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Fluoride 2005;38(1):11–22 Research report 11 WATER FLUORIDATION AND CRIME IN AMERICA
Manchester, NH, USA SUMMARY: A four-part study explores possible connections between water
fluoridation and crime in America. Part A, Media-reported crime database and
fluoridation, presents an observational database of violent crimes, mostly multiple
shootings, and finds an unusually high percentage of them associated with water
fluoridation, suggesting the existence of a "fluoride-related" category of crime. A
low-end threshold for the toxic effects of fluoridation of 0.3 ppm is identified, and
the term "fluoridated" is defined here as having a fluoride level of 0.3 ppm or higher.
In Part B, Online crime database and fluoridation, a published database of year 2000
crime data for 327 US cities over 75,000 population, representing 80 million
Americans, was expanded to include fluoridation data for these cities. Water
fluoridation was consistently associated with high crime rates at all population
levels. Part C, Book crime database and fluoridation, examines year 2000 crime
statistics for six major crimes in the same 327 cities according to their fluoridation
status. Cities having natural fluoridation, or which use silicofluorides or sodium
fluoride, are shown to have substantially higher crime levels than nonfluoridated
cities. Part D, Lead related crime, quantifies the amount of crime historically
associated with lead intoxication, thus identifying a remainder which may be
associated with fluorides. This study presents a data-backed hypothesis about one
possible cause of crime; it is not a definitive statement about crime causality.
Keywords: Crime; Fluoridation; Fluoride toxicity; Lead toxicity; School shootings; USA. In 1999 I observed that nine of ten randomly-selected school shootings in America had occurred in fluoridated communities, and that the shooter in thetenth had used Prozac, a fluorinated pharmaceutical.b With less than 60% of theU.S. population fluoridated, a non-random correlation between fluoride andviolence was suspected.
Others have connected fluorides with violence. Grandjean et al identified significantly elevated mortality due to violence and suicide among Danishcryolite workers.1 Several studies have examined effects of fluoride on mentaldevelopment, brain function, and behavior. Li et al, Zhao et al, and Xiang et alshowed that high fluoride exposure reduces intelligence in children.2-4 Varner etal documented the effects of aluminum fluoride and sodium fluoride withneuronal damage, dementia, and mortality in rats.5,6 Mullenix et al documenteddetrimental CNS effects of sodium fluoride in rats, showed that timing of fluoride aCorrespondence: Jay Seavey, AIA emeritus, P.O. Box 5234, Manchester, NH, USA 03108-5234. E-mail:[email protected] bKip Kinkle murdered his parents, then kil ed 2 and wounded 22 in a school shooting on 5/21/98 in unfluoridatedSpringfield, OR. The police report indicated that he had previously been treated with Prozac [fluoxetinehydrochloride]. A structural formula for Prozac appears in Physicians' Desk Reference, 53rd ed., Montvale NJ:Medical Economics; 1999. p. 924. The other nine fluoridated locations noted at the time were: Moses Lake, WA;Bethel, AK; Pearl, MS; West Paducah, KY; Jonesboro, AR; Edinboro, PA; Fayetteville, TN; Littleton, CO; andTaber, Alberta, Canada. My observations were made at a public hearing on fluoridation held in Manchester, NH,and reported in The Union Leader (Manchester, NH)1999 Sept 23, Sect. A:1,20. Fluoride 2005;38(1) exposure can be developmentally critical, identified sex-linked differences insome of these effects, and demonstrated fluoride accumulation in the brain.7Others have explored heavy metal intoxication with and without fluorides, andtheir mental and behavioral effects. Needleman et al showed psychologicalimpairment and behavioral deficits in children from lead exposure.8 Masters andCoplan focused attention on elevated blood lead levels when silicofluorides areused for water fluoridation.9 Other work by Masters et al addressed manganeseand lead toxicity, and silicofluoride use, relative to crime, alcoholism, andcocaine/crack abuse; and identified a time lag between the removal of lead fromgasoline, and a later decline in crime rates.10 Fluoride, by itself and inconjunction with heavy metals, appears to alter brain function and to predisposesome humans to violence. It seemed timely to study more directly therelationship between fluoridation and crime: cumulatively, these earlier studiesled to an expectation that such a relationship could be demonstrated. The work reported here is divided into four parts, A, B, C and D. They evolved sequentially over about four years, and do not reflect a methodology adoptedfrom the outset. MATERIALS AND METHODS
