Science Memes

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flouride (mander.xyz)

submitted 1 month ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 115 points 1 month ago (4 children)

Yeah, by this argument lead in the water isn't a concern.

[–] [email protected] 109 points 1 month ago (2 children)

You just made me mad by helping me realize that the Trump bros are going to break water by removing fluoride long before they fix water by removing lead.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

They like the lead, though!

(Probably. I mean, they did in Flint, MI...)

[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 month ago

Removing fluoride won’t break the water. However, it may break our teeth.

[–] [email protected] 30 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Yeah but lead bioaccumulates where as fluoride/ine doesn't

[+] [email protected] -17 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Are you sure fluoride doesn't? It does accumulate in the soil, building up in crops. Considering fluoride exposure from all sources, many people are above upper safe limits, even from tea drinking alone

I don't think fluoride should be added to water as it just pollutes the environment, where 99.99% of water isn't coming in contact with teeth

[–] [email protected] 34 points 1 month ago (1 children)

It doesn't. This is high-school chemistry.

Fluoride only "accumulates" up to the peak concentration of the environment (no further) on places where it is removed from contact with that environment.

You can only accumulate fluoride in the soil if you keep adding it and there is almost no rain to wash it away.

[–] [email protected] 10 points 1 month ago

Yup, same with PFAS and forever chemicals. Maybe I'm ignorant because I'm not a doctor, but I don't know if this line of thinking holds water - pun not intended.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 month ago

lead poisoning becomes evident pretty early though doesn't it? (With respect to kids)

I would think that the ratio of persistent exposure to unsafe level has got to be easily higher in cases like Flint than any fluoride-in-the-water usage. Just speculation on my part.

What measures are taken to avoid screwing up the dosage, anyone know? Maybe predilute so that an oops requires multiple buckets instead of vials?