Abstract
STUDIES RELEASED LAST week finding perchlorate in lettuce have focused attention on a struggle between EPA and the Pentagon over cleanup standards for the chemical. Perchlorate—C10 4 -, a component of solid rocket fuel—disrupts thyroid uptake of iodine and taints water supplies in 20 states. A study sponsored by the Press Enterprise of Riverside, Calif, found perchlorate ion in all 18 samples of lettuce analyzed, and a test sponsored by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) detected the substance in four of 22 lettuce samples purchased in California. The source is thought to be irrigation water from the lower Colorado River, which carries perchlorate from a former industrial plant near Las Vegas. Scientists, regulators, and environmental groups aren't saying the perchlorate-tainted lettuce poses a public health risk. But the studies demonstrate that much of the population—not just people living near areas polluted with the chemical— may be exposed to perchlorate through vegetables grown using contaminated...
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