Tests find toxic fuel ingredient in lettuce

[Guest guest]

[Notice that even organic greens are not safe. Annette]

 

 

Tests find toxic fuel ingredient in lettuce

04/28/03

Miguel Bustillo

 

A laboratory test of 22 types of lettuce purchased at supermarkets

in Northern California found that four were contaminated with

perchlorate, a toxic rocket-fuel ingredient that has polluted the

Colorado River, the source of the water used to grow most of the

nation's winter vegetables.

 

The environmental group that paid for the testing by Texas Tech

University conceded that the sample was far too small to draw any

definite conclusions about how much perchlorate is in the lettuce

Americans eat. But the organization, the Environmental Working

Group, said the results were alarming enough to warrant a broad

examination by the Food and Drug Administration.

 

" It appears perchlorate in produce is reaching consumers, which

should be a wake-up call for the FDA, " said Bill Walker, a western

representative in the group's Oakland, Calif., office. " A lot of

people might look at this and say it was only four out of 22 -- what

is the problem? Well, when nearly one in five samples of a common

produce item are contaminated with a chemical component of rocket

fuel, that's significant. "

 

In response, FDA officials said they had been planning to begin

testing foods for perchlorate at a number of sites around the United

States but still were developing the scientific methods to do it.

 

" We do understand that there is a potential for perchlorate from

irrigation water to end up in food, " said Terry Troxell, the

director of the FDA's office of plant and dairy foods and

beverages. " We have already been moving in this area. We will

certainly take their results into account. "

 

The four lettuce samples all contained substantial quantities of

perchlorate. One, a prepackaged variety of organic mixed baby

greens, had a level of perchlorate contamination at least 20 times

as high as the amount California now considers safe for drinking

water. The other three were packaged butter lettuce and radicchio,

romaine lettuce and radicchio and a plain head of iceberg lettuce.

All were at least five times as high as California considers safe

for water.

 

State and federal environmental officials think that perchlorate, a

salt widely used by the U.S. government to help power missiles and

the space shuttle, might cause health problems, even in trace

amounts. Because it is known to affect the production of thyroid

hormones, which are critical to early brain development, researchers

think perchlorate exposure might be especially dangerous for

pregnant women and young children.

 

But the Pentagon and defense contractors, who together produced most

of the nation's perchlorate, dispute those conclusions, saying their

scientists think it poses a health threat only in doses dozens of

times higher.

 

No state or federal agency has set any enforceable health standards

for perchlorate in water and food. However, several are developing

them, including the California Department of Health Services and the

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

 

Agriculture groups, which note that the perchlorate in produce is

thought to come from the water that farmers use to irrigate crops,

not from pesticides, urged swift government action.

 

" This is a problem. It's not one we created, but it's one we are

concerned about. We want the leading regulatory agencies to address

this problem as soon as possible, " said Hank Giclas, a vice

president of the Western Growers Association, whose members grow,

pack and ship 90 percent of the fresh vegetables and 70 percent of

the fresh fruit and nuts in California and Arizona. " In the

meantime, we want people to continue eating fruits and vegetables. "

 

The EPA declined to make any of its perchlorate experts available to

discuss the Environmental Working Group's findings, which they were

permitted to review. A statement released by the agency's

headquarters said that the EPA would not comment further on the

contaminant until the National Academy of Sciences completes an

independent peer review it is conducting of EPA's work to date on

perchlorate and human health.

 

The nationwide price tag of perchlorate cleanup could be in the tens

of millions, and possibly even billions, of dollars, according to

water officials and other experts, who say it has the potential to

dwarf California's problems with MTBE, a gasoline additive that

tainted groundwater supplies.

 

Perchlorate, which is highly soluble, has been detected in water

supplies in California and at least 19 other states, usually near

defense contractors or military bases. The Colorado River, which

supplies drinking water to about 15 million people in the

southwestern United States, contains perchlorate that leached from

the site of a former rocket-fuel factory in Nevada.

 

Environmental groups have warned that perchlorate might be widely

present in vegetables, because countless crops are irrigated with

water from the same tainted sources.