05/05/2007

Associated Press

A state study concludes that perchlorate does not threaten food and drinking water in Morrow and Umatilla counties.

Perchlorate occurs naturally in soil but has been found in higher concentrations associated with its use in rocket fuel and munitions. The source of low-level contamination in area wells in 2003 remains unclear.

Perchlorate is particularly a threat to infants and pregnant or nursing mothers because it can disrupt thyroid function.

At the request of federal officials, the Oregon Department of Human Services in 2005 started testing produce and milk in the two counties.

Unusually high levels in three samples were later invalidated in retests, but that led some federal officials to question state testing procedures and food processors in early 2006 to call for killing the study.

But the state completed the study, saying the handful of high samples originally found were probably the result of a lab error.

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Information from: The Oregonian, http://www.oregonlive.com