Around 4.2 trillion gallons of water are seen in the United States each year, but approximately 90% is immediately evaporated or goes to the ocean (McCuen, 1986). In 1974, Congress passed the Safe Drinking Water Act after a national debate over the amount of organic chemicals such as chloroform and benzene in drinking water within the United States (McCuen, 1986).One of the other ground water contaminants is fluorine. There is not much fluorine in its elemental state due to its high level of radioactivity and exists in the form of fluorides within minerals and water (WHO, 2004). Fluoride was introduced in water during the last half of the twentieth century and was one of two newer developments that deal with drinking water (Barzilay, 1999). Fluoride is used for protection against cavities and other dental caries and bonds to the enamel on teeth (Barzilay, 1999). Fluoridation is a beneficial achievement for public health and beginning experiments with it established fluoride as effective and as a cost efficient method of helping public health. This cost effective method of fluoridation only costs citizens, on average, anywhere from 30 cents to 2 dollars a year (Walker, 1978). However, only a small amount of the fluoridated water pumped out each year reaches people’s mouths; because, most of the water ends up being used to do personal business like washing dishes. A fluoride concentration of 1 milligram per liter is the perfect amount of fluoride to prevent tooth decay although some of the side effects that fluoride has on people can be dangerous if consumed in too high of concentrations.
Is Your Water Fluoridated?
In the late twentieth century over 60% of the US population had been using fluoridated water. Approximatel...
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...lower and where the climate is generally humid and wet, the concentration of fluoride in water is generally higher. Fluoride, when consumed correctly can pose as a health benefit, but if it is not then it can cause severe health issues and even death.
Works Cited
Barzilay, J. I. (1999). The water we drink. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
Langwith, J. (2010). Water. Farmington Hills, MI: Greenhaven Press.
McCuen, G. E. (1986). Protecting water quality. Hudson, Wisconsin: GEM Publications.
Walker, R. (1978). Water supply, treatment, and distribution. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Inc.
WHO. (2000). Chapter 6.5 Fluorides, World Health Organization (WHO), Regional Office of Europe, Copenhagen, Denmark.
WHO. (2004). Fluoride in drinking water. Retrieved from http://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/dwq/chemicals/fluoride.pdf
Fluoride is the only substance added to water that doesn’t affect the water itself but the person consuming the water- fluoride is a medical treatment. The same NHS website that boasts the marvellous pros of the UK’s fluoridation scheme also explicitly explains ‘Consent is required from a patient regardless of the intervention – from a physical examination to organ donation’ on a page regarding the legalities of medical consent. It is required by law that all patients must be aware and accepting of the treatment that they receive therefore feeding us a medicine (if it can even be called that) that we as society in many cases, know very little about is highly illegal and dangerous for everyone involved. Today doctors who give patients treatment without their consent face legal procedures and punishments so the fact that this practice goes on everyday under our noses with no repercussion is astonishing and shouldn’t happen just because the perpetrator (the government) is more powerful than a
Maude Barlow’s “Water Incorporated: The Commodification of the World’s Water” gives a voice to a very real, but vastly unknown, issue: the privatization of water. I refer to it as vastly unknown because it wasn’t until this article that I was even aware such a power struggle existed. Barlow first introduces startling statistics, meant to grab the attention of its readers. Once she has your attention, she introduces the “new generation of trade and investment agreements.” (306)
Credibility Statement: It is fact that we all consume fluoridated water regularly; whether it’s through water directly, food, or other beverages, we could very likely be putting ourselves at risk.
Few object to the therapeutic use of fluoride to stop tooth decay, but fluoridation, the addition of fluoride to the public water supply, can spark avid controversy. Most dentists, medical groups, and government officials argue that fluoridation is a cheap and risk-free venture that doubles cavity prevention. In contrast, a small minority of dentists and conservative political groups argue that fluoride is a hazardous, poisonous substance that should not be consumed. Some antifluoridationists even claim that fluoridation is an untrustworthy form of socialized medicine. But rather than just attacking fluoridation as socialized medicine, opponents originally claimed that it was a conspiracy to poison or brainwash Americans through the water supply. This theory arose in the 1940s when the scientific community refused to endorse or reject fluoridation, thus allowing the debate to expand into the social sphere. While fluoridation opposition may be subconsciously inspired by naturalism, the social development of fluoridation into a Communist or fascist conspiracy resulted from a conscious effort by conservatives to suppress a growing government.
