Mothering Magazine, Staff
Published November 1, 2006
As Mothering reported in January, 2005 perchlorate, a toxic chemical in rocket fuel, has severely contaminated the nation's food and water supply. Leaked from military bases and defense and aerospace contractors' plants, perchlorate has been found in millions of American's drinking water, in at least 35 states. Perchlorate has also been widely detected in milk, lettuce, produce and other foods. In an alarming study, the CDC found perchlorate in the urine of every person tested. And 97% of breastmilk samples from around the US contain perchlorate. Despite massive complaints, defense contractors such as Kerr-McGee have done little or nothing to clean up the pollution. A recent study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) found that for the 36% of American women deficient in iodine, exposure to perchlorate in food or water could cause a significant and dose dependent decline in thyroid hormone levels. Low thyroid levels, or subclinical hypothyroidism, is an established risk factor in fetal development and can cause IQ deficits, developmental delays, and in severe cases, cretinism.
Having analyzed the CDC's findings, the Environmental Working Group (EWG), reports that exposure to perchlorate at or below current and proposed standards could cause 2.2 million women of childbearing age to experience thyroid deficiency requiring medical treatment to protect their unborn babies.
California is in the final stages of adopting a perchlorate drinking water standard of 6 parts per billion (ppb), which was recommended by state scientists before release of the CDC study. New Jersey is considering a proposed standard of 5 ppb. In July, Massachusetts adopted 2 ppb as the nation's first legally enforceable drinking water standard. The federal government has no national perchlorate drinking water standard, but its perchlorate standard for cleanup of hazardous waste sites is more than four times weaker than the California drinking water proposal, extending the risk to millions of additional women and their babies. According to the EWG, thyroid impacts can be detected even at exposure levels under 1 ppb, but they note 1ppb is the level current cleanup technologies are capable of achieving, and thus recommend 1ppb as an acceptable standard to lobby for at this time.
Go to
www.organicconsumers.org/perchlorate.htm#pesticide to tell your senator to support a bill proposed Senator Dianne Feinstein (D, CA) to fund a massive cleanup of perchlorate; to establish grants for development of newer, better cleanup technologies; to establish national drinking water standards; and to hold perchlorate polluters accountable.
Email Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Steve Johnson, with your own comments urging a national drinking water standard of 1ppb, at
johnson.stephen@epa.gov
California residents can also send comments to the CA Department of Health Services, at
www.applications.dhs.ca.gov/regulations/comments.asp and selecting "perchlorate in drinking water" from the "regulation id" menu.
For more information, including the EWG report, visit
www.ewg.org.
