Perchlorate is found in a wide variety of foods, especially products popular with babies and kids, advocacy group says.

A chemical used in rocket fuel and fireworks is also found in an array of food products, particularly those popular with babies and children, according to findings released Wednesday by Consumer Reports.

The tests by the advocacy group come decades after the chemical, called perchlorate, was first identified as a contaminant in food and water. The Environmental Working Group in 2003 found perchlorate in nearly 20% of supermarket lettuce tested.

Linked to potential brain damage in fetuses and newborns and thyroid troubles in adults, perchlorate was detected in measurable levels of 67% of 196 samples of 63 grocery and 10 fast-food products, the most recent tests by Consumer Reports found. The levels detected ranged from just over two parts per billion (ppb) to 79 ppb.

  • Todd Bonzalez
    67•3 months ago

    Clickbait headline. Lots of chemicals are in rocket fuel, and it doesn’t automatically make that chemical dangerous.

    The article calls the chemical perchlorate, which is actually a class of chemical, not a single compound. Potassium Perchlorate is used as a thyroid medication…

    The article also says this:

    Most drinking water contamination comes from the manufacture, disposal and research of propellants, explosives and pyrotechnics, along with accidental releases from factories and rocket launch failures, according to the National Institutes of Health’s Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

    Which is actually bullshit, perchlorates are not the leading cause of drinking water contamination. I suspect the person who wrote this means “most [perchlorate] contamination”, but I’m not finding any evidence that this is true either; just that pyrotechnics and rockets are responsible for releasing perchlorates into the environment, and that raises perchlorate levels in key areas like west Texas, New Mexico, and northern Chile.