Fluoride a pollutant?
Unit 4: Pollutants Tagged dental, fluoride, fluorosis, pollutant, teeth July 8th, 2008
Your parents have probably told you hundreds of times to brush your teeth – and a fluoride toothpaste is recommended by good dentists everywhere. Many cities worldwide have fluoride added to their water supplies – Beaconsfield in Tasmania was the first town in Australia for this to happen and currently the Warrnambool City Council and residents are debating the issue. Low concentrations are good for teeth, but excessive concentrations can lead to debilitating disease, such as skeletal fluorosis, which has devastated some communities. Millions of people are exposed to excessive amounts of fluoride through drinking water contaminated from natural geological sources. As a result, many suffer conditions ranging from mild dental fluorosis to crippling skeletal fluorosis. Clinical dental fluorosis is characterized by staining and pitting of the teeth. In more severe cases, all the enamel may be damaged. In skeletal fluorosis, fluoride accumulates in the bone progressively over many years, leading to stiffness and pain in the joints. In severe cases, it can cause changes to bone structure, calcification of ligaments, and crippling effects.
One of the major anthropogenic sources of floride compounds is the aluminium industry. Scientists from the CSIRO and Portland Alcoa have developed a process that renders the flouride less harmful by converting the spent pot linings to a less harmful “synthetic sand”.
