[CPEO-MEF] Perchlorate - out of thin air!

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Air-Formed Perchlorate 
Controversial ion may be formed naturally in the atmosphere

LOUISA WRAY DALTON 
Chemical & Engineering News
February 9, 2005 

Texas chemists show evidence for a natural atmospheric origin of
perchlorate. For many, perchlorate is almost synonymous with the rocket
fuel that has made it into U.S. groundwater and surface water and
subsequently into foods such as lettuce and milk. In the human body,
perchlorate inhibits the transport of iodide, which could lead to hypothyroidism.

When Andrew Jackson and Purnendu K. Dasgupta, professors of chemistry
and environmental engineering at Texas Tech University, and coworkers
sampled the groundwaters of a 60,000-sq-mile region in Texas and New
Mexico last year, however, they found unexpectedly high levels of
perchlorate even in samples that were unlikely ever to have been exposed
to synthetic contamination.

...

Just because perchlorate may form naturally does not reduce the concern
about synthetic perchlorate, Dasgupta adds. He says natural sources
should also be monitored. Dasgupta is currently trying to study whether
the rather high rates of hypothyroidism in the region surveyed could be
attributed to perchlorate.

For the entire article, see
http://pubs.acs.org/cen/news/83/i06/8306perchlorate.html

-- 


Lenny Siegel
Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
c/o PSC, 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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