Everything You Were Taught About the Fluoride in the Water Is Technically True, Which Is Itself the Problem

I have been writing about fluoride for nine years. In that time, I have received a consistent response: “Reverend Hale, fluoride is safe. The science is clear.” And I always respond the same way: I did not say the fluoride was unsafe. I said the fluoride was there. And I asked why. This is a meaningful distinction and it is the one that most fluoride defenders miss.

What I Am Actually Saying About the Fluoride

I am not saying fluoride causes harm. I am saying that fluoride represents the successful introduction of a substance into a public water supply following a process of public persuasion conducted by entities with a financial interest in the outcome. And if you can do that with one substance, on the grounds that it is good for you, you can do it with others, on the same grounds. The only protection is an informed public asking, consistently, why things are in their water. I am the informed public asking why things are in my water. This is, technically, the system working.

The Historical Record

The introduction of fluoride to public water supplies occurred in the 1940s — a decade in which the government also interned American citizens and conducted radiation experiments that were classified until everyone involved had retired or died. I am not saying these things are connected. I am saying they are contemporaneous, and contemporaneity is a data point.

Drink filtered water. Ask what the filter is rated for. Ask what it is not rated for. The gap between those two answers is where I live. — Reverend Cyrus Hale, Hydrated, carefully