UPPING THE ANTE
The NRDC isn’t so sure that the NAS wasn’t trying to set policy favorable to the Bush administration and perchlorate-producing and -using industries. The group subpoenaed communications between the Defense Department, the White House and a slew of perchlorate polluters including Kerr-McGee Chemical and Lockheed Martin. The Freedom of Information Act request yielded 30 boxes of heavily redacted emails that described such matters as who should be on the NAS panel and what they should concentrate on.
Naturally, the industry loved the NAS recommendation. “What’s required now is careful review of the report to fully understand it and determine how the information can benefit the standard-setting process. … That’s the only way to ensure public health is protected and to ensure public resources aren’t unnecessarily diverted from pressing environmental and health needs,” the Council on Water Quality said in a statement lauding the report. Companies including Lockheed Martin and Kerr-McGee Chemical support the group.
But some environmentalists don’t believe that the polluters are too thrilled – the industry has argued that perchlorate levels of 200 ppb to 350 ppb aren’t harmful. “I think that they’re pretty worried,” said Renee Sharp, a senior analyst for the Environmental Working Group that praised the report. “Even if you take the study at face value, you still come up with a number that is in the lower parts per billion.”
And Sharp may be right. In the case of a contaminant like perchlorate, where infants are at greatest threat and health consequences can occur from short-term exposure, the EPA has typically used infant weight and ingestion figures when setting a drinking water standard. And according to the agency, establishing a drinking water standard “typically involves the use of a relative source contribution factor to account for non-water sources of exposures.”
The California EPA has determined that perchlorate exposure comes 60 percent from water and 40 percent from food. Figuring that into the weight-based equation, Sharp postulates that the final EPA nationwide standard could be as low as 2.5 ppb. That would be considerably stricter than the current 6 ppb California public health goal.
A very low perchlorate drinking water standard may be prudent. The Weekly has learned that an upcoming Texas Tech University study will show that perchlorate has been found in breast milk in 11 states, unrelated to drinking water, with some readings as high as 90 ppb! This alarming new information should grab the attention of the EPA when it makes its final determination for this toxic chemical that threatens the very minds and physical well-being of America’s youth.
