Return to Ammonium fluoride Index Page

Activity: Wood Preservative (Inorganic)
Structure:

Adverse Effects:
Body Weight Decrease
Bone
Brain
Cholesterol
CNS
Endocrine: Testicular
Heart
Kidney
Lung
Tremors/Convulsions
Environmental

Body Weight Decrease and Bone (click on for all fluorinated pesticides)

Chronic Exposure: Chronic exposure may cause mottling of teeth and bone damage (osteosclerosis) and fluorosis. Symptoms of fluorisis include brittle bones, weight loss, anemia, calcified ligaments, general ill health and joint stiffness.
Ref: 1999 Material Safety Data Sheet prepared by Mallinckrodt Baker, Inc.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/Ammonium.F.MSDS.htm

Brain (click on for all fluorinated pesticides)

Ingestion: May cause salivation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, followed by weakness, tremors, shallow respiration, cardopedal spasm, convulsions, and coma. May cause brain and kidney damage. Death may be caused by respiratory paralysis. Affects heart and circulatory system.
Ref: 1999 Material Safety Data Sheet prepared by Mallinckrodt Baker, Inc.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/Ammonium.F.MSDS.htm

Cholesterol (click on for all fluorinated pesticides)

Male Wistar rats were exposed to ammonium fluoride vapours in a toxicological chamber for 3 months.Exposure to NH4F was for 3 months, 6 hours per day and 5 days per week, in a toxicological chamber... a concentration of 2 mg/m 3 was administered in the form of aerosol in air... Biochemical tests in liver homogenate... Total cholesterol: Ammonium fluoride caused a rise of 65% in cholesterol levels. Quercetin at either dose markedly reduced the content of cholesterol in liver. Triglycerides: Triglycerides in liver homogenate were increased by 61% in the NH4F group. When quercetin was administered the level of triglycerides fell to near-normal values.
DISCUSSION In this work chronic exposure of rats to ammonium fluoride led to a sharp increase in the concentration of total lipids, triglycerides, and cholesterol in serum. The content of cholesterol in the microsomal fraction rose, while the content of phospholipids fell... Abnormal enzyme activities seem to be one of the chief factors responsible for the rise in serum triglycerides and cholesterol. It appears that enzymes inhibited by fluoride, such as triglyceride lipase, unspecific esterases, and pyro-phosphatase, were involved. Opinions as to the influence of fluorides on cholesterol levels are controversial. Some authors did not observe any changes after fluoride exposure, while others have confirmed the hypercholestero-lemic effect of fluorine compounds...
CONCLUSIONS - Chronic exposure to ammonium fluoride vapours leads to changes in lipid metabolism in experimental animals.
Ref: B Czerny et al. (2000). The influence of quercetin on some parameters of lipid metabolism in rats chronically exposed to ammonium fluoride. Fluoride, Vol. 33, No. 1; 27-32.
http://www.fluoride-journal.com/00-33-1/331-27.pdf

CNS (click on for all fluorinated pesticides)

If inhaled or swallowed, this compound can cause fluoride poisoning. Early symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and weakness. Later effects include central nervous system effects, cardiovascular effects and death.
Ingestion: May cause salivation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, followed by weakness, tremors, shallow respiration, cardopedal spasm, convulsions, and coma. May cause brain and kidney damage. Death may be caused by respiratory paralysis. Affects heart and circulatory system.
Ref: 1999 Material Safety Data Sheet prepared by Mallinckrodt Baker, Inc.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/Ammonium.F.MSDS.htm

Endocrine: Testicular (click on for all fluorinated pesticides)

Abstract from Toxnet. Male rats were subjected to 9-month-long exposure to ammonium fluoride. The performed evaluation covered the seminiferous epithelium and epididymis. The greatest changes in animals used in the experiment were observed in epididymis. A small number of spermatozoa were seen in the lumen of ductus epididymis, while in the epithelial cells there were increased phagocytic processes, providing a proof that injured reproductive cells were eliminated from the genital tract.
Ref: Rozewicka L et al. (1989). Morphological evaluation of the effect of protracted exposure to ammonium fluoride exerted on seminiferous epithelium and epididymis in rat. PATOL POL; 40 (3);. 267-272. -- from Toxnet: http://toxnet.nlm.nih.gov/

Heart (click on for all fluorinated pesticides)

If inhaled or swallowed, this compound can cause fluoride poisoning. Early symptoms include nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and weakness. Later effects include central nervous system effects, cardiovascular effects and death.
Ingestion: May cause salivation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, followed by weakness, tremors, shallow respiration, cardopedal spasm, convulsions, and coma. May cause brain and kidney damage. Death may be caused by respiratory paralysis. Affects heart and circulatory system.
Ref: 1999 Material Safety Data Sheet prepared by Mallinckrodt Baker, Inc.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/Ammonium.F.MSDS.htm

Kidney (click on for all fluorinated pesticides)

