Health Hygiene & Sanitation

Lesson 24 : Special Treatment Of Water And Their Health Implications

Special Treatments

Fluoridation Of Water

Fluorine is one of the constituents naturally present in water supplies. In fact, the main source of fluorine is drinking water. Deficiency of fluorine in drinking water is associated with dental caries and excess with dental and skeletal fluorosis. Leading workers in India regard fluorine in concentration of 0.5 to 0.8 ppm in drinking water as optimum (a concentration of 1 ppm is regarded as optimum in temperate climates because the consumption of water is low). The term "fluoridation" has been given to the process of supplementing the natural fluoride content of potable waters to the point of optimum concentration. The WHO in 1969 recommended fluoridation of community water supplies in areas where the total intake of fluorides by the population is below the optimal levels for protection against dental caries. Fluoridation is now an accepted public health procedure in many developed countries. However, fluoride analysis of drinking water sources in India depict that it is not fluoridation but defluoridation is the essentiality.