I don't believe it's ever shown that it does. I think it's protected the equipment and some portion of the water.
I mean, hell, purified water is actually quite difficult to maintain historically. Grog exists because alcohol was a great way to increase the longevity of water at sea.
And just because you said that, some middle-managerial bureaucrat is crying & panicking hysterically as he throws tubes of toothpaste into the local reservoir.
"AAAAAAAGGGHHH! YOU DON'T TRUST THE SCIENCE!!! GHHHAAAAARRRGHHH!!!!"
To be somewhat fair, flouride is also used to help sanitize the water too.
It just so happens that the primary reason it is added is for dental health, with the happy secondary benefit of being rather decent for sanitizing and cleaning things too.
They don't put fluoride in the water to clean it, it's in there because at some point in the past they figured it would help with tooth health.
I don't believe it's ever shown that it does. I think it's protected the equipment and some portion of the water.
I mean, hell, purified water is actually quite difficult to maintain historically. Grog exists because alcohol was a great way to increase the longevity of water at sea.
If we can't even agree on why we started adding the chemical to water in the first place, yeah we can probably stop adding it for now.
And just because you said that, some middle-managerial bureaucrat is crying & panicking hysterically as he throws tubes of toothpaste into the local reservoir.
"AAAAAAAGGGHHH! YOU DON'T TRUST THE SCIENCE!!! GHHHAAAAARRRGHHH!!!!"
To be somewhat fair, flouride is also used to help sanitize the water too.
It just so happens that the primary reason it is added is for dental health, with the happy secondary benefit of being rather decent for sanitizing and cleaning things too.