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  Background and Aim: There are some traces of fluorine in people's diet and drinking water is its most important means of absorption. The standard 1053 of Iran Standard Institute and Industrial Research recommends the amount of fluorine in water between 0.6 and 1.7 mg/L, depending on temperature. This study was done to determine the amount of fluorine in drinking-water sources of the South Khorasan.

  Materials and Methods: In this descriptive and analytical study, different samples of drinking water taken from the water sources in cities and villages of the South Khorasan during one year were analyzed by means of a Spectrophotometr set in a laboratory. The obtained data was statistically analyzed using SPSS software (version 11) at the significant level α=0.05

  Results: Out of 314 samples, 46.8% were from urban areas and 53.2 % from rural areas. Mean fluorine concentration in the drinking water of the South Khorasan was 0.5208 ± 0.24 mg/L , but mean fluorine in the drinking water of urban areas was 0.4482 ± 0.15 mg/L and that of rural areas 0.5847 ± 0.27 mg/L. Thus, there was a significant difference between the amount of fluorine in cities and villages (P<0.001). Regarding the kinds of the sources, water-wells with 0.5519 ± 0.23 mg/L had the most amount of fluorine and fountains with 0.3333 ± 0.22 mg/L had the least amount. Birjand city with the average of 0.4790 ± 0.24 mg/L had the least amount of fluorine and Qayen with 0.5958 ± 0.21 mg/L had the most amount of fluorine.

  Conclusion: The amount of fluorine in all water sources of South Khorasan is lower than the recommended minimum value, so it is an urgent necessity to try to solve the problem.