EDITOR: I have been following the perchlorate story for quite
some time and have come up with some interesting perspectives. I
have training in chemistry so I feel qualified to offer some
educated opinions.
EDITOR:
I have been following the perchlorate story for quite some time and have come up with some interesting perspectives. I have training in chemistry so I feel qualified to offer some educated opinions.
Just to put into perspective how much perchlorate is in the driinking water, here are some interesting facts.
Did you know that 10 PPB (parts per billion, an average estimate of the perchlorate found in San Martin well water), is a very minute amount. An example would be a pinch of salt in 10 tons of potato chips. A like comparison would be a fly in an Olympic-sized swimming pool.
However” I would like to turn your attention to the amount of nitrates in the water versus perchlorate. The perception is that both of these chemicals are considered toxic in some measurable quantity in our drinking water.
Usually when it comes to carcinogens and bad chemicals, usually “more” means worse. Nitrates are orders of magnitude greater than perchlorate in the drinking water. Let me explain more.
The nitrate problem has been identified for some time and has been found in our aquifers because of agriculture fertilization over the last 50-100 years. High level of nitrates in drinking water “..can interfere with the capacity of an infant’s blood to carry oxygen throughout the body resulting in enzyme deficiencies, blueness of skin, and shortness of breath. It can adversely affect a pregnant mother’s fetus”. The previous statement is paraphrased from the Morgan Hill City web site concerning water quality.
Nitrates in the drinking water measure about 40 mg/liter. This is also equivalent to 40 parts per million. Do you know what the equivalent is in parts per billion and how it relates to perchlorate? The answer is 40 parts per million is equivalent to 40,000 parts per billion. Perchlorate is only being measured at approximately 10 parts per billion. It is easy to see that nitrates are in the order of a thousand times more concentrated in our drinking water than perchlorate .
What does all this mean? I guess no one is sure yet about the perchlorate yet but there have been definite warnings about nitrates. I would tend to agree with one point made by a Seattle toxicologist that there are many other substances that naturally occur in our food that inhibit iodine uptake in the thyroid exactly the same way perchlorate does.
Additionally I would like to suggest that there are other bad things in our drinking water such as chromium, organic chemicals such as methane compounds, and asbestos that are also harmful to us. I would also like to suggest that nitrates are probably a bigger risk than perchlorate just based on the sheer amount differences found in the water.
This leads to the question then “Why isn’t someone doing something about nitrates and why has it gone on so long without any attention like perchlorate is getting now?” I would offer the suggestion that you can’t sue the farmers in the valley, let alone identify them, who are responsible for the nitrate contamination of our aquifer of the last 50-100 years.
However Olin is an easily identifiable target and hence all the focus can be put on them.
I suggest we all sit back and not panic just yet. We may be focusing on the wrong things and there is a possibility that perchlorate may not be a problem at all.
Richard Simunic, Morgan Hill
