Perchlorate

Heck, I can hardly even spell the word. Nonetheless, there is an interesting controversy underway that has been generated by an interim EPA decision that larger (twenty-four times larger) doses of perchlorate than previously recommended are now to be considered safe.

Most of the perchlorate in this country is produced to fuel rockets and other weapons. The problem with it is that it affects the thyroid. Too much of it will change your metabolism for the worse and will severely impact the development of your kids and grandkids. The greatest concentration of perchlorate has heretofore been discovered in our water supply, particularly that near military bases and the plants that create perchlorate. It has now been found in the water supply of 35 states. It has also been found in milk and lettuce. The FDA has started looking for it in other foods.

Last week the EPA announced a new ‘reference dose’ for this substance. A reference dose is the daily exposure level thought safe for those most sensitive to a particular substance. The new reference dose for adults is twenty-four parts per billion of perchlorate in drinking water. Previously the reference dose was one part per billion.

The controversy arises because the EPA is not following the guidance of the panel that issued the report that is supposedly the basis of the EPA’s decision. That panel is called the National Research Council; it is part of the National Academy of Sciences. The chairman of the panel said that in order to translate their recommended reference dose into a drinking water limit you have to adjust the dose for an individual’s body weight and water consumption – just as you adjust doses of medicine for a particular patient’s weight. If the EPA did make this adjustment, then the recommended dose would drop from twenty-four parts per billion to four.

Cynics say that the setting of the recommended dose was influenced by the Pentagon and the defense industry as it will dramatically lower their clean-up costs. Of course, these cynics also believe in global warming, another example of doomsday science.