Rocket Bottle

EPA not super-interested in keeping rocket fuel out of drinking water 2

There is a "distinct possibility" that the U.S. EPA will pass on restricting perchlorate in the nation's water supplies, an agency official said Tuesday. Perchlorate, a rocket fuel ingredient that has been found at some 400 places in 35 states, can muck up normal thyroid function. But Benjamin Grumbles, the EPA assistant administrator for water, told the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee that he wasn't sure national regulation of perchlorate would do much good, and that the agency might simply issue an informational public health advisory. The Defense Department is responsible for much perchlorate contamination, so the Pentagon would be on the hook for expensive cleanup if a drinking-water standard was set. But surely that won't factor in to the EPA decision.

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  1. JChan111 Posted 11:54 am
    06 May 2008

    My Niece was Diagnosed with Thyroid CancerLast week. She had her Thyroid surgically removed.
    But, I doubt this issue caused it. ...However radiation therapy is helping her via Iodine treatments. She's doing well.
    Thank You Marie Curie ..(and other scientists who took risks on studying such issues and made something to benefit mankind) with something others would fear.
  2. TrackerDave Posted 11:55 am
    06 May 2008

    Maybe not the highest priority anywayNot at all defending the contamination of our drinking water by the military, but I would venture the opinion there are higher priorities for public money than removing perchlorate. Perchlorate (which my wife actually helped "write the book" on) doesn't bioaccumulate in animal tissues, and its temporary effect on the thyroid is not believed to be especially bad. There are communities in which perchlorate appears from natural sources at concentrations tens or hundreds of times higher than, say, Massachusetts standards. The people there seem to do fine, and have done for generations. It should be cleaned up, for sure, but it's not nearly as noxious as any number of other contaminants.

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