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(11 reviews)
Author: R. Allan Freeze
ISBN : 0470448334
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Format: PDF, EPUB
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A lively account of fluoridation and its discontents
Since its first implementation in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in 1945, public drinking water fluoridation and its attendant conflicts, controversies, and conspiracy theories serve as an object lesson in American science, public health, and policymaking. In addition to the arguments on the issue still raging today, the tale of fluoridation and its discontents also resonates with such present concerns as genetically modified foods, global warming response, nuclear power, and environmental regulation.
Offering the best current thinking on the issue, The Fluoride Wars presents a witty and detailed social history of the fluoridation debate in America, illuminating the intersection of science and politics in our recent past. This reader-friendly assessment explores the pro- and anti-fluoridation movements, key players, and important events. Full of amusing and vivid anecdotes and examples, this accessible recounting includes:
A careful and non-condescending look at the hard science, popular science, pseudo-science, and junk science involved
A look at fluoride issues including dosage, cost, financial and funding interests, fluorosis, and problems of risk-cost-benefit analysis
The back-and-forth drama between pro- and anti-fluoridation factions, with all its claims, counterclaims, insults, acrimony, and lawsuits
Case studies of various cities and their experiences with municipal water fluoridation initiatives
Fluorophobia and popular conspiracy theories involving fluoride
The colorful characters in the debate including activists, scientists, magicians, and politicians
A richly and considerately told tale of American science and public life, The Fluoride Wars offers an engrossing history to both interested general readers and specialists in public health, dentistry, policymaking, and related fields.
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- Hardcover: 383 pages
- Publisher: Wiley; 1 edition (April 20, 2009)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0470448334
- ISBN-13: 978-0470448335
- Product Dimensions: 0.9 x 6.3 x 9.1 inches
- Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
Free Download The Fluoride Wars: How a Modest Public Health Measure Became America's Longest Running Political Melodrama
The proposition seems straightforward: should fluoride be put in public water supplies in order to prevent tooth decay? Fluoridation was tested in the 1940s, endorsed by the U.S. Public Health Service in 1950, and implemented in the United States and many other countries in the following decades. But from the beginning, there was vociferous opposition.
The fluoridation debate was in full swing in the 1950s and continues today in much the same form, with the same sorts of claims and counter-claims. Scientifically, the debate has always been one-sided, with an overwhelming majority of dentists and doctors supporting fluoridation but with a significant minority of critics.
The remarkable persistence of the debate has attracted the attention of social analysts. Attempting to take a middle ground is a perilous enterprise, because the partisans on either side are likely to either adopt a contributor as an ally or attack him or her as an enemy.
Scientists R. Allan Freeze and Jay H. Lehr have boldly entered the fluoridation arena with The Fluoride Wars. Their ambitious aim is to provide a balanced social history of the U.S. controversy. They tackle the major issues in the debate, including arguments over benefits of fluoridation and alleged adverse health impacts such as allergies, cancer, and skeletal fluorosis. They give special attention to dental fluorosis, the staining of teeth due to excess fluoride, typically said by proponents to be of only cosmetic significance but seen by opponents as a sign of fluoride toxicity.
A major contribution of the book is its covering of key developments in recent decades, including the antifluoride position of scientists from the U.S.
Fluoride Wars- polemics not science
Despite lofty claims of objectivity, and being published by a major Science publisher (Wiley), the book "Fluoride Wars" by Freeze and Lehr is not a scholarly work but rather a slanted polemical analysis which gives final victory - with a few caveats about some of their bullying tactics - to the status quo.
More journalism and pseudo history than science. Why on earth spend four pages discussing Jonestown? Freeze and Lehr provide their thesis in the subtitle: "How a modest public health measure became America's longest running political melodrama." However, you can only describe water fluoridation as a modest measure if you conveniently ignore - as these authors do - the fact that the level of fluoride added to water (i.e. 1 milligram per liter or 1 part per million or 1 ppm) which may seem small to some, is actually 250 times the level found in mothers milk (0.004 ppm). This means that a bottle fed baby in a fluoridated community gets 250 times more fluoride than nature intended.
To support their thesis of a "political melodrama" they focus their attention more on the extreme wings of the debate (Michael Easley, Stephen Barrett, Darlene Sherrell) than on the calmer scientific middle. They spend more time discussing and debunking conspiracy theories then on a careful balanced analysis of the scientific details.
The authors show little first hand knowledge of the primary literature and derive most of their conclusions from governmental reviews and review articles, sprinkled with self-serving commentary from the American Dental Association. Even this analysis is dated.