News Coverage
U.S. study finds chemical in Jerseyans' breast milk
Perchlorate linked to retardation
Published March 10, 2005
Concern about perchlorate has intensified among state regulators after a national study that found high levels of the toxic chemical in breast milk from two nursing mothers in New Jersey.
Perchlorate, which can cause mental retardation in children and thyroid problems in adults, has been found in drinking water in 10 New Jersey counties in the past four years.
Texas Tech University researchers announced last month that they had tested breast milk from 18 women around the country and found perchlorate in all 18 samples, along with 46 of 47 dairy-milk samples.
The levels in breast milk averaged 10.5 parts per billion, five times greater than those in dairy milk. The highest levels came from samples from two New Jersey women, with levels of 51 and 92 parts per billion, well above what scientists believe is safe for babies.
It is not clear how the women were contaminated. Perchlorate, an ingredient in rocket fuel and fertilizer, has been found in lettuce, and food seemed to be the most likely route of exposure for the women in the study, lead researcher Andrea Kirk said.
"With crops grown in different locations and shipped around the country, it's hard to say that women in New Jersey are more at risk than women living elsewhere," Kirk said. "The two New Jersey women may, by coincidence, just have eaten the wrong thing for breakfast that morning."
However, drinking water in Middlesex, Essex, Morris, Bergen, Monmouth, Atlantic, Cumberland, Burlington, Ocean and Gloucester counties has tested positive for perchlorate in spot checks conducted since 2001.
Kirk would not say where the two women lived, for fear of compromising their confidentiality. She said the researchers did not test the women's drinking water or check state data to see if perchlorate had been detected in it.
Perchlorate temporarily blocks the body from absorbing iodide, which is important in brain development in fetuses and children and thyroid function in adults. Experts hastened to assure women that breast milk was still the healthier option for infants, and recommended that women talk to their doctor about ways to ensure their diets have enough iodide. Perchlorate is flushed out of the body fairly quickly.
No study has been conducted in the state that would definitively link any specific child's development problems to perchlorate ingestion.
In the past eight years, widespread perchlorate contamination has been discovered in the nation's water supplies. The Environmental Protection Agency has yet to set a maximum safe level for drinking water, though recent federal research suggests the level may land anywhere from 1 to 25 parts per billion. California last year set a standard of 6 parts per billion.
State Environmental Protection Commissioner Bradley Campbell said New Jersey would develop its own maximum drinking-water level, which probably would be ready to propose in the fall. He said the breast-milk study added some urgency to the matter.
"It's just such a limited data point that it's really perilous to draw any significant conclusions from it," Campbell said. "But obviously our schedule's probably going to be a little more aggressive."
Perchlorate is found in solid rocket fuel, and most of the country's perchlorate contamination is traceable to military facilities or the sites of defense contractors. New Jersey's perchlorate problem, however, is more of a mystery.
Some water supplies that tested positive for it were obviously at risk, such as those near Picatinny Arsenal in Morris County and Fort Dix. But how it got in water in Montclair in Essex County, Monroe in Middlesex County, or the South Jersey towns of Vineland and Hammonton is not clear. The old Nike missile bases scattered throughout New Jersey seem an unlikely source, because research suggests that the rockets arrived with their solid fuel already loaded, DEP spokesman Fred Mumford said.
"It seems to be everywhere, and there's no source," said Rick Risoldi, vice president of subsidiary operations for the Middlesex Water Co., which serves Carteret, Woodbridge, Metuchen, South Plainfield and Edison.
Two of the company's wells tested positive for perchlorate in 2001. Both have been shut down, Risoldi said.
The highest levels were found in the Bergen County community of Woodcliff Lake, which are served by the Park Ridge Water Department. Levels in two wells reached slightly over 30 parts per billion.
David Terry, a hydrogeologist hired to investigate the contamination, said he suspects it came from Bel Fiore Greenhouses, located 500 feet from one of the town wells. The proprietor was using fertilizer made with a mined Chilean nitrate source known to contain perchlorate, Terry said.
Tests of the fertilizer showed perchlorate at levels as high as 500,000 parts per billion, Terry said. The link is not certain -- the department is waiting for the results of tests to determine whether the perchlorate in the well matches that in the fertilizer, Terry said.
The greenhouse owner, Luigi Lombardi, said he had stopped using the fertilizer and was cooperating fully with those investigating the contamination.
"I've opened my doors to them," Lombardi said. "This is not something that we did on purpose."
Park Ridge has shut down the affected municipal wells and is installing a treatment system. Other towns, with lower levels of the unregulated contaminant, are taking less aggressive approaches.
A well in Montclair had perchlorate levels of 5.3 parts per billion in a 2003 test and 6.1 parts per billion in a test last March. That well is off line at the moment, since it is mainly used during the summer, but it is not permanently shut down, said Gary Obszarny, superintendent of water operations. Obszarny said the water from that well is heavily diluted before it reaches any customers.
The Hammonton Water Department had detections in at least four wells as high as 4.3 parts per billion. Vineland had levels of 6 parts per billion. Neither town has taken its perchlorate-contaminated wells off line, local officials said.