Science Memes

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flouride (mander.xyz)

submitted 16 hours ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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[–] [email protected] 15 points 9 hours ago (2 children)

Not to mention there are many natural sources of fluoride which can contain greater concentrations of it than what is in tap water. The ocean has a concentration of fluoride that is in the range of 1.2 to 1.4 ppm, compared to the standard rate of fluoride of drinking water, which is 0.5–1 ppm

[–] [email protected] 1 points 57 minutes ago

This is a better argument than the one in the post. No one is worried about acute toxicity of fluoride but rather long term. But it's not long term toxic, doesn't accumulate in the body, and is only present in very low amounts in water. However it should be enough to use fluoridated toothpaste to get the positive effects.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 5 hours ago (2 children)

I don't understand your point.

Nobody drinks the ocean. Fluoride is barely active topically. Most humans rarely if at all swim in the ocean.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 16 minutes ago

Talking about the ocean is odd, but there are towns in the UK (and most countries I'd assume?) where the natural level of fluoride is higher than the concentration they aim for when adding fluoride. I think that's a pretty good argument for it being safe - the people of Hartlepool have been drinking fluoride rich water for 13 centuries and don't have any noticeable issues compared to the rest OF County Durham.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 27 minutes ago

Yeah. It's not an entirely salient point. It does, however, underline the ubiquitous nature of fluorine.

The biggest source of Flourine in the environment is just the normal weathering of rocks that contain it. The biggest of the anthropogenic sources include brick production, phosphate fertiliser application and coal burning.

The minor amount added to drinking water really wouldn't be the biggest issue if it was as toxic as it's made out to be.