Biological Aspects
See also: Fluoride deficiencyFluoride is not considered an essential mineral element for mammals and humans. Small amounts of fluoride may be beneficial for bone strength, but this is an issue only in the formulation of artificial diets. Food and drinking water typically contain at least small amounts of fluorides, which are naturally present.
Several other biological aspects of fluorine exist. Fluoride is widely used for prevention of dental cavities. In pharmaceuticals and agrichemicals, fluorine sees increasing use in new molecules. Both radioactive and natural fluorine isotopes are important in respective scanning applications. Oxygen-carrying perfluorocarbons present a possibility for human liquid breathing. Poisons containing fluorine are well known for killing insects and rodents and the very few organisms that incorporate fluorine in their biochemistry do so to make natural poisons.
Read more about this topic: Fluorine Compounds
Famous quotes containing the words biological and/or aspects:
“Although there is no universal agreement as to a definition of life, its biological manifestations are generally considered to be organization, metabolism, growth, irritability, adaptation, and reproduction.”
—The Columbia Encyclopedia, Fifth Edition, the first sentence of the article on “life” (based on wording in the First Edition, 1935)
“The power of a text is different when it is read from when it is copied out.... Only the copied text thus commands the soul of him who is occupied with it, whereas the mere reader never discovers the new aspects of his inner self that are opened by the text, that road cut through the interior jungle forever closing behind it: because the reader follows the movement of his mind in the free flight of day-dreaming, whereas the copier submits it to command.”
—Walter Benjamin (1892–1940)