Part A: Media-reported crime database and fluoridationStories were accumulated from news mediaa over a period of approximately two years and assembled into a database ("A") of 152 events, most of whichoccurred between 1993 and 2001 (media stories sometimes reported sequelae,such as court proceedings). The stories were primarily of multiple shootings, butalso included unexecuted events involving weapons and similar ideation. Thedatabase also included some stabbings, drownings, arsons, and bombings, the aThe collecting of news stories utilized The Union Leader (Manchester, NH), and America Online; many of thestories from these sources originated from The Associated Press or from Reuters. The stories were selected,based on their content and on my intuition, from my routine daily reading, rather than from a methodical orexhaustive search using, for example, keywords or search engines. Events were typically multiple murders,usually with firearms, having an apparent "senseless" character to them. Events with known motives (exceptcrimes grossly disproportionate to their motives), or which were known to be gang- or drug-related, wereexcluded. Domestic violence was excluded unless the victims included children. Stories were typically clipped, orwere downloaded and printed, and placed in a file; periodically, the file would be reviewed, and the fluoridationstatus of the locations and of the perpetrators would be determined using the Fluoridation Census 1992.
American Automobile Association roadmaps for the entire United States were regularly consulted to gaininformation about locations mentioned in news stories. In many cases telephone calls were made to get detailedinformation about local water systems. Cal s were also made, with far less success, to get information aboutperpetrators and their life histories. Law enforcement personnel were generally reluctant to divulge much in theaftermath of an event, while it was still being investigated. Efforts to gain information from news writers wereequally fruitless. In many instances, a succession of news stories over a period of time was needed to extractbasic information about an event, as the initial reporting about a multiple shooting might be sketchy. On severaloccasions, after a major event, the news sources carried a list of 10 or 15 similar events—school shootings,workplace shootings, etc. These event lists, if they included events I had not already listed, were typicallysearched out using the Internet. This, along with current reporting of event sequelae, such as court proceedings,provided an avenue for including events going back several years. These lists also provided a basis forcomparison: by the time I had accumulated 152 events, the database was more inclusive, by a factor of ten, thanthe longest of these lists which the media had presented; yet it is by no means deemed to be exhaustive.
Fluoride 2005;38(1) Water fluoridation and crime in America 13 common denominator being the heinous and senseless character of the crimes,and an absence of apparent motive. In each case, after an event was identified forinclusion in the database, a search was later made to determine the fluoridationstatus either of the place where the event occurred, or of the place where theperpetrator lived. A fluoridated community is defined for this study as one havinga fluoride level of 0.3 ppm or more in the public water supply.a A statisticalanalysis was then performed, comparing the "fluoridation-connection" of thecollected events with the nationwide fluoridation level. As a control, database"B" was developed, utilizing 164 randomly selected stories published between1993-2001 in "The Armed Citizen", a regular column in American Rifleman, amonthly magazine published by the National Rifle Association. These storiesreported incidents in which firearms were used by citizens for self-defense.
