| By Dr. Roger D. Masters and Myron Coplan I. The Problem During the last two decades, evidence has accumulated that the interaction of environmental pollution, poor diet, and lifestyle contributes to the exceptionally high rates of violent crime in many American cities. Lead intoxication, even at low levels, correlates with aggressive behavior as well as learning disabilities. Manganese, a toxin that at high levels of exposure contributes to Parkinsonism, has also been linked to violent behavior (especially thanks to research by the Violence Research Foundation). Effects of lead and manganese interact, moreover, so that individuals exposed to both show stronger effects than those exposed to either one alone. Alcohol and drug use, often associated with violent crime, increase the deleterious effects of toxic metals through complex biochemical interactions at the cellular level. These chemicals compromise the serotonin, dopamine, and other neurotransmitter systems that are integral to self-control due to their effects in lowering thresholds for violent behavior. Environmental pollution does not impact everyone equally. Brain cells absorb toxic metals when diets are low in calcium, iron, zinc, Vitamin D, and other essential nutrients. Prenatal exposure to lead and alcohol can result in premature or low weight births, small head circumferences and learning or behavioral deficits. Bottle-feeding with commercial formulas, especially soy exposes infants to four or five times as much manganese uptake as breast milk, a finding that suggests why studies show breast fed infants have IQ scores 2 to 8 points higher than comparable babies fed infant formula. In addition to direct effects of poor diet on children's behavior, nutritional deficits thus probably combine with exposure to toxic metals to increase the likelihood of attention deficit disorder (ADD), hyperactivity, and other learning deficits. In addition, because the problems of poverty and broken families often co-vary with inadequate diet, housing with lead paint, and aging water systems, as well as inadequate prenatal health care, high rates of bottle feeding, and exposure to industrial pollution, poor urban populations are at risk for neurotoxicity in multiple ways. The neurotoxicity hypothesis is strongly grounded in findings from a number of laboratory studies and observations of human behavior. In seven different groups of prison inmates, violent criminals had substantially higher levels of lead or manganese in their hair than nonviolent criminals or law-abiding controls. Otherwise puzzling geographical differences in rates of violent crime in the U.S. are highly correlated with environmental pollution and death rates from alcoholism. Counties in which the EPA did not report industrial releases of either lead or manganese, and where alcoholism was lower than average, had a rate of 228 violent crimes per 100,000 people (well under the national average). In contrast, counties with industrial releases of lead and manganese and higher than average alcoholism had rates of violent crime of 969 per 100,000 (three times above the national average). (The statistics linking differences in the rate of violent crime to lead, to manganese, and to alcoholism would each occur by chance less than once per 10,000 times.) Controlling for 17 other factors, including population density, poverty, and ethnic composition, the three sources of neurotoxicity are significantly associated with violent crime. II. Current Research With the support of a grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, current work is exploring a number of ways that toxic pollution affects the public. Data from a number of surveys of children's blood lead are being combined with socio-economic and demographic data from the US Census Bureau, health data from the Center of Disease Control, pollution data from the EPA, and crime data from the FBI. Our research has considered the extent to which lead is being absorbed by humans due to: a) water treatment procedures b) industrial releases of lead and other toxins c) plumbing systems, leaded paint, and other sources of lead associated with old housing d) other sources, such as lead residues in soil, that are particularly common in the center of some American cities e) dietary habits (such as shortages of calcium and iron) and demographic factors (such as poverty, stress, and minority ethnicity) which are known to be associated with increased risk of lead uptake In addition, we have analyzed annual crime rates to show that the ban on leaded gasoline rates appears to have led to a decline in violent crime rates after 1991. (The time delay of 17 years between reductions in sales of leaded gas and rates of violence indicates that, for the particulate lead in such gas exhaust, the serious effects were apparently