Depicted on the left in charcoal is Harold Hodge, the scientist who, more than any other, helped establish the purported scientific basis of fluoride's safety at low doses.

In addition to being a consultant to the US government on water fluoridation, Hodge also worked for the Atomic Energy Commission, where he researched the toxicity of two chemicals of key concern to the atomic bomb program: fluoride and uranium.

In the 1990s, declassified documents revealed that Hodge was heavily involved in the bomb program's human radiation experiments, where hospital patients were unknowingly injected with high doses of uranium and plutonium. Hodge, and other bomb program scientists, conducted these experiments to learn more about how radiation was distributed and handled by the human body.

In addition to the human radiation experiments, Hodge and other bomb program scientists secretly participated in the first water fluoridation safety experiment in Newburgh, New York, in 1945 and 1955. In collaboration with the State Department of Health, Hodge was sent blood and tissue samples from the children in Newburgh. At his lab at the University of Rochester, Hodge studied the blood and tissue samples to assess how fluoride was being metabolized by the children.