fear & loathing in the water

The ‘fluoride in drinking water’ debate is heating up again in Hamilton. A letter in one of our local free newspapers begins 

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 the writer’s case against fluoridation is so strong, do they feel the need to use such scare tactics & to invoke Godwin’s Law? (Godwin’s Law is applied "especially to inappropriate, inordinate, or hyperbolic comparisons of other situations (or one’s opponent) with Nazis": there does not appear to be any evidence that NaF was used in the way the writer describes, but it sounds scary & helps to demonise those with a different point of view.)

As for the ‘sodium fluoride/rat poison’ claim, even a quick search suggests otherwise (here, & here, for example). But it’s probably quite effective in promoting the ‘fluoride = poison’ idea in the public mind. However, as I (& others) have said before: the dose makes the poison.

I would have more respect for the writer’s point of view, were it not ‘bolstered’ with inaccuracies and scare tactics. But some things never change

 

3 thoughts on “fear & loathing in the water”

  • herr doktor bimler says:

    The “Nazis & Fluoride” story came up a year ago at RI, thanks to someone who was either trolling for attention, or barking mad, or both:
    http://scienceblogs.com/insolence/2012/01/26/still-more-evidence-that-morgellons-dise-1/#comment-180234
    Then there was
    the ‘Perkins letter’, that a food-fad foundation claimed to have received from a Charles Perkins in 1954, in which the author had allegedly heard from an anonymous IG Farben scientist about the Nazi plan to drug subjugated populations with sodium fluoride. Needless to say, there is no evidence verifying any step in this third-hand account.
    So it’s nice to see where one strand in the chain of fabrication began. Note that in 1954, no-one was claiming that the plan actually took place; that embroidery came later.
    Mainstream pharmacology remains unaware of the tranquillising powers of sodium fluoride.

  • Alison Campbell says:

    Mainstream pharmacology remains unaware of the tranquillising powers of sodium fluoride.
    So who’s responsible for the cover-up? Obviously not our reptilian overlords; you’d think they’d be right onto it.

  • If it has tranquilising powers, they need to increase the amount they put in kids’ toothpaste, not decrease it! 😉

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