Scrubber apparatus utilized to obtain HFA.
There are no “waste by-products” involved in water fluoridation. The substance most widely utilized to fluoridate water systems is hydrofluorosilic acid (HFA). HFA is a co-product of the process which extracts the other co-product, phosphoric acid, from naturally occurring phosphorite rock. Phosphoric acid is used in soft drinks we consume and in fertilizers which become incorporated into foods that we eat. The HFA co-product is carefully diluted to an 23% aqueous solution which is utilized to fluoridate water systems. To irrationally fear one co-product of this process is to irrationally fear the other.
Once introduced into drinking water, due to the pH of that water (~7), the HFA is immediately and completely hydrolyzed (decomposed). The products of this hydrolysis are fluoride ions identical to those which have always existed in water, and trace contaminants in barely detectable amounts that are so far below US EPA mandated maximum allowable levels of safety that it is not even a certainly that those detected aren’t that already exist in water naturally.
There are no detectable levels of “radioactive isotopes and solvents” in fluoridated water at the tap. The amount of heavy metals, which includes arsenic, are in barely detectable amounts far below US EPA mandated maximum allowable levels of safety.
A complete list of the contents of fluoridated water at the tap including precise amounts of any detected contaminants and the EPA maximum allowable level for each may be found in the “Fact Sheet on Fluoridation Chemicals” on the website of the National Sanitary ‘Foundation.