Tea can add to intake of fluoride

Press, 29 August 1986, Page 5

Tea can add to intake of fluoride

PA Wellington Different brands of tea have been found to play a substantial role in people’s daily intake of fluoride. Research by dental students shows that people who drink numerous cups of some brands of tea get more than the estimated safe.and adequate daily intake of fluoride. However, the Health Department principal dental officer (research), Mr Peter Hunter, said the estimate — by the United States National Research Council in 1980 — was fairly conservative, and there was no need for people to worry about their tea drinking, The dental students’ research found that 10 cups a day of one brand of- tea would give i>,c drinker an intake of 7mg, while 10 cups of another would give less than. 2mg. The figures do not include fluoride which may already be in the water the tea is made with. The estimated safe and

adequate daily intake of fluoride is between I.smg and 4mg. Health Department studies show the typical diet gave between 1.33 mg and 2.7 mg a day, mostly from tea and water. Mr Hunter said people would have to drink “an awful lot” of tea to develop toxic effects, “If the person was a young child there would be the possibility of white spots on the teeth — that would be for children under three,” he said. “If adults were to consume, say, 20mg a day for 20 years they would probably start developing bone problems.” But severe side effects — where the bones became much harder than normal and a person could be partially crippled — were unknown in New Zealand and similar countries, Mr Hunter said. The toxic effects were known to occur in India in situations where there was a large natural supply of fluoride.