Part B: Online crime database and fluoridationNoting that Part A was somewhat limited by the particular type of crime it focused on, I broadened the search to include publicly-available data on a widercategory of crimes. A database by Morgan Quitno Press (MQP), Lawrence,Kansas, published in book form and posted online, listed crime data for the year2000 for 327 American cities having populations over 75,000, and rated theircomparative safety according to a score or index which represented theiraggregate incidence, based on FBI crime statistics, for six major crimes: murder,rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, and motor vehicle theft.11,12 Thescore for each of the 327 cities was referenced to a national average of 0.00, and aThe U.S. Public Health Service has generally defined "fluoridated" water as having a fluoride level at or above0.6-0.7 ppm. The reason for selecting a lower level of 0.3 ppm to define "fluoridated" for the purposes of this studyis as follows: Human physiology has some capacity for detoxifying and eliminating fluorides. Dental fluorosisoffers the most readily-available and visible indicator for fluoride intoxication. Therefore, if we can establish a levelbelow which this toxicity is not evident, it provides at least a speculative basis for considering that other toxiceffects we are hypothesizing about may also not manifest themselves below this level. In other words, we are notinterested in a level above which some hypothetical dental benefit allegedly occurs; we are concerned, rather,with the level below which toxic effects are not in evidence. H. Trendley Dean, DDS, in "Epidemiological studies inthe United States" (In: FR Moulton, editor. Dental Caries and Fluorine. Washington, DC: American Association forthe Advancement of Science, 1946. p. 5-31.) provides data from America necessary to make this determination.
While Dean does not identify 0.3 ppm as a definitive cut-off level for the appearance of dental fluorosis, histabulated data in Table XI, page 23, show that the prevalence of dental fluorosis begins to rise sharply above afluoridation level of 0.3 ppm, and that the few observed cases occurring below this level are characterized as"very mild". The appearance of dental fluorosis probably does not hinge solely on fluoride in drinking water; itprobably reflects nutrition in general, and the mix of other minerals in the drinking water. Fluoride exposure relatespartly to diet, being high, for example, in a diet high in seafood. The toxic manifestations of fluoride, it is believed,are also reduced by activities which remove fluoride from the system, such as hot-water bathing or sweat bathing.
There is a discussion in Fluoridation: The Great Dilemma (Waldbott GL, Burgstahler AW, McKinney HL. LawrenceKS: Coronado Press, 1978. p. 180), of significant levels of dental fluorosis on the South Atlantic island of Tristanda Cunha, where the fluoride level is 0.2 ppm. This, however, seems to be the extreme end of the spectrum, andit may reflect a diet high in fish, but possibly relatively deficient in Vitamin C, calcium, and/or magnesium. For allof these reasons, but particularly on the basis of Dean's American data, 0.3 ppm and above was chosen to definethe term "fluoridated". It is not suggested that fluoridation levels below 0.3 ppm have no toxicity, or that thisrepresents a "safe" level of fluoride in water. Fluoride 2005;38(1) scores ranged from –84.94 (safest) to 373.28 (most dangerous). The MQPdatabase for its "Safest Cities Award" includes nearly 80 millionAmericans—about 28.5% of the U.S. population.a I modified this database byadding fluoridation data for each of the 327 cities, and then sorted the list into sixgroups by population size. Within each group, cities were listed according toincreasing "score" or "crime index". Each of the six groups was then bifurcated,to identify a Low Crime subgroup and a High Crime subgroup within eachpopulation group. Total fluoridation incidence for each of the six populationgroups was determined, and its percentage was calculated. These percentagesdetermined the expected fluoridation incidences for the Low Crime and HighCrime subgroups within each population group. Expected incidences were thencompared with observed incidences for each of the 12 subgroups, and thedifferences were noted. (See Table 1.) A two-way table of the differences wasdeveloped, and the chi-squared statistic was calculated. (See Table 2.) Part C: Book crime database and fluoridation MQP does not tell us in City Crime Rankings, 8th edition, what formula was used to generate scores for its "Safest City Award." While these scores are said toallow a direct comparison of cities on the basis of their crime rates, we are nottold how these scores or crime index figures can be translated into actual crimerates, and thence, using population data, into actual numbers of crimes. For thisreason, I have used MQP's more detailed published crime rate data, to developthis information.13 For each of the 327 cities, actual year 2000 rates for each ofthe six major crimes were entered and then totalled into an aggregate crime ratefor each city. Fluoridation data were then entered for each city. The 327 citieswere then sorted in database "327" according to their fluoridation status. Withineach of the fluoridation categories, the cities were sorted by ascending aggregatecrime rate.
Part D: Lead related crimeThe connection between lead intoxication and criminal behavior appears to be well established.9 The phase-out of leaded gasoline began in the U.S. in 1976;14airborne pollution from this source was the primary cause of lead intoxication,with lead from paints and from solder in food cans generating further exposures.