during fetal development and the first year of life.) In addition,geographical variations in lead levels in children's blood are being studied as a factor that might explain rates of crime, educational failure and disease that are unusually high. We have also been considering "risk co-factors" that make lead and other toxic metals in the environment more dangerous to local residents. Here our emphasis has been on the use of silicofluorides as agents in water treatment. There are two reasons for this focus. First, both fluosilicic acid and sodium silicofluoride are toxins that are used in water delivered to 140 million Americans even though the EPA has admitted that their effects on health and behavior have never been studied. German research has revealed that these chemicals do not dissociate completely when added to water -- and both leave potentially toxic residues that have important chemical effects. In studying the correlations between the use of these chemicals and crime, disease, and behavioral dysfunction, we seek to establish clearly whether or not these compounds are poisoning the public. Second, the silicofluorides apparently function to increase the cellular uptake of lead and other toxic metals, such as manganese; confirming correlations between silicofluorides and lead uptake should thus clarify the extent to which these compounds are risk cofactors for toxicity and other hazardous effects. III. Results to date Our analysis of blood lead data from Massachusetts, New York State, and the NHANES National Sample has revealed several important findings that concern violent behavior as well as other health issues. 1. Communities with a higher percentage of children having blood lead over 10 mg/dL are significantly more likely to have higher rates of violent crime and higher rates of educational failure. 2. Communities using either fluosilicic acid (H2SiF6) or sodium silicofluoride (NaSiF6) have significantly higher rates of crime than those using sodium fluoride or delivering unfluoridated water (with the exception of towns with naturally fluoridated water). 3. The use of fluosilicic acid (H2SiF6) to fluoridate public water supplies significantly increases the amounts of lead in the water (whereas the use of sodium silicofluoride (NaSiF6) or sodium fluoride (NaF) does not. 4. There is no linear relationship between the amount of lead in a community's public water supply (as measured by current methods of determining "90th percentile first draw water lead") and the rates of violent or property crime. IV. Implications If these research hypotheses are confirmed, it should be possible to target both criminal and civil environmental enforcement strategies in a way that produces major public health benefits by reducing exposure and absorption of lead pollution and thereby reducing violent crime, learning disorders. and such diseases as hypertension. In the past, questions have been raised about the need to regulate industrial releases of lead and some have doubted that chronic exposure to low levels of lead pollution actually harm humans. Other efforts, such as the removal of leaded paint from old houses, have also been subjected to criticism on the grounds that they actually release more lead into the environment. Evidence from our research supports efforts to remove lead from the environment and indicates ways their effectiveness could be improved. In addition, our studies suggest some relatively inexpensive non-enforcement interventions, such as ending or modifying water fluoridation procedures using silicofluorides. For all these reasons, environmental protection will be greatly enhanced by the acquisition of more comprehensive evidence of how environmental sources of lead and the risk cofactors for lead uptake are correlated with disease, crime, and behavioral dysfunction. The neurotoxicity hypothesis implies the benefits of a biomedical and dietary approach to educational failure, crime, and social deviance. Studies show IQ increases of as much as 15 points among children with poor diets who are given vitamin supplements. Removal of lead ("chelation") and other methods of biochemical normalization have also been found to improve behavior and learning. High lead uptake is often a factor among children who are hyperactive (ADHD). As a result, instead of using Ritalin to treat ADHD, specialists at the Pfeiffer Treatment Center in Illinois have found that treatments to reduce levels of lead and other toxins provide lasting improvement without medication. Other studies indicate that the successes of Head Start may have been in good part to its nutritional component. Because many children do not continue to benefit from balanced diets after Head Start, poor nutrition may explain the frequently observed declines in educational performance after these programs