Having worked for years with professionals who put fluoride in the drinking water, I honesty say that they are not in on some conspiracy. Right or wrong, they think what they are doing is normal, and don't look past it as far as I can tell.
It's not particularly healthy. Thing is, it's not unhealthy enough to cause a problem in the occasional glass of water that most people have, which is why adding it to the drinking water is virtually every municipality of any size for millions of people hasn't caused a problem that is to big to ignore, even decades later, such as with lead paint.
Lead oxidizes in pipes, and get a neutral layer on it that makes it safe. It's only when the water is acidic, or base, (such as happened with Flint, MI) that the water eats away at the oxidation and it leads people to ingest lead from their water pipes. Even then, if you let the water run for 30 seconds before taking a drink, you flush out the stagnant lead particles and you're fine. Not that is a solution, btw.
It was long noted, though, that house painters, and lead miners, and their children, had problems. When lead was used in gasoline, that's when way more people were exposed to it starting in the mid 20th century and the mass usage of the automobile. Prior to that, lead paint on the walls didn't cause a problem because nobody was eating the paint chips or breathing the dust in from the windows, because they didn't have AC.
Having worked for years with professionals who put fluoride in the drinking water, I honesty say that they are not in on some conspiracy. Right or wrong, they think what they are doing is normal, and don't look past it as far as I can tell.
It's not particularly healthy. Thing is, it's not unhealthy enough to cause a problem in the occasional glass of water that most people have, which is why adding it to the drinking water is virtually every municipality of any size for millions of people hasn't caused a problem that is to big to ignore, even decades later, such as with lead paint.
Lead oxidizes in pipes, and get a neutral layer on it that makes it safe. It's only when the water is acidic, or base, (such as happened with Flint, MI) that the water eats away at the oxidation and it leads people to ingest lead from their water pipes. Even then, if you let the water run for 30 seconds before taking a drink, you flush out the stagnant lead particles and you're fine. Not that is a solution, btw.
It was long noted, though, that house painters, and lead miners, and their children, had problems. When lead was used in gasoline, that's when way more people were exposed to it starting in the mid 20th century and the mass usage of the automobile. Prior to that, lead paint on the walls didn't cause a problem because nobody was eating the paint chips or breathing the dust in from the windows, because they didn't have AC.