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Rocket fuel found in breast milk

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Origin al sender's name: Jeff Watts

Original sender's address: beunlimited

 

From e4engineering.com, 23 February 2005

 

Rocket fuel found in breast milk

A study published this week found the toxic rocket fuel chemical

perchlorate in every one of 36 samples of breast milk from nursing

mothers in 18 US states.

The study comes just days after the US Environmental Protection Agency

(EPA) adopted a safety standard for perchlorate in drinking water

recommended last month by the National Academy of Sciences. The

findings of today's breast milk study raise serious concerns for

breast-feeding infants relative to the EPA/NAS safety standard.

Although breast-feeding infants drink little or no water, they could

be exposed to dangerous amounts of perchlorate through breast milk.

The study authors characterised the health risks from perchlorate in

breast milk in unusually stark language: " it is obvious that the NAS

safe dose of 0.7 µg/kg/d will be exceeded for the majority of infants

and some will also exceed the 10 µg/kg/d dose at which brain

morphology changes were observed in nursing rat pups. "

The study by Texas Tech University is the first ever to look for the

rocket fuel contaminant in human breast milk. It confirms many

scientists' long-standing suspicion that significant levels of

perchlorate could be passed on to nursing infants.

The average level found - 10.5 parts per billion (ppb) - is five times

higher than the average level of perchlorate found in 47 samples of

cows' milk collected by Texas Tech scientists from supermarkets in 11

states. And the average level is also more than twice as high as the

average concentration found in the total of 222 samples of cow's milk

from 21 states that have been tested for perchlorate in tests by the

Food and Drug Administration, the state of California, Texas Tech

University and the Environmental Working Group (EWG).

The main ingredient of solid rocket and missile fuel, perchlorate has

been found in the drinking water supplies of 22 US states and

additional types of contamination have been identified in another 13

states. Pregnant women, fetuses and young infants are among the most

susceptible to perchlorate because of the chemical's affect on the

thyroid gland.

Perchlorate interferes with the thyroid's ability to take up the

essential nutrient iodide and make thyroid hormones. In adults, these

hormones help regulate metabolism, but in fetuses, infants and

children, thyroid hormones also play an important role in the

development of the brain and other organs. Studies have shown small

disruptions in thyroid hormones in utero or during early development

can cause lowered IQ while larger disruptions can cause mental

retardation, loss of hearing and speech, or deficits in motor skills.

Scientists have long recognized the possibility that perchlorate could

wind up in - and perhaps even be concentrated by - breast milk.

Although perchlorate does not build up in human tissues over time, the

same molecule that selectively imports perchlorate into the thyroid is

also present in the mammary gland.

The Texas Tech study, posted online by the journal Environmental

Science and Technology, shows that the contamination is more pervasive

and the levels higher than any one had expected: Five women had breast

milk with perchlorate concentrations over 20 parts per billion, and

one woman's breast milk had a concentration of 92 ppb.

The highest levels were found in women from New Jersey, New Mexico,

Missouri, Nebraska and California, in that order. All of the samples

exceeded the 1 ppb drinking water standard proposed by Massachusetts

last year, and one-fourth of the samples exceeded the 6 ppb standard

currently being considered by California.

 

--

Jeff @ www.cosmickid.blog.com

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