It may turn out to be something we need to look at,'' said David Apanian, a fluoridation engineer with the CDC, the federal agency that handles fluoridation. Apanian said no studies have proven ill effects from fluoridation. Masters said he does not want to scare anyone, but believes the relationship between chemicals and behavior needs more research. Experts have long said that lead is harmful to children. Low levels are associated with decreased intelligence and physical size, impaired behavioral development and poor hearing.
High levels can cause comas, convulsions and death.
Masters, who also acts as chairman of the executive committee of the Gruter Institute for Law and Behavioral Research in California, wants to know whether lead damage plays a role in violent behavior and the need for special education services. Coplan wants to know if silicofluorides somehow increase lead absorption in children. Water systems in Concord, Dover, Portsmouth and Rochester use fluosilicic acid, which is a silicofluoride, according to information from the New Hampshire Department of Environmental Services. Department officials said they were unaware of Coplan's theory. Tom Reeves, an engineer in the CDC's department of oral health, said silicofluorides completely break down in water so they would not exist in someone's stomach.