Monitoring and health risk assessment of fluoride in drinking water in Babol, Mazandaran Province, Iran

Because of high variations in fluoride concentration and many contaminated areas, Iran has been known as an interesting country regarding different fluoride studies. However, researches on fluoride concentration and its effects in northern strip of Iran are limited; moreover, risk assessment studies have been neglected in these areas. Therefore, this study focused on the measurement and risk assessment of fluoride in water supplies of villages around Babol County in north of Iran. Therefore, this descriptive cross-sectional research was performed in the city of Babol, Iran, 2017. Eighty water samples were taken from 40 wells in the rural areas (40 and 40 samples in cold and warm seasons). The SPANDS method was used for the measurement of fluoride concentration. The non-carcinogenic risk of fluoride was assessed in four age groups (infant, children, teenager and adult). The risk of dental and skeletal fluorosis was counted based on the international standard. From all villages (n = 24), respectively, 4 and 3 villages in cold and warm seasons had proper fluoride concentrations according to the WHO standard; fluoride concentration of other villages was lower than the WHO minimum standard of. Any observable risk of dental and skeletal fluorosis in all studied villages for the whole age groups was not observed; the HQ of all the villages was lower than 1 except for Kalhu Dasht because its HQ was higher than 1 in infants and children in cold season. Infant and children of this village were exposed to risk of dental fluorosis. In northern areas of Iran, not only there is not a risk of dental or skeletal fluorosis, which is related to high concentration of fluoride, but also there is a risk of dental decay due to low fluoride concentration in water drinking water. However, this hypothesis needs to further study.