Ingestion: May cause salivation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, followed by weakness, tremors, shallow respiration, cardopedal spasm, convulsions, and coma. May cause brain and kidney damage. Death may be caused by respiratory paralysis. Affects heart and circulatory system.
Aggravation of Pre-existing Conditions: Populations that appear to be at increased risk from the effects of fluoride are individuals that suffer from diabetes insipidus or some forms of renal impairment.
Ref: 1999 Material Safety Data Sheet prepared by Mallinckrodt Baker, Inc.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/Ammonium.F.MSDS.htm

Lung (click on for all fluorinated pesticides)

Ingestion: May cause salivation, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, and abdominal pain, followed by weakness, tremors, shallow respiration, cardopedal spasm, convulsions, and coma. May cause brain and kidney damage. Death may be caused by respiratory paralysis. Affects heart and circulatory system.
Chronic Exposure: Chronic exposure may cause mottling of teeth and bone damage (osteosclerosis) and fluorosis. Symptoms of fluorisis include brittle bones, weight loss, anemia, calcified ligaments, general ill health and joint stiffness.
Ref: 1999 Material Safety Data Sheet prepared by Mallinckrodt Baker, Inc.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/Ammonium.F.MSDS.htm

INHALATION - May cause severe throat irritation, cough, dyspnea, cyanosis, lung injury and noncardiogenic pulmonary edema.
-- RESPIRATORY. ACUTE EXPOSURE. Dyspnea, bronchospasm (with abnormal PFTs and hypoxia), chemical pneumonitis, pulmonary edema (can be hemorrhagic), tracheobronchitis, upper airway obstruction, chemical burns (larynx, trachea, bronchi) and ARDS may occur following inhalation.
Ref: TOXNET profile from Hazardous Substances Data Bank for Ammonium fluoride.
http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/Ammonium.fluoride.TOXNET.htm

Tremors/Convulsions (click on for all fluorinated pesticides)

-- Ingestion produces nausea, salivation, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea, hemorrhagic gastroenteritis, muscular weakness, tremors, convulsions, vascular collapse. Incr respiration is followed by depression, death. Chronic toxicity: mottling of enamel, generalized osteosclerosis, calcification in tendons and ligaments, synostoses. [The Merck Index. 10th ed. Rahway, New Jersey: Merck Co., Inc., 1983. 78]
-- SYMPTOMATOLOGY: A. Ingestion of soluble fluoride salts. 1. Salty or soapy taste, salivation, nausea. Repeated small doses (as in drinking water) may produce no other symptoms, but polyuria and polydipsia have also been reported. 2. Large doses lead promptly to burning or crampy abdominal pain, intense vomiting and diarrhea, often with hematemesis and melena. Dehydration and thirst. 3. Muscle weakness, tremors, and rarely transient epileptiform convulsions, preceded or followed by progressive central nervous depression (lethargy, coma and respiratory arrest, even in the absence of circulatory failure)...
-- Mechanism of Action: INHIBITION OF ONE OR MORE ENZYMES CONTROLLING CELLULAR RESPIRATION AND GLYCOLYSIS MAY RESULT IN CRITICAL BIOCHEMICAL DEFECTS. ... FLUORIDE POISONING CAN LEAD TO SEVERE HYPOCALCEMIA IN WHICH REDUCTIONS OCCURR IN THE PLASMA LEVELS OF BOTH TOTAL CALCIUM AND IONIC CALCIUM. ... ITS MOST SPECTACULAR CONSEQUENCE IS TETANY, IE, PAINFUL, INVOLUNTARY MUSCLE CONTRACTIONS, INITIALLY IF THE DISTAL EXTREMITIES ... . FLUORIDE IN CONCENTRATIONS AS LOW AS 0.5 MMOL FACILITATES NEUROMUSCULAR TRANSMISSIONS AT VERTEBRATE MOTOR END PLATES, APPARENTLY BY INCREASING THE SENSITIVITY OF CHOLINERGIC RECEPTORS TO ACETYLCHOLINE. ... TETANY IS NEVER THE FIRST SIGN IN ACUTE FLUORIDE POISONING; IT MAY NOT APPEAR FOR SEVERAL HOURS AND SOMETIMES NOT AT ALL, IN SPITE OF SEVERE HYPOCALCEMIA. [Gosselin, R.E., R.P. Smith, H.C. Hodge. Clinical Toxicology of Commercial Products. 5th ed. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins, 1984.,p. III 187]
Ref: TOXNET profile from Hazardous Substances Data Bank for AMMONIUM FLUORIDE
http://www.fluoridealert.org/pesticides/Ammonium.fluoride.TOXNET.htm

• Tetany:   [n]  clinical neurological syndrome characterized by muscular twitching and cramps and (when severe) seizures; associated with calcium deficiency (hypoparathyroidism) or vitamin D deficiency or alkalosis