Human drinking water study raises controversy.
"Aquathin OP-ED Commentary"
Please read this article thoroughly. It would bring a tear to Dr. Joseph Mengela's eyes. This is a giant 40 year step
backwards. You need to make copies of this article and our commentary to show each prospective client who truly believes
there is nothing wrong with his tap water, now or in the future, or how MCL's are to be decided. Maybe nextime, they will
just dose the water without notification or payment.
"Remember...the next best thing to owning an Aquathin is recommending one to a friend! Consult your Local, National and
International Authorized Aquathin Dealer."
Human drinking water study raises controversy.
SAN BERNARDINO, CA Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) in
Bethesda, MD, is paying California residents to ingest ammonium
perchlorate, a rocket fuel propellant often found in drinking water
supplies.
Volunteers are being paid $1,000 each to take daily pills containing
perchlorate at concentrations 83 times those allowed in drinking
water by the state Department of Health Services, according to the
Los Angeles Times. The six-month experiment at Loma Linda
Medical Center is intended to determine safe drinking water limits
for perchlorate, which is known to affect thyroid function. Very high
doses are sometimes used to treat thyroid disorders.
The state department has set an action level of 18 parts per billion
(ppb) for perchlorate, and the state is considering a more stringent
standard. A Lockheed Martin plant is considered to be the most
likely source of perchlorate groundwater contamination in San
Bernardino County, where one public well was found to contain 800
ppb of perchlorate.
The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has not yet set a
drinking water standard for perchlorate, but is studying the issue.
Some public water systems will begin testing for perchlorate under
the revised Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Regulation in
2001.
The design of the Loma Linda study has raised ethical eyebrows in
the health and consumer communities. News reports from California
said this is believed to be the first large-scale US study of water
contaminants using human subjects, although a report on a shortterm
study involving nine subjects who ingested perchlorate at
Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston was published in August.
"The idea of paying someone to take a toxic chemical is highly
questionable," said Jean Halloran of Consumers Union in Yonkers,
NY. The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) should not
accept the results of such research, Halloran said, "without an
extensive public discussion."
The Loma Linda study was approved by Boston University and the
Jerry L. Pettis Memorial VA Medical Center, the Times reported.
"This study escaped the mechanisms that normally filter these
things out," said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, head of Public Citizens Health
Research Group in Washington. "It's a very bad precedent."
The Brigham and Women's study did not find any effect on thyroid
function. However, an epidemiological study published in the August
issue of the Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
concluded that even low levels of perchlorate in drinking water may
negatively affect babies' health before birth. Scientists with the
Arizona Department of Health Services' Bureau of Health Statistics
reached this conclusion after comparing newborn screening data for
1,542 infants born in Yuma and Flagstaff between 1994 and 1997.
FOR THE BEST TASTE IN LIFE
Think Aquathin..AquathinK !!
Edited from Tech-Bank 11/28/00