Abstract
Objective: To quantitatively analyze the fluoride content in packaged drinking water bottles available in Kerala, India.
Materials and Methods: Twenty different brands of packaged drinking water bottles available in the state of Kerala, India were included in the study. Three samples of each brand procured from different batches were included in the analysis. The fluoride content was determined using fluoride-ion selective electrode method and expressed as mean of three samples. The mean fluoride content in different brands of packaged drinking water was compared using Kruskall Wallis ANOVA. P-value of <0.05 was considered to be statistically significant
Results: Six brands of packaged drinking water bottles had fluoride level less than the detection limit of 0.01 mg/L. The mean fluoride content of the remaining 14 brands of packaged drinking water bottles ranged from 0.09mg/L to 0.32mg/L and there was no statistically significant difference.(H value-2.54,p value-0.68)
Conclusion: The fluoride content in majority of the packaged drinking water bottles available in markets in Kerala were found to be below the optimum desired level as per Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) for packaged drinking water.
