Rocket Fuel Toxic Found in Lettuce

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Rocket Fuel Toxic Found in Lettuce

 

OAKLAND, California, January 2, 2003 (ENS) - Perchlorate, an ingredient in

rocket fuel

which impairs the thyroid's ability to take up iodide and produce hormones, has

contaminated almost 300 drinking water sources and farm wells in California and

sources

in at least 15 other states. This new information is found in test data and

documents

obtained by Environmental Working Group (EWG), a non-profit environmental

research

organization with offices in Oakland and Washington, DC.

Contamination has affected the Colorado River from near Las Vegas to the Mexican

border.

The river is the primary or sole source of irrigation water for farms in

California, Arizona

and Nevada that grow the great majority of the lettuce sold in the U.S. during

the winter.

 

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 (EPA).

 

Test results never before made public, obtained by EWG, show that leafy

vegetables grown

with contaminated irrigation water take up, store and concentrate potentially

harmful

levels of perchlorate.

 

Sworn depositions and other courtroom documents show that the giant aerospace

and

defense contractor Lockheed Martin, a major user of perchlorate, knew as early

as 1997

that vegetables stored high concentrations of the chemical, but said nothing to

the EPA or

California state health officials.

 

EWG says that " Lockheed Martin is responsible for polluting dozens of water

supplies in

the Redlands area of San Bernardino County, California with high levels of

perchlorate and

other chemicals. "

 

The company has made no comment on these allegations.

 

A class action lawsuit has been brought against the company by more than 800

residents

of the area, who blame contaminated drinking water for cancer and other health

problems.

Farms in the area are not irrigated by the Colorado River, but draw from wells

that have

been contaminated by perchlorate plumes from now abandoned Lockheed facilities.

 

Lawyers at Engstrom, Lipscomb and Lack in Los Angeles, who represent the

Redlands

residents suing Lockheed Martin, learned that the company had earlier been in

negotiation

with Lucky Farms, a San Bernardino grower of lettuce and other vegetables, over

contamination of the farm's water supply. The lawyers subpoenaed all materials

from the

negotiations, and have discovered that Lockheed was sitting on evidence of

vegetables'

uptake and concentration of perchlorate.

 

The subpoenaed documents, obtained by EWG from lawyers at Engstrom, Lipscomb and

Lack, showed that in late 1997 and early 1998, Lucky Farms conducted a series of

tests on

its produce to see if they were contaminated with perchlorate. These tests were

conducted

on four samples of " leafy vegetables " and four samples of some kind of

" vegetable matter "

which was not identified.

 

Overall, the vegetables were found to have an average of more than 2,600

micrograms of

perchlorate per kilogram - thousands of times higher than what the EPA considers

to be a

safe amount in a liter of water.

 

" We know the water supplies of millions of Californians are contaminated with

perchlorate

at potentially harmful levels, " said Bill Walker, EWG's California director.

" But that's just the

tip of the iceberg. There are hundreds of untested wells and water systems

across the

country, and many Americans may be consuming a toxin which is a health threat at

very

low doses, especially to infants and children. "

 

Too much perchlorate can damage the thyroid gland, which controls growth,

development

and metabolism. At higher levels, perchlorate is known to cause cancer.

 

Although there is currently no federal drinking water standard for perchlorate,

the EPA's

proposed " reference dose, " the level that the EPA says is safe to consume each

day, is two

micrograms per day for an adult.

 

" If the perchlorate levels reported here are confirmed by further testing, " EWG

says,

" immediate government action will be needed to reduce perchlorate in lettuce and

other

vegetables. " The EWG is urging the Food and Drug Administration to test lettuce

and other

vegetables grown with Colorado River water for perchlorate, and that the results

of this

testing be made public as soon as they are confirmed.

 

In addition, says EWG, any grower affected by perchlorate contamination of their

crops

" should be fully compensated for any and all economic losses to their farming

operations

and property values. "

 

(In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed

without profit

to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included

information for

research and educational purposes.)