Fluoride contamination cripples more than 1,000 children in Assam

Fluoride levels in water above the permissible limit of 1 mg/litre have been found in 11 districts in the state–putting an estimated 356,000 people at risk, according to an official survey

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 an estimated 356,000 people at risk, according to an official survey. Experts warned the numbers would rise if emergency measures were not taken.

“More than a thousand children below the age of five have been crippled because of fluoride contamination” in Hojai district a few years back, according to Najibuddin Ahmed, former additional chief engineer, Assam PHED.

The district’s main town, which goes by the same name, is 170 km southeast of Assam’s largest city, Guwahati............