As documented by the National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys (NHANES) blood lead levels in Americans aged 1–74 declined by 78% between1978 and 1991, and by 76% in ages 1–5. 15 Subsequent research shows the aIt is stated on p.1 of City Crime Rankings11 under the heading "Methodology": "First, city and metro crime rates
for six basic crime categories—murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary and motor vehicle theft—were
plugged into a formula that measured how a particular city or metro area compared to the national average for a
given crime category. The outcome of this equation was then multiplied by a weight assigned to each of the six
crime categories. For this year's award (2000), each of the six crimes was given equal weight. By weighting each
crime equally, cities are compared based purely on their crime rates and how they stack up to the national
average for a particular crime category. These weighted numbers then were added together for a city or metro
area's final score."
Fluoride 2005;38(1) Water fluoridation and crime in America 15 Table 1. 327 Cities grouped by population, with groups bifurcated into high and low
Population Crime level Fluoridation status of population subgroups based on the fraction of the population group fluoridated between the dif erence in aThe % difference in population size was calculated by taking the difference in the average popu- lation between the two subgroups, dividing by the size of the smallest group, and multiplying by Fluoride 2005;38(1) Table 2. Chi-squared statistics for 327 cities grouped by population, with groups
bifurcated into sub-groups by crime level and fluoridation status Population Crime level Expected (based on the fraction of the pop- Expected (based on the fraction of the ulation group fluoridated) and observed population group nonfluoridated) and ob- numbers of fluoridated population sub- served numbers of nonfluoridated population subgroups observed & to be non- to be non- observed & *(Observed- Expected)2/Expected. Total for high crime subgroup 10.9522, low crime subgroup10.9705, both subgroups χ2 =21.9227 †Comparing the expected and observed numbers of subgroups that were fluoridated. p<0.05,χ2=21.9227, df=11.
Fluoride 2005;38(1) Water fluoridation and crime in America 17 continuation of this decline at a reduced rate through 1994.16 (See Figure, whichplots historical data with solid lines, projects these trends with dashed lines, andcompares trends for lead and crime levels, starting with peak numbers for eachrepresenting 100% on the same scale.) Lagging the peak and decline of lead lev-els by about 13 years, violent crime peaked in 1991, and decreased about 30% by2000.a,17 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1996 2000 2004 2008 NHANES = The National Health and Nutrition Examination Surveys Figure. Declines of blood lead and crime
Part A: Media-reported crime database and fluoridationThe carnage for 134 executed events in database "A" includes 325 killed and 224 wounded—about 4.1 casualties per event.b At the midpoint of the period inwhich these events occurred—March 1997—an estimated 57.5% of the USpopulation was fluoridated.c Of the total of 152 executed and ideational eventslisted in database "A", 128 (84.21%) occurred in fluoridated communities orwere committed by criminals from fluoridated communities. Of 128 locations aCity Crime Rankings17 shows that crime had hit a similar peak of 5,850 per 100,000 in 1981, dropped to 5038.4for unclear reasons by 1984, and then increased for 7 years to its 1991 peak of 5,898.4.
bThe 1995 bombing of the Federal Building in Oklahoma City is included in database "A", but the casualties [168killed, 853 wounded] are not included in this summary, as they would badly skew the portrayal of a typical event.
Timothy McVeigh, the convicted bomber, grew up in the fluoridated town of Pendleton, New York, and wasstationed at two fluoridated army bases, Fort Benning, GA, and Fort Riley, KS. McVeigh's remorseless lack ofempathy for his victims is believed to exemplify the mental condition of a fluoride-intoxicated killer.
cData extrapolated/projected from chart and graph, p. xxii- xxiii of Fluoridation Census 1992. US Department ofHealth and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Centerfor Prevention Services, Division of Oral Health, Atlanta Georgia 30333. September, 1993. An annual increase inthe fluoridated population of 0.4%, from a 12/31/92 level of 55.8%, is projected.
