Survey of water improvement project to reduce fluoride in Shandong province

Objective To investigate the present situation of water-improving defluoridation project and the distribution of water fluoride in fluorosis areas in Shandong province. Methods In 2005 - 2007, according to "The National and Shandong province Technical Scheme for Endemic Disease Control", the water-improving form,water type and the running status of defluoridation project in 17 cities of Shandong province were investigated, and the water-fluoride of the running projects were determined by F- ion selective electrode. Results A total of 5816projects were built that involved 8776 villages, 110 counties, 17 cities distributed in Shandong province. In which,the drilling of water-improving projects accounting for 94.55% (5499/5816), under-ground water type 97.73%(5684/5816);operating normally accounting for 75.91% (4415/5816), 7246 villages were supplied with the water, beneficiary population 6 946 459 people, non-normal projects accounting for 24.09%(1401/5816), including 1530 diseased villages. There were still 4415 projects running well. The projects with water fluoride lower than 1.0mg/L were 2893, accounting for 65.53% (2893/4415). The water fluoride higher than 1.0 mg/L accounted for 34.47%(1522/4415), ＞ 2.0 mg/L of 548, ＞ 4.0 mg/L of 97, and the maximum value of water fluoride was 9.71mg/L. Conclusions Nearly 1/4 of the water-improving projects in Shandong province are abnormal. The water fluoride of the project of more than 1/3 are exceeding the standard( ＞ 1.0 mg/L) in 4415 projects, and water-fluoride of 97 projects are higher than 4.0 mg/L. More measures should be taken to strengthen the supervision of the projects and monitoring of water fluoride. Key words: Fluoride poisoning; Engineering; Drinking; Data collection