News Coverage
Perchlorate: Air Force Abandons Study on Chemical in Crops
Published May 11, 2003
The Air Force neglected a four-year study of the amount of perchlorate in crops irrigated with chemically-contaminated water from the Colorado River, according to a report by the Riverside [Calif.] Press-Enterprise...
Last month, Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) asked three federal agencies to look into whether perchlorate from irrigation water was making its way into the nation's lettuce supply. Boxer's inquiry came the same day the Environmental Working Group issued a study that found high levels of perchlorate in four out of 22 lettuce samples from Northern California grocery stores. In the four contaminated samples, the average concentration of the chemical was 72 parts per billion, much higher than the two to six parts per billion drinking water standard that California is considering (Greenwire, April 29). The Department of Agriculture and the Food and Drug Administration will proceed with their perchlorate study, officials for both departments said (Beeman/Danelski, May 11)...
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