What You Do and Don't Know About Fluorine and Fluoride

Domestic sewage also plays a role in water pollution due to added fluorine in drinking water. Even with secondary sewage treatments, a significant amount of fluoride still finds its way to streams, lakes, and rivers. What sort of effects do these fluoride levels have on aquatic organisms? Researchers suggest that since oceanic creatures have been exposed to a certain amount of fluorine naturally, they are less likely to be effected than their freshwater counterparts. Freshwater organisms have not been exposed to elevated levels of fluorine (due to the lack of salt water which dissolves mineral rocks containing fluorine) and so they may experience negative physiological effects. Studies have not been conducted to determine what the sub-lethal long-term effects of fluoride are.