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Fluorine is a highly reactive halogen used in toothpaste, water supplies, and semiconductor manufacturing. It is also used in rocket fuel and nuclear power plants. However, it can be toxic and harmful to human health in high concentrations. Its use in water supplies is controversial, with some countries choosing not to add fluoride content.
Fluorine is a light element classified as a halogen which is the most electronegative element known and is, therefore, very prone to bonding with metallic elements in nature to form salts. Uses of fluoride include widespread applications in consumer products, such as toothpaste, mouthwash, and as an additive to water supplies in some nations such as the United States. In its elemental form, uses for fluorine also include as a common chemical for etching glass or silicon substrates in semiconductor manufacturing and as a compound for etching hydrofluoric acid (HF). This reactive nature that fluorine has with glass makes it valuable in the manufacture of microprocessors, computer and television displays, and sensors for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS). In combination with ethylene, it also forms a frictionless coating used in cookware known as polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE).
As naturally occurring metal salts, fluorine compounds have been used at least since the 1700s in the process of welding metals together and cutting patterns into glass or the glaze of its surface. Commercial production of the chemical increased rapidly in the early part of the 20th century, when chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) compounds were first produced in the 1920s as refrigerants for commercial, residential, and automotive air conditioning systems. Non-stick PTFE surfaces were also invented and became popular in the late 1920s. Other uses of fluorine include separating uranium so that the heavy metal can serve as fuel for nuclear power plants and as an enabling element for oxidizers in rocket fuel.
While CFC compounds were later found to be depleting the Earth’s protective ozone layer, they were replaced by other compounds that still contain the element fluorine, such as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs). The European Union banned the use of another formulation of the element known as fluorochlorohydrocarbons as a refrigerant in 1995, as they too were determined to be ozone-depleting chemicals. While HFCs do not break down into compounds in the upper atmosphere that destroy the ozone layer, they are known to contribute to the global warming process, so they are being phased out of use.
While the uses of fluorine are diverse, the element is not without risk, as it can be highly toxic, corrosive, and explosive. As a hydrofluoric acid used in the semiconductor and light bulb manufacturing industries, it is a colorless and odorless liquid compound that looks like water and appears harmless when spilled on the surface of the skin. HF has a strong tendency to bind with calcium, however, and any acid spilled on the skin will quickly soak through the skin and into the bones, where it gradually dissolves and binds to calcium in other tissues, causing severe pain and possible death. . The use of fluoride in water supplies has also been controversial due to the fact that, in high enough concentrations or over long periods of exposure, it can be harmful to human health. Nearly 20 industrialized nations as of the year 2000, including India, Germany and Japan, have policies of not adding any fluoride content to public water supplies despite evidence that low concentrations prevent tooth decay and other dental problems, especially in children.
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