EPA Decides Not to Remove Rocket Fuel from Drinking Water

There’s a toxic rocket fuel ingredient in drinking water across the country, and the Environmental Protection Agency doesn’t care. Though the EPA is officially in charge of protecting the public from dangers such as this, they reached the conclusion that the ingredient, perchlorate, would not result in a “meaningful opportunity for health risk reduction for persons served by public-water systems.”  So, despite the fact that perchlorate – which has been found in at least 395 sites in 35 states at dangerously high levels – interferes with thyroid function and could pose developmental health risks, especially for babies and fetuses, the EPA doesn’t think it’s too important.

From The Huffington Post:

The Defense Department used perchlorate for decades in testing missiles and rockets, and most perchlorate contamination is the result of defense and aerospace activities, congressional investigators said last year.

The Pentagon could face liability if EPA set a national drinking water standard that forced water agencies around the country to undertake costly clean-up efforts. Defense officials have spent years questioning EPA’s conclusions about the risks posed by perchlorate.

The Pentagon objected strongly Monday to the suggestion that it sought to influence EPA’s decision.

Of course they denied pressuring the EPA – there’d be public outrage if they admitted it. That’s the Bush administration’s way – they make the decisions that are advantageous to themselves, and lie to everyone about their methods and motivations. The EPA’s decision basically amounts to announcing that they don’t care about public health. It’s pretty sick, but not surprising given what the Bush presidency has put this country through for the last 8 years.

The next president is going to have a lot to clean up, and if we want anything to get done, we’d better do all we can to ensure McCain and Palin don’t win the election.

Link [The Huffington Post]

Celebrity Chef Nearly Kills People with Salad

UK celebrity chef Antony Worrall Thompson made a misstep that might have had some serious repercussions if the magazine printing his quote hadn’t noticed the mistake. Thompson accidentally recommended a deadly plant for use in organic salads. The chef and TV presenter told the magazine “Healthy & Organic Living” that the weed henbane, also called stinking nightshade (yum!), is a delicious addition to summertime meals.

From Reuters:

Henbane, or Hyoscyamus niger, is toxic and can cause hallucinations, convulsions, vomiting and in extreme cases death.

Worrall Thompson, who was discussing his passion for organic foods, had confused the plant with another of a similar name.

Henbane, a close relative of deadly nightshade, was used by Dr Crippen to kill his wife in 1910, and is thought to have been the main ingredient in the poison Romeo took in Shakespeare’s play “Romeo and Juliet.”

Thompson apparently confused henbane with ‘fat hen’, a weed rich in vitamin C. Um, oops.

Link [Reuters]
Photo credit: Flickr user Catsper