High levels of perchlorate found in U.S. mothers' milk

摘要

The first sampling of perchlorate in breast milk from nursing mothers in the United States reveals levels as high as 92 parts per billion (ppb), which expose infants to concentrations of the contaminant that are 20 times higher than the safe dose recently recommended by a National Academy of Sciences (NAS) committee. A potentially more disturbing finding is that some of the milk samples are so low in iodide—possibly because of the presence of perchlorate—that infants are receiving much less of this important trace nutrient than the international health experts recommend. This first-ever U.S. survey of perchlorate in breast milk, conducted by researchers at Texas Tech University in Lubbock, is reported in this issue of ES&T(pp 2011-2017) and adds to the growing number of studies that suggest the contaminant is pervasive.