Fluoride 2005;38(1) related to these events, 98 use silicofluorides, 17 use sodium fluoride, 12 havenatural fluoridation, and one combines natural and artificial fluoridation. Theaverage fluoridation level for these 128 communities is 0.983 ppm, and the rangeis from 0.3 ppm to 4.9 ppm.
Using a population mean of 0.575, a one-sample t test determined the probability of randomly selecting from a 152-count simple random sample (SRS)a sample mean of 0.8421. The null hypothesis, that water fluoridation and theseviolent crimes vary independently and are unrelated, is rejected (P<0.0005,t=9.001, df=151).18 For database "B", it was expected that 57.3%, or 94 of the164 locations identified would be fluoridated. The sample mean was 98 of 164, or59.8% (one-sample-t-test: P>0.25, t=0.5883, df=163). The chance is thus betterthan 1 in 4 that the null hypothesis is true, i.e., that fluoridation and gun-basedself-defense are randomly associated. So this is a useful control, allowing us torule out fluoridation-related vagaries of crime-reporting or of firearm distributionas a basis for the findings in database "A". Nevertheless the only valid inferencefrom database "A" concerns the extreme improbability of randomly observing84.21% fluoridation-related events in a 152-count SRS when only 57.5% wereexpected. Crime reporting in the media, and the statistical categorization of crime by the F.B.I., lack at this time a nuanced awareness for identifying "fluoride-related"crime. Whether database "A" demonstrates the objective existence of such acategory, or whether it demonstrates that an observer can learn to identify suchevents from subtle cues found in news stories, it may be seen that bothpossibilities strongly suggest that such a category exists. The development ofdatabase "A" was in any case a necessary step for building a hypothesis of aconnection between water fluoridation and crime.
Part B: Online crime database and fluoridationThe six population groupings eliminate city size as a confounding variable, and provide a spread for analyzing variance. Each of the six High Crime subgroupshad an average "score" or "crime index" at least 100 points above its correspond-ing Low Crime subgroup. All six High Crime subgroups had more places fluori-dated than expected; all six Low Crime groups had fewer places fluoridated thanexpected (P<0.05, χ2 = 21.9227 df =11).19 This validates the following prelimi- nary inference: "In American cities having population over 75,000, high crimelevels appear to be significantly correlated with water fluoridation." Part C: Book crime database and fluoridationThe results are summarized in Table 3. The fluoridation status "Combined"— which is a combination of natural and artificial fluoridation—is an anomaly inhaving a crime rate 2.9% lower than the non-fluoridated cities. All of the other types of fluoridation are associated with elevated crime rates.
Compared to the crime rate for non-fluoridated cities, natural fluoridation showsa 16.5% higher crime rate; sodium silicofluoride a 37.6% higher crime rate;hydrofluorosilicic acid a 46.8% higher crime rate; and sodium fluoride an 84.9% Fluoride 2005;38(1) Water fluoridation and crime in America 19 higher crime rate. Table 3 incorporates population data which are used to convertthese elevated crime rates into a putative number of excess crimes associatedwith water fluoridation in these cities.
Table 3. 327 cities grouped by fluoridation status*
Fluoridation statusa Num- Total for 6 Crime rate, Crime rate ber population populationb for 6 major compared crimes for crimes, per 159,099 19,410,033 352,077 Combined (natural 12 341,713 19,135,905 477,747 2,496.6 fluoride (NaSiF6) Hydrofluorosilicic 112 257,890 28,883,706 769,289 79,381,078 1,851,474 *The data are from database "327". aFluoridation data are generally taken from Fluoridation Census 1992 [US Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Prevention Services, Division of Oral Health, Atlanta, Georgia 30333, USA; September, 1993] with some corrected and updated information based on telephone inquiries. The category "Other" identified in the Fluoridation Census 1992 has been identified here as "Combined". bPopulation and crime data are from Morgan KO, and Morgan S, editors, City Crime Rankings, 8th ed. Lawrence, KS: Morgan Quitno Press; 2001. c"Excess Crimes" are calculated by dividing the total population figure on a line by 100,000 and multiplying the result by the crime rate compared to no fluoridation cities on that line. These "excess crimes" are only those for the 327 cities over 75,000 population, total ing 28.5% of the US population. †The total population, 79,381,078, divided by 327, yields the average population per city, 242,755.5902, which is rounded to the nearest whole number. ‡First, the total population, 79,381,078, is divided by 100,000, yielding 793.81078. Second, the total number of crimes, 1,851,474, is divided by this 793.81078, yielding the quotient 2332.387071, which is rounded to two decimal places. This is the average crime rate per 100,000 population for all the 327 cities, including the 122 which are not fluoridated.
