The Social Implications of Neuroscience:

Linking Brain Biochemistry and Violent Crime

Roger D. Masters (Dartmouth College)·

THIS FILE IS A DRAFT OF THE CHAPTER WITH THIS TITLE IN:

Richard W. Bloom and Nancy Dess, eds., Evolutionary Psychology and Violence: A Primer for Policymakers and Public Policy Advocates (Westport: Praeger, 2003), pp. 23-56.

ABSTRACT

It is impossible to deny that a revolution in neuroscience and other areas of biology has taken place over the last half-century.  The  estimates of 83 million Americans taking drugs like Prozac for depression and 11 million children on Ritalin for hyperactivity indicate it is time to reconsider the role of brain chemistry in social behavior and violent behavior.  Since it is obvious that loss of impulse control can contribute to violent outbursts – and evidence shows that some toxic chemicals (such as lead) can have this effect, it is time to consider neuroscientific evidence linking environmental toxins and rates of violent behavior.  To illustrate the implications of the new issues involved, I focus on a hitherto unexplored example.  Two chemicals (H₂SiF₆ and Na₂SiF₆, jointly called “silicofluorides” or SiFs) are used to treat public water supplies of 140 million Americans even though, as the EPA has admitted, they never been tested for safety.  To illustrate the interdisciplinary complexities entailed when linking brain chemistry to policy decisions concerning violent crime, our argument has four main stages: first, why might SiFs be dangerous? Second, what biochemical effects of SiF could have toxic consequences for humans?  Third, on this basis a research hypothesis is formulated to measure the types of harm.  In this case, we predict children in communities using SiF should have increased uptake of lead from environmental sources and higher rates of behavioral dysfunctions such as hyperactivity (ADHD) known to be caused by lead neurotoxicity.  Finally, the hypothesis is tested using multiple sources of data including rates of violent crime studied using a variety of multivariate statistical techniques (including analysis of variance, multiple regression, and stepwise regression).  As this outline should make clear, a combination of interdisciplinary perspectives and great prudence is needed to link research in neuroscience to policies concerning violent crime,  If confirmed, however, the potential benefits of hypotheses like the one tested below may be great, revealing the generally unsuspected value of including neuroscientific research in the analysis of human social behavior.

Requests for reprints and correspondence should be directed to:
Prof. Roger D. Masters, Department of Government, HB 6222,
Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH 03755.
Email: Roger.D.Masters@Dartmouth.edu

The full version of the above is on the net,

and as the above suggests adding silicofluorides

to drinking water amounts to domestic terrorism.

Joining_the_Dots_on_Australian_Fluoridation_Fraud

LEAD POISONING AT MOUNT ISA

AND FLUORIDATION

A new study has suggested one child develops lead poisoning

every nine days in the northwest Queensland mining

city of Mount Isa.

“…There are about 400 children born every year in Mount Isa and about 11 per cent of those children, according to the last blood lead study, have a blood lead level in excess of the current acceptable guideline value…”

The Environmental Protection Agency states on their website that exposure to lead in water that is being consumed above the action level, or 15 parts per Billion, can result in delays in physical and mental development in children, anemia, and muscle problems. In adults, it can cause increases in blood pressure and, eventually with heavy exposure, the development of kidney problems or nerve disorders.

For every 17 micrograms of lead in your body, your IQ is reduced by 10 points!

More: http://www.naturalnews.com/033122_garden_hoses_lead.html#ixzz1TusKP1ey

Read on …  

Read the rest of this entry »

Water Treatment With Silicofluorides And Lead Toxicity

Authors: Roger D. Masters and Myron J. Coplan

www.dartmouth.edu/~rmasters

(Roger D. Masters – Research Professor -Nelson A. Rockefeller Professor of Government, Emeritus Dartmouth College)

Abstract:

Toxic metals like lead, manganese, copper and cadmium damage neurons

and deregulateneurotransmitters like serotonin and dopamine

which are essential to normal impulse control and learning.

