Analyzing the Fluoridation Controversy: Resources and Structures

Abstract

The fluoridation issue provides a test of some of the usual approaches to the analysis of scientific controversies. One of the important features of the fluoridation debate has been the use of professional power to promote fluoridation and to attack the credibility and activities of anti-fluoridation scientists. To incorporate this feature, the `resources' perspective must be broadened to include resources besides discourse. Even so, the resources perspective cannot touch certain key questions, such as why fluoridation was so heavily promoted originally. For this, a structural analysis is useful, though it needs to be extended to include more scope for human agency.