'This poisoning of our drinking water': The American fluoridation controversy in historical context, 1950--1990.

摘要

Despite more than fifty years of promotion by national health organizations and local, state and federal governments, fluoridation has remained controversial. This dissertation seeks to explain this by examining the objections antifluoridationists raised against fluoridation and documenting how those objections evolved in relation to American society. Changes in antifluoridation arguments regarding communism, disease and the environment reflected corresponding changes in the social concerns and fears of the broader society. Other antifluoridation arguments relating to science and politics changed less over time, reflecting the long-term relevancy of these ideas.; This dissertation considers the antifluoridation arguments thematically. In the first chapter, anti-Communist and anti-totalitarian arguments are examined, both as the core beliefs of some antifluoridationists and as a rhetorical tool for others in the movement. Next, antifluoridationists' hostility toward contemporary science is discussed. Later chapters document how antifluoridation environmental arguments and concerns about disease shifted in response to changes in American society. Finally, the connection between antifluoridationist arguments and American politics is explored. In its conclusion, this dissertation suggests a new interpretation of the nature of the antifluoridation movement.