News Coverage
Officials defend Yuma lettuce
Published December 2, 2004
Agriculture officials on Wednesday expressed their concerns that recently released data of perchlorate levels in food, including lettuce grown in Yuma, could spark public fear and ultimately harm agribusiness.
"I'm concerned that agriculture as a whole will take the blows," said Jack Peterson, associate director of environmental science for the Arizona Department of Agriculture.
Given that Yuma County is a major producer of lettuce, Peterson said misdirected public fear could have an economic impact on growers here and throughout the state. Some could stop buying and consuming lettuce and as a result the prices would drop, Peterson said.
The Food and Drug Administration just before Thanksgiving released their exploratory data of perchlorate levels in lettuce, bottled water and milk. Perchlorate is a chemical that is both man-made and naturally occurring.
Manufactured perchlorate is used as a primary ingredient in rocket fuel and exposure to sufficient amounts can affect the thyroid, causing delays in the brain development of fetuses and infants.
Since the early 1990s, federal agencies have been trying to determine what level of perchlorate is safe. The testing comes as federal agencies try find how much perchlorate people are exposed to from food so they can determine whether action is needed to protect public health.
Concerning lettuce, FDA researchers tested red leaf, romaine, iceberg and green leaf varieties grown in Arizona, California, Florida, New Jersey and Texas.
Measured in parts per billion, samples tested of lettuce varieties grown in Yuma County yielded perchlorate levels ranging from a low of 3.71 ppb to a high of 129 ppb, according to the Web site of the FDA Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition.
University of Arizona researcher Charles Sanchez said the amount of perchlorate one would ingest from eating lettuce is well below the level California regulators consider safe in their drinking water.
"We feel that the levels, the doses are so low they really aren't of any health concerns," Sanchez said.
California's drinking water standard is 6 ppb and Arizona's standard is 14 ppb, Sanchez said, adding tests he recently conducted of the Colorado River yield perchlorate levels ranging between 2 ppb and 5 ppb.
Sanchez said: "We're hoping that this sound science shows this isn't a level of concern."
Yuma County Farm Bureau President Dan Sharp said: "I have concerns that the information will be distorted and could have a negative impact."
Sharp said: "We hope that the public will realize that the numbers that have been released are still being analyzed...we have faith that the public will realize we are not responsible for the perchlorate in the Colorado River or in our nation's other water sources."
The perchlorate contamination here and in the Imperial Valley comes by way of the Colorado River from a now defunct chemical plant near Las Vegas, said Kevin Mayer, an official with the Environmental Protection Agency. Ongoing clean up efforts are lowering levels of the chemical in the river, Mayer said.
The FDA stated on their Web site that their exploratory data should not be construed as an indicator of exposure or be considered a "reflection of the distribution of perchlorate in the U.S. food supply." The FDA also stated consumers should not change their eating habits in response to the test results.
Bill Walker, spokesman for the Environmental Working Group, said his organization is concerned about the long-term effects on those with thyroid problems, pregnant women and infants.
"Perchlorate does not appear to pose a health threat to the average healthy individual but there is plenty of scientific evidence to show long-term exposure can cause harmful affects on infants and children."
Walker said he wants federal regulators to establish a nationwide standard for drinking water and water used for farming.