Fluoride Effects and Removal

Fluoride occurs naturally in groundwater when water percolates through fluoride-bearing minerals, and while trace amounts strengthen tooth enamel, prolonged exposure above roughly 1.5 mg per liter can cause dental and skeletal fluorosis, kidney damage, and neurological harm — a problem affecting hundreds of millions of people across parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Researchers in this area work to understand how fluoride moves through aquifers, which populations face the greatest exposure, and how its toxicity manifests across different dose levels and life stages. A large share of the technical literature focuses on defluoridation: developing materials — including activated alumina, bone char, biochar, metal oxides, and low-cost agricultural byproducts — that can adsorb fluoride efficiently from drinking water at community or household scale. Active questions include how to improve the selectivity and regenerability of adsorbents in the presence of competing ions, and how to make treatment systems practical and affordable in the rural, low-income settings where high-fluoride groundwater is most common.

Works

45,658

Total citations

481,272

Keywords

FluorideDrinking WaterDefluoridationAdsorptionToxicityGroundwater