Last year's media story on perchlorate was a little different.  A study 
sponsored by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) found perchlorate in cow's milk. 
 This study was done at the same university (Texas Tech University) as the 
Kirk et al. study on "Perchlorate and Iodide in Dairy and Breast Milk." It's 
worth reading and contrasting last year's news story on perchlorate versus the 
current one.  The article was written in June 2004 and is located at a lawyers' 
website and starts off with an interesting comment, "young children and 
pregnant women who drink milk from cows may be exposed to unsafe levels of a toxic 
chemical [perchlorate]..."
http://www.yourlawyer.com/practice/news.htm?story_id=81938topic=Perchlorate
I am sure that article last year did not make the dairy industry very happy. 
Now of course with the news being that breastmilk is more contaminated than 
cow's milk, I am sure the dairy industry is feeling a little better.  This 
article at the lawyer's website also goes on to say that "The EWG study didn't 
determine how the chemical ended up in cow's milk, but perchlorate has been found 
in many of the state's water sources, which are used to irrigate farmland and 
grow crops fed to cows."
Of greater interest to me was this particular information written by the EWG 
on water consumption of infants and the belief that this fact should lower 
acceptable levels of perchlorate in water supplies.  
http://www.ewg.org/reports/rocketscience/chap4.html
"Although all children consume significantly more water than adults relative 
to their body weight, this is especially true for the almost 40 percent of 
infants who, in their first four months of life, drink formula made with tap 
water. (EWG 1999.) These bottle-fed infants consume more than seven times as much 
water as adults relative to their weight. If just this one error is accounted 
for, both the EPA's MCL and the California action level would be 7.5 times 
lower than their present values. "
Exactly why aren't we evaluating infant formula for perchlorate 
contamination.  Yes, I guess its the same old syndrome.  Infant formula innocent until 
proven guilty, and human milk guilty, guilty, guilty, guilty.......
Valerie W. McClain, breastfeeding advocate

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