#2408: Yolanda Whyte

Anti-fluoridation conspiracies are relatively widespread – which is sort of entirely as expected when it comes to safe and effective health measures – and contrarian dingbats have managed to block several cities from fluoridating water by sowing fear, uncertainty and doubt about measures that are otherwise demonstrably safe.

 Yolanda M. Whyte is one of the central characters in the anti-fluoridation movement, and she travels around speaking at community meetings and testifying at legislative hearings. Whyte is also trained as an M.D., so her claims carry a sheen of authority, despite the fact that her claims about fluoridation to a large extent cover the ground from false to deceptive, such as claims, based on misreading questionable and irrelevant studies, that exposure to fluoride lowers kids’ IQ. Several of her claims are discussed here. It should come as little surprise that Whyte tends to employ varieties of the toxins gambit and appeals to chemophobia. On her website, for instance, she offers to help you “reducing your toxin burden, strengthening your immunity and understanding the process.” Apparently chemicals are everywhere!

 

She is also a signatory to an anti-GMO open letter to food producers authored by Zen Honeycutt.

 

Diagnosis: Not the most paranoid and incoherent of the anti-fluoride crowd, to be sure, but Whyte is nevertheless a denialist who is not afraid to rely on pseudoscience if it suits her purposes.