Letters -- June 2005

Local Foods May Limit Perchlorate Intake

To the Editor:

Since perchlorate, a thyroid hormone disruptor coming from the manufacture and use of rocket fuel and explosives (including fireworks), has contaminated water supplies all over the country and is taken up by irrigated vegetables, we have even more reason to eat food grown in our own region, where we have enough rainfall, normally, to grow produce without irrigation. The Southeast, the Midwest and the Northwest generally can be rain-fed too, yet most of our "imported" produce comes from the irrigated Southwest. We really have a healthier choice, here in Maine, while we all wait the long wait for adequate regulation and perhaps even some cleanup, which may make food production safer again in places where the water supply is being polluted.

Beedy Parker
Camden, Maine

[Ed. note: The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) recently reviewed studies of perchlorate toxicity and reported that the EPA's proposed concentration limits for the chemical may be higher than necessary, and that more than 0.4 mg of perchlorate per kg of body weight per day is the concentration at which the human thyroid is harmed. However, the NAS recommended additional tests before the EPA establishes safety limits; and noted that particular individuals and groups, such as pregnant women, fetuses, infants, children, those who consume too little iodide, and those with thyroid problems, may be more susceptible to lower concentrations.]

To the editor:

We have been trying to buy only beauty products that are not tested on animals. A recent Organic Style magazine had a piece on "safe cosmetics" that do NOT contain carcinogens such as dibutyl phthalate and others. For more information, go to www.safecosmetics.org.

Thank you for buying organic,

Bob Sewall, Mia Mantello, Samantha Sewall
www.sewallsorchard.com
Lincolnville, Maine

[Ed. note: For a list of companies that do not test on animals, see www.leapingbunny.org/about_us.htm or www.caringconsumer.com/. A report about cosmetics, called "Skin Deep" by the Environmental Working Group, is available at www.ewg.org/reports/skindeep/.]