Rocket Fuel Chemical in Baby Formula

  • The CDC has found perchlorate, a chemical from rocket fuel, in baby formula. (Photo courtesy of TSA.gov)

Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control have found perchlorate in baby formula. It’s a chemical used in rocket fuel. It’s been linked to thyroid problems and it can interfere with a baby’s development. Rebecca Williams has more:

Transcript

The Centers for Disease Control has found perchlorate in baby formula. It’s a chemical used in rocket fuel. It’s been linked to thyroid problems and it can interfere with a baby’s development. Rebecca Williams has more:

The CDC researchers tested 45 samples of baby formula and perchlorate turned up in all of them. They found it in really small amounts. But they did find formula made from cow’s milk had the highest levels and soy-based formula and synthetic formula had much lower levels.

Perchlorate has also been found in breast milk.

Dr. Josh Schier is one of the study’s authors.

“CDC still recommends that mothers’ breast milk is the best nutrition for a developing infant. Now the Food and Drug Administration, you have to remember, requires infant formulas to contain iodine and iodine can potentially help to offset effects of perchlorate on the thyroid.”

The American Thyroid Association says women who are pregnant or nursing should check with their doctor about taking an iodine supplement.

For the Environment Report, I’m Rebecca Williams.

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Contaminated Baby Formula

  • In China, infant formulas contaminated with melamine killed four babies and made thousands sick. (Photo courtesy of the CDC)

Earlier this year, when Chinese
infant formulas were found to be contaminated,
the US Food and Drug Administration banned
imports. The FDA said no amount of
industrial chemicals should be allowed in
infant formula. Now that the FDA has
found the same chemicals in US-made infant
formulas, the government says a little is
safe. Lester Graham reports:

Transcript

Earlier this year, when Chinese
infant formulas were found to be contaminated,
the US Food and Drug Administration banned
imports. The FDA said no amount of
industrial chemicals should be allowed in
infant formula. Now that the FDA has
found the same chemicals in US-made infant
formulas, the government says a little is
safe. Lester Graham reports:

In China, infant formulas contaminated with melamine killed four babies and made
thousands sick. The FDA said no amount was acceptable.

Then the FDA started secretly testing infant formulas made in the U.S. It found
melamine or a related chemical, cyanuric acid, in Nestle’s Good Start formula and
Mead Johnson’s Enfamil. ‘

Suddenly, the FDA decided a trace amount, one part per million is safe.

Lisa Madigan is the Attorney General for the State of Illinois. She says the FDA
should stop sales of those formulas.

“We have directly asked them to make sure these formulas are recalled as well as to
make sure that people across the country are aware of the problem.”

The FDA stresses levels of the chemicals in the U.S. infant formulas are more than
10,000 times lower than the levels reported in the Chinese formulas.

For The Environment Report, this is Lester Graham.

Related Links

Cold War Toxin in Drinking Water?

A toxic leftover from the Cold War is polluting soil and water at sites across the country. More than two dozen sites in the Great Lakes region could be contaminated by a chemical used in rocket fuel. The chemical was either used or stored at the sites. The Great Lakes Radio Consortium’s Lester Graham reports: