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 CDC Scientists Find Rocket Fuel Chemical In Infant Formula
Source: EWG By Anila Jacob, M.D., M.P.H., Date: 04/01/09
Researchers from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) have reported that 15 brands of powdered infant formula are contaminated with
perchlorate, a rocket fuel component detected in drinking water in 28 states and territories.
The two most contaminated brands, made from cow’s milk, accounted for
87 percent of the U.S. powdered formula market in 2000, the scientists
said.
The CDC scientists did not identify the formula brands they tested.
The little-noticed CDC findings, published in the March 2009 edition of
the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology, raise
new concerns about perchlorate pollution, a legacy of Cold War rocket
and missile tests. Studies have established that the chemical is a
potent thyroid toxin that may interfere with fetal and infant brain
development (Kirk 2006).
The CDC team warned that mixing perchlorate-tainted formula powder with
tap water containing “even minimal amounts” of the chemical could boost
the resulting mixture’s toxin content above the level the Environmental
Protection Agency (EPA) considers safe. Many scientists contend that
the EPA “safe” level is too high to protect public health.
“Safe” level too high
The risk to infants being fed cow's milk-based formula may be even
greater than the CDC assessment suggests. A CDC study in 2006 found
that trace perchlorate exposure considerably below the EPA’s “safe”
level (0.7 micrograms of perchlorate per kilogram of body weight per
day, called the reference dose, or RfD) altered women’s thyroid hormone
levels (Blount et al 2006a).
Based on this study, the Environmental Working Group has recommended
that EPA promptly set a legally enforceable upper limit on perchlorate
contamination in drinking water, consistent with the latest science on
perchlorate’s toxic effects.
Obama EPA considering action
At her January 14 confirmation hearing, EPA administrator Lisa Jackson
promised California Senator Barbara Boxer, whose state has borne the
brunt of perchlorate contamination from old launch sites and aerospace
facilities, that she would act “immediately” to reduce perchlorate
contamination in drinking water in order to protect children and
pregnant women.
Since her confirmation, however, Jackson and EPA have not made public a plan of action.
Pentagon lobbied Bush administration
Last fall, the Bush administration’s EPA leadership touched off a major
furor by declaring that perchlorate posed no threat to most Americans
and did not need to be regulated as a drinking water pollutant.
The decision was widely regarded as a major victory for the Pentagon
and defense and aerospace contractors reluctant to pay clean-up costs
that could mount into the hundreds of millions of dollars.
EPA’s move triggered protests from consumers, lawmakers, scientists and
medical experts - among them, two of the agency’s prestigious outside
science advisory panels.
Melanie A. Marty, a senior career EPA official and chair of EPA’s
Children's Health Protection Advisory Committee, declared that the
agency’s refusal to regulate perchlorate in drinking water exposed some
infants to "the life-long consequences of impaired brain development.”
On January 8, EPA issued a non-binding “health advisory” on perchlorate
and asked the National Academy of Sciences to review the issue.
EWG dismissed EPA’s action as “nothing more than an effort to dodge the
issue and buy time for the defense, aerospace and chemical industries.”
Years of federal inaction have prompted some states to set their own
mandatory limits for perchlorate in drinking water: California, at 6
ppb and Massachusetts at 2 ppb. While recent scientific research has
shown these standards too weak to protect public health adequately,
they are far more stringent than EPA’s action in January.
Studies find pollution in people, food
Concern about perchlorate pollution has intensified as a series of
studies have found perchlorate in the urine of every American tested by
the CDC and in breast milk (Blount et al 2006b, Pearce et al 2007).
In 2008, an EWG analysis found that toddlers were especially vulnerable
to perchlorate exposure from contaminated food. Toddlers, who are
growing rapidly, consume large amounts of food daily, relative to their
size. Moreover, those who live in places like California and Texas,
where high perchlorate levels have been measured in some drinking water
supplies, are doubly exposed to perchlorate contamination.
EWG’s analysis was based on 2008 federal Food and Drug Administration
(FDA) tests that found almost 75 percent of food and beverage samples
tainted with perchlorate, possibly from contaminated irrigation water
(Murray et al 2008).
CDC finds perchlorate in 15 formula brands
The new CDC study is the first to examine perchlorate exposure of
infants fed powdered formula reconstituted with contaminated drinking
water. The CDC team tested 15 brands of powdered infant formula in four
categories: cow milk-based with lactose, cow milk-based lactose-free,
soy-based and elemental.
“Perchlorate was found in all brands and types of infant formula
tested,” the scientists said. The worst perchlorate contamination was
found in formula based on cow’s milk with lactose.
The CDC team said that combining cow’s milk/lactose formula with water
containing perchlorate at just 4 parts per billion (ppb) could cause 54
percent of infants consuming the mix to exceed EPA’s “safe” level.
The number of babies exposed to unsafe levels of perchlorate would rise
if, as EWG and many other science and health advocates argue, the EPA
“safe” level were lowered to reflect recent scientific studies.
Formula required to contain iodine
While these findings are of concern, the CDC scientists also note that
FDA requires infant formula to be supplemented with iodine, a nutrient
that can counteract the negative effects of perchlorate on the thyroid
gland. The range of required iodine concentrations in formula is
between 5 and 75 micrograms per 100kcal of energy.
Iodine supplements at higher levels may offer some protection from the
toxic effects of perchlorate. But the CDC scientists estimate that
those brands that contain only the minimum iodine concentration of 5
micrograms would leave infants iodine-deficient and thus more
vulnerable to the toxic effects of perchlorate. A scenario in which
formula contained 40 micrograms of iodine (per 100kcal of energy) would
offer more protection for infants, but the scientists stress that even
adequate iodine intake among formula-fed infants is not guaranteed to
prevent “perchlorate-induced thyroid dysfunction.”
Strict drinking water regulation of perchlorate needed
This study represents perhaps the strongest evidence to date supporting
the need for a legally enforceable safe drinking water level that
protects pregnant women, infants and others who are most vulnerable to
the effects of this harmful chemical.
The new Obama administration leadership at EPA can and should take
steps to reduce infants’ exposures to perchlorate pollution in tap
water.
References
Blount BC, Pirkle JL, Oserloh JD, Valentin-Blasini L, Caldwell KL.
2006a. Urinary perchlorate and thyroid hormone levels in adolescent and
adult men and women living in the Unites States. Environmental Health
Perspectives 114(12): 1865-71.
Blount BC, Valentin-Blasini L, Osterloh JD, Mauldin JP, Pirkle JL.
2006b. Perchlorate exposure of the US population, 2001-2002. Journal of
Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology 17(4): 400-07.
Kirk AB. 2006. Environmental perchlorate: why it matters. Analytical Chimica Acta 567(1): 4-12.
Murray WM, Egan SR, Kim H, Beru N, Bolger PM. 2008. US Food and Drug
Administration's Total Diet Study: Dietary intake of perchlorate and
iodine. Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology
18(6): 571-80.
Pearce EN, Leung AM, Blount BC, Bazrafshan HR, He X, Pino S,
Valentin-Blasini L, Braverman LE. 2007. Breast milk iodine and
perchlorate concentrations in lactating Boston area women. Journal of
Clinical Endocrinology and Metabolism 92: 1673-77.
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