EDITOR: This is a reply to a letter in the June 20 edition of
The Times by Fred Angelino of Gilroy in his response to my first
letter to the editor. I would like to say that I don’t personally
know Mr. Angelino but I suspect he is a hard working farmer and has
contributed much to agriculture and to the community .
EDITOR:
This is a reply to a letter in the June 20 edition of The Times by Fred Angelino of Gilroy in his response to my first letter to the editor. I would like to say that I don’t personally know Mr. Angelino but I suspect he is a hard working farmer and has contributed much to agriculture and to the community .
However I would like to respond to his responses. He is probably correct in saying that perchlorate, as an individual substance, is probably more toxic that nitrates. That is similar to saying cyanide by itself is more toxic than gasoline. But it is incorrect to say that he or anyone knows for certain that perchlorate in our groundwater is more toxic that the nitrates. That would be like saying one drop of cyanide in the ocean is more toxic than a a gallon of gasoline in a small lake.
It all depends on the concentrations of the substance, in our case, in the underground aquifer. No one probably really knows which is worse (perchlorate Vs nitrates) and it probably depends on many factors such as the individual, his immune system, his overall health, versus how many years the water has been ingested, and many other things that are too numerous to mention.
It’s not like saying when you drink a gallon of cyanide you are going to die instantly. It’s more like the T-shirt of the person living near the nuclear power plant in Pennsylvania that says “I survived Three Mile Island – I think.” I just offer the opinion that there seems to be more information available on the adverse effects of nitrates.
I do agree with him that our bodies probably have the ability to get rid of toxic substances, but it is unknown at this time by anyone for certain what the effects of perchlorate or nitrates are in our groundwater. There are too many variables to make any accurate statements. In my initial letter I was trying to show that nitrates were considered toxic and they were in far greater concentrations (by orders of magnitude of thousands) than perchlorate in our ground water.
Another error I would like to correct is the blatant statement that “… the main source of nitrates is air and rainfall.” This could not be further from the truth. Air is composed mostly of molecular nitrogen and oxygen. Water is composed of two hydrogen and one oxygen atoms. Nitrate is a negative ion made up of one nitrogen atom and three oxygen atoms (NO3). It is true that agriculture is responsible for the pollution of the underground aquifer as far as nitrates is concerned. As you can see in the following quote from the www.valleywater.org web site:
Where does nitrate come from?
Common sources of nitrates in the soil are fertilizers, livestock waste and septic systems. Excess nitrate in the soil is most often found in rural and agricultural areas. Some areas of the Llagas Groundwater Basin in southern Santa Clara County have higher than normal concentrations of nitrate.
In conclusion, I do agree with him on the perchlorate issue as not being as serious as it is made out to be. Our bodies do expel perchlorate in a short amount of time. However, I don’t agree with him on the nitrate issue. Nitrates are not good for anyone. I have copied from a web site the following information on nitrates in drinking water: http://www.waterforliving.com/files/Fact_sheetNitrates.pdf
What are the health effects of nitrates in drinking water?
The main health effect of nitrate ingestion is a blood disorder called methemoglobinemia, also known as blue-baby syndrome because it occurs most commonly in infants and can cause a characteristic blue-gray skin coloration. Ingestion of nitrate (converted to nitrites in the body) results in the conversion of hemoglobin to methemoglobin, a form of hemoglobin that cannot carry oxygen. Lack of oxygen in the blood can lead to clinical manifestations of cyanosis (bluish skin color, particularly of the mucus membranes) characteristic of methemoglobinemia.
Other symptoms of methemoglobinemia may arise from poor delivery of oxygen in the blood. Acutely, these include shortness of breath, hypotension, below-average weight gain and developmental delays, which may be present in the absence of observable cyanosis.
Indications of chronically elevated methemoglobin levels include central nervous system depression (headache, dizziness, fatigue and lethargy); coma; convulsions; abnormal heart rhythms; circulation failure; and hemolytic anemia (5,6).
Children exposed to high levels of nitrate in drinking water may also be at increased risk for developing goiter and respiratory tract infections (7,8). Severe methemoglobinemia can quickly lead to death if not recognized and treated immediately.
Diagnosis can be made either by laboratory measurement of methemoglobin or by observation of blood turning a chocolate brown color when exposed to room air. Adults rarely develop methemoglobinemia at nitrate levels typically found in drinking water, but possible associations between long-term consumption of nitrate-contaminated drinking water and increased risk of bladder and ovarian cancer exist (9). Studies have also suggested that nitrate in drinking water may be linked with increased risk for non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, although the evidence is inconclusive (9,10).
John Simunic, Morgan Hill
