Posted on 12/07/2008 9:50:54 AM PST by WayneLusvardi
With the election of a new President and Congress that pander to environmental extremists, it is not surprising that the public is again being misled about perchlorate in drinking water on the world wide web. The new environmental treachery is that perchlorate is a “neurotoxin,” a claim now being spread over the world-wide web by WiredScience and Chemistry.com, websites known as unreliable sources of information.
In an article entitled “Feds Set to Eliminate Water Regulations to Toxin,” posted at WiredScience on December 3, 2008, writer Brandon Keim wrote:
“Among the Bush administration's final environmental legacies will be a decision to exempt perchlorate, a known neurotoxin found at unsafe levels in the drinking water of millions of Americans, from federal regulation.”
The adjective “neuro” has since been deleted from the online version of the article after this author pointed out that perchlorate is not a neurotoxin. In fact, it is not even a toxin (i.e. poison).
Perchlorate is a natural substance which is not a neurotoxin, not a cancer-causing carcinogen, nor a poison or toxin. Oversimplified, perchlorate is a molecule composed of one atom of chlorine and four atoms of oxygen. It is a natural salt that is high in oxygen content (an oxygenate or oxygenizer) so it is often used as a rocket fuel catalyst. But it is not rocket fuel as mischaracterized in the mainstream media. To beg the obvious, oxygen is breathed by humans. And like the molecule of perchlorate, oxygen is sometimes used for medical purposes but can be toxic in extremely high doses. Human are exposed to chlorine in trace amounts in drinking water (chloramines) and in swimming pools.
Decades ago perchlorate and fluoride in doses not typically found in nature or drinking water were used to zap the thyroid gland for people suffering from hyperthyroidism. Today, hyperthyroidism is treated by radioactive substances. Fluoride is currently added to drinking water for dental health in doses much, much higher (800 parts per billion) than natural levels of perchlorate found in drinking water (6 parts per billion). The public has been educated that adding low doses of fluoride to water is not harmful but beneficial; but infinitesimal doses of perchlorate in drinking water have been met with alarm and hysteria.
Perchlorate is a potential endocrine disrupter or inhibitor which can block or lessen absorption of iodine, an essential ingredient found in fish and elsewhere that is needed for natural growth and development of the unborn and infants. The concern about perchlorate is that it blocks iodine leading to learning disabilities in children. However, nearly a century ago iodine was added to table salt to prevent this dietary deficiency. See “For Want of a Thing So Simple” here: http://www.blueridgenow.com/article/20081206/ARTICLES/812061014?Title=For_want_of_a_thing_so_simple
The misinformation that perchlorate is a neurotoxin is being spread by ChemistryDaily.com which erroneously states:
“Perchlorates are a neurotoxin. They have been found to affect the thyroid glandin particular. When perchlorates enter the body, they block iodineuptake to the thyroid gland, which is needed to create thyroid hormonesused by the body for metabolismas well as for growth and development in children. This can result in tumor growth on the thyroid gland.”
Neither is perchlorate known to cause tumors or thyroid cancers. Read here http://www.councilonwaterquality.org/facts/key_facts.html
There are no known health benefits from removing miniscule amounts of perchlorate from drinking water. There are no credible documented medical cases of cancer, poisoning, birth defects, or even learning deficits attributed to perchlorate; it is all invented by statistical extrapolation and the media.
For further reading see: "News Coverage of Perchlorate Issue is 30 Miles Wide and One Inch Deep" here: http://www.sdcwa.org/clips/2005/05may/050505/05050510news.html
Doesn’t the space shuttle use ammonium perchlorate in the solid rocket boosters. Other launch vehicles probably do as well.
Its also used in fireworks, amateur rockets, and pryotechnics.
Too much Dihydrogen Monoxides can seriously impair your breathing for external exposure, too much consumption can cause multiple organ failure and death.
Little kids especially boys are known to react violently when immersed in this dangerous stuff.
Chromium 6 was also THE big poison in drinking water too, wasn’t it?
It appears that any substance laden or impregnated with oxygen can be used as a catalyst or booster for rockets fuels. So perchlorate has been used as such. But it is NOT rocket fuel.
Perchlorate has been found to be unintentionally “brewed” in water tanks as a by-product of chlorine treatment of the water and small static electrical charges that occur in the tanks.
Perchlorate also occurs in nature hundreds of miles away from any rocket fuel or fireworks or fertilizer facilities.
Chromium 6 is a whole different subtance than perchlorate. Chromium 6 can be an industrial toxin depending on the amount of dosage and the method of exposure (ingestion or inhalation). Perchlorate isn’t inhaled because it is a salt.
The infamous case of Chromium 6 portrayed in the movie Erin Brockovich is about Hinkley, California, and involved Chromium 6 at 580 parts per billion. The safe drinking water level for perchlorate is deemed to be six (6) parts per billion; which is not coincidentally the same amount found in water in the Colorado River Aqueduct which supplies water to Southern California. Southern California is shutting down local water wells with about 10 parts per billion of perchlorate and shifting to water from the Colorado River Aqueduct which has about the same amount of perchlorate (6 ppb’s) at a gargantuan mark up in cost with no discernible health benefits.
“It appears that any substance laden or impregnated with oxygen can be used as a catalyst or booster for rockets fuels. So perchlorate has been used as such. But it is NOT rocket fuel.”
Ammonium Perchlorate is an ingredient in rocket fuel. The envir whaco’s have long been trying to stop the space program because of its environmental impact.
For chromium 6 the harm was in inhalation if I recall since chromium absorbtion by the gut is so poor. A fact lost in the Hikley scam.
There has to someone making money from the perchlorate scam too.
Wikipeida (I know, I know) reports the EPA MCL for hexavalent chromium is 0.10 ppm, which = 100 ppb. Given that the EPA usually sets MCLs one or more orders of magnitude beneath levels which significantly impact mortality or morbidity, is 580 ppb actually really dangerous to anybody?
I never saw that movie, since I figured it was probably another fraud pushed by the trial lawyers to contaminate jury pools and to inflate settlements for harmless (or marginally harmful at best) substances.
Correct: the scam of Erin Brockovich was that ingestion by drinking water is negligible and in any even they did not consider how the human immune system combats it.
Some important text of the original posting was lost somehow.
Here it is:
A neurotoxin is something that acts specifically on nerve cells. The thyroid gland has a bundle of nerve cells around it. But a neurotoxin is a poison like the venom of a spider, snake, or bee that paralyzes the cells of the victim. Perchlorate does not cause paralysis. Neither does it block sodium channels in neurons leading to paralysis and death as do neurotoxins. So perchlorate is NOT a neurotoxin.
There always will be some “new” toxin for the enviro-extremists and regulators to make into a “sky is falling” threat. For enviros, it means a way to make money with horror stories (most often greatly exaggerated) coupled with a request for donations to “fight” the threat. For the regulators, it’s one more way to gain control of individual lives and punish “evil corporations” who pollute the environment.
A recent example in drinking water is arsenic which had the regulatory level lowered, not as a poison, but for supposed cancer causing effects. However, the lowering caused many groundwater treatment plants here in NM to become obsolete as they were not designed to take out this constituent and required taxpayers to pick up the tab for treating a substance they had been drinking naturally for years with no adverse effects.
Just remember the biggest lie is “I’m from the government and I’m here to help you” as Obama gears up for massive new, expensive programs with more bureaucrats. I wonder how many new buildings to house these people will be built as part of his infrastructure program?
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