got perchlorate?

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

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ENVIRONMENTAL WORKING GROUP
PRESS RELEASE
June 22, 2004


Bill Walker, EWG, 510-444-0973 or
Richard Wiles, EWG, 202-667-6982
Jonathan Parfrey, Physicians for Social Responsibility, (213) 386-4901


TOXIC ROCKET FUEL FOUND IN SAMPLES OF CALIFORNIA MILK

Findings Indicate State's Proposed Standard Too Weak to Protect Children


OAKLAND, June 22 - Milk from cows raised in some parts of California may
expose infants and children to more of a toxic rocket fuel chemical than
is considered safe by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and
the State of Massachusetts, according to unreleased tests by state
agriculture officials and independent laboratory tests commissioned by
Environmental Working Group (EWG).

In the first study to look for perchlorate in California supermarket
milk, EWG found the rocket fuel chemical in almost every sample tested -
31 out of 32 samples purchased from grocery stores in Los Angeles and
Orange counties. The average level of perchlorate in the samples was 1.3
parts per billion (ppb) - just above the EPA's currently recommended
safe dose of 1 ppb.

Through a state Public Records Act request, EWG also obtained results of
tests for perchlorate in milk by the California Department of Food and
Agriculture (CDFA), which the agency has not made public or provided to
state health officials. CDFA's tests found perchlorate in all 34 samples
of milk collected from unspecified sources in Alameda, Sacramento, and
San Joaquin counties. The average level of perchlorate in the samples
was 5.8 ppb, or just below the state's recently set Public Health Goal
of 6 ppb.

A computer-assisted analysis of federal dietary data shows that by
drinking milk contaminated with the levels of perchlorate found in the
two studies, half of all children 1 to 5 would exceed EPA's provisional
daily safe dose just by drinking milk, and more than a third would get
twice that dose. One-third of children 6 to 11 would get a larger dose
than EPA says is safe, with one-fifth consuming twice as much.

Perchlorate, the explosive component of solid rocket fuel, can affect
the thyroid gland's ability to make essential hormones. For fetuses,
infants and children, disruptions in thyroid hormone levels can cause
lowered IQ, mental retardation, loss of hearing and speech, and motor
skill deficits.

Currently there are no enforceable perchlorate safety standards at the
state or federal level. The state's Public Health Goal of 6 ppb will be
used to set a final drinking water standard, expected early next year.

"Our findings are not a call for California mothers to stop drinking
milk or stop giving it to their children," said Bill Walker, EWG Vice
President/West Coast. "They do show that the state must set a drinking
water standard that fully protects public health. Mothers should not be
forced to wonder if milk is affecting their child's growth and development."

Perchlorate contaminates more than 350 drinking water sources in
California alone. Nationally, perchlorate contamination of drinking
water has been confirmed by testing in 22 states. Among contaminated
sources is the Colorado River, which not only provides drinking water
for Los Angeles, Phoenix, Las Vegas and other cities, but also irrigates
1.4 million acres of farmland in California and Arizona. Many crop and
feed plants, including lettuce, cucumbers, tomatoes and alfalfa,
concentrate perchlorate in their tissues when grown with contaminated
water. The perchlorate ingested by cows in their water and feed is
passed along in milk.

# # #

Headquarters 1436 U St. N.W., Suite 100 | Washington, DC 20009 ||
Contact Us
California Office 1904 Franklin St. Suite 703 | Oakland, CA 94612 ||
Contact Us


***

for the entire report, go to
http://www.ewg.org/reports/rocketmilk/release.php

for press coverage in the Los Angeles Times, Riverside Press-Enterprise,
San Francisco Chronicle, and San Jose Business Journal, see

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-milkjun22,1,175929.story?coll=la-headlines-california
http://www.pe.com/localnews/inland/stories/PE_News_Local_perc22.582cb.html
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2004/06/22/MILK.TMP
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2004/06/21/daily11.html?jst=b_ln_hl

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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