An overview on defluoridation of drinking water

Abstract

Dental fluorosis is a frequent disease in many areas in the world. Dental fluorosis refers to the change in the appearance of tooth enamel. The first study of Dr Dean showed that tooth decay was lower and dental fluorosis was higher in areas characterized by fluoride excess in drinking water. After this first observation, community water fluoridation programs were developed. Fluoride was added to drinking water in order to prevent tooth decay, while limiting the chance of developing dental fluorosis. But now, in developed countries, all people do not agree with water fluoridation. Consequently, a lot of researches were done on health effects of fluoride which show that fluoride is not so safe. Now, lots of people are concerned by the excess of fluoride in drinking water, and because fluoride is involved in health problems, it is important to review a specific topic of the defluoridation of drinking water. The present book about “Surface Modified Carbons as Scavengers for Fluoride from Water” aims to give a comprehensive presentation of a class of synthetically developed adsorbents in the context of treatment of fluoridated waters. Besides specific chapters dealing with surface-modified carbons, the book contains chapters about topics of interest in the context of defluoridation. So, an effort has been made to provide information from the existence of fluoride in soils and health effects of fluoride ingestion up to recent researches on defluoridation.