Fluorine in cup of tea

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33995, 8 November 1975, Page 9

Fluorine in cup of tea

The fluorine concen-i tration in a cup of tea is 1 comparable with, and/ possibly a little larger than, the fluorine concentration applied in the fluoridation of a water: supply. Two nuclear physicists/ Professor B. M. Spicer and Dr M. A. Chaudri, of the University of Melbourne said this after an analysis of tea leaves using beams from a nuclear particle accelerator. Tea is grown in soils of volcanic origin, which tend to contain calcium fluoride in mineral form. The physicists wanted to lean whether the fluorine was taken up by the tea plants. A “prompt gamma ray” technique was used to deterkine the quantity of fluorine in tea leaves from Ceylon, India, and Queensland. Fluorine was found in tea leaves from all three sources. Indian tea had the highest concentration,

closely followed by Ceylon; tea. The concentration in Queensland tea was lower. About 80 per cent of the fluorine was removed by the normal process of brewing in the teapot. In that process, the concentration of fluorine was also decreased by the large volume of water used. The concentration of fluorine taken into the body in a cup of tea was found to be comparable w-ith, and possibly a little more than, the fluorine concentration applied in the fluoridation of a water supply. The scientists said that as Australians were prolific tea drinkers, it was hard to understand assertions that fluoridation of the supply would lead to fluorine poisoning. “If that is so, all the inhave been long since poisoned,” they said. “Perhaps the proper reaction is to suggest that we might improve the teeth of the average Australian if he began drinking tea at the age of six months or so.”