Blue water wave and bubbles for clean drinking water
A new study was published on Journal of Health Economics provides compelling evidence that fluoridated community water has harmed Americans: Childhood exposure to it reduced high school graduation rates, financial literacy, physical fitness, and health in adulthood. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends water fluoridation and many state and local governments mandate it.
The present study constitutes his doctoral thesis Dr. Adam Roberts from Texas A&M University, who is now a financial economist in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency at the U.S. Treasury Department. Among many sources of data, Dr. Roberts obtained natural levels of fluoride for most US communities. through a Freedom of Information Act request to the CDC.
Using a sample of more than twenty million people, he compared those exposed to fluoridated water during childhood with those of the same age in the same county who were not exposed. He found strong evidence that, despite its dental benefits, childhood exposure to fluoride led to a net negative effect on adulthood, including lower high school graduation rates, reduced financial sufficiency, poorer physical fitness and health.
This study illustrates how economists use rigorous analytical tools and comprehensive data to answer complex medical and health questions. Another example comes from Doctor Todd Elderprofessor of economics at Michigan State University, who I establish that children whose birthdays are in the month before their state cut-off date for kindergarten eligibility (ie, the youngest in the class) were significantly more likely to be diagnosed with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than those whose birthday falls in the next month (ie, the oldest in the class).
Dr. Elder concluded that ADHD is often misdiagnosed because of teachers’ subjective comparative ratings of children in the same class. The negative consequences are significant, including the adverse health effects and financial burdens of ADHD treatments and medications.
Other study by six economists, published in Quarterly Journal of Economicsused supermarket entry and household movement data to find that personal demand explained 90% of the difference in healthy and unhealthy food consumption. Therefore, policy efforts aimed at equalizing the supply of healthy groceries across neighborhoods are wasteful and ineffective.
It is no accident that economists provide compelling evidence on medical and health issues. As the late economist Edward Lazear wrote in his famous article, Economic Imperialism:
“Economics is not only a social science. it is a genuine science. Like the natural sciences, economics uses a methodology that produces questionable implications and tests those implications using robust statistical techniques. The goal of economic theory is to unify thought and provide a language that can be used to understand a variety of social phenomena. The fact that there have been so many successful efforts in so many different directions confirms the strength of the economy.”
Robert Kennedy Jr., President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, bound for US health services to return to their “gold-standard, evidence-based tradition of science” and provide “transparency and access to all data.” If evidence-based decision making is enshrined in broad health-related policies and practices, we can look forward to effective economic research that will help make America healthier.