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Drudge Retort: The Other Side of the News
Sunday, May 18, 2025

This week, the US health department announced a plan to ban prescription fluoride supplements for children.

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The FDA will work to pull fluoride supplements for children from the market, the agency announced Tuesday. The move comes at the same time as a wave of bills aiming to restrict use of the mineral, which has long been added to public water supplies because it can prevent cavities.

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-- The New York Times (@nytimes.com) May 14, 2025 at 12:58 PM

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More from the article ...

... Both the American Dental Association (ADA) and the American Academy of Pediatrics recommend fluoridating community water and advise prescribing fluoride supplements for children who do not get adequate fluoride dosages through their water.

Nevertheless, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) under anti-vaccine advocate and conspiracy theorist Robert F. Kennedy Jr states without clear evidence that fluoride supplements harm children's microbiome and pose other health risks.

The ADA pushed back strongly, telling Ars Technica in a written statement that the scientific studies the HHS references as evidence of harms "do not in fact demonstrate any harmful effects for the concentrations of fluoride prescribed by physicians and dentists." ...


#1 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-18 07:28 PM | Reply

What does Sec Kennedy seem to have against the children of America having strong, healthy teeth?


#2 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-18 07:30 PM | Reply

Another view ...

FDA plan to ban fluoride supplements baffles and alarms dental experts
www.sciencenews.org

... A decades-old dental health treatment may soon vanish in the United States. Access to fluoride supplements, prescribed to prevent cavities in children without access to fluoridated water, is now under threat from a controversial move by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

The agency announced May 13 that it plans to remove fluoride products that can be ingested by children from the market, citing concerns about potential harm to gut microbes, links to thyroid disorders, weight gain and decreased IQ. ...


#3 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-18 07:51 PM | Reply

Yet more from the article ...
@#3

... "It is a complete mystery to me why they think that this is an appropriate way to make the American public healthier," says Scott Tomar, a dentist and epidemiologist at the University of Illinois Chicago College of Dentistry. The decision, he says, "is based on some of the flimsiest evidence that I've seen."

Fluoride supplements have been used for decades, Tomar notes, and have proven safe and effective for decreasing cavities. The FDA is leaning on studies in noncomparable settings, such as rural China, where there is high exposure to fluoride from burning coal indoors, he says.

"They're exposed to fluoride in their food and their drinking water and in the air, in addition to all the other combustion products in that air. And on top of that, they're in areas with very high levels of fluoride in their contaminated surface water," Tomar says. "We would never allow that level of exposure, or anything remotely close to that level of exposure, in the United States." ...


#4 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-18 07:53 PM | Reply

@#4

So Sec Kennedy seems to be basing his decisions upon irrelevant data?


#5 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-18 07:54 PM | Reply

Florida becomes second state to ban fluoride in public water
www.nbcnews.com

#6 | Posted by LampLighter at 2025-05-18 11:51 PM | Reply

Oral problems can lead to serious heart valve damage.

This is the stupidest action that could be taken, and very short-sighted considering associated medical costs down the line.

#7 | Posted by AMERICANUNITY at 2025-05-19 02:11 AM | Reply

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