Pentagon refuses requests to test for toxic chemical, GAO say(Perchlorate)

[leftchick]

http://www.kesq.com/Global/story.asp?S=3504285


WASHINGTON The Pentagon is criticizing a report that said it, at times, refused to conduct tests for a toxic chemical when environmental regulators said such tests were needed.

The Pentagon called the General Accountability Office report "factually incorrect and fundamentally flawed."

Perchlorate is an ingredient in rocket fuel and other defense manufacturing that has been found to interfere with thyroid function. The G-A-O report says it was found in at least 395 sites in 35 states.

The study says Defense Department activities are a leading cause of the contamination. It also says Pentagon policies require testing for the chemical only under limited circumstances, such as when there is a reasonable likelihood of human exposure.

Related...

http://www.freedrinkingwater.com/water-pollution-perchlorate-lettuce.htm

Perchlorate contamination of U.S. lettuce crop


Lettuce safety Questioned

Concern is raised that much of the nation's winter crop may contain a rocket fuel chemical.
Lettuce contaminated by rocket fuel poses a potential human health threat, according to a report to be released today by an environmental watchdog group.

The Environmental Working Group, a pollution research and prevention organization, commissioned the first test for perchlorate in supermarket produce.

Little is known about perchlorate dangers in food, but many regulators agree that the issue deserves study.

The new report doesn't contain enough strong science to convince regulators of an immediate health risk, but it raises more questions about the effects of ongoing contamination from a Cold War rocket fuel factory along the Colorado River.

[leftchick]

1. in addition....

Senator urges review of safe perchlorate level

• Gilroy - Sen. Dianne Feinstein this week pressed the federal Environmental Protection Agency to review its adoption of the safe level of perchlorate ingestion recommended earlier this year in a report by the National Academy of Sciences.

In February, the EPA announced a perchlorate safety standard based on the NAS report that translates into a drinking water level of 5 to 24 parts per billion. The previous EPA level was 1 part per billion. California’s public health goal for perchlorate is 6 parts per billion.

Citing concerns raised in a recent edition of the journal “Environmental Health Perspectives,” Feinstein asked the EPA to revisit the NAS study. Feinstein wants the EPA to reveal how it arrived at the decision and whether it will reevaluate it in light of the recent criticism.

http://www.gilroydispatch.com/news/contentview.asp?c=161272

[cyberpj]

2. "fundamentally flawed" is something we've heard before - do a search

on it. I can't remember where but it was in the news a lot. I'll go try.

[cyberpj]

3. OMG - A google search on that phrase is amazing. Everyone and his brother

uses it. And here I was, thinking it was a Rove/Bush thing that had been used every time they want to deny something.

[EFerrari]

4. I thought the same thing when I read it. It's some WH lawyer's

phrase used to distract from the issue at hand.

These bastards are poisoning our food AGAIN.