Earlier studies show that — controlling for socio-economic and demographic factors — environmental pollution with lead is a highly significant risk factor in predicting higher rates of crime, attention deficit disorder or hyperactivity, and learning disabilities. Exposure and uptake of lead has been associated with industrial pollution, leaded paint and plumbing systems in old housing, lead residues in soil, dietary habits (such as shortages of calcium and iron), and demographic factors (such as poverty, stress, and minority ethnicity). We report here on an additional “risk co-factor” making lead and other toxic metals in the environment more dangerous to local residents: the use of silicofluorides as agents in water treatment. The two chemicals in question — fluosilicic acid and sodium silicofluoride — are toxins that, despite claims to the contrary, do not dissociate completely and change water chemistry when used under normal water treatment practices. As a result, water treatment with siliconfluorides apparently functions to increase the cellular uptake of lead. Data from lead screening of over 280,000 children in Massachusetts indicates that silicofluoride usage is associated with significant increases in average lead in children’s blood as well as percentage of children with blood lead in excess of 10μg/dL. Consistent with the hypothesized role of silicofluorides as enhancing uptake of lead whatever the source of exposure, children are especially at risk for higher blood lead in those communities with more old housing or lead in excess of 15 ppb in first draw water samples where silicofluorides are also in use. Preliminary findings from county-level data in Georgia confirm that silicofluoride usage is associated with higher levels of lead in children’s blood. In both Massachusetts and Georgia, moreover, behaviors associated with lead nurotoxicity are more frequent in communities using silicofluorides than in comparable localities that do not use these chemicals. Because there has been insufficient animal or human testing of silicofluoride treated water, further study of the effect of silicofluorides is needed to clarify the extent to which these chemicals are risk co-factors for lead uptake and the hazardous effects it produces.

Keywords: Lead; toxicity; pollution; children’s health; public water supplies

see also: http://www.waterloowatch.com/hydrofluorosilicic%20acid.html

Click button below ↓ to record you vote.

FLUORIDE AND LEAD

by Frances Frech

Originally presented at a State Lead Commission hearing in
Hannibal, Missouri in 1994

All of the fluoride products used in the artificial fluoridation of water

are contaminated with lead and arsenic.

(We received the evidence from Margaret Stasikowski,

an official with the EPA, in the form of copies of pages from Water Chemicals

Codex, National Academy Press, Washington, DC, 1982.)

.

The lead contamination is considered the most serious so we’ll deal with that one rather than with both substances. Lead is creating the most concern today we’ll go into the arsenic angle in a later paper.

So how does the tainting occur? In the matter of the fluosilicates (such as hydrofluosilicic acid);

the most commonly used fluoride substances in community water systems, this is the story:

The fluosilicates are the by-products of the phosphate fertilizer industry. In the manufacture of this kind of fertilizer, phosphorus is obtained from phosphate rock, which has to be broken down with sulfuric acid.

(1) Fluorine occurs naturally in combination with the phosphates.

(2) In these two facts lie the keys to the presence of lead in the fluosilicates.

Step One: Sulfuric acid is prepared by either of two ways, the lead chamber process

(3) or the contact method.

(4) In its purest form (made by the contact method) it is used in pharmaceuticals; in its lowest grade (produced by the lead chamber process) it is used by the fertilizer industry.

(5) It is also frequently recovered for re-use, but this form is too impure for any purpose except the manufacture of fertilizer, for which it is quite suitable.

(6) In the lead chamber process purification is carried out only to the extent of removing substances that could clog the machinery.

(7) Of the common metals, only lead is resistant to cold sulfuric acid in concentrations up to 100%. But in hot acid the resistance is up to about 70%.

(8) The lead chamber type uses heat (about 600 C) and isn’t cooled during the process. That’s why a certain amount of lead is leached during this procedure.

If a pure product is needed, the contact method is used, but it’s more expensive, more complicated. In the making of fertilizer, however, a pure grade is not necessary. After all, neither fertilizer nor its by-products were intended for human consumption.

