Abstract
ALTHOUGH bones of human subjects become abnormally dense after several years of industrial exposure to fluorides1,2, no work on the effect of fluoride on calcium balance of human beings has been carried out. Roholm1 and others2 have shown that the severity of skeletal changes is correlated approximately with the extent and duration of exposure to fluoride : moderate exposure resulting in increased density of otherwise grossly normal bone, but prolonged heavy exposure resulting in marked changes, including periosteal bone-formation and calcification of ligaments and tendons. How such complex skeletal effects are brought about is unknown; however, the microscopic appearance of depressed or absent osteoclastic activity in bones of moderately affected human beings1 suggests that relatively low doses of fluoride may somehow depress resorption of bone.
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References
Roholm, K., Fluorine Intoxication (H. K. Lewis Co., Ltd., London, 1937).
Greenwood, D. A., Physiol. Rev., 20, 582 (1940).
Rich, C., J. Clin. Endocrinol. and Metabol., 20, 147 (1960).
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RICH, C., ENSINCK, J. Effect of Sodium Fluoride on Calcium Metabolism of Human Beings. Nature 191, 184–185 (1961). https://doi.org/10.1038/191184a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/191184a0
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