The committee that is assessing the health implications of
perchlorate exposure is under attack.
The committee that is assessing the health implications of perchlorate exposure is under attack.
California’s two U.S. senators raised concerns about the impartiality of two of the members of the National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Committee that is assessing the health implications of perchlorate exposure throughout the United States.
Perchlorate was discovered to have contaminated the South Santa Clara Valley aquifer, polluting private and public wells in Morgan Hill and San Martin, in early 2003. The perchlorate plume reached northern Gilroy shortly thereafter, contaminating a handful of private wells. The eight city wells that supply 100 percent of Gilroy’s drinking water remain perchlorate free.
Olin Corp., whose highway safety flare manufacturing plant operated for 40 years on Tennant Avenue, has accepted responsibility for the contamination.
In a letter to NAS President Bruce Alberts, senators Barbara Boxer (D-Calif) and Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) said that “records indicate that a financially interested party has funded two of the committee scientists, Richard Bull and Charles Capen.”
Bull’s conflicts of interest were partially acknowledged only due to external pressure, while Capen’s reported relationship with Lockheed Martin remains unnoted, the Senators wrote.
”This raises serious issues about NAS review of conflict of interest, bias, and balance for this panel.”
The senators went on to say that even the “appearance of conflict of interest or bias undermines NAS’s credibility,” and asked that NAS “fully investigate and disclose and potential conflicts of interests of any panel member immediately.”
The Feinstein and Boxer letter explained the perchlorate situation and the behind-the-scenes action, ending with a worry about the final results.
“As you know, the widespread contamination of drinking water sources by perchlorate is a significant problem in California and throughout the nation. Perchlorate dissolves easily, moves quickly and persists indefinitely.”
Even at low concentrations, perchlorate poses serious health threats, including impaired physical and brain development in fetuses and newborns.
More than 20 million Americans in 24 states drink perchlorate contaminated water, and contamination is suspected in 19 other states, the letter read.
”Because of this widespread contamination and public interest in perchlorate, it is especially important that NAS avoid any action that could cast doubt on the objectivity of its study,” the letter read.
The Environmental Protection Agency published its first draft proposed reference dose (RFD) for perchlorate in 1992, and its most recent draft perchlorate RFD in January 2002 with a recommended RFD of 1 part per billion.
This voluminous proposal examined decades of data and hundreds of studies. At the time, EPA said it would finalize a tap water standard for perchlorate by the end of 2002.
Instead, the administration asked for further study. NAS is evaluating studies underlying EPA’s 2002 proposal.
