[The monitoring of the level of body fluoride intake in children participating in 3 milk fluoridation projects in Russia].
In Russia three milk fluoridation projects have been implemented since 1994 (cities Smolensk, Voronezh and Maykop) covering more than 10,000 children living in low fluoride areas and having high risk of caries development both in temporary and permanent dentitions. Both preliminary and monitoring studies of fluoride excretion with urine and fluoride consumption were done. Total number of subjects--663 children 3-6-years of age attending kindergartens in these three cities; 2602 urine samples were collected, twice analyzed for fluoride content and processed in accordance with the method approved by the Russian Ministry of Health. 24-month monitoring of milk fluoridation projects in Russia did really show and confirm three main facts: the concentration of fluoride 2.5 mg/l in F-milk products for children 2-6 year-olds in low fluoride areas of Russia is really optimal concentration when daily milk consumption is about 200 ml; there is no such phenomena as detectable accumulation of metabolic fluoride under physiological conditions even after 2 years of regular fluoridated milk consumption; developed technique of fluoride consumption determination proved to be a very useful tool for planning and monitoring preventive programmes based on systemic use of fluoride.