The emission of fluoride gases, particles or fluoridric acid is commonly observed in industries that submit terrigenous materials to high temperatures, such as in the ceramic industry. Unusual abnormalities in leaves of adult plants that have been suspected to be fluorine toxicity have been observed in corn experiments carried out in the Center of Agricultural Sciences of the Federal University of São Carlos, Araras, SP, Brazil. The symptoms in the corn leaves started as discolouring of internerval cells of completed developed leaves followed by marginal burning of its tips. The objectives of this work was to evaluate the amount of fluorine (F) in corn leaves with injury symptoms, probably from airborne fluorides nearby a ceramic industry, and to verify differences among corn cultivars for the symptoms severity. Leaf analysis in samples collected in corn plants growing 350 and 1.000 m far from a ceramic industry confirmed fluorine concentration as high as four times the normal, ranging from 126 to 160 mg kg-1. Although the genotypes in those two experimental fields showed distinct reactions, it was not possible to correlate any reduction in production with severity of symptoms.
clorosis; visual diagnosis; leaf analysis; grains yield
