Just A Little Rocket Fuel Residue In Our Fresh Food?

New Investigation Confirms Perchlorate Is Still Showing Up In Food. Why Have Regulations Been Delayed So Long For This Chemical?

Photo by SpaceX on Unsplash

Perchlorate, a chemical used in rocket fuel, missiles, explosives, airbags, and certain plastics, has been found in a variety of fresh foods and grocery items, according to new testing by scientists at Consumer Reports. The highest perchlorate levels they found were in popular “kid” foods, such as boxed mac and cheese and baby rice cereals.

Sadly, we’ve known for decades that this chemical persists in our environment and food, and have largely ignored it.

Where do I even begin?

Let’s go back in time with an excerpt from the May/June 2003 issue of Western Water, a publication from the Sacramento-based Water Education Foundation.

There’s danger lurking underground. The threat cannot be seen, heard, or felt immediately, but there it resides—in shallow pockets of groundwater and deep, cold subterranean aquifers situated hundreds of feet below the surface.

Sounds like the beginning of a horror movie…

In some cases, the chemicals are the remnants of long-dormant industrial and military operations conducted during a time of ignorance or indifference to the environmental impacts of careless handling and disposal.

…. Perchlorate is a chemical most associated with solid rocket fuel that has been appearing with alarming frequency in sites nationwide. Like MTBE, perchlorate moves rapidly through water and soil and consequently is the fastest-growing contaminant in California’s groundwater. Thanks to improved detection technology, decades of groundwater pollution are slowly being uncovered as underground plumes have shut down or threatened to shut down dozens of wells up and down California. Meanwhile, across the border in Nevada, an underground swell of perchlorate slowly percolates into Lake Mead and the Colorado River, threatening the supply for millions of people dependent on the river for drinking water.

“It’s turned into much more than any of us expected,” said Kevin Mayer, Superfund project manager with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Region IX in San Francisco. “It’s gone from a fairly localized release of a pretty unusual and specialized chemical to finding it in … many public water systems.”

Again, these words are from 2003! Even back then, the article goes on to say that perchlorate’s presence in the environment had been known for decades. The authors also describe that it’s a vexing chemical because of its persistence and high solubility.

Experts say that were it not for the threat posed to human health and the environment, perchlorate would be a good tool to track the movement of subsurface water.

It has been a particular problem in Southern California, home to the aerospace industry. Regulators, local officials, and residents have dealt with plumes near Simi Valley, in San Gabriel Valley and in the Inland Empire region. The problem spurred a contentious process of identifying responsible parties and negotiating the terms by which cleanup will proceed. We all know the drill.

As one example, let’s look at Rocketdyne, a rocket engine design and production company, originally located not far from my home in a suburb of Los Angeles. It was part of Rockwell International from 1967 through 1996, and eventually became Aerojet Rocketdyne.

For years, the company launched rocket engine tests over the area, which generated many questions about violating air pollution regulations and created concerns about spills of toxic materials into nearby communities.

Two class-action lawsuits were filed against the company, and my former boss Ed Masry led one of them. I still have the documents related to the case: in one, a former employee testified that he tried to discuss his uncertainties about the company’s practices with management.

The response to him was, “It doesn’t matter if we kill a few people with our testing, because Rockwell has a large legal staff that can take care of that kind of thing.”

Sadly, this attitude is still rampant in big business. Why not trim the budget of your legal defense fund and spend more money on innovation that is good for all of us?

Let’s get clear about perchlorate.

Yes, it can occur naturally, but high concentrations have been found near military installations, where it was used to test rockets and missiles.

Most drinking water contamination comes from activities related to the manufacture, disposal, and research of propellants, explosives, and pyrotechnics, as well as to accidental releases from manufacturing facilities and rocket launch failures, according to the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry.

It can also get on fresh vegetables when crops are irrigated with contaminated water.

Military and defense contractors used the chemical freely yet balked at tighter regulations, while officials of municipal water services have been calling for more stringent rules on perchlorate for decades.

In 2003, The Environmental Working Group found perchlorate in nearly 20 percent of supermarket lettuce tested. 

The chemical has been linked to potential brain damage in fetuses and newborns and thyroid troubles in adults, which may affect metabolism. High levels of perchlorate exposure can potentially cause hypothyroidism or related issues.

“Perchlorate prevents static in some packaging and inhibits thyroid function, which is crucial for brain development as well as a host of other key functions,” according to a 2018 press release from the American Academy of Pediatrics.

So why are scientists still finding it in our food supply?

Regulations have laggggggged.

In 2003, California Senator Barbara Boxer introduced legislation to mandate federal drinking water standards for perchlorate by 2004.

But a 2008 finding by the George W. Bush administration found that a nationwide standard for the chemical was unnecessary and would do little to reduce risks to human health.

Then the Obama administration announced in 2011 that it would issue the first-ever limits on perchlorate, which at the time had seeped into groundwater in at least 400 locations. Estimates showed that perchlorate had contaminated the drinking water of up to 20 million Americans.

Fast forward to 2020, when the Trump administration decided not to regulate perchlorate in drinking water. At the time, the EPA said perchlorate was not found widely enough in drinking water or “at levels of public health concern” to warrant federal regulation.

Flip flop. Flip Flop.

Now the EPA’s own website says that they have committed to issue proposed National Primary Drinking Water Regulation for perchlorate by November 21, 2025, and a final regulation by May 21, 2027, as required by court orders.

Notice that last part—by court orders. In 2023, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously ruled that the EPA’s decision against regulating the toxic chemical perchlorate in drinking water was illegal. 

In other words, the EPA had to be sued in order to do its job.

“The court ruled that the EPA must regulate perchlorate-contaminated drinking water because the agency had found that it poses a health risk to millions of Americans,” said Erik D. Olson, senior strategic director for health at NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council) in a statement. “After more than a decade of delay and litigation, EPA now must issue a drinking water standard for this widespread and dangerous contaminant. It’s about time.”      

In the latest Consumer Report findings, foods often consumed by children had the highest levels of perchlorate, averaging 19.4 parts per billion, while fresh fruit and vegetables as well as fast food also contained elevated amounts.

Researchers looked at 196 samples of 63 supermarket products and 10 fast food items, chosen because previous scientific research suggested these foods may contain perchlorate. About 67 percent of the samples had measurable levels of perchlorate, at levels ranging from more than 2 ppb to 79 ppb. Foods in plastic containers had the highest levels (averaging about 54 ppb), followed by foods in plastic wrap and paperboard.

As reference, California set a public health goal of 1 part ppb for perchlorate in drinking water. The FDA approved perchlorate for use in plastic packaging for food in 2005, despite evidence that it harms health. In 2017, the agency rejected a petition to ban the chemical as a food additive.

“Regulators should do more to protect the public from contaminants like perchlorate, but at the same time, parents shouldn’t panic about what we found,” said James E. Rogers, PhD, director of product safety testing at Consumer Reports, in the article.

It’s still important to eat a variety of foods—and especially fruits and vegetables.

But I want to say this as plainly as I possibly can. Toxic chemicals used in rocket fuel do not belong in our drinking water or our food. That’s it. The time to clean up this mess is now.

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Did you know about the dangers of perchlorate? Let us know in the comments below.