Speak up to end our exposure to rocket fuel chemicals

The Power of Information

Speak up to end our exposure to rocket fuel chemicals

EPA should protect Americans from perchlorate -- a toxic chemical in rocket fuel that contaminates drinking water in 28 U.S. states and territories and has also been found in powdered infant formula.

Send the email below to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to ask her to set a legally enforceable limit on perchlorate pollution that will help reduce our children's exposure to the chemical.

May 23, 2013

Subject:
Set a legally enforceable limit on perchlorate pollution now

To EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson

At your confirmation, you assured Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) that you would "immediately" take action to address perchlorate pollution in drinking water. While I understand and appreciate the number of very important tasks at hand, setting a truly health-protective safety standard for perchlorate in drinking water is vital, especially to our nation's children. Perchlorate is known to interfere with thyroid hormones essential for brain development, so it poses particular risks to the fetus, infants and young children.

A new Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) study has found perchlorate in all 15 brands of powdered infant formula tested. CDC scientists said that many infants drinking such formula mixed with perchlorate-contaminated tap water would consume perchlorate at levels above what the EPA considers to be safe.

Infants' widespread and potentially unsafe exposure to perchlorate in powdered formula and tap water argues for speedy measures from your agency. As you know, under the previous administration, EPA declined to set a safety standard for perchlorate contamination in drinking water, even though such a standard is vital to ensuring that infants and other vulnerable people are protected from this toxic chemical.

Instead, during the last days of the Bush administration, your agency called for yet another blue-ribbon panel to study the issue. I urge you to change course and take immediate steps to reduce babies' exposure to perchlorate by setting a legally enforceable safe drinking water level that protects pregnant women, infants and others from perchlorate.

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Speak up to end our exposure to rocket fuel chemicals