Fluoridation to Cannibalistic Space Zombies

A few times in class, we have talked about fluoride—“there’s fluoride in the water.” Sodium fluoride is a neurological poison that, in large enough doses, can cause docility and stupidity. A 2003 study in China showed that fluoride significantly reduced intelligence in children aged 8-13. The study followed two villages with extremely similar conditions—similar family income and education levels as well as similar environmental conditions—except the level of fluoride in the water. The village Wamiao had a “mean water concentration of 2.47 ± 0.79 mg/L,” whereas Xinhuai had a “mean water concentration of 0.36 ± 0.15 mg/L” (read the full report here p. 173). Average IQ of children in Wamiao was 92.2 ± 13.00 (the actual range was from 54-126), and that in Xinhuai was 100.41 ± 13.21 (actual range 60-128). In these villages, the fluoride was naturally occurring, but the effects are the same whether it is naturally present or added.

I don’t yet know how much fluoride is put in our water or what recommended daily intake for different age groups is, but the idea of adding a flat rate for all people is unsettling. As with all substances, recommended dosage depends on age, weight, height, etc., and adding a flat rate of a substance does not seem ethically right. If the dosage in our water is high enough to affect our brains (which eventually is likely to happen once enough builds up in one’s system) that leads to whole other ethical issues. Governments should not be allowed to add chemicals to water or air because they think it will have some supposed good effect. An (although fictional) example that immediately comes to mind is from the movie Serenity.

Crew (from left to right): Jayne Cobb, "public relations"; Kaylee Frye, mechanic; Sheppard Book, man of the Lord; Simon Tam, doctor; Inara Sera, Companion (high class prostitute); Mal Reynolds, Captain; Zoe Washburne, First Mate; Hoban "Wash" Washburne, pilot; River Tam, psychic.

Serenity was made as a follow-up to the short-lived TV show Firefly. The premise of the show is that once we used up all the Earth’s resources, we found a new solar system with many more planets and moons, which were terraformed to support life (terraforming just means stabilizing the ground and atmosphere to make it safe for humans). A war followed after settlement of the new solar system between the Alliance, who hoped to unite all planets and moons under one central government, and the Independents, who fought to allow each planet and moon to govern their way with their own laws. The Alliance won and all planets were united under the rules of the more urban central planets (the outer planets were frontier planets like what we imagine the American West in the early 19^th century. Sargent Mal Reynolds from the Independent army bought a Firefly class ship called Serenity and got a crew together so they could stay out of Alliance control.

One of the outer planets, Miranda, had G-23 Paxilon Hydrochlorate, or “Pax” (meaning peace in Latin), added to the atmosphere during terraformation in an attempt to make the population more calm and weed out aggression. Well, it worked, except it made people so docile they just laid down and let themselves die. However, 0.1% of Miranda’s population (about 30,000 people) had the complete opposite reaction—they became excessively and mindlessly violent. People called them Reavers, and it was unknown until the end of the movie how they came to be that way (sorry for the spoiler). They're like space zombies who are more brutal and bloodthirsty, who have the capabilities to communicate with each other and form basic thoughts, to fly ships, to run and fight. Zoe, the second-in-command of Serenity, said, “If [Reavers] take the ship, they'll rape us to death, eat our flesh and sew our skins into their clothing. And if we're very, very lucky, they'll do it in that order.” And Reavers only came into existence because the Alliance thought it would be a good idea to try to alter how human brains work (not their only instance of this—they basically lobotomized gifted children to make them psychics and powerful fighting machines).

 

This is kind of an extreme example, but the idea rings true—you can’t try to control people by making them involuntarily ingest chemicals to alter their actions. It is blatantly immoral and could blow up in their faces. I have more research to do before I completely buy in to the idea of fluoridation to make us docile, but whether that is the motive or not, I still don’t think it’s right.