Fluoride is more present in groundwater than surface water mainly due to the leaching of minerals.
An aluminum and sand filter that removes fluorine from water was devised by Dr. S. P. Kramer in 1933; in 1945, M. Kenneth received a French patent for a water defluoridation technique; and in 1952, a functioning activated alumina community defluoridation plant was commissioned in Bartlett, Texas, USA.
Existing techniques are often too costly (because the geographic areas prone to fluorosis are among the poorest regions on the planet), ineffective or even dangerous (some of the remediation processes add other contaminants to the water).
The main techniques that have been, and continue to be, investigated with varying degrees of success include: adsorption, precipitation, ion exchange and membrane processes.
The process is dependent on pH and the presence of sulfate, phosphate, and bicarbonate which results in ionic competition.
Thus, it is expected that utilization of this defluoridation technique to provide safe drinking water helps in the mitigation of fluorosis.