Fluoridation: a clinician's experience.

In 1954 I described a case of chronic fluoride poisoning from artificially fluoridated water, in which the patient exhibited a multisymptomatic clinical picture without noticeable skeletal changes. Subsequently, others and I have confirmed this "nonskeletal phase" of the disease from fluoride in water and in air (in workers in fluoride-emitting factories and in people residing near such factories) and from fluoride-containing drugs. Further details on this disease are presented. In view of the constantly expanding use of fluoride in industry as well as its increase in food, water, and other hidden sources and because of the reactivity of the fluoride ion, the implications of these findings with respect to the etiology of several heretofore unexplained illnesses are discussed.