Rocket Fuel Contamination in California Milk

[Guest guest]

Rocket Fuel Contamination in California Milk JoAnn Guest Oct 02, 2005 12:22

PDT

1. Executive Summary

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 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the State of

Massachusetts, according to unreleased tests by state agriculture

officials and independent laboratory tests commissioned by Environmental

Working Group (EWG).

 

In the first study to look for perchlorate in California supermarket

milk, EWG found perchlorate in almost every sample tested - 31 out of 32

samples purchased from grocery stores in Los Angeles and Orange

counties. Through a state Public Records Act request, EWG also obtained

results of tests for perchlorate in milk by the California Department of

Food and Agriculture (CDFA), which the agency has not made public or

provided to state health officials. CDFA's tests found perchlorate in

all 32 samples of milk collected from unspecified sources in Alameda,

Sacramento, and San Joaquin counties — but the agency kept this

information quiet even as health officials were deciding how much

perchlorate is safe for Californians to consume.

 

EWG's computer-assisted analysis of federal dietary data shows that by

drinking milk contaminated with the levels ‡1 of perchlorate found in

the two studies, 7 percent of women of childbearing age would get a

daily dose of rocket fuel larger than the level currently considered

safe by the EPA. But children are by far more at risk: Half of all

children 1 to 5 would exceed EPA's provisional daily safe dose just by

drinking milk, and more than a third would get twice that dose.

One-third of children 6 to 11 would get a larger dose than EPA says is

safe, with one-fifth consuming twice as much. These risk estimates

assume zero perchlorate exposure from other sources, such as

contaminated tap water and foods.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Perchlorate, the explosive component of solid rocket and missile fuel,

can affect the thyroid gland's ability to make essential hormones. For

fetuses, infants and children, disruptions in thyroid hormone levels can

cause lowered IQ, mental retardation, loss of hearing and speech, and

motor skill deficits. Currently there are no enforceable perchlorate

safety standards at the state or federal level, but based on research

showing health effects in laboratory animals at very low levels, EWG

believes a national safety standard should be no higher than one-tenth

the EPA's current safe dose.

 

Perchlorate contaminates more than 350 drinking water sources in

California alone. Nationally, perchlorate contamination of drinking

water has been confirmed by testing in 22 states. Among contaminated

sources is the Colorado River, which not only provides drinking water

for Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas and other cities, but also irrigates

1.4 million acres of farmland in California and Arizona. Many crop and

feed plants, including lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and alfalfa,

concentrate perchlorate in their tissues when grown with contaminated

water. This perchlorate, in turn, can be passed along in cows' (or

human's) milk.

 

In March, California health officials adopted a public health goal for

perchlorate of 6 parts per billion (ppb) in a liter of drinking water.

(A public health goal is the level used to set an enforceable state

drinking water standard, expected later this year.) But the EPA's most

recent provisional daily safe dose (RfD, for reference dose) is 1 ppb -

the same level as a final risk assessment released last month by

Massachusetts state scientists. Using the California health goal as a

benchmark, only about 1 percent of children under 12 would get an unsafe

dose of perchlorate by drinking milk. But both the EPA and Massachusetts

have criticized the California goal as too weak, in light of the

available data on health effects at very low levels.

 

The average perchlorate level in milk tested by the state, 5.8 ppb, is

essentially the same as the maximum safe level of the just-adopted

public health goal. The average level found in the EWG tests was lower,

at 1.3 ppb, but could still present health risks, particularly for small

children, who drink large amounts of milk relative to their size.

 

What's more, EWG's dietary risk analysis does not include additional

perchlorate exposure through drinking water or foods other than milk.

Our findings are not a call for California mothers to stop drinking milk

or stop giving it to their children. But they do show that the public

health goal is inadequate, and the state must set a tougher final

drinking water standard that fully protects public health. Mothers

should not be forced to wonder if milk — for many people the very symbol

of a healthy diet — is affecting their child's growth and development.

 

 

 

Recommendations

California agriculture officials must immediately release complete

results and details of their tests for perchlorate in milk and other

foods.

California health officials must review the state's recently-announced

perchlorate public health goal and tighten it to reflect exposure from

milk and other foods as well as drinking water.

The National Academy of Science's pending review of the EPA's

perchlorate risk assessment must also account for exposure from food as

well as water.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration and U.S. Department of Agriculture

must move quickly to conduct a definitive study of perchlorate

contamination in the American food supply, and make all results public.

FDA should use its findings to promptly establish national safety

standards for perchlorate in food.

Irrigation water sources - not just drinking water sources - must be

tested for perchlorate.

Milk producers, other farmers and landowners must be fully compensated

for lost profits and property values.

 

http://www.ewg.org/reports/rocketmilk/summary.php

Next Page

 

 

 

‡ Footnotes

‡1 - EWG employed a probability-based model to estimate the percentage

of individuals in the USDA's CSFII database that would exceed the EPA's

reference dose, based on their body weight and milk consumption

patterns, if they drank milk contaminated with perchlorate at the levels

found in EWG's and CDFA's samples. The perchlorate concentrations of

individual EWG and CDFA samples (not average concentrations) were used

in the analysis. A perchlorate concentration of zero was assumed for

those samples where perchlorate was not detected.

 

JoAnn Guest

mrsjo-

www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets

 

 

 

 

AIM Barleygreen

" Wisdom of the Past, Food of the Future "

 

http://www.geocities.com/mrsjoguest/Diets.html

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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