challenging the objectivity of science in the postmodern tradition—rather, they are simply relying on science done badly.

As a society, we’ve benefited from chlorinated water, seat belts, and the eradication of smallpox. As a society, we share the costs incurred by epidemic gun violence, influenza outbreaks, and shortages of dentists and family physicians. Healthy skepticism, rigorous scientific analysis, and open debates all have a role in collectively deciding what’s in the best interest of our health—profiteering, sophistry, and alarmism do not.