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THYROID TROUBLE:
UNDER PROPOSED ROCKET FUEL STANDARDS, MANY
WOMEN WOULD NEED TREATMENT TO PROTECT BABY
Report Finds Drinking Water Limits for Perchlorate
Inadequate
October 30, 2006
OAKLAND, CA — Exposure to a rocket fuel
chemical widespread in the U.S. drinking water
and food supply, at levels equal to or lower
than national and state standards, could cause
thyroid deficiency in more than 2 million
women of childbearing age who would require
medical treatment to protect their unborn
babies, according to an Environmental Working
Group (EWG) analysis of new data from the
U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
At a hearing in Sacramento today, California
health officials will consider a proposed
standard for perchlorate in drinking water
that EWG found could trigger thyroid deficiency
requiring treatment during pregnancy in more
than 272,000 California women. New Jersey's
proposed standard could cause such a deficiency
in 65,000 women in that state.
If applied nationwide, the level proposed
in California could cause thyroid deficiency
requring treatment during pregnancy in more
than 2.2 million women of childbearing age.
The federal government has no perchlorate
drinking water standard, but its standard
for cleanup of hazardous waste sites is more
than four times weaker than the California
drinking water proposal, extending the risk
to millions of additional women and their
babies.
EWG's study, available at www.ewg.org,
shows that the perchlorate cleanup standard
adopted by the U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency, and the safety standards for perchlorate
in drinking water under consideration in California
and New Jersey, are inadequate to protect
the 22 million American women of childbearing
age who don't get enough iodine in their diet.
Even the stricter drinking water standard
already adopted by Massachusetts would cause
a decline in women's thyroid levels.
"In light of what we now know from the
Centers for Disease Control data, California's
proposed standard is inadequate to protect
public health," said EWG scientist Anila
Jacob, M.D., who will present the group's
findings at the hearing today. "State
and federal standards should reflect the fact
that exposure to even low levels of perchlorate
could place a significant number of women
of childbearing age at increased risk of thyroid
deficiency, and if they became pregnant, they
would need treatment to protect their unborn
children."
Perchlorate, the explosive ingredient in
solid rocket fuel, has leaked from military
bases and defense and aerospace contractors'
plants in at least 22 states, contaminating
drinking water for millions of Americans.
The chemical has also been found widely in
supermarket milk, produce and many other foods,
and in a separate study, the CDC found it
in the urine of every person tested. As small
changes in thyroid hormone levels during pregnancy
— even within the normal range —
are associated with decreased intellectual
and learning capacity in childhood, the extensive
reach of perchlorate contamination has huge
implications for public health.
Earlier this month, a startling study from
the Centers for Disease Control found that
in the 36 percent of U.S. women with low iodine
intake, almost any amount of perchlorate exposure
was linked to a significant change in levels
of thyroid hormones. For about 1 in 10 of
these women, if they were exposed to 5 parts
per billion of perchlorate in drinking water,
the resulting hormone disruption would require
treatment during pregnancy for sub-clinical
hypothyroidism, according to a consensus of
clinical endrocinologists.
Under pressure from the Pentagon and the
defense industry, EPA has delayed setting
a national drinking water standard for perchlorate.
But earlier this year, after a controversial
National Academy of Sciences study —
since strongly criticized by a federal advisory
panel on children's health — the EPA
adopted a standard for cleanup of perchlorate-contaminated
waste sites of 24.5 parts per billion.
California is in the final stages of adopting
a perchlorate drinking water standard of 6
ppb, recommended by state scientists before
release of the CDC study. The proposed standard
in New Jersey is 5 ppb. In July, Massachusetts
adopted 2 ppb as the nation's first legally
enforceably drinking water standard.
# # #
The Environmental Working Group and Environmental
Working Group Action Fund are nonprofits that
use the power of information to protect public
health and the environment.
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