Although it is too soon to determine whether perchlorate contamination of food and water is truly widespread, the FDA’s early results are nonetheless the latest chapter in a dispute pitting environmental and public health against industry influence over science and the prerogatives of the Department of Defense.

Perchlorate is one of a class of endocrine-disrupting chemicals that slow brain development in the fetus and can cause reproductive disorders such as low sperm count, early onset of puberty, genital abnormalities, and cancer. The proof of this connection between perchlorate exposure and these conditions is stronger than ever before imagined, according to a June 2004 press briefing from a group of researchers that conducted a comprehensive literature review.

Meanwhile, federal regulators are waiting on a report on the health effects of perchlorate from a National Academies panel. The panel was criticized by the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Center for Science in the Public Interest for including four members with significant conflicts of interest. One, the chair of the panel, resigned before the panel’s first meeting in Oct. 2003, while another resigned this June—after the panel had already met four times. The remaining two are still on the panel, which is expected to release its report next month.

Perchlorate has also been found in 22 Department of Defense sites across the country, the drinking water well for a high school in Massachusetts, and ground water in Iowa. The stakes are so high that Environmental Protection Agency officials issued a gag order to regional staff forbidding them from cooperating with congressional investigators and prevented agency scientists from discussing studies showing that lettuce absorbs large amounts of perchlorate.

Moreover, stonewalling from the White House has forced NRDC into court to demand answers about the White House and industry efforts to block regulatory protections for perchlorate.