Abstract

A study was carried out on 157 children, age 12–13, from a coal-burning fluorosis endemic area together with an experiment looking into the effect of high fluoride intake in animals. The results showed that early, prolonged high fluoride intake causes a decrease in a child’s mental work capacity and that prolonged high uptake of fluoride causes a child’s levels of hair zinc to drop. A multifactoral correlative analysis demonstrated a direct correlation between hair zinc and mental work capacity. The decrease of 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid and the increase of norepinephrine in animal brains exposed to high levels of fluoride suggest a possible mechanism for mental work capacity deficits in children. However, further research is necessary.

Translated by Julian Brooke for Fluoride Action Network and published with the permission of the Journal of West China University of Medical Sciences 1994;25(2):188-91 in the journal Fluoride.

 

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