[CPEO-MEF] PERCHLORATE, VOCs: Unhealthy drinking water

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

That Tap Water Is Legal but May Be Unhealthy

By CHARLES DUHIGG
New York Times
December 17, 2009

The 35-year-old federal law regulating tap water is so out of date that 
the water Americans drink can pose what scientists say are serious 
health risks - and still be legal.

...

But when E.P.A. scientists produced assessments indicating those 
chemicals were more toxic - the first step in setting a standard for 
perchlorate and tougher standards for the other two substances - 
businesses fought back by lobbying lawmakers and regulators and making 
public attacks.

Military contractors, for example, said that regulations on perchlorate, 
which has been associated with stunted central nervous system 
development, would cost them billions of dollars in cleanup costs. In 
2003, an Air Force colonel, Daniel Rogers, called an E.P.A. assessment 
of the chemical "biased, unrealistic and scientifically imbalanced." 
Military officials told E.P.A. scientists they were unpatriotic for 
suggesting that bases were contaminated, according to people who 
participated in those discussions.

Property owners who had rented space to dry cleaners lobbied lawmakers 
and top E.P.A. officials to remove government scientists from research 
on perc, which has been associated with some kinds of tumors, according 
to interviews with lobbyists. (Trichloroethylene has been associated 
with liver and kidney damage and cancer.)

Soon, Dr. Preuss was told by some superiors that he might be dismissed 
if he continued pushing for extensive assessments of certain chemicals, 
he said.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/12/17/us/17water.html

--


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



_______________________________________________
Military mailing list
Military@lists.cpeo.org
http://lists.cpeo.org/listinfo.cgi/military-cpeo.org