Impact and remedial strategy of Fluoride in Ground Water - A Review

According to WHO report 20% of the fluoride-affected villages in the whole world are in India, viz 33,231 villages are affected by fluoride in the country. Drinking water with excessive concentration of fluoride causes fluorosis which progresses gradually and becomes a crippling malady in the long run. It affects people of all age group, rich, rural, and urban population. It has attained a very alarming dimension. Rajasthan suffers both the problems of quantity and quality of water. In most part of the state groundwater is either saline or having high nitrates and fluoride content. Obviously, groundwater is the major source of drinking water and over 94% of the drinking water demand is met by groundwater. Fluoride concentrations beyond the standards cause dental and skeletal fluorosis. Fluoride toxicity can also cause non-skeletal diseases like aches and pain in the joints, nonulcer dyspepsia, Polyurea and polydipsia, muscle weakness, fatigue, anemia with very low hemoglobin levels, etc besides other reasons. Many researchers have used various types of inexpensive and effective adsorption medium like clays, solid industrial wastes such as red mud, spent bleaching earths, spent catalysts and fly ash, activated alumina, carbonaceous materials, bone charcoal, natural and synthetic zeolites, etc. for the treatment of fluoride contamination. This paper presents a review, which focuses on the sources of fluoride in ground water, its impacts on health and different control measures.