Inhalation is the most effective means of potentiating or synergizing the toxic effects of fluoride salts. Inhaled fluoride salts impact dramatically on the lungs and passageways leading to the lungs. Fluoride salts react very differently and more violently with moist tissues than do the diluted salts added to drinking water. The potential for submicroscopic fluoride salts to reach near-industrial levels in the bedroom, bathroom, kitchen and laundry room after five to ten years of drinking water fluoridation should not be overlooked. Many homes in communities fluoridated from the 1950s may have levels of fluoride salts that exceed the occupational exposure limits of 3 parts per million for airborne fluorides.
Work is needed to determine the species, amounts, and the degree of toxicity of salts.
Many health agencies have conducted investigations into insecticides, trichloromethanes and other contaminants which may enter the home via drinking water, leaving a residual build-up or becoming airborne. Almost all water fluoridation is accomplished with fluorosilicic acid or some other form of fluorosilicate. Fluorosilicate build-up potentiates greater health risks from airborne exposure during summer months because silicon tetrafluoride becomes a gas at about 90 degrees Fahrenheit. The exposure threat from the ambient fluorides are greater from inhalation and dermal absorption than from ingestion. But these factors are neglected in research into drinking water fluoridation.