Fluorosis: a persistent problem by V. T. Yadugiri

Human health has probably posed some of the greatest challenges to humanity. While science has helped address many of these challenges (through the development of innumerable vaccines and antibiotics), the solution to many others is still elusive. The burden of health-related problems seems to be unjustifiably heavier on the poor, especially those in rural areas – advances in medicine take a long time to trickle down to them, new medicines may be too expensive, and the byproducts of technological advancement in the form of industrial effluents and pesticide residues may be making health even more difficult to sustain. Sometimes, the natural environment of a region can affect health too – arsenic poisoning due to high levels of the element in groundwater is a familiar example. Another (probably lesser known, though widespread) example is fluorosis.