Fluoride analysis of human milk in remote areas of Thailand

The objective of this study was to measure the fluoride content in human milk collected from mothers living in remote areas of Thailand and to correlate it with fluoride concentrations in drinking water and water for domestic use. Four to five ml of breast milk were sampled from mothers living in villages where schools under the jurisdiction of the Department of Border Patrol Police were located. The schools were sampled by Multiple Stratified Cluster Random Sampling. Fluoride was determined by microdiffusion method. Statistical analysis were made by ANOVA and LSD test. Correlation between fluoride content in milk and water was assessed by Kendall's tau-b. The mean fluoride concentration in breast milk was 0.017+/-0.02 ppm. There was no difference in breast milk fluoride concentration between regions (p=0.6). No correlation was found between breast milk fluoride content and fluoride concentrations in either drinking water or water for domestic use (r(tau) = -0.09, p = 0.32, r(tau) = -0.04, p = 0.65 respectively).