ENVIRONMENTAL EVALUATION OF FLUORIDE IN DRINKING WATER AT “LOS ALTOS DE JALISCO,” IN THE CENTRAL MEXICO REGION

Abstract

Naturally occurring fluoride has been detected and quantified in drinking water in several cities of the “Los Altos de Jalisco” (LAJ) region. LAJ is located in the northeastern part of the state of Jalisco-Mexico, covering an area of 16,410 km² with a population of 696,318 in 20 municipalities. Drinking water comes mainly from groundwater aquifers, located in the Trans-Mexican Volcanic Belt, which is a volcanic region characterized by hydrothermal activity. Results indicated that water supply from 42% of the municipalities had a fluoride concentration over the Mexican standards of 1.5 mg/L. It is important to notice that there are three cities, Lagos de Moreno (1.66–5.88 mg/L F⁻), Teocaltiche (3.82–18.58 mg/L F⁻), and Encarnación de Díaz (2.58–4.40 mg/L F⁻) where all water samples resulted in fluoride concentration over the maximum contaminant level. The total population from these three cities is over 122,000 inhabitants. Another important city with high levels of fluoride in the water supply was Tepatitlán de Morelos (2 wells with 6.54 and 13.47 mg/L F⁻). In addition to water supply, 30 samples of brand-name bottled water were tested. Surprisingly, 8 samples (27%) demonstrated fluoride level over the standards, mainly Agua de Lagos with 5.27 mg/L. Fluoridated table salt (200–300 mg/kg F⁻) is another important source of fluoride. A large number of people living in the region, mainly school children, might be under adverse health risk because they are consuming contaminated drinking water. It is well known that long-term exposure to water with high levels of fluoride produces severe health problems.

The authors acknowledge financial support from the El Colegio de la Frontera Norte, A.C., Mexico. Jorge Gardea-Torresdey acknowledges financial support from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) (grant S06GM8012-33). We also acknowledge financial support from the University of Texas at El Paso (UTEP) Center for Environmental Resources Management (CERM) through funding from the Office of Exploratory Research of the EPA (cooperative agreement CR-819849-01); the HBCU/MI Environmental Technology Consortium, which is funded by the Department of Energy; and valuable technical support received from the Los Altos de Jalisco water utility authorities.