U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer has asked federal agencies to launch
an immediate investigation into the amounts and sources of
perchlorate contamination in food grown in the United States.
U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer has asked federal agencies to launch an immediate investigation into the amounts and sources of perchlorate contamination in food grown in the United States.
Boxer (D-CA) requested the U.S. Food and Drug Administration do the work in consultation with the federal Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Agriculture.
She made the request Monday, after the nonprofit Environmental Working Group released a new study that found perchlorate in grocery store lettuce samples that likely originated from areas of Southern California and Arizona irrigated with perchlorate-contaminated Colorado River water.
“The government is already woefully behind in addressing perchlorate contamination in drinking water,” Boxer said in a letter to U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Mark McClellan. “This delay is unacceptable. We cannot exacerbate the problem by ignoring the possible contamination of our food.”
The Food and Drug Administration is reportedly in the process of working on a protocol to test vegetables for the chemical, which has been found in hundreds of South County wells after a plume of the chemical spread from an old Olin Corp. highway flare factory in Morgan Hill.
Perchlorate is a by-product from the manufacture of flares, matches, fireworks and, in larger amounts, solid rocket fuel.
According to the California Environmental Protection Agency, scientific studies have suggested perchlorate can disrupt thyroid hormone production. Inhibited thyroid function can result in hypothyroidism and in rare cases, thyroid tumors.
Sensitive populations include pregnant women, children and people who have health problems or compromised thyroid conditions.
