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Chemical used in rocket fuel is widespread in food, Consumer Reports finds (www.cbsnews.com)
submitted 2 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/news@lemmy.world
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A chemical used in rocket fuel and fireworks is also found in an array of food products, particularly those popular with babies and children, according to findings released Wednesday by Consumer Reports.

The tests by the advocacy group come decades after the chemical, called perchlorate, was first identified as a contaminant in food and water. The Environmental Working Group in 2003 found perchlorate in nearly 20% of supermarket lettuce tested. 

Linked to potential brain damage in fetuses and newborns and thyroid troubles in adults, perchlorate was detected in measurable levels of 67% of 196 samples of 63 grocery and 10 fast-food products, the most recent tests by Consumer Reports found. The levels detected ranged from just over two parts per billion (ppb) to 79 ppb.

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[-] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 67 points 2 months ago* (last edited 2 months ago)

Clickbait headline. Lots of chemicals are in rocket fuel, and it doesn't automatically make that chemical dangerous.

The article calls the chemical perchlorate, which is actually a class of chemical, not a single compound. Potassium Perchlorate is used as a thyroid medication...

The article also says this:

Most drinking water contamination comes from the manufacture, disposal and research of propellants, explosives and pyrotechnics, along with accidental releases from factories and rocket launch failures, according to the National Institutes of Health's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. 

Which is actually bullshit, perchlorates are not the leading cause of drinking water contamination. I suspect the person who wrote this means "most [perchlorate] contamination", but I'm not finding any evidence that this is true either; just that pyrotechnics and rockets are responsible for releasing perchlorates into the environment, and that raises perchlorate levels in key areas like west Texas, New Mexico, and northern Chile.

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 19 points 2 months ago

Did you know that hydrogen is in ever single glass of water you've drunk (at least since 1973).

[-] Daxtron2@startrek.website 8 points 2 months ago

Nuhuh I get my water dehydrogenated

[-] xmunk@sh.itjust.works 13 points 2 months ago

I tried drinking liquid oxygen for a week but it's so fucking expensive.

[-] pivot_root@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

so fucking ~~expensive~~ explosive

FTFY

[-] ravhall@discuss.online 4 points 2 months ago

I prefer my water with only one hydrogen—I’m trying to cut down on weight!

[-] Daxtron2@startrek.website 3 points 2 months ago

I've been trying to bulk up so I'm using deuterium instead of hydrogen

[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

at least (conservative estimate)

[-] Etterra@lemmy.world 6 points 2 months ago

Oh boy more fear mongering! You know what else is in ticket fuel? Oxygen. You know what else oxygen is in? Air! And water! Better stop breathing and drinking.

[-] ultramaven@sh.itjust.works 20 points 2 months ago

Water is dihydrogen monoxide, fucking watch out y’all

Not that I’m being dismissive of corporate greed destroying our fucking planet and species. More like… maybe they built the headline so we’d craft these nihilistic jokes and not care as much? I really don’t care anymore, when do we get to mutilate and torture energy chiefs?

[-] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 4 points 2 months ago

Upvoted for Dihydrogen monoxide reference

[-] iiGxC@slrpnk.net 17 points 2 months ago

Is it dihydrogen monoxide?

[-] wabafee@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Is this the chemical that can sometimes caused suffocation?

[-] Zorsith@lemmy.blahaj.zone 3 points 2 months ago

Highly addictive substance, fucked up it's not regulated more heavily

[-] nul42@lemmy.ca 14 points 2 months ago

Why did you put rocket fuel in our food? Why?

[-] WarmSoda@lemmy.world 20 points 2 months ago

Perchlorate is used to control static electricity in food packaging. Sprayed onto containers it stops statically charged food from clinging to plastic or paper/cardboard surface. It's also used in fertilizers.

That's why.

[-] Chozo@fedia.io 18 points 2 months ago

It's also naturally-occurring. It's basically everywhere. They even found it on soil samples from Mars.

[-] todd_bonzalez@lemm.ee 6 points 2 months ago

It's also not a single chemical. It's a class of chemicals. Potassium Perchlorate is used as a thyroid medication.

[-] AmidFuror@fedia.io 1 points 2 months ago

It's an anion. There are many different cations that could be paired with it.

[-] nondescripthandle@lemmy.dbzer0.com 8 points 2 months ago

Oh wow I bet they're made from the same kinds of atoms too.

[-] Ebby@lemmy.ssba.com 8 points 2 months ago

detected in measurable levels

That can be incredibly small qualities too. We have extremely sensitive equipment.

[-] ikidd@lemmy.world 7 points 2 months ago

Are they trying to link this contamination to rocket launches? Sounds like they're just pulling stuff out of their ass and calling it gold.

[-] partial_accumen@lemmy.world 5 points 2 months ago

Perchlorate is used in Solid rocket fuel, not liquid rocket fuel. Think Space Shuttle side boosters, not Space Shuttle main engines. So rocket companies like Rocket Lab, SpaceX, Blue Origin, and Firefly are all pure liquid rockets. Rockets that use solid rocket fuel (usually as strap on boosters) includ ULA's Atlas V and Vulcan rocket, Northrop's Pegasus and Minotaur, Arianespace Vega and Ariane 6, JAXA's HII and HIII, India's PSLV and GSLV, and China's Long March 11.

[-] AnUnusualRelic@lemmy.world 2 points 2 months ago

Children have always loved rockets. Nothing new here.

[-] jordanlund@lemmy.world 1 points 2 months ago

Similar stories have been bouncing around for decades now:

2023:
https://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2023/08/24/1194759795/flame-retardants-breast-milk-banned-chemicals

2003:
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/health-news/flame-retardant-found-breast-milk-flna1c9478551

this post was submitted on 19 Aug 2024
117 points (82.7% liked)

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