have been completed. Interventions such as good neonatal care, breast-feeding, vitamin supplements, and school lunches might therefore improve educational performance, as well as reduce violence and social disintegration. The neurotoxicity hypothesis provides a new and potentially crucial dimension to accepted theories of crime. Factors like poverty, population density, social disintegration, race, easy access to guns, and violence on TV are obviously important contributors to violence, yet they do not effect everyone the same way. Studies of the behavioral impact of heavy metals can increase our knowledge of why these factors influence some individuals more than others. Crime prevention, better systems for screening prison inmates for potential violence, and cost-effective parole or probation options are all attractive. At the same time, the implications of the neurotoxicity hypothesis for our social, education, and legal systems are enormous. This approach does not excuse crime on the grounds of biochemistry. If poor diet and alcoholism contribute to learning disabilities and crime, this information ought to have the same status as knowing that drinking and driving do not mix. Given advances in neuroscience, dare we ignore the behavioral effects of neurotoxicity when this knowledge promises more effective crime prevention -- and perhaps also more effective rehabilitation -- than current methods? Publications on Silicofluorides, Neurotoxicity, and Behavior Masters, R,, Hone, B, and Doshi, A. (1998). "Environmental Pollution, Neurotoxicity, and Criminal Violence," in J. Rose, ed., Environmental Toxicology: Current Developments (London: Gordon and Breach, 1998), pp. 13-48. Survey of evidence linking lead and manganese neurotoxicity to aggressive behavior and crime, presenting multivariate analysis correlating Toxic Release Inventory for lead and manganese with crime data for 1991 from all 3141 US counties Emphasizes effects of heavy metals on neurotransmitter function and behavior. Masters, Roger D., with Baldwin Way, Brian T. Hone, David J. Grelotti, David Gonzalez, and David Jones (1998) "Neurotoxicity and Violence," Vermont Law Review, 22:358-382. Legal implications of the evidence linking neurotoxicity and crime (including data from Toxic Release Inventory and crime for partial sample of US counties) Masters, R. and Coplan, M. (1999a) "Water Treatment with Silicofluorides and Lead Toxicity," International Journal of Environmental Studies, 56: 435-49 First published analysis of data linking silicofluoride treatment of public water supplies with higher uptake of lead, focused on survey of children's blood lead in Massachusetts (by town). Masters, R. and Coplan, M. (1999b) "A Dynamic, Multifactorial Model of Alcohol, Drug Abuse, and Crime: Linking Neuroscience and Behavior to Toxicology," Social Science Information, 38:591-624. Articulation of the linkages between neurotoxicity, brain chemistry, environmental pollution, and behavior (with focus on substance abuse and crime), using data from National Institute of Justice study of drug use in over 30,000 criminal offenders at time of arrest). Data show that where silicofluorides are in use, criminals are more likely to consume alcohol, more likely to have used cocaine at time of arrest - and that communities have significantly higher crime rates. Coplan, M.J. And Masters, R.D. (1999). "Is Silicofluoride Safe? Comments Re EPA Response to Rep. Calvert's Inquiry" Submission to Representative Kenneth Calvert, Subcommittee on Energy and Science, Committee on Science, U. S. House of Representative (August 12, 1999). Analysis and rejoinder to letter dated 12 June 1999 from J. Charles Fox, Assistant Administrator, EPA, to Hon.Kenneth Calvert, U. S. House of Representative, commenting on errors and omissions in a "Question and Answer" statement and "Fluorosilicate Fact Sheet" enclosed by Mr. Fox. This document contains a preliminary review of scientific data on the differences between sodium fluoride (NaF) and the silicofluorides (H2SiF6 and Na2SiF6), with an emphasis on the complex production process and chemical interactions of the latter compounds. Masters, R. D. and Coplan, M. J., with Hone, B.T., Grelotti, D. J., Gonzalez, D. and Jones, D. (in press). "Brain Biochemistry and the Violence Epidemic: Toward a 'Win-Win' Strategy for Reducing Crime," in Stuart Nagel, ed., Super-Optimizing Examples Across Public Policy Problems (NOVA Science Publishers) (in press). Review of the evidence linking neurotoxicity and crime, using data from both county-level study (correlating EPA Toxic Release Inventory with FBI crime reports ) and Massachusetts data on silicofluorides and lead uptake. Masters, RD and Coplan, M.J. (1999c). "The Triune Brain, the Environment, and Human Behavior: Hommage to Paul MacLean," to appear in Russell