The Internet Effect

            Historically, water fluoridation has been difficult to combat due to the fact that it occurs on a municipal level. In any given isolated town before the internet, if a medical health professional or public health official proposed water fluoridation – and showed that it is backed by organizations such as the CDC and the ADA, it would be unlikely to meet resistance. The general lack of information about the issue, especially information that is written in a non scientific way that is accessible to the average person, would make it unlikely for concerned citizens to surface.

            With the growth of the internet as a community forum, municipal water fluoridation controversies are no longer isolated, pocketed events. Citizens who hear of fluoridation in their community can perform their own research online, with access to sources that are written for a more general audience. Scientific accuracy of these sources aside, there is an important communicative effect that results from the ability of these small groups to share resources and tactics. The nature of these community groups is generally a snowball effect, where one or a few concerned citizens seeks to inform friends and neighbors, which eventually builds to a community wide organization. Internet resources facilitate both the inception and the growth of this public action snowball. Organizations like the Fluoride Action Network recognize this potential, and gear their website accordingly.