WISN TV Milwaukee ABC, Staff
Published May 14, 2007
It's nothing to panic about, but there is cause for concern -- especially for some woman and children -- regarding a chemical that may be in the food you eat.
It's called perchlorate, a powdery substance that's an essential ingredient in rocket fuel and fireworks.
Waukesha's Bartolotta Fireworks Company uses the chemical. Their location is the only known site in Wisconsin where perchlorate is currently being used.
Perchlorate is part of the company's pyrotechnic displays, but it's a
different type of chemical, and most experts agree that contamination from fireworks is very small compared to that of the military and NASA.
It's been used for dozens of defense and space agency sites and now the
contaminant has turned up in groundwater in about 20 states.
From groundwater, it's made its way into drinking water and into the
nation's food supply through crops and livestock.
"It looks like there's 100 percent exposure to the U.S. population to this rocket fuel contaminant," Richard Wiles with the Environmental Working Group said.
Wiles heads the Washington, D.C. advocacy program and is pushing for
stricter government guidelines.
"The shocking thing is that it appears to be very widespread in the food supply. No one knows for sure, because the FDA has not done the studies they need to do to document its complete presence in the food supply," Wiles said.
Wiles said the situation is "very serious," especially, he said, "when you have millions of women potentially entering pregnancies with lower thyroid hormone levels.
That's the concern. The health risk to most adults in minimal, but
perchlorate can affect thyroid hormone levels, which in a fetus or newborn baby, can inhibit brain development. That means pregnant women and nursing mothers need to be aware.
"We don't think people should panic," Wiles said, "but you do have to take this one seriously."
Perchlorate has not shown up in Wisconsin's groundwater, although testing here has been limited.
The Environmental Working Group lists one Wisconsin site, the former Badger Ammunition plant near Baraboo, as a location that urgently needs more testing.
Environmental and health groups say the federal government isn't doing
enough to protect citizens from perchlorate, and those groups have taken their case to Congress.
Wisconsin Rep. Tammy Baldwin is a member of a House committee that, earlier this month, conducted a hearing into the potential health risks imposed by the contaminant.
Baldwin said the testimony was alarming.
"It's very disturbing, especially since the government bears the primary responsibility for this substance being in the environment in the first place," Baldwin said.
Baldwin has signed onto a bill calling for stricter drinking water
guidelines for perchlorate and, although Wisconsin is not identified as a primary state for contamination, she believes more should be done to ensure that our soil and water are safe. Contamination has been found in California and Texas; two states from where we get much of our food.
"Especially in Department of Defense sites in the state, I think we should probably -- well not probably -- we should be testing," Baldwin said.
A perchlorate expert said, however, that there's a catch.
Whitefish Bay chemist Roger Schneider is a consultant to the fireworks
industry and has been studying the effects of perchlorate for more than a decade. He said not only is testing expensive, but tightening the drinking water standards would send cleanup costs for the rocket fuel component soaring.
"We're talking thousand-fold increases in the cost of cleanup," Schneider said.
Schneider said he believes the problem can be addressed simply by alerting the at-risk population -- pregnant women and new moms -- to the health risks.
Environmentalists, meanwhile, continue to push for stricter drinking water guidelines, but agree that more information for woman in the at-risk group, about the fuel in our food and water, would be a good start.
"We need advice from the FDA for pregnant women as to how eat their way
around rocket fuel in the food supply. It's doable, they just need to get off the dime and do it," Wiles said.
It's unclear how widespread the contamination to the food supply is.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested nearly 3,000 people from across the country a few years ago and found perchlorate levels in every one of them.
