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Comment by bawolff | Hacker News Reader

That would apply to any fortified food. The iodine in your salt, the vitamin D in your milk, etc.

the difference being that it is very hard to avoid something added to the water supply, while it is usually possible to avoid the fortified varieties of food

Any filter removes it. Most people do that anyway by default.

I would venture to guess that is not true in the US overall. I expect more people have no filter on their tap water than those who have one.

You're probably confusing Fluoride which is actually quite difficult to remove, often needing expensive and complicated filtration such as Reverse Osmosis, with Chlorine which is trivial to remove with charcoal filtration.

I think you’re going to be surprised at how difficult it is to avoid iodized salt, whereas avoiding fluoridated water is as simple as buying a carbon or reverse osmosis filter (or buying filtered water).

It's as easy as using kosher salt. Read labels, child.

As long as you don't eat out anywhere; or in the case of other fortifications, best to bake your own bread.

Are you suggesting all restaurants filter out fluoride from the water they use?

I can buy non-iodized salt (in fact its hard not to at WF), and non-fortified milk or bread very easily. At an insignificant price difference.

It is impossible to buy non-fluorinated drinking water that is not orders of magnitude more expensive than tap.

Then again, I don't consider tap water to be potable in the US so I guess its a wash.

WF meaning…Whole Foods?

Yeah. Its basically my corner store. It was frustratingly annoying to buy iodized salt for my pregnant wife there.

> I don't consider tap water to be potable in the US

That's a weird sentiment considering the US has some of the highest quality drinking water in the world.

Unless you live in Flint...

Scientists who work in government (DOE, EPA, etc) keep telling me that but I don't believe them. I worked alongside them and I wasn't impressed by most of them.

Result? I dodged a mini-Flint that occurred in my tiny corner of the Midwest. Two if you include the aftermath of Bethlehem, OH.

Anyway "rest of the world" is a spurious comparison. Im interested in comparing with Switzerland's water quality, not Eritrea's .

You said you don't consider water in the US to be potable. That's a much stronger claim than saying you don't entirely trust some of the peopel that work in government and certify the water.

Besides, I'm sure you can find independent studies verifying the water quality.

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