{"id":1194,"date":"2013-02-21T09:21:20","date_gmt":"2013-02-20T20:21:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/02\/the_fluoride_in_drinking_water\/"},"modified":"2013-02-21T09:21:20","modified_gmt":"2013-02-20T20:21:20","slug":"the-fluoride-in-drinking-water","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/02\/the-fluoride-in-drinking-water\/","title":{"rendered":"fear &amp; loathing in the water"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The &#8216;fluoride in drinking water&#8217; debate is heating up again in Hamilton. A letter in one of our local free newspapers begins&nbsp;<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Sodium fluoride is the main ingredient in rat poison<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>and then informs us that the Nazis used it to keep their prisoners docile. And what I want to know is this: why, if the writer&#8217;s case against fluoridation is so strong, do they feel the need to use such scare tactics &amp; to&nbsp;<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Godwin's_law\">invoke Godwin&#8217;s Law<\/a>? (Godwin&#8217;s Law is applied &quot;especially to inappropriate, inordinate, or hyperbolic comparisons of other situations (or one&#8217;s opponent) with Nazis&quot;: <a href=\"http:\/\/www.politifact.com\/florida\/statements\/2011\/oct\/06\/critics-water-fluoridation\/truth-about-fluoride-doesnt-include-nazi-myth\/\">there does not appear to be any evidence<\/a> that NaF was used in the way the writer describes, but it sounds scary &amp; helps to demonise those with a different point of view.)<\/p>\n<p>As for the &#8216;sodium fluoride\/rat poison&#8217; claim, even a quick search suggests otherwise (<a href=\"http:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Rodenticide\">here<\/a>, &amp; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.buzzle.com\/articles\/rat-poison-ingredients.html\">here<\/a>, for example). But it&#8217;s probably quite effective in promoting the &#8216;fluoride = poison&#8217; idea in the public mind. However, as I (&amp; others) have said before: <a href=\"https:\/\/sci.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/04\/lets-clarify-something-here.shtml\">the dose makes the poison<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I would have more respect for the writer&#8217;s point of view, were it not &#8216;bolstered&#8217; with inaccuracies and scare tactics. But <a href=\"https:\/\/sci.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2009\/11\/fluoride-reloaded.shtml\">some things never change<\/a>&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The &#8216;fluoride in drinking water&#8217; debate is heating up again in Hamilton. A letter in one of our local free newspapers begins&nbsp; Sodium fluoride is the main ingredient in rat poison and then informs us that the Nazis used it to keep their prisoners docile. And what I want to know is this: why, if [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":19,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11,15],"tags":[3,10],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v22.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>fear &amp; loathing in the water : BioBlog<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/02\/the-fluoride-in-drinking-water\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"fear &amp; loathing in the water : BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The &#8216;fluoride in drinking water&#8217; debate is heating up again in Hamilton. A letter in one of our local free newspapers begins&nbsp; Sodium fluoride is the main ingredient in rat poison and then informs us that the Nazis used it to keep their prisoners docile. And what I want to know is this: why, if [&hellip;]\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/02\/the-fluoride-in-drinking-water\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"BioBlog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2013-02-20T20:21:20+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Alison\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@AcampbelTeacher\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Alison\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"1 minute\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/02\/the-fluoride-in-drinking-water\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/02\/the-fluoride-in-drinking-water\/\",\"name\":\"fear &amp; loathing in the water : BioBlog\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2013-02-20T20:21:20+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2013-02-20T20:21:20+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/02\/the-fluoride-in-drinking-water\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/02\/the-fluoride-in-drinking-water\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/02\/the-fluoride-in-drinking-water\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"fear &amp; loathing in the water\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/\",\"name\":\"BioBlog\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-NZ\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/#\/schema\/person\/9676347d9dce672ed12b14407e623cea\",\"name\":\"Alison\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AcampbelTeacher\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/author\/acampbel\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"fear &amp; loathing in the water : BioBlog","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/blog.waikato.ac.nz\/bioblog\/2013\/02\/the-fluoride-in-drinking-water\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"fear &amp; loathing in the water : BioBlog","og_description":"The &#8216;fluoride in drinking water&#8217; debate is heating up again in Hamilton. 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