MSM Gets Perchlorate Story Mostly Wrong - Rebuttal Letter to Peter Waldman of WSJ

The Pasadena Pundit ^ | December 30, 2005 | Wayne Lusvardi

[WayneLusvardi]

MSM Gets Perchlorate Story Mostly Wrong -- Rebuttal Letter to Peter Waldman of Wall Street Journal on Perchlorate

To: Editor, Wall Street Journal From: The Pasadena Pundit Re: Peter Waldman, "Inside Pentagon's Fight to Limit Regulation of Military Pollutant" (P.1 banner headline) Peter Waldman, "Campus, Industry set up a Confab" (P. 5). Wall Street Journal, December 29, 2005

Wall Street Journal environmental journalist Peter Waldman's use of the rhetorical device of casting aspersions on the motives of Pentagon contractors in establishing a safe dose for perchlorate in drinking water misinforms the public and is an infuriating diversion from serious policy debate.

*Public and private water suppliers have shut down about 350 water wells in California and are paying 5 to 10 times the price for imported water supplies from the Colorado River Aqueduct that has nearly the same concentration of perchlorate in it (6 parts per billion) as most of the so-called contaminated water wells (6 to 10 parts per billion). Vast areas of the Texas panhandle have perchlorate from 20 to 60 parts per billion in soils and groundwater where no rocket fuel or munitions plants are located. For decades the drinking water in Chile has contained natural perchlorate at higher levels than that found in our groundwater with no measurably higher rates of childhood mental retardation. Perchlorate has also been found in rain and snow. Lab tests indicate it may be naturally produced by the exposure of natural salts to sunlight.

*Oversimplified, perchlorate is one molecule of chlorine and four molecules of oxygen. Why is there no media pressure on public water agencies to conduct audits of how much perchlorate is coming from their own water facilities now that it has been shown that 64 to 113 parts per billion of perchlorate can be "brewed" in water tanks and pipelines by inadvertently exposing chlorinated drinking water to low level electrical charges, such as are found on cathodic protection devices which prevent such facilities from corroding? If water agencies aren't concerned about the byproducts produced from the conventional chlorination process why are they then quietly shifting to more expensive ozone treatment?

*Waldman maligns the industry-funded Perchlorate Study Group but conveniently ignores telling us that its counter organization, the Environmental Working Group, is funded by the Theresa Heinz (Kerry) Family Fund to help U.S. Senator from California Barbara Boxer's platform to capture the "women and children's" issues vote.

[punster]

The environmentalists again show their tendency to go overboard on the issues. They forget the basic principle of toxicology: "The dose makes the poison." by Paracelsus.

[binreadin]

Actually, they are finding that that isn't necessarily true--some compounds may be more toxic at smaller doses, which is of course contrary to previous opinion. Plus, the WSJ is for the most part solidly on the conservative side. Their article is worth reading.

[VOA]

"They forget the basic principle of toxicology: "The dose makes
the poison." by Paracelsus."

Hey, when your full name is
"Theophrastus Philippus Aureolus Bombastus von Hohenheim"...
you've got to find cut it down to something simple.
(If I hadn't worked in toxicology for a few years, I'd never have
heard of him.)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paracelsus