Let Them Eat Rocket Fuel

January 31, 2005

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/let_them_eat_rocket_fuel.php

Let

Them Eat Rocket Fuel

Erik

D. Olson

January 27, 2005

The fact

that there's a rocket fuel additive called perchlorate in your water is

bad enough. What's worse is the fact that the Bush administration

likely manipulated the National Academy of Sciences to designate a lax

perchlorate standard. The National Resources Defense Council sued the White

House, Defense Department and EPA to release documents relating to perchlorate contamination and the NAS. What they found was

evidence of an elaborate campaign designed to downplay the hazards of a

dangerous chemical.

Erik

D. Olsen is a senior attorney at the National Resources Defense Council

specializing in safe drinking water issues. He is the national coordinator of

the Campaign for Safe and Affordable Drinking Water, a coalition of more

than 300 public interest groups dedicated to improved drinking water

protection.

More

than 20 million Americans have rocket fuel in their

drinking water. That’s right. Rocket fuel.

It’s also likely in your milk. And in your lettuce,

too, because farmers out West inadvertently use rocket-fuel-contaminated water

to irrigate their crops.

You might

not think that’s a good thing. Scientists at the Environmental Protection

Agency didn’t, either. Especially since a toxic salt in rocket fuel,

called perchlorate, can harm the thyroid and may disrupt

fetal and newborn brain development. In 2002, EPA proposed a safe level in

drinking water of only 1 part per billion. That’s equivalent to half a

teaspoon of perchlorate in an Olympic-size swimming

pool. The Pentagon and its contractors—who have polluted food and

drinking water across the country—argued that 200 parts per billion is

safe.

Earlier

this month, a National Academy of Sciences panel issued a report finding that

on a per body-weight basis, more perchlorate can be

tolerated than the EPA had concluded—but still far less than what the

Pentagon and its corporate pals had claimed. Why was NAS’ conclusion

higher than EPA’s?

Perhaps

NAS was responding to enormous pressure from the White House, the Defense

Department, and defense contractors. According to government documents recently

obtained by the Natural Resources Defense Council, they collaborated in a

backroom campaign to try to strong-arm the academy and manipulate the report.

Despite this campaign, the panel did conclude that low levels of perchlorate exposure may cause health problems, and that

fetuses are at particular risk.

For

decades, the Defense Department and its contractors have carelessly used

millions of pounds of perchlorate, contaminating

water and food supplies. At the same time, the Pentagon has been blocking EPA

efforts to address perchlorate pollution, and in the

last few years it intensified its campaign in the face of new revelations about

perchlorate's harmful effects. In January 2002, when

EPA recommended that 1 ppb was the safe level in drinking water, the Pentagon

and its contractors lobbied to stop the assessment process and—with the

help of the White House—wrested the assessment from EPA and handed it to

NAS in 2003. Then the White House, the Pentagon and its contractors went to

work to influence the NAS process.

NRDC sued

the White House, Defense Department and EPA in March 2004 after they ignored

more than a dozen Freedom of Information Act requests, refusing to disclose any

records documenting their campaign to steamroll NAS or details of the perchlorate problem. In response to the suit, the White

House and the two agencies recently provided about 30 boxes of documents to

NRDC, but are still withholding thousands of other records—including

virtually all the key papers documenting White House and Pentagon efforts to

influence NAS. However, they were required by court order to issue a

“Vaughn Index” describing each of the withheld documents. This

index reveals an extraordinary level of White House and Pentagon effort to

limit the scope of NAS’ inquiry and select the panelists, as well as

collaboration with DOD contractors to pressure the panel.

Scientists

at the EPA, in state agencies, and in academia have concluded that very low

levels of perchlorate threaten fetusus'

and infants' health. The NAS panel’s recommendation for a safe level is

based on industry studies that fed perchlorate to a

small number of healthy adults for a short time. Those studies tell us little

about how perchlorate can harm fetuses or infants, or

harm adults over a longer period of time (particularly millions of Americans

with thyroid problems or who are iodine deficient).

Studies of animals, also funded by the industry, showed that perchlorate may cause abnormal brain development in young

rodents, but accepting the arguments of the Pentagon and industry, the academy

said more studies are needed to prove that these same effects would occur in

infants and children.

