{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2025,11,7]],"date-time":"2025-11-07T09:42:21Z","timestamp":1762508541267,"version":"build-2065373602"},"reference-count":57,"publisher":"MDPI AG","issue":"12","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,9]],"date-time":"2021-06-09T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1623196800000},"content-version":"vor","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"https:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0\/"}],"content-domain":{"domain":[],"crossmark-restriction":false},"short-container-title":["Water"],"abstract":"<jats:p>Excessive ingestion of fluoride through the consumption of F\u2212-rich drinking water could cause adverse effects to human health. For this reason, the WHO has fixed 1.5 mg\/L as the maximum F- concentration for drinking water. In this work, a detailed geochemical characterization was performed to define the source of natural pollution of two groundwaters (samples Pc and Bg) coming from deep crystalline aquifers located in the Calabria region (southern Italy) and to define and optimize the most appropriate water treatment strategy. The samples were classified as a F\u2212 enriched NaHCO3 type of water. In particular, the F\u2212 concentrations observed were 30 mg\/L and 8.9 mg\/L for the Pc and Bg samples, respectively. Based on the acquired geochemical characterization knowledge, the groundwaters were treated by two thin-film composite NF membranes, namely SPR 10113 and SPR 10114 which have so far not been used for water defluoridation. It was found that the SPR 10114 membrane was able to guarantee water permeates with F\u2212 contents lower than the threshold value of 1.5 mg\/L for both treated waters, whereas the fluoride content remained above the threshold value when the Pc sample was treated using the SPR 10113 membrane. The obtained permeates were characterized by a low ionic load and were not suitable for long-term consumption as drinking water. However, all of the produced waters did not need any further re-mineralizing processes for agricultural irrigation or other purposes.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.3390\/w13121626","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,9]],"date-time":"2021-06-09T22:18:29Z","timestamp":1623277109000},"page":"1626","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.3390\/mdpi_crossmark_policy","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":15,"title":["Fluoride Polluted Groundwaters in Calabria Region (Southern Italy): Natural Source and Remediation"],"prefix":"10.3390","volume":"13","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0003-0740-3710","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Ilaria","family":"Fuoco","sequence":"first","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences (DiBEST), University of Calabria, P. Bucci street, cubo 15b\u201387036 Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-4295-1897","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Carmine","family":"Apollaro","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences (DiBEST), University of Calabria, P. Bucci street, cubo 15b\u201387036 Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-7014-657X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alessandra","family":"Criscuoli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute on Membrane Technology (ITM-CNR), P. Bucci street, cubo 17\/C\u201387036 Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy"}]},{"given":"Rosanna","family":"De Rosa","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Department of Biology, Ecology and Earth Sciences (DiBEST), University of Calabria, P. Bucci street, cubo 15b\u201387036 Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9446-0897","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Svetlozar","family":"Velizarov","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Associated Laboratory for Green Chemistry\u2014Clean Technologies and Processes (LAQV), REQUIMTE, Chemistry Department, FCT, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 2829-516 Caparica, Portugal"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-3347-0506","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Alberto","family":"Figoli","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[{"name":"Institute on Membrane Technology (ITM-CNR), P. Bucci street, cubo 17\/C\u201387036 Arcavacata di Rende, CS, Italy"}]}],"member":"1968","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2021,6,9]]},"reference":[{"key":"ref_1","doi-asserted-by":"crossref","unstructured":"Edmunds, W.M., and Smedley, P.L. (2013). Fluoride in natural waters. 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