[CPEO-MEF] Business Week views perchlorate

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Setting a Watermark for a Toxin

The debate over perchlorate in the water supply is coming to a head
fast, and several parties, including the Pentagon, may not like the result

Bert Helm 
Business Week
DECEMBER 15, 2004


Perchlorate is its name, and it has plenty of people worried. A primary
ingredient in rocket fuel and fireworks, the toxic chemical has been
found in the water supply of at least 20 states. If ingested in
high-enough amounts, perchlorate blocks iodide uptake into the thyroid
gland, an essential function that aids the development of fetuses,
newborns, and children (see "Perchlorate Facts" below). 

Just what constitutes a sufficient risk level is unclear, and this lack
of clarity is at the root of a six-year controversy pitching the
Pentagon, the Energy Dept., NASA, and defense-industry contractors
against the Environmental Protection Agency. The two sides have turned
the matter over to the National Academy of Sciences, the "Supreme Court"
for science debates, in the words of an EPA spokesperson. 

BEYOND GUIDANCE. What's at stake? Potentially hundreds of millions of
dollars in cleanup costs, a headache for the Defense Dept. et al., and a
bonanza for the water-remediation companies that can handle perchlorate. 

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/dec2004/tc20041215_6123_tc024.htm

-- 


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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