Fluoride 2005;38(1) Part D: Lead related crimeIf we accept the premise that the observed decline in crime is the result of the decline in lead intoxication, we can roughly quantify the amount of crimeassociated with lead intoxication by comparing the curves for the historicaldeclines in lead and crime, and by projecting them forward from 1993 and 2000,respectively. (See Figure on page 17.) Projecting the lead level decline on a straight line, it reaches zero by the beginning of 2004. This is an analytically useful end point, even if lead levelswill more likely taper off on a curve to a steady state reflecting more or lesspermanent levels of environmental pollution. The crime decline is projectedbeyond 2000 along a straight line following its 9-year trend. Note that at the pointin time where the straight-line projection for lead reaches zero, the crime rate isstill at about 3,365 per 100,000, down from its 1991 peak near 5,900.a It is thus estimated that by 2004, with blood lead reduced to minimal levels, we will still have 57% of our 1991 peak crime level. It follows that less than half ofthe 1991 peak level of crime can be attributed to lead intoxication. Alternatively,we would have to hypothesize that relatively low levels of lead generatedisproportionately large amounts of crime, and that the relationship betweenlead levels and crime is extremely non-linear, to a degree that we have seen noreason to suspect. The data show a consistent association between water fluoridation and high crime levels. The traditional socio-cultural determinants of crime—poverty,crowded cities, broken homes, drug use, gangs, and the like—have not beenanalyzed here as confounding factors, so a causal role for fluorides in crime hasnot been definitively proven, nor has the role of fluorides been quantitativelyestablished vis-à-vis these other factors. And while conclusions about thestatistical significance of findings in Part B remain tentative, all the datanevertheless point in the same disturbing direction, raising serious questions as towhether water fluoridation could possibly be as "safe and effective" as publichealth authorities and dentists have claimed it to be.
The information on sodium fluoride—despite the small sample—is of particular interest, since sodium fluoride, unlike the silicofluorides, shows littleassociation with elevated blood lead levels.9 It thus appears that sodium fluoridemay be associated with crime independently of lead. If sodium fluoride—a saltwhich dissociates into sodium and fluoride ions in water—is associated withcrime independently of a role in the uptake of lead, given that sodium is a normaland well-regulated feature of the human system, it follows that the fluoride ionsmust be the factor associated with the crime. It then follows that, even in the caseof the silicofluorides, the fluoride ions must themselves be contributing to crime aNote that these rates include larceny and theft, in addition to the six major crimes reported on elsewhere in thispaper, so the total rates are higher and cannot be compared to the aggregate rates for the six major crimesreported by MQP.
Fluoride 2005;38(1) Water fluoridation and crime in America 21 independently of silicofluoride's role in the uptake of lead. Bear in mind thatthese crime statistics are from the year 2000, when environmental lead had beensignificantly reduced, and that while the MQP crime data are for the year 2000,the data from the Fluoridation Census are from 1992. The latter are less recent,obviously, but they are the most recent readily available data.
