[CPEO-MEF] PERCHLORATE: EWG questions EPA findings

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

For Immediate Release, November 11, 2008
Environmental Working Group

LAST MINUTE MISCHIEF AT EPA

EPA Employed Suspect Chemical Industry Lab to 
Declare Perchlorate Safe

Same Lab Found Formaldehyde to be 2,500 to 10,000 Times Less Dangerous 
Than Previous EPA Estimate

WASHINGTON -- As the clock runs out on the Bush administration, 
officials at EPA handed industry another victory last month: it relied 
on a chemical industry-funded consulting firm to justify its decision 
not to set safety standards for the toxic rocket fuel component 
perchlorate in drinking water - a move that would have cost defense and 
aerospace contractors hundreds of millions of dollars in cleanup costs.
Instead of using real-world data, EPA officials contracted the 
perchlorate assessment out to the Chemical Industry Institute of 
Toxicology (CIIT), which its website says was created in 1974 by 
"chemical industry leaders."

The consulting firm devised a computer model for the assessment that 
suggested that perchlorate-contaminated water and food presented 
relatively minor risks to humans.  EPA officials used the CIIT data as a 
basis for refusing to crack down on water pollution caused by perchlorate.

...

For the entire press release as well as a link to the EWG report, go to
http://www.ewg.org/node/27352

--


Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
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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