The Renewed Scientific Opposition to Water FluoridationThe Renewed Scientific Opposition to Water Fluoridation
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The Renewed Scientific Opposition to Water Fluoridation

After more than 70 years, the battle between the pro-fluoride and no-fluoride camps wages on.
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Protesters march against the use of fluoride in drinking water on Feb. 22, 2013, in San Francisco. Water fluoridation has been controversial since its inception in the 40's.
By Christy Prais
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This is part 1 in “America the Fluoridated”

Fluoridation of the U.S. public water supply has been a polarizing topic both academically and politically since its start in the 1940s. Debate over its benefits and health risks has raged on as the science has continued to unfold.

This series will explore the contentious findings surrounding this ubiquitous public health measure and answer the question of whether water fluoridation poses a risk and what we should do about it.

We’ve all grown up being told that fluoride is good for our teeth. Some experts thought it was so good for the health of our teeth that in the 1940s, the U.S. government decided to start adding synthetic fluoride to the U.S. water supply.

From very early on, there have been conflicting views and significant debate within the scientific, medical, and dental communities over the merits of fluoride. In her paper published in The American Journal of Public Health in 2015, historian Catherine Carstairs recounts that in the late 1940s and early 1950s, this debate largely ended with experts opposed to the fluoridation program being dismissed “as cranks and quacks,” and relegated to the so-called fringes by their peers.