Chemical used in rocket fuel, missiles found in various foods, including baby products, report finds

A chemical that's commonly used in rocket fuel and explosives can be found in a wide variety of fast foods and grocery products, including at high levels in baby foods, testing from Consumer Reports shows.

The chemical, perchlorate, is manufactured for use in fireworks, missiles, airbag initiators, signal flares and more. And although it can be naturally occurring in some areas of the U.S. at low rates, high levels of exposure can harm human thyroid function, with pregnant women and fetuses being at the greatest risk of negative health effects.

If an adult is exposed to high levels of perchlorate, changes to the thyroid hormone can result in metabolism issues, potentially increasing risks for metabolic disorders like Type 2 diabetes.

But for pregnant women, fetuses and young children, the thyroid
changes can affect brain and nervous system development. Kevin Loria, who wrote Consumer Reports' story, told Scripps News that made the findings of high levels in baby foods particularly alarming.

So how does it get in our food — and water?

Loria said there are three main ways.

Firstly, the chemical could be improperly disposed of or leak from areas in which it's used or produced at high levels. This could include perchlorate testing and manufacturing facilities, locations where rockets are tested or launched, or even industrial farms which use fertilizers that are naturally high in the chemical.

This leakage can run off into groundwater, and this contaminated water may be used to irrigate crops. That's one reason Loria said fruits and vegetables tested second highest for levels of perchlorate, behind baby and kid food.

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The second concern is food packaging. Since 2005, manufacturers have been able to use perchlorate as an additive in dry food storage to ensure products don't stick to the plastic. Loria said experts argue the foods can absorb some of the chemical as they sit inside the package.

This could be one potential reason why baby foods showed the highest levels of perchlorate in Consumer Reports' testing, Loria said. Many baby products, like rice cereal, are stored in plastics that may contain perchlorate.

Thirdly, Loria said bleach that sits around for a while can degrade into perchlorate. And when those bleach products are used to clean food processing facilities or to treat drinking water, the risk of contamination goes up.

Consumer Reports said that none of the 196 foods it tested — including 63 from the grocery store and 10 fast food items — had "acutely dangerous levels" of perchlorate.

However, eating several servings of foods with high levels could add up to a dangerous amount, and the presence of the chemical in so many foods may amount to increased exposure over time, particularly for young people.

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What's being done to reduce perchlorate levels?

The chemist who oversaw this testing said a lack of info on perchlorate in our foods is due to a lack of action from regulatory agencies.

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration last tested food samples for perchlorate between 2008 and 2012 and found no overall change in levels compared to the period between 2005 and 2006. But Consumer Reports notes that 2005 was when the FDA allowed companies to use perchlorate in packaging, which led to an increase in levels in baby foods.

And in 2011, the EPA said that as many as 16 million people could be potentially exposed to perchlorate at "levels of concern," which was up from the 1 million people it originally estimated in 2008.

Because of this, Consumer Reports and others in the food safety world argue the FDA should revoke the permission to use perchlorate in food packaging and significantly lower the safe exposure levels it has set. Reducing this limit could drive cleanup activities in areas where contamination is higher, the nonprofit said.