Tens of millions of Chinese are being poisoned by unsafe levels of fluoride and arsenic in drinking water, despite decades of official efforts to improve supplies, state media say. Elevated fluoride levels were found in the water in more than 1,000 counties across the country at the end of 2013, according to Gao Yanhui, Expert at the National Center for Endemic Disease Control. Nearly 21 million people suffered diseases caused by excessive exposure, such as skeletal fluorosis, and 87 million people were at risk nationwide. Henan province was the most acutely affected. Arsenic poisoning was another concern, with about 600,000 people in 131 counties in about half of all provinces affected. Excessive iodine intake due to poor drinking water had put 30 million people at risk of goiter, a figure little changed from a decade ago, when nationwide research put the number at 30.98 million. The central government had spent hundreds of billions of yuan over the past decade on improving drinking water in rural areas, but local governments were still short of funds to continue the work, the South China Morning Post reports.