Detecting fluoride anions in urinary stones

The dangers of fluoride toothpaste: Detecting fluoride anions in urinary stones

Published: May 12, 2014

Author: Jon Evans
Channels: Ion Chromatography
Toothpaste can possibly raise the risk of getting urinary stones. That’s the rather troubling finding of a new ion chromatography method for determining fluoride concentrations in the stones.

Urinary stones are small crystal particles that can form anywhere in the urinary system, from the kidneys to the the bladder. They are produced when the urine becomes saturated with dietary minerals, especially calcium and magnesium, which then form crystals. This saturation can result from the ingestion of large quantities of these minerals in foods or from the urine becoming highly concentrated due to dehydration......

The vast majority of the stones contained very small concentrations of fluorides, below 0.1mg per gram of stone, but two of the stones had fluoride concentrations above 0.5mg. This indicates that the formation of these stones may have been promoted by high concentrations of fluorides in the patients’ urine, perhaps due to the patients ingesting lots of water containing added fluoride or even lots of fluoride toothpaste..........