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Fluoridation
The fluoridation controversies of the 1950s and 1960s constituted a vivid case study for two phenomena. First, it was possible in hundreds of communities for nonexperts to determine the course of a science policy. With the mechanism of policy-byreferendum, nonexperts could disagree with expert opinion and even negate it. Secondly, those events demonstrated that a public scientific controversy did not have to be limited to empirical evidence and counter-evidence. On the contrary, existential concerns that were powerful and sincere—especially the idea of heroic resistance to impersonal bureaucratic authority—shaped the results of those referendums. One can observe those two features in numerous cases, but the fluoridation controversies made it clear that expert scientific opinion, even a strong consensus of expert opinion, was limited in its ability ...
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