Perchlorate - Threat to Children from Rocket Fuel Contamination

This is really very serious. imagine our children & people are having brain defects. Then whatever we have built upon would fall apart.

In my opinion, this is not only the California Issue, this is also the issue of the nation as a whole. I urge the leader's & politicians to unite together & set the stringent standard in for our drinking water.

For the wellness & great health of our children & our people. The highest standard of Drinking Water must be set & enforced.

Threat to Children from Rocket Fuel Contamination

Threat to Children from Rocket Fuel Contamination:Report Urges State to Issue Strong Cleanup Standard for Perchlorate in Drinking Water

LOS ANGELES—Perchlorate poses a significant risk to unborn babies and newborn infants at levels higher than one part per billion (1 ppb) according to a report released today. This release comes on the eve of the publication of a National Academy of Sciences report to assess the impact of perchlorate on health.

A new report by Environment California Research & Policy Center, entitled Perchlorate and Children's Health: The Case for a Strong Cleanup Standard for Rocket Fuel in Drinking Water documents the specific impacts of perchlorate exposure on children and calls upon the California Department of Health Services to set a strong standard of one part per billion (1 ppb) that will ensure substantial cleanup of contamination. Perchlorate is the major component of solid rocket propellant and currently contaminates more than 350 California drinking water sources, including the Colorado River.

"Kids and rocket fuel don't mix," exclaimed Sujatha Jahagirdar, Environment California Research & Policy Center Clean Water Advocate and co-author of the report. "State officials should act aggressively to protect California's most vulnerable citizens from this contamination."

The State of California is currently working to release a drinking water standard for perchlorate in drinking water. An initial health recommendation issued by the state suggests that regulators may be moving toward a standard of six parts per billion (6 ppb), a level six times weaker than both a safety threshold adopted in Massachusetts and a health recommendation released by researchers at the United States Environmental Protection Agency.

Specific health impacts of perchlorate on children can range from learning disabilities to attention deficit disorder. Perchlorate interferes with the thyroid gland's ability to produce enough hormone. Without enough thyroid hormone, children can be born with neurological and behavioral problems. Learning-disabled students increased 65 percent faster than the general school population from 1985 to 1999. Perchlorate exposure could be contributing to this trend in combination with exposure to a variety of other chemicals polluting the environment, such as toxic flame-retardants, lead, mercury, and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs).

Medicine once used perchlorate to reduce hyper-enlarged thyroids,' cited Richard Saxon, M.D. and former president of Physicians for Social Reponsibility, Los Angeles. "That practice was stopped once perchlorate treatments were linked to incidents of aplastic anemia. Once can therefore image what this powerful endocrine-disrupting chemical can do to women and children suffering from poor thyroid health."

The health impacts of perchlorate on children are particularly significant given the breadth of exposure to the chemical in California. In addition to highlighting pollution levels of four to six parts per billion in the Colorado River, authors also identified perchlorate levels in local wells and other drinking water sources. Levels of contamination in source water range up to twelve parts per billion (12 ppb) in Pasadena and thirteen parts per billion (13 ppb) in Corona.

"We hope that state and federal policy-makers, including the National Academy of Sciences, take the task of protecting our children seriously," concluded Penny Newman of the Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice. "Any cleanup standard should protect kids from learning disabilities and other lifelong problems. Anything less is unacceptable."


Penny Newman, Center for Community Action and Environmental Justice
Jonathan Parfrey, Physicians for Social Responsibility

Environment California