Blue water waves and bubbles to clean drinking water
A new study published in Journal of Health Economics provides compelling evidence that fluoridated community water harmed Americans: childhood exposure to it reduced high school graduation rates, economic sufficiency, physical fitness, and health in adulthood. Currently, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends water fluoridation, and many states and local governments mandate it.
This study is the doctoral dissertation of Dr. Adam Roberts of Texas A&M University, who is now a financial economist in the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency at the US Treasury Department. Among many data sources, Dr. Roberts obtained natural fluoride levels for most US communities through a Freedom of Information Act request to the CDC.
Using a sample of more than twenty million individuals, he compared those exposed to fluoridated water during childhood with those of the same age in the same county who had not been exposed. He found strong evidence that, despite its dental benefits, childhood fluoride exposure led to a net negative effect in adulthood, including lower high school graduation rates, reduced economic self-sufficiency, physical fitness, and health weaker.
This study illustrates how economists use rigorous analytical tools and comprehensive data to answer complex medical and health questions. Another example comes from Dr. Todd Elder, an economics professor at Michigan State University, who found that children whose birthdays are in the month before their state’s kindergarten eligibility deadline (ie, the youngest in the class) had much more likely to be diagnosed. with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) than those whose birthdays fall in the following month (ie, the oldest in the class).
Dr. Elder concluded that ADHD is often misdiagnosed due to teachers’ subjective comparative ratings of children within the same class. The negative consequences are substantial, including negative health impacts and financial burdens from ADHD treatments and medications.
Another study by six economists, published in Quarterly Journal of Economicsused supermarket entry and household movement data to find that personal demand explains 90% of the variation in healthy and unhealthy food consumption. Therefore, policy efforts aimed at equalizing the supply of healthy foods across neighborhoods are futile and ineffective.
It is no coincidence that economists have provided 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’s a real science. Like the physical sciences, economics uses a methodology that produces rebuttable implications and tests these implications using robust statistical techniques. The purpose 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 testifies to the strength of the economy.”
Robert Kennedy, Jr., President Trump’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services, pledged to return US health agencies to their “gold-standard, evidence-based tradition of science” and ensure “transparency and access to all data.” If evidence-based decision-making is incorporated into broader health-related policies and practices, we can look forward to economically impactful research that helps make it Healthier America.
