WHO faces excessive fluoride in water.Millions of people in Africa, the Eastern Mediterranean and Asia are exposed to excessive amounts of fluoride through drinking water drinking watersupply of water available to animals for drinking supplied via nipples, in troughs, dams, ponds and larger natural water sources; an insufficient supply leads to dehydration; it can be the source of infection, e.g. leptospirosis, salmonellosis, or of poisoning, e.g. contaminated contaminated, v 1. made radioactive by the addition of small quantities of radioactive material. 2. made contaminated by adding infective or radiographic materials. 3. an infective surface or object. from natural geological sources, according to according to prep. 1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians. 2. In keeping with: according to instructions. 3. a recent World Health Organization report. While low levels of fluoride in drinking water are believed to protect teeth from decay, excessive fluoride can lead to health problems such as stained and pitted teeth and even crippling changes to a person's bones. The report said that in China alone, more than 10 million people suffer from skeletal fluorosis Skeletal fluorosis is a bone disease exclusively caused by excessive consumption of fluoride. Causes Common causes of fluorosis include inhalation of fluoride dusts/fumes by workers in industry, use of coal as an indoor fuel source (a common practice in China), , in which fluoride accumulates in the bones progressively over many years leading to stiffness and pain in the joints and sometimes crippling changes to bone structure and calcification calcification /cal·ci·fi·ca·tion/ (kal?si-fi-ka´shun) the deposit of calcium salts in a tissue. dystrophic calcification of ligaments. While removing excessive fluoride from drinking water may be difficult and expensive, the report outlined low-cost solutions that can be applied at the local level. The report, "Fluoride in Drinking Water," is available from <www.who.int>. |
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