DEVELOPMENT AND DISTRIBUTION OF FLUORIDE TESTING KIT

World Health Organization (WHO) has estimated that 80% sickness is associated with contaminated water either from chemical or microbial contamination.With increasing industrialization, urbanization and deforestation, the quality of water resources available to mankind is deteriorating day by day. The supply of drinking water in terms of quality and quantity is also a great concern now a days. Out of many chemical and biological contaminants in drinking water, excessive fluoride is of most concern due to wide spread health symptoms in population of many states in the country but also in various other developing and developed countries.

The fluoride ion has potential beneficial effects but excessive fluoride in drinking water produce objectionable dental fluorosis that increases continuously with increasing fluoride concentration above the recommended control limit of 1.5 ppm (mg/l). Fluorosis, caused by intake of fluoride prevalent in India for six decades, is a slow progressive crippling malady, affects youth and old, poor and rich, rural and urban population and it has attained an alarming dimension. Fluorosis, a disease caused by excessive intake of Fluoride was first detected in India, among cattle by the farmers of Andhra Pradesh during early 1930s. It was during year later, the same disease was detected in human beings also. The study conducted by Rajiv Gandhi National Drinking Water Mission during 1990-92 has reported that 15 states in the country are endemic for the fluorosis. The endemic States are Andhra Pradesh Bihar, Delhi, Gujarat, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Punjab, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh.

Sound management of water resources will pave way for this problem. A better surveillance and monitoring needs water testing facilities, which are to be reliable, accurate and cost-effective. In this endeavour, upon the request and sponsorship of the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), New Delhi, Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has developed a small testing kit for fluoride determination for water samples in field as well as in laboratory conditions. One thousand such kits will be distributed to community circles in various parts of the country for monitoring fluoride levels in drinking water. The Kit has been designed and developed by a team of scientists of the Board. This is a small portable kit equipped with required glassware, plasticware, reagents, colour chart and user manual. The method of estimation is based on colorimetric principle using SPADNS [Sodium 2-(parasulfophenylazo)-1,8-dihydroxy-3,6-naphthalene disulfonate] and Ziconium-dye lake reagents. The Kit will be useful to the civic authorities and public at large for monitoring the fluoride levels of drinking water and other water sources.