Step Two: Fluorine, which is a highly reactive element capable of joining with any other element except oxygen, is able to leach lead from the contaminated sulfuric acid. In the past hydrofluosilicic acid was simply neutralized and discarded. The picking up of lead wouldn’t have been a problem. But eventually it was decided that the acid, being already in solution, would be better, simpler to use, and less expensive than sodium fluoride.

(9) The lead contamination, apparently, was forgotten (if, indeed, it had ever been noticed.)

Sodium fluoride is also lead-tainted (and with arsenic, as well.) Aluminum ore (bauxite) is usually contaminated with lead and arsenic (and a number of other elements.) In order to obtain a pure product, these have to be removed.

(10) They become part of the major by-product of aluminum refining, sodium fluoride.

Another way in which fluoridation contributes to lead in the water is through its action on whatever lead pipes may still be in existence in older homes. Any lead pipes would be old lead. These are ordinarily covered by a protective coating made by the lead itself which is impervious to diluted acids (as all of them would be in water.) Water acts slowly on lead, forming lead hydroxide, but the action is slight if the water contains carbon dioxide or carbonates or sulfates which interact with lead to form these protective coatings.

(11) It’s interesting that the lead pipes in Roman aqueducts, 2000 years old, are still in such good shape the numbers and letters engraved on them are clearly legible.

(12) In fluoridated water, though, it’s a different matter. Fluorine can and does destroy the protective coatings; it can and does leach lead.

A pediatrics textbook published in 1964

(13) noted that the incidence of lead poisoning had been rising in certain metropolitan areas in Eastern United States. The blame was laid on old lead paint flaking from walls and woodwork. But most of the lead chips were old before 1964; some children chewed them long before then. But a new source of lead had arisen–unnoticed: The fluoridation of water, with lead-contaminated fluoride, a substance also capable of leaching lead from the pipes. Although there were scattered places fluoridating throughout the nation, larger numbers of eastern metropolitan communities were doing so.

Today one in nine children under the age of six is said to have unacceptably high blood lead levels

(14) even though lead paint was banned in 1978 (and hadn’t been used extensively since the 1950′s!) Lead in gasoline has been phased out, and lead solder hasn’t been permitted on copper tubing since 1986 (eight years ago.) The EPA says that lead stabilizes in five years. So except for fluoride use, any pipes, whether of lead or lead-soldered, should not now be hazardous. The most revealing statistics, though, are the high blood lead levels in 400,000 newborns each year. Newsweek in its article on lead and the threat to children

(15) said that pregnant women passed this toxic substance to their unborn children by eating, drinking, or breathing it. But even though pregnant women do sometimes have weird cravings, it’s not likely more than a tiny percentage would be chewing paint chips, nor would a significant number of them be engaged in renovating old houses. The lead is in the water–and in foods and beverages prepared with the water.

The EPA estimates that 10-20% of the lead in children comes from the water.

(16) That agency, which knows of the lead contamination of fluoride products, insists the amount is too small to be of regulatory concern. What they have overlooked, though, is that it concentrates in the body tissues, and over time, would add up to quite a lot. In addition, it becomes concentrated in products processed with the water. The 10-20% directly from the water can easily become three or four times as much.

The EPA lists as health problems caused by lead the following conditions: Interference with formation of red blood cells, anemia, kidney damage, impaired reproductive function, interference with Vitamin D metabolism, impaired cognitive performance, delayed neurological and physical development, elevations in blood pressure. (17) The agency also suggests lead my be a carcinogen, possibly causing kidney tumors and lymphocytic leukemia.

(18) Furthermore, it’s a known scientific fact that lead poisons the bone marrow.

(19) Surely, then, it would be prudent to avoid even “a little bit of lead,” assuming that’s all fluoridation contributes.

