EPA Eyes New Perchlorate Safety Method, Complicating Regulatory Push

摘要

EPA's Office of Water (OW) is considering an alternative approach - recommended by its Office of Inspector General (OIG) - for limiting the risks of perchlorate exposure, a move that complicates efforts by activists and Senate environment committee Chair Barbara Boxer (D-CA) to push EPA to craft drinking water rules for the chemical.rnSeveral sources say EPA water chief Peter Silva told industry representatives at a brown bag meeting recently that the agency is considering alternative ways to limit iodine deficiency - a harm that results from exposure to perchlorate and other so-called sodium iodide symporters (NIS) - than the narrow drinking water rules that Boxer and environmentalists have long pushed. Silva told attendees that the agency is "taking a close look at the issue of iodine deficiency," says one industry source familiar with the meeting.