EPA/FDA No Safety Standards
sources
of fluoride exposure
What is wrong with fluoridation?
Follow the money
Agriculture
and Pharmaceuticals
FLUORINE IN THE LIFE SCIENCE INDUSTRY
CHIMIA 2004, 58, No. 3
Chimia 58 (2004) 93-99
© Schweizerische Chemische Gesellschaft
ISSN 0009-4293
The Importance of Fluorine in the Life
Science Industry
Peter Maienfisch* and Roger G. Hall
Abstract: Fluorine-containing compounds
are at the leading edge of many new developments in the
life science industry. In recent years a steady increase
in the number of fluorinated organic molecules reaching
commercial status as crop protection products and pharmaceutical
drugs has been observed: in 1978, ca. 600 pesticides were
known, but only approximately 25 (4%) contained fluorine.
Today, fluorine-containing compounds account for more than
17% of all commercially available crop protection agents
and many others are currently under development. The structures
of the fluorine-containing development compounds proposed
for ISO common names between 1997 and 2002 are highlighted
in this paper. In the pharmaceutical area around 220 fluorinated
drugs were on the market in 1990, representing ca. 8% of
all synthetic drugs. Six years later already more than 1500
fluorine-containing drugs were under development. Fluorine-containing
compounds have also been successful in the marketplace,
such as the insecticides fipronil and lambda-cyhalothrin,
the fungicides epoxiconazole and trifloxystrobin, the herbicides
trifluralin and clodinafop, and the pharmaceutical blockbusters
Fluoxetine (Prozac?), Paroxetine (Paxil?), Ciprofloxacin
(Cipro?) and Cisaprid (Propulsid?). This success is mainly
due to the fact that selectively fluorinated compounds can
exhibit dramatically improved potency when compared to the
non-fluorinated analogues. The incorporation of fluorine
into a biologically active compound alters the electronic,
lipophilic and steric parameters and can critically increase
the intrinsic activity, the chemical and metabolic stability,
and the bioavailability. The positive effects of fluorine
on the biological efficiency is outlined by three examples:
in the chemical class of herbicidal thiatriazines, the presence
or the absence of fluorine leads to dramatic effects on
the biological activity; the metabolic stability and the
pharmacokinetics of aminopyrazinone acetamide thrombin inhibitors
were improved by the introduction of fluorine, and in a
novel class of insecticides/acaricides any modification
of the gem-difluorovinyl group results in a strong decrease
of biological activity.
Keywords: Aminopyrazinone acetamides ?
Biological activity ? Crop-protection agents ? Development
compounds ? gem-Difluorovinyl derivatives ? Fluorine ? Fluorine-containing
compounds ? Pharmaceutical drugs ? Thiatriazines
http://www.chimia.ch/issues/toc/0403/C2080_Maienfisch.pdf
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The American
Water Works Association (AWWA) is an international
nonprofit scientific and educational society dedicated
to the improvement of drinking water quality and supply.

Producer members, such as
Cargill, Chemtek
and Kaiser
Aluminum and Lucier
(LCI) have significant interest in fluoride.As with
any pollution control operation, it is highly desirable
for the operator of the fluorine scrubbing operation
to find a use or market for
the recovered fluorine to help defray at least
partially the cost of the operation.
The following letter outlines the
EPA 'solution' to this "long standing problem"


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