But the evidence shows it’s much more than that. Let us tell you a tale of two cities–Tacoma, Washington, and Thurmont, Maryland. Both of them saw significant decline in lead levels only six months after fluoridation was stopped. (In Tacoma, that was due to equipment problems, in Thurmont, it was a temporary ban by the city council.) Tacoma registered a drop of nearly 50%

(20); in Thurmont it was 78%.

(21) To the best of our knowledge, no other explanations were offered. In Thurmont the ban is now permanent. (22) In Tacoma, we’re told, a battle continues over whether or not to resume fluoridating.

We have more points to add. As we’ve already mentioned, the EPA says that lead may be implicated in causing leukemia. A booklet published by the Leukemia Society in 1987 noted that chemicals which damage the bone marrow can cause leukemia. The Book of Popular Science, 1974, pointed out that bone marrow is poisoned by lead.

(23) Are we to believe, then, nothing is wrong with putting a little bit of lead into the water (from which it will also enter, more concentrated, food and beverages prepared with the water?)

The EPA permits lead-contaminated fluorides to be added; they do not require it. Thus, any community, anywhere, could halt the program any time, with the consent of its citizens, who surely would consent if given the facts.

Lead-tainted fluorides are waste products mainly of the aluminum and phosphate fertilizer industries, largely from US companies. But we’ve learned that in some communities sodium fluoride imported from Japan or sodium silicofluoride from Belgium are used. Neither of these nations fluoridates its own water supplies.

(24) (Don’t you get the feeling we’re in the same category as a Third World country becoming a toxic waste dump for others?)

In California recently the Attorney General and two environmental groups have sued the makers of brass pumps containing lead which could contaminate water from wells.

(24) But who is suing companies who sell lead-tainted products to cities for their fluoridation purposes? Who is suing the EPA for allowing it? Where are the lawsuits against the US Public Health Service and the Centers for Disease Control for adamantly promoting it?

In conclusion, there’s still the matter of lead being leached from old pipes. Anyone who argues that fluoridation had nothing to do with it will have to explain those well-preserved lead pipes from more than 2000 years ago in unfluoridated Roman water.

REFERENCES:

(1) Book of Popular Science, Grolier, Inc., 1974, Vol.7, 63.
(2) Ibid.
(3) Book of Popular Science, Vol. 3, 167-169.
(4) Book of Popular Science, Vol. 7, 62.
(5) Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1957, Vol.21, 545.
(6) Ibid., 545.
(7) Ibid., 546.
(8) Ibid., 545A
(9) Book of Popular Science, Vol. 7, 63-64.
(10) Encyclopedia Americana, 1945, Vol. 1, 456.
(11) Encyclopedia Brittanica, 1957, Vol.1, 715.
(12) Book of Popular Science, Vol. 3, 39.
(13) Textbook of Pediatrics, Nelson WS, MD, WB Saunders Co., Philadelphia,London, 1964, 1557.
(14) Newsweek, “Lead and Your Kids,” July 15, 1991.
(15) Ibid.
(16) Ibid.
(17) Federal Register, Bol. 56, No. 110, June 7, 1991, 264.
(18) Ibid., 265-70.
(19) Book of Popular Science, Vol. 3, 74.
(20) Letter from the Tacoma Public Utilities, Dec. 2, 1992.
(21) Fluoride Report, newsletter, April, 1994, 5.
(22) Ibid.
(23) Book of Popular Science, Vol. 3,74.
(24) Letter from Tacoma Public Utilities, May 22, 1992.
(25) Kansas City STAR, April 19, 1994.

There is a custom of using pipes for electrical grounding.

Many older houses are still grounded through water pipes.

This accelerates lead corrosion and increases lead in drinking water.

Water Fluoridation Targets Black Americans

Silicofluorides and Higher Blood Lead

At present, U.S. public water systems serving over 140 million people are fluoridated with 200,000 tons of commercial grade hydrofluosilicic acid (H2SiF6) and sodium silicofluoride (Na2SiF6), together called “silicofluorides” (or “SiFs”). Data from numerous studies show that, taking economic, social and racial factors into account, where silicofluorides are used, children absorb more lead from the environment, and there are higher rates of diseases and behavioral problems associated with lead poisoning (including hyperactivity, substance abuse, and violent crime).

