Hidden Fluoride in Our Food, Medicine, and Environment
Fluorides can be inhaled, ingested, or absorbed through our skin. That means there are several factors that determine what your daily dose of fluoride is.
Authors of the ATSDR report warn that swallowing toothpaste can account for a large percentage of fluoride exposure for children under 8 years old. New Africa/Shutterstock
Fluoridation of the U.S. public water supply has been a polarizing topic both academically and politically since its start in the 1940s. Debate over its benefits and health risks has raged on as the science has continued to unfold.
This series will explore the contentious findings surrounding this ubiquitous public health measure and answer the question of whether water fluoridation poses a risk and what we should do about it.
Our exposure to fluoride doesn’t just come from fluoridated water. This makes it difficult to determine how much fluoride people are actually consuming. Then there is the added challenge of figuring out how much is actually safe, given how differently people respond to this chemical.
Fluorine is a diatomic gas and the most reactive and electronegative of all the elements. Fluoride is any combination of elements containing the fluorine atom in the -1 oxidation state, per the National Library of Medicine compound summary.