Still, in

an implicit nod to the possible effects of perchlorate

on babies, the NAS panel advised pregnant women exposed to perchlorate to take iodine pills, because the chemical

impairs the thyroid’s ability to absorb iodine. That recommendation is

akin to putting a pregnant woman in a room full of smokers and giving her a gas

mask. To suggest that part of the solution for pregnant women is to take

vitamins to protect their babies from perchlorate

exposure is troubling; it puts the burden on moms to address a threat they had

nothing to do with creating. The burden should instead be on the polluters—the

Defense Department and its contractors—to clean up their mess.

Fortunately,

even with the NAS panel’s report issued under duress, it is still

possible that EPA and states could set a drinking water standard for perchlorate at about 1 part per billion, the original

EPA-recommended level. How? After considering new data showing people are

exposed to perchlorate from many

sources—including water, food and milk—and after adjusting for body

weight of fetuses and newborns, drinking water standards for perchlorate should wind up close to 1 ppb. Massachusetts

and Maryland currently have 1 ppb

cleanup levels for perchlorate, while California

has proposed a 6 ppb standard.

NRDC has

never seen such a brazen campaign to pressure the National Academy of Sciences

to downplay the hazards of a chemical, but it fits into the Bush

administration's pattern of trying to manipulate science at the expense of

public health. Over the last year, more than 6,000 U.S.

scientists, including 48 Nobel laureates, 62 National Medal of Science

recipients, and several science advisers to past Republican presidents, signed

a letter accusing the Bush administration of distorting and censoring science

for political purposes. The shameful White House-Defense Department effort to

manipulate the NAS perchlorate panel is just the most

recent—and one of the most disturbing—examples. It's time for the

EPA and the states to make lemonade from the lemons the Pentagon and White

House have given them. Despite the higher acceptable dose level the

NAS has proposed, the EPA and states must set strict perchlorate standards that protect pregnant women and

infants.

February 1, 2005

we have a really big problem with jet fuel in the water supply where I live too, thanks for posting this.

In a message dated 1/31/2005 10:16:21 PM Pacific Standard Time, V.Connor writes:

This is a really great article, Dana! THANK YOU FOR POSTING!!!

My farmer friend in Wenona, Illinois has a big problem with perchlorate. I believe he said it's been found in rainwater and wellwater samples on his property. He believes that's what's been making his hands and feet cold, and skin dry, and some other problems. These are hypothroidism symptoms which match up with your article below.

He found when he took organic iodine and amino acids, that solves the problem for a while. Then he'll stop taking the supplements until the symptoms start again, and then he takes the supplemenst for while.

Cindy

~Take Care and God Bless,Diane (fishchick72)The Lord God is my Strength, my personal bravery, and my invincible army; He makes my feet like hinds' feet and will make me to walk [not to stand still in terror, but to walk] and make [spiritual] progress upon my high places [of trouble, suffering, or responsibility]!--Habakkuk 3:19 AMP

February 1, 2005

This is a really great article, Dana! THANK YOU FOR POSTING!!!

My farmer friend in Wenona, Illinois has a big problem with perchlorate. I believe he said it's been found in rainwater and wellwater samples on his property. He believes that's what's been making his hands and feet cold, and skin dry, and some other problems. These are hypothroidism symptoms which match up with your article below.

He found when he took organic iodine and amino acids, that solves the problem for a while. Then he'll stop taking the supplements until the symptoms start again, and then he takes the supplemenst for while.

Cindy

Dana Black [danablack] Monday, January 31, 2005 8:41 AM Cc: lymestrategies ; Lyme-and-rife Subject: Let Them Eat Rocket Fuel

http://www.tompaine.com/articles/let_them_eat_rocket_fuel.php

Let Them Eat Rocket Fuel

Erik D. Olson

January 27, 2005

The fact that there's a rocket fuel additive called perchlorate in your water is bad enough. What's worse is the fact that the Bush administration likely manipulated the National Academy of Sciences to designate a lax perchlorate standard. The National Resources Defense Council sued the White House, Defense Department and EPA to release documents relating to perchlorate contamination and the NAS. What they found was evidence of an elaborate campaign designed to downplay the hazards of a dangerous chemical.