My recent perusal of Cecil Adams’s answer to the question, Is fluoride a good thing or a danger? [The Straight Dope, February 2], makes me think it’s time to rename his column “The Curved Dope,” or perhaps “The Lazily Researched Dope.”
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
As a freelance science writer and book reviewer, I’ve been puzzling over the thorny topic of water fluoridation almost as long as I’ve been reading and enjoying Cecil’s normally insightful reports. Like the majority of our well-meaning but misinformed health authorities, I initially lumped the antifluoridationists in with the customary crowd of flat-earthers and assorted fringe conspiracy theorists that infest the Internet. After a good decade of carefully dissecting both pro- and antifluoridation viewpoints, however, I’ve come to the conclusion that the continued support of this outdated public health policy has less to do with sound science than with a kind of stubborn, quasi-religious faith in fluoridation as a panacea for bad oral hygiene.
Sorry, Cecil, but you dropped the proverbial medicine ball on this one.