Chemical exposures clearly affect brain function and behavior: lead and mercury are well-documented in this regard, and fluorides are graduallybecoming better understood. Chemically-based crime causality, however, seemsto be of a qualitatively different order from the traditionally-accepted types ofsocio-cultural crime causality. The relationship between these broad categories ofcausality needs further study, and perhaps a new paradigm is needed to integratethem into a coherent theory. If the history of lead is any example, however, there may be reason for optimism. Unlike the seemingly intractable socio-cultural determinants, chemicalexposures may be amenable to long-term change. Crime is a measure of social dysfunction, and a barometer for socio-economic dislocation and change. Its causes are infinitely varied in their particulars,nebulous in their totality, and they vary historically from one era to the next. Thehistorical context at any given time, moreover, cannot be duplicatedexperimentally, challenging the use of scientific methods; and the data that areavailable to us tend to be colored to some extent by the preoccupations andmotives of the era and the people that produced it. There is thus an evident needfor an interdisciplinary approach to crime, and for a paradigm which integrateschemistry, statistics, sociology, and history, at a minimum. The post-Civil War era, for example, saw a significant rise in American crime rates.20 The war may have inured the population to violence; the post-warwestward expansion may have created a less-well-ordered frontier society; orthose frontiers may have included numerous areas with high fluoride levels in thegroundwater—three competing explanations which would doubtless challengethe available data. And while the data in this study focus on the United Statesduring the 1990's, there are nearby anomalies such as unfluoridated Vancouver,British Columbia., which has experienced high crime rates associated with gangs,drugs, immigration, and ethnic conflict. Immigration, migration, and relocationcreate difficulties in tracking exposure to fluorides. In the United States, theClean Air Act (1970) did not address airborne fluorides at all, so we havevirtually no data for evaluating exposures from this source.
The senseless multiple shooting became the signature crime of the 1990's in the United States. Fluoride exposures in many areas may have passed a thresholdbeyond which "fluoride-related crime" became common. Saturation ofAmericans with fluorides, via public water supplies, continues to expand. I thinkwe can currently discern the resultant crime effects due to their locationalvariations. If water fluoridation were ended, it might take a generation for theeffects to recede. If it continues to expand, the "signal" identified in this studymay get lost in the "noise" of endemic violence.
Fluoride 2005;38(1) The author wishes to thank Phyllis Mullenix for pointing out Grandjean's article. I would also like to thank Prof Burgstahler for his help in organizing thismaterial, and Dr Spittle for his patience in formatting and typesetting it. REFERENCES
1 Grandjean P, Juel K, Jensen OM. Mortality and cancer morbidity after heavy occupational fluoride exposure. Am J Epidemiol 1985;121:57-64.
2 Li XS, Zhi JL, Gao RO. Effect of fluoride exposure on intelligence in children. Fluoride 1995;28(4):189-192. 3 Zhao LB, Liang GH, Zhang DN, Wu XR. Effect of a high fluoride water supply on children's intelligence. Fluoride 1996;29(4):190-2.
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5 Varner JA, Horvath WJ, Huie CW, Naslund HR, Isaacson RL. Chronic aluminum fluoride adminstration: I. Behavioral observations. Behav Neural Biol 1994;61:233-41.
6 Varner JA, Jensen KF, Horvath W, Isaacson RL. Chronic administration of aluminum-fluoride or sodium-fluoride to rats in drinking water: alterations in neuronal and cerebrovascular integrity.
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11 Morgan KO, Morgan S, editors. City Crime Rankings. 8th ed. Lawrence, KS: Morgan Quitno Press; 2001. p. 1-5.
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16 U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Public Health Service, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Update: blood lead levels - United States, 1991-1994. MMWR MorbMortal Wkly Rep 1997 Feb 21;46(7):141-6.
17 Morgan KO, Morgan S, editors. City Crime Rankings. 8th ed. Lawrence, KS: Morgan Quitno Press; 2001. p. 394-5. 18 Moore DS, McCabe GP. Introduction to the Practice of Statistics. 3rd ed. New York: WH Freeman; 1999. p. 507-12, Table D, p. T-11.
19 Moore DS, McCabe GP. Introduction to the Practice of Statistics. 3rd ed. New York: WH Freeman; 1999. p. 624-32, Table F, p. T-20.
20 Pearl M. The Dante club. New York: Random House; 2004. p. 376.
Published by the International Society for Fluoride Research Editorial Office: 727 Brighton Road, Ocean View, Dunedin 9051, New Zealand Fluoride 2005;38(1)

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