Comment by dagw
8 months ago
The levels of added fluoride are very low, it's been well studied at this point.
If you want to steel man the argument you should point out that the maximum allowed fluoride levels in US are quite a bit higher than in, for example the EU (on the order of 3 times higher), and that some recent studies have indicated some potential health risks for young children who consume a lot of water around the very top end of what the US allows.
Of course the correct response to this is to overhaul the recommendations and lower the maximum allowed levels, not to issue state wide bans.
Bans are more effective. There’s always some local hero in the water supply org who thinks he knows what’s best for everyone and modifies the fluoride amount to his liking. For example there was someone in Virginia a few years ago who lowered the fluoride to sensible levels and was fired for it.
set a maximum limit. make it a crime (probably is already) to purposely exceed those limits.
Sure, my point being if there is no mechanism for adding fluoride to the water system, then it will be more much unlikely that someone will add illegal amount of the toxin to the water system.