Gardner, ed. Festschrift in Honor of Paul MacLean . First presented at Back Bay Hilton Hotel, Boston, Mass. - July 16, 1999; volume publication anticipated 2002-3. Survey of research on neurotoxicity, brain chemistry and behavior, including evidence of the role of lead and other heavy metal pollution and crime (as demonstrated by individual data, neurochemistry, and both geographic and longitudinal data} as well as survey of data linking silicofluorides to enhanced lead uptake. First presentation of findings on the extremely high correlation (r = .90) between gallons of leaded gasoline sold and the crime rates sixteen years later, confirming special vulnerability of pregnant mothers and newborns to lead toxicity. Masters, RD, Coplan, M. J., Hone, B.T., And Dykes, J.E. (2000)."Association of Silicofluoride Treated Water with Elevated Blood Lead," Neurotoxicology 21: 101-1100. Follow-up epidemiological study of the association between silicofluoride treated community water and enhanced child blood lead parameters. This statistical study of 151,225 venous blood lead (VBL) tests taken from children ages 0-6 inclusive, living in 105 communities with populations from 15,000 to 75,000 in New York state, shows for every age and racial group a significant association between siliocfluoride treated community water and elevated blood lead. Roger D. Masters (2001) "Biology and Politics," in Nelson W. Polsby, ed., Annual Review of Political Science, vol. 4, PP. 345-369. A survey of the scope of the emerging subfield called "biopolitics," reflecting the activities of the membership of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences. Four areas are discussed in some detail: 1). genetics and health 2), toxins and behavior (including hyperactivity, depression, and violent crime) 3) the specific case of silicofluorides in water treatment and their effect in enhancing lead uptake 4) biopolitics and political theory. Note: one-time e-print available.
Web-site: Overall site for Roger Masters' research:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rmasters/ Address for research (with M. J. Coplan) on health and behavioral effects of silicofluorides:
http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rmasters/ahabs.htm Presentations to Scientific Conferences: Masters, RD and Coplan, M.J. "Silicofluoride Usage and Lead Uptake," Presentation to XXIInd Conference of the International Society for Fluoride Research, Bellingham, Washington, August 24-27, 1998. Report on findings of elevated blood lead associated with communities using silicofluoride, based on sample of over 250,000 children in Massachusetts (see Masters and Coplan, 1999a) Masters, RD and Coplan, M.J. "The Triune Brain, the Environment, and Human Behavior," Presentation to Festschrift in Honor of Paul MacLean . Back Bay Hilton Hotel, Boston, Mass. - July 16, 1999 (see Masters and Coplan, 1999c). Masters, R. D. . "Poisoning the Well: Neurotoxic Metals, Water Treatment and Human Behavior," Plenary address to Annual Conference of the Association for Politics and the Life Sciences," Four Seasons Hotel, Atlanta, GA (September 2, 1999). Review of evidence linking heavy metal pollution with substance abuse and crime, including presentation of data linking ban on sales of leaded gasoline with decline in crime 16 years later. Summary of geographical data analyses contradicting the "null hypothesis" that there is no difference in the effects of sodium fluoride and the silicofluorides. Coplan, M. J., Masters, R. D., and Hone, B. (1999a) "Silicofluoride Usage, Tooth Decay and Children's Blood Lead," Poster presentation to Conference on "Environmental Influences on Children: Brain, Development and Behavior, New York Academy of Medicine, Mt. Sinai Hospital, New York, May 24-25, 1999. Preliminary report on data from analysis of national sample of over 4,000 children in NHANES III, showing that while water fluoridation is associated with a significant increase in children's blood lead (with especially strong effects among minority children), data on tooth decay from the same survey show limited benefits that are no longer evident among those aged 15-17. Coplan, M.J., Masters, RD, and Hone, B. (1999b) "Association of Silicofluoride Treated Water with Elevated Blood Lead," Poster presentation to 17th International Nerotoxicology Conference, Little Rock, AR, October 17 Preliminary report on data from analysis of sample of blood lead testing of over 150,000 children in New York State communities of 15,000 to 75,000 population. Once again, average blood lead levels were significantly higher (p < .0001) in communities using silicofluorides in water treatment than in those with unfluoridated water. The effect was found independently in every age group for three ethnic subsamples.
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