Children’s health panel slams EPA’s perchlorate goal- doesn't account for percholate found in lettuce or breastmilk, the advisors write?

[Sheri Nakken]

Children’s health panel slams EPA’s perchlorate goal
The current policy of assuming that all exposures come from drinking water
doesn’t account for perchlorate found in lettuce or breast milk, the
advisors write.

April 19, 2006
—REBECCA RENNER
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/ ... /policy/rr_
childhealth.html
The U.S. EPA’s new perchlorate cleanup goal isn’t supported by science,
fails to protect children’s health, and needs to be lowered [702KB PDF ],
according to an agency scientific advisory panel. The goal, revised in
January by the EPA’s Office of Solid Waste, is at least 4 times less
stringent than similar goals recently proposed by 3 states.
http://yosemite.epa.gov/ochp/ochpweb.ns ... file/30806
_3.pdf
The cleanup goal [443KB PDF], a target level for drinkable water when
contaminated sites are remediated, allows for perchlorate levels of 24.5
parts per billion (ppb) up from the previous level of 4–18 ppb. The new
cleanup level “is not supported by the underlying science and can result in
exposures that pose neurodevelopmental risks in early life,” wrote Melanie
Marty, chairperson of EPA’s Children’s Health Protection Advisory Committee
and chief of the Air Toxicology and Epidemiology Section in California’s
Office of Environmental Health Hazard Assessment.
http://www.epa.gov/f
edfac/pdf/perchlorate_guidance.pdf
These risks include impaired brain development that can result in such
problems [124KB PDF] as low IQ scores and attention deficits. In sufficient
amounts, perchlorate inhibits the uptake of iodide, an essential component
of hormones produced in the thyroid. These hormones help guide proper brain
development in fetuses and infants.
http://w
ww.oehha.ca.gov/public_info/facts/pdf/perchloratefacts.pdf
The EPA goal is based on National Academy of Sciences recommendations that
allow an uncertainty factor to account for one sensitive population—the
fetuses of pregnant women who have untreated thyroid problems or low iodine
levels. But that factor doesn’t protect infants, who could be exposed
through breast milk and drinking water used in formula, the advisory
committee writes.
http://pubs.acs.org/subscribe/journals/ ... 05/jan/sci
ence/rr_perchloratereport.html
The committee of 26 scientists wrote that because the goal follows the
current EPA policy of assuming that all exposure comes from drinking water,
it does not account for exposures from other sources. “This is an obvious
concern given the recent widespread detection of perchlorate in lettuce and
milk,” the advisers write.

As reported in February in ES&T, perchlorate appears to be ubiquitous.
Water contamination was first linked to rocket fuel and ammunition, but
studies have shown that perchlorate also forms naturally. Recently, it has
been found in prenatal vitamins and seaweed. A small U.S. Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study designed to test a new
analytical method that detects minute amounts of the chemical found
perchlorate levels in the urine of 61 CDC workers that could not be
explained if the only source were drinking water.

On March 14, the Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection
released its proposed drinking-water and waste-site cleanup standards of 2
ppb. This proposal assumes that 20% of perchlorate exposure comes from
water. New Jersey is considering a standard of 5 ppb and uses the same
assumption, whereas California has proposed a drinking-water standard of 6
ppb and assumes that 60% comes from drinking water. EPA has not responded
to the committee’s letter, but that’s not unusual, Marty adds.

Copyright © 2006 American Chemical Society

Summaries hereinbelow provided by
http://www.environmentalhealthnews.com
Links are to major analyses of perchlorate:
Second
thoughts on perchlorate study
Press coverage of the recent National Academy of Sciences report on
perchlorate almost uniformly got it wrong. The Associated Press, The
Washington Post and Knight-Ridder News Service, among other outlets, all
led their stories with some variation of "20 times safer." But that's not
what the report said at all. Despite repeated attempts by NAS panel members
in the days following the report's release to clarify that they had not
given perchlorate a clean bill of health, news reports continued to suggest
otherwise.
Published by Environmental Working Group. 28 January 2005.
Perchlor
ate and Children's Health
To protect expecting mothers, their developing fetuses and their infant
children, California should set a final health standard for perchlorate in
drinking water at one part per billion or less. Perchlorate contaminates
the drinking water supply of 16 million Californians and affects the
thyroid hormone system at very low levels of exposure.
Published by Environment California. 10 January 2005
Perchlorate: A
system to track sampling and cleanup results is needed.
Perchlorate contamination has been found in water and soil at almost 400
sites in the United States where concentration levels ranged from a minimum
reporting level of 4 parts per billion to millions of parts per billion.
But because state and federal agencies are not required to report
perchlorate findings to the EPA, more contaminated sites may exist. The
Dept of Defense has been reluctant to sample on or near active DOD
installations.
Published by Government Accountability Office. 23 June 2005.
Growin
g Up Toxic: Chemical Exposures and Increases in Developmental Disease.
Californians face increasing obstacles to healthy development, from the
moment of conception until they themselves attempt to conceive. While a
range of factors, from lifestyle to heredity, may contribute to any one of
these trends, a growing body of research suggests that toxic chemicals play
a significant role.
Published by Environment California. 24 June 2004
Rocket Fuel
Contamination in California Milk.
Milk from cows raised in some parts of California may expose infants and
children to more of a toxic rocket fuel chemical than is considered safe by
the EPA. The study found perchlorate in almost every sample tested - 31 out
of 32 samples purchased from grocery stores in Los Angeles and Orange
counties.
Published by Environmental Working Group. 22 June 2004.
Suspect Salad
Lettuce grown in the fall and winter months in Southern California or
Arizona may contain higher levels of toxic rocket fuel than is considered
safe by the US Environmental Protection Agency. In the first-ever tests of
perchlorate in supermarket produce, 18 percent of lettuce samples contained
detectable levels of perchlorate, and an average serving of these
contaminated samples contained 4 times more than the EPA says is safe in
drinking water.
Published by Environmental Working Group. 28 April 2003
Rocket Fuel in Drinking Water:
Perchlorate Pollution Spreading Nationwide
Drinking water for more than 20 million Americans is contaminated with a
chemical that interferes with normal thyroid function, may cause cancer and
persists indefinitely in the environment. Perchlorate is a powerful toxin
that can affect the thyroid's ability to take up the essential nutrient
iodide and make thyroid hormones. Small disruptions in thyroid hormone
levels during pregnancy can cause lowered IQ and larger disruptions cause
mental retardation, loss of hearing and speech, or deficits in motor skills
for infants and children. New drinking water standards should be set that
allow, as a maximum, levels no higher than one-tenth the level the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency currrently recommends as safe.
Published by Environmental Working Group. 30 March 2003.
Rocket Science: Perchlorate and
the Toxic Legacy of the Cold War
Eating lettuce or other vegetables grown in fields irrigated by the
Colorado River may expose consumers to a larger dose of toxic rocket fuel
than is considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Test
results never before made public show that leafy vegetables grown with
contaminated irrigation water take up, store and concentrate potentially
harmful levels of perchlorate, a thyroid toxin that is the explosive main
ingredient of rocket and missile fuel.
Published by Environmental Working Group. 15 December 2002.
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Sheri Nakken, R.N., MA, Hahnemannian Homeopath
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