Incidence of fluoride in groundwater and its potential health effects in ten villages of Karera block in Shivpuri district, Madhya Pradesh, India

Fluoride is one of the common but major emerging areas of drinking water quality criterion and a large number of people are forced to consume fluoride contaminated water. Highfluoride ground water is found in many parts of the developing world, and several millions of people rely on ground water having concentrations above WHO guidelines. Present investigation deals with the problem of contaminated ground water in fluoride in Karera block in Shivpuri district, Madhya Pradesh. After the survey of fluoride contamination in ground water, dental and skeletal problem were also taken up in the rural area in Karera block. People are dependent on hand pump and well water for domestic use in these area. Fluoride content of water from these hand pumps and wells was analyzed and it was revealed that the fluoride concentration is higher than the permissible limits. Fluoride in ground water was estimated by Ion selected electrode method. A total of 500 rural people in Karera block were screened for dental and skeletal fluorosis. The presence and severity of dental fluorosis was recorded. The mean value of fluoride concentration was estimated in drinking water samples from each of 10 villages. The minimum average value of fluoride concentration (1.65±0.0047) was recorded in Hazinagar and maximum concentration was (3.91±0.0072) observed in Dumduma villages. Overall prevalence of dental fluorosis was found to be 86.8% in our samples used for the study. Based on the finding of this study, dental and skeletal fluorosis were associated with higher fluoride level in ground water. The people are having 0 to III grade of dental fluorosis and grade I of skeletal fluorosis.