How to Get Fluoride Out of Water

Drinking Water (ballyscanlon, Getty Images)

You may like fluoride in your toothpaste, but be opposed to fluoridation of public drinking water or prefer not to drink it. Even if fluoride hasn't been added to your water, it may contain fluoride anyway. If you don't want to drink fluoridated water, you have a couple of options. You can buy bottled water that has been purified using reverse osmosis or distillation. If neither of those purification processes is specifically listed on the package, assume the water is fluoridated. Your other option is to remove the fluoride from water yourself. You can't boil it out -- that actually concentrates the fluoride in the remaining water. Most home water filters won't take out fluoride. The types of filters that do remove fluoride are activated alumina filters, reverse osmosis units, and distillation setups. Of course, you ingest fluoride through more than just water. If you're trying to cut back on your intake, I've put together a list of ways you can reduce your fluoride exposure.

As a side note, when you're buying bottled water, keep in mind "distilled water" is not always suitable for use as drinking water. There may be nasty impurities in distilled water that are bad for you. So, using a product labeled "distilled drinking water" is fine. Drinking any old distilled water... not such a great plan.

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Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "How to Get Fluoride Out of Water." ThoughtCo, Aug. 27, 2020, thoughtco.com/how-to-get-fluoride-out-of-water-3976074. Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. (2020, August 27). How to Get Fluoride Out of Water. Retrieved from https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-get-fluoride-out-of-water-3976074 Helmenstine, Anne Marie, Ph.D. "How to Get Fluoride Out of Water." ThoughtCo. https://www.thoughtco.com/how-to-get-fluoride-out-of-water-3976074 (accessed March 28, 2024).