Although some early studies showed differences between sodium fluoride and sodium silicofluoride, to this day the substitution of silicofluorides in public water treatment facilities HAS NEVER BEEN SUBJECTED TO APPROPRIATE ANIMAL OR HUMAN TESTING. Recently, the Assistant Administrator of the EPA admitted to Congress that his agency had no data on SiF toxicity and the Chief of the Treatment Technology Evaluation Branch at the National Risk Management Research Laboratory confirmed that the EPA has “no” data on the “health and behavioral effects of fluosilicic acid.”

Despite claims of safety by oral health officials, laboratory research in Germany revealed that silicofluorides do not dissociate completely and have important biological effects. To follow up on this issue, we have compared children’s blood lead levels in communities using SiF treated water with communities using sodium fluoride or with non-fluoridated water. In three separate samples, totaling over 400,000 children, SiF treated municipal water is ALWAYS significantly associated with increased blood lead levels in children.

This effect was evident in a Massachusetts survey of lead levels in 280,000 children (see graph for children exposed to SiF from the Greater Boston water system, from towns that add SiF locally, or from communities using sodium fluoride, and towns without fluoridation). For the state of New York, data was available on venous blood lead levels for 151,225 children in communities of 15,000 to 75,000. Controlling for other factors associated with higher blood lead, silicofluorides were again significantly associated with higher uptake of lead from the environment. For black children, who are especially at risk for high blood lead, those in towns using SiF were less likely to have low blood lead and more likely to have lead over 10µg/dL. To confirm that these results are not due to other socio-economic or demographic factors, additional statistical tests were run.

The third study concerned children’s blood lead levels in the National Health and Nutrition Evaluation Survey (NHANES III), which had reports for 7224 children from 80 counties with populations over 500,000. Since only 4 of these counties had any communities that used sodium fluoride, analysis of the NHANES III data focused on the percentage of the entire county population exposed to silicofluoride treated water.

Among the 1543 children of all ages from large urban counties with over 80% of the population exposed to fluoridation (almost all of whom receive water treated with SiF), average blood lead was 5.12 µg/dL whereas the average for 1139 children in low fluoride exposure counties was 3.64 µg/dL Blood lead in the 473 children sampled from the medium fluoridation counties was 3.23 µg/dL, which was significantly different from the high fluoridation counties but not from either low fluoridation counties or those with unknown fluoridation status, where average blood lead levels were 3.16 µg/dL (S.D. 2.83). Controlling for the Poverty, the effect of SiF use was highly significant (p < .0001). When the sample is divided by age and race, these findings provide six separate samples in which SiF is associated with high blood lead (see Graphs).

In all three populations studied, those children in each racial category and each age group who were highly likely to be exposed to silicofluorides differ strongly in levels of blood lead from those not exposed.

This conclusion was further checked by analyzing available data for health and behavioral traits that have been associated with high blood lead (such as violent crimes, cocaine use and asthma). In each case, those exposed to silicofluoride treated water were more likely to have behavioral or health problems that are more likely among those with high lead in their bodies.

The injection of silicofluorides in public water supplies is a practice whose elimination could possibly contribute to reduced rates of learning disabilities, substance abuse, violent crime, and asthma (all connected with lead poisoning and other toxins). Whatever the benefits to teeth (and this is highly controversial), our research shows that the issues facing the public concern silicofluoride chemistry, toxicology, and the linkage of neurotoxins with behavior or health. Before SiF chemicals are used, citizens must know that they are safe for all.

For more information, see: http://www.dartmouth.edu/~rmasters/ahabs.htm. (Note: from this site, that one can download an English translation of Westendorf’s studies of silicofluorides, which have not hitherto been available in the U.S.)

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