Fluoride contamination cripples more than 1,000 children in Assam

The risk of fluoride contamination has increased in recent years

Over a thousand children below the age of five have been crippled by fluorosis over the last six years in Hojai in the north-eastern state of Assam. The most pronounced symptoms are bent legs and crooked teeth.

Water contaminated by the chemical flouride, a natural mineral, has been implicated in the poisonings, according to officials from the Assam Public Health Engineering Department (PHED), who first discovered the relationship between the contamination and medical effects in 1999. Fluoride levels in water above the permissible limit of 1 mg/litre have been found in 11 districts in the state–putting