Abstract
SUMMARY: The city of San Luis Potosi (SLP), Mexico, is located in an area where drinking water contains excessive quantities of natural fluoride. Also in this city is located a small industry that produces hydrofluoric acid. In order to investigate both routes of exposure to fluoride (industrial air and drinking water), we conducted a pilot study in workers of this industry. The study involved 60 male workers, divided into two groups according to their work area: the production and the office groups. Although the exposure to fluoride by the water ingestion pathway was similar for both groups, the occupational-exposure to fluoride was 12 times higher in the production area. Workers in this area had higher levels of fluoride in urine than workers in the office area. This difference was observed in the preshift and the postshift samples. A multivariate regression analysis showed that the workplace explained 33% of the fluoride content of the urinary samples, whereas tap water ingestion explained only 8%. The higher air fluoride levels in the production area could explain the high number of workers who present a pre-clinical phase of skeletal fluorosis. Although our results illustrate the exposure to fluoride of workers in the production area by two pathways, water and workplace air, it would be advisable to explore in more detail the participation of other path-ways of exposure, like diet and soft drinks.
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A national cross-sectional study on effects of fluoride-safe water supply on the prevalence of fluorosis in China
OBJECTIVE: To assess the effects of provided fluoride-safe drinking-water for the prevention and control of endemic fluorosis in China. DESIGN: A national cross-sectional study in China. SETTING: In 1985, randomly selected villages in 27 provinces (or cities and municipalities) in 5 geographic areas all over China. PARTICIPANTS: Involved 81 786 children aged from
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Skeletal fluorosis in Vavuniya District: an observational study.
Background: The WHO recommended safe upper limit for fluoride in drinking water is 1.5 mg/l. Groundwater sources in many parts of Sri Lanka often exceed this limit. The high fluoride content of groundwater and high environmental temperatures in Vavuniya District predispose to pre-skeletal fluorosis and skeletal fluorosis in adults. Objectives: To
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[Epidemiology and clinical study of endemic fluorosis in a village that has improved water for 40 years].
Objective: To investigate the control effect of water improvement for endemic fluorosis over a long period of time, the health status of the residents in the disease area and the restoration to health of endemic fluorosis patients. Methods: It was investigated that the water improvement lasting for 40 years and the rate
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Fluorosis by the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, National Health, India.
Introduction Fluorosis is a crippling disease resulted from deposition of fluorides in the hard and soft tissues of body. It is a public health problem caused by excess intake of fluoride through drinking water/food products/industrial pollutants over a long period. Ingestion of excess fluoride, most commonly in drinking-water affects the teeth
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Efficacy of Calcium-Containing Eggshell Powder Supplementation on Urinary Fluoride and Fluorosis Symptoms in Women in the Ethiopian Rift Valley.
Dietary calcium binds Fluoride (F), thus preventing excess F absorption. We aimed to assess the efficacy of supplementing calcium-containing Eggshell Powder (ESP) on F absorption using urine F excretion and on fluorosis symptoms. In total, 82 women (41 Intervention Group, IG; 41 Control Group, CG) were recruited; overall, 39 in
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Fluoride & Osteoarthritis
While the osteoarthritic effects that occurred from fluoride exposure were once considered to be limited to those with skeletal fluorosis, recent research shows that fluoride can cause osteoarthritis in the absence of traditionally defined fluorosis. Conventional methods used for detecting skeletal fluorosis, therefore, will fail to detect the full range of people suffering from fluoride-induced osteoarthritis.
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Skeletal Fluorosis: The Misdiagnosis Problem
It is a virtual certainty that there are individuals in the general population unknowingly suffering from some form of skeletal fluorosis as a result of a doctor's failure to consider fluoride as a cause of their symptoms. Proof that this is the case can be found in the following case reports of skeletal fluorosis written by doctors in the U.S. and other western countries. As can be seen, a consistent feature of these reports is that fluorosis patients--even those with crippling skeletal fluorosis--are misdiagnosed for years by multiple teams of doctors who routinely fail to consider fluoride as a possible cause of their disease.
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"Pre-Skeletal" Fluorosis
As demonstrated by the studies below, skeletal fluorosis may produce adverse symptoms, including arthritic pains, clinical osteoarthritis, gastrointestinal disturbances, and bone fragility, before the classic bone change of fluorosis (i.e., osteosclerosis in the spine and pelvis) is detectable by x-ray. Relying on x-rays, therefore, to diagnosis skeletal fluorosis will invariably fail to protect those individuals who are suffering from the pre-skeletal phase of the disease. Moreover, some individuals with clinical skeletal fluorosis will not develop an increase in bone density, let alone osteosclerosis, of the spine. Thus, relying on unusual increases in spinal bone density will under-detect the rate of skeletal fluoride poisoning in a population.
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Fluoride & Osteopetrosis
One of the most common radiological findings in skeletal fluorosis is osteosclerosis - a hardening of bones with a blurring of the trabecular structure. In advanced cases, the osteosclerotic form of fluorosis may closely resemble the appearance of osteopetrosis, a "marble bone" disease in which the bones are dense, but fragile and prone to fracture.
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Fluoride Reduces Bone Strength Prior to Onset of Skeletal Fluorosis
The majority of animal studies investigating fluoride's impact on bone strength have found that fluoride has either no effect, or a detrimental effect, on bone strength. Importantly, several of the animal studies that have found fluoride reductes bone strength have reported that this reduction in strength occurs before signs of skeletal fluorosis
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