Abstract

In reviewing the effects of the 2 pollutants on vegetation and domestic animals there can be no doubt that airborne F– is far more harmful than sulfur oxides. F– reaches the blood stream both through inhalation and by ingestion with contaminated food. In plants the translocation of F– throughout the plant structure and its damaging effect on leaves, blossoms and fruit is much more pronounced than that of sulfur oxides. Sulfur oxides irritate, primarily, the upper respiratory tract. They rarely enter the distal portions of the lungs and the alveolar system. They never enter the blood stream. F–, a systemic poison, is promptly absorbed into the blood stream from the upper respiratory tract. It affects primarily the calcified tissue but can also induce considerable damage to many other organs, especially the arteries and the heart. Where there is smoke from buringing coal there is also F–. The systemic damage to humans believed to have been induced by sulfur oxides is likely to be primarily brought on by F– in conjunction with toxic agents such as As, Cd and Hg present in coal.

• Related Studies :

  • Systemic effects of fluoridated water on rats.

    The biological effects of fluoride were investigated on rats fed pure spring water (natural F- concentration = 0.2 ppm) or spring water enriched with NaF to result 0.8, 1.1 or 2.2 ppm F- during 180 days. The main effects of fluoride have been: 1. Electrocardiographic recordings showed a significant reduction of the

  • Toxicology and Carcinogenesis Studies of Sodium Fluoride in F344/N Rats and B6C3F1 Mice (Drinking Water Studies)

    CASRN: 7681-49-4 Chemical Formula: NaF Molecular Weight: 41.99 Report Date: December 1990 Sodium fluoride is a white, crystalline, water-soluble powder used in municipal water fluoridation systems, in various dental products, and in a variety of industrial applications. Toxicology and carcinogenesis studies were conducted with F344/N rats and B6C3F1 mice of each sex by incorporating

  • Electrocardiogram analysis of patients with skeletal fluorosis

    To investigate the degree of myocardial damage resulting from endemic fluorosis, electrocardiograms of 136 skeletal fluorosis patients from an endemic fluorosis area were compared with electrocardiograms of a control group of 40 normal patients from a non-endemic fluorosis area. The results show that fluoride in drinking water consumed over time

  • Prevalence of osteoporosis in high- and low-fluoride areas in North Dakota

    Roentgenograms of the lateral lumbar area of the spine were obtained from 1,015 subjects over age 45 who were residing in North Dakota. Three hundred lived in an area where the fluoride content of the water supply was high, 4 to 5.8 ppm, and 715 in an area where it

  • Fluorosis in Aden

    The cases to be described here occurred in the Aden Protectorate where for the last 12 years mass screening of the chest to exclude pulmonary tuberculosis has been carried out. The patients had all drunk the brackish water from the wells, and the analysis of the water from a well

• Related FAN Content :

  • 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.

  • Fluoride & Myocardial Damage

    Structural damage to the heart resulting from fluoride toxicity has been observed in numerous human and animal studies. The general features of this damage include cloudy swelling, vacuolization or vacuolar degeneration, hemorrhages, interstitial edema, fibrous necrosis, dissolution of nuclei, and thickening of the vessel walls in the heart muscle (Basha

  • "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.

  • Fluoride & Arteriosclerosis

    Healthy arteries are flexible and elastic, allowing efficient transfer of blood and nutrients from the heart to the rest of the body. Arteriosclerosis refers to a stiffening of the arteries, including loss of elasticity. This is a slow, progressive disease that may begin early in life from damage to the

  • Fluoride & Electrocardiogram Abnormalities

    An electrocardiogram (ECG) is a diagnostic test that measures the electrical activity of the heart. An ECG can reveal heart rate, heart rhythym (i.e. steady or irregular), and the strength and timing of the heart’s natural electrical signals. ECGs are described in terms of “waves” (e.g. amplitude and duration). Problems