Fluoride is being overused in the United States and there needs to be a stop to it. With all the problems it is causing, the limit being used should be something everyone should worry about. Many think fluoride is good for you because it whitens your teeth, and dentist offer it every time you go there, but clearly it is not. Fluoride does help with a lot of things like mottling of teeth and whitening teeth, but health problems are occurring, and it needs to come to a stop. Department of Health and Human Services have recommended a level of 0.7 milligrams per liter as a optimal for fluoride in drinking water throughout the United States. (State of Washington) Clearly, they are using more than normal that is it starting to cause a lot of health problems. To finalize, fluoride is being overused in the US, and there needs to be a stop to
Both Barnett’s claim that bottled water is not better than tap water (139-141) and Gleick’s claim that specialized water is not better than tap water (118-120) demonstrate that companies’ claims are unreasonable. Furthermore, consumers assume bottled water is better than tap water because they have the impression that tap water is dangerous because of the tap water incident in “2003 [where] 400,000 people [got] sick” from drinking tap water. One may wonder whether companies use this incident to remind consumers how dangerous tap water is with the way Gleick presents bottled water companies even after the tap water is taken care of. Because Gleick portrays the deception of advertisement from bottled water businesses, he makes it clear that Barnett hints that they are taking advantage of the case by informing consumers that their water is safer than tap water in an indirect, subtle way. However, Barnett ensures readers that tap water are safe to drink again after the incident by proving that both bottled water and tap water are equally safe to drink with a study she provides: The testing from Florida Trend (magazine brand) concludes that Publix brand bottled water and tap water both contains “0.020milligrams per liter [of] THMs (trihalomethanes)”, a “common byproduct…linked to increased risk of cancer” (139-140). Although other bottled water brands may not have
Zhang, J. (2009, July 13). More Scrutiny Urged for Bottled Water . Retrieved April 19, 2014, from http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052970203577304574276473594279310?mg=reno64-wsj&url=http%3A%2F%2Fonline.wsj.com%2Farticle%2FSB10001424052970203577304574276473594279310.html
Three Medical Doctors wrote the book, The Water We Drink: Water Quality and Its Effects on Health. Their names are Joshua I. Barzilay, M.D., Winkler G. Weinberg, M.D., and J. William Eley, M.D. In order to put the issue of drinking water quality and its effects on health into perspective, the book is divided into three parts. It first reviews the history of water, disease, and sanitation. The next section deals with health issues. At the conclusion of the book are chapters regarding bottled water and methods of purification. The intent of the book is to educate consumers.
All water sources, whether fresh or salt, have varying levels of fluoride (Awofeso, 2012). Around 1945 it was discovered that communities with higher rates of naturally occurring fluoride had lower rates of tooth decay (Dean, 1938) which resulted in the addition of artificial fluoride to public water supplies. The incidence of tooth decay fell drastically in fluoridated communities as a result, leading to widespread adoption of public water fluoridation as a public health strategy.
"Water Pollution." Current Issues: Macmillan Social Science Library. Detroit: Gale, 2010. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 5 May 2014.
Fluoride to strengthen tooth enamel and remineralize enamel in the early stages of tooth decay.
Hennigan, Robert D. "Water Pollution." Oxford University Press 19.11 (1969): 976-78. Web. 16 Apr. 2014.
The. Drinking Water: A History. New York: Overlook Duckworth, 2012. Print. The.
Freshwater in the world makes up only a small portion of water on the planet. While the percentage of water in the world is nearly 70%, only 2.5% is consumable. Even further, only <1% is easily accessible to basic human needs. According to National Geographic, “by 2025, an estimated 1.8 billion people will live in areas plagued by water scarcity, with two-thirds of the world's population living in water-stressed regions as a result of use, growth, and climate change.” With this current trend, water will become more immersed in environmental, economic, political, and social changes. Many of these in later years shall need to be addressed as tension rises:
Rogers, Peter. 2008. "Facing the Freshwater CRISIS. (Cover story)." Scientific American 299, no. 2: 46-53. Academic Search Premier, EBSCOhost (accessed November 4, 2010).