EPA to regulate rocket fuel chemical in drinking water for causing the same problems as fluoride

Friday, February 04, 2011 by: Ethan A. Huff, staff writer
Tags: perchlorate, drinking water, health news

(NaturalNews) The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has identified the need to set a limit on the amount of perchlorate, a toxic chemical found in rocket fuel, that is permissible in water supplies. The agency says perchlorates negatively affects the body's ability to uptake iodine, which in turn alters proper thyroid function and causes disease. Interestingly, this is exactly what toxic fluoride, which is added to most U.S. drinking water supplies, does, yet the EPA has remained silent on this issue.

"There's going to be a lot of scrutiny of the standard because, again, we are looking at but one of several precursors that can affect iodine uptake in the thyroid," explained Lisa Jackson, EPA Administrator, to CNN concerning the agency's new limits. "It's the first time we've ever regulated a chemical not because of what it does directly to you, but because it has an impact on iodine uptake that might affect your child down the road."

In other words, these rocket fuel chemicals are implicated in causing endocrine disruption, and are thus a serious threat to public health. And it is a good thing the EPA is taking notice and trying to do something about the problem. But the fluorosilicic acid, also known as fluoride, added to the majority of the nation's drinking water supplies does the very same thing, except that chemical is deliberately added under the false pretense that doing so protects teeth.

In 2006, the National Research Council (NRC) issued a review of the EPA's "safe water standard" of 4 parts per million (ppm) for fluoride in drinking water. NRC concluded that "several lines of information indicate an effect of fluoride exposure on thyroid function." In fact, fluoride was actually used up until the 1970s as a thyroid-suppressing medication because it is known to offset necessary iodine and instead affix itself within the body (http://www.fluoridealert.org/health/thyroid/).

When the thyroid fails to get the iodine it needs, it can cause a range of serious illnesses including chronic fatigue, depression, weight gain, hair loss, perpetual muscle pain, increased cholesterol levels, heart disease, and many other conditions. So chemicals that disrupt it, like both perchlorates and fluoride, deserve intense scrutiny.

Thyroid dysfunction is just one of the many negative effects of ingesting fluoride, but the fact that it does illustrates an important double-standard taking place over at the EPA. Seemingly concerned about toxic chemicals that impair iodine uptake, the EPA is coming out against perchlorates while saying nothing about the continued poisioning of the population via artificial water fluoridation. Something is definitely wrong with this picture.

To learn more about the dangers associated with fluoride ingestion, visit:
http://www.fluoridealert.org

Sources for this story include:

http://www.cnn.com/2011/HEALTH/02/02/epa.wat....chemical/