Scoping review of dubious journey of flourosis in India: The situation analysis in Telangana and the encounter so far

Abstract

This study aimed to do a situation analysis of Telangana and systematically map the research done in the area of fluorosis and its health risks. Identify existing gaps in the available literature and unsheathe the challenges and threats in the progress so far among the people living in fluorine-contaminated zones in India. After weighing our research question, we adopted an iterative process for our search strategy by including electronic databases. A quality check was performed and guided as per the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analyses–scoping review (SCR) for SCRs which included details of the study type, setting, bias, funding, etc. It was found that out of the 15 studies summed up, most of them (>95%) had been conducted in South India. Nearly 27% of the studies were trials or experimental studies, 20% were studies involving groundwater sample testing, and few were in vitro studies. Nearly 26% were conducted on animals to see for interventions. With a total of 12,382 habitat affections, we found that Rajasthan had the highest fluoride habitation. There was a need to focus more on the seemingly less important. Many programs in India focus on risk assessment and healthy behavior. Although population affection as depicted by the Indian data statistics from the department of drinking water and sanitation show values as low as 0.01% affection for a few endemic states, they scale up to include and paralyze the lives of a lot many people in the 1.3 billion nations. At a cost, where these lives can be saved from living in suffering, what we need is mere pro-activeness, being responsible, integrating methods to tackle, using local methods to prevent, adequate nutrition, and rehabilitation.

Keywords

• contamination
• fluorosis
• rehabilitation
• risk assessment
• water and sanitation