Rocket fuel chemical found in baby formula

Rocket fuel chemical found in baby formula

health.yahoo.com

Traces of a chemical used in rocket fuel were found in samples of powdered baby formula, and could exceed what's considered a safe dose for adults if mixed with water also contaminated with the ingredient, a government study has found.

The study by scientists at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention looked for the chemical, perchlorate, in different brands of powdered baby formula. It was published last month, but the Environmental Working Group issued a press release Thursday drawing attention to it.

The chemical has turned up in several cities' drinking water supplies. It can occur naturally, but most perchlorate contamination has been tied to defense and aerospace sites.

No tests have ever shown the chemical caused health problems, but scientists have said significant amounts of perchlorate can affect thyroid function. The thyroid helps set the body's metabolism. Thyroid problems can impact fetal and infant brain development.

However, the extent of the risk is hard to assess. The government requires that formula contain iodine, which counteracts perchlorate's effects. The size of the infant and how much formula they consume are other factors that can influence risk.

The study itself sheds little light on how dangerous the perchlorate in baby formula is. "This wasn't a study of health effects," said Dr. Joshua Schier, one of the authors.

The largest amounts of the chemical were in formulas derived from cow's milk, the study said.

(visit the link for the full news article)

The chemical does indeed occur naturally.

There is a mushroom... Gyromitra esculenta... also called the False Morel (though only an inattentive beginner could ever confuse it with a Morel) or Brain Mushroom that has considerable amounts of the stuff.

Despite the source of this link (www.rogersmushrooms.com...) the false Morel is often eaten with little harm...

initially... and this is how it relates to the baby formula story...

the chemical in question accumulates in the fat and organs. It can be eaten for years with no harm until a tipping point is reached and it kills you...

... so the question is how widespread is this contamination and what do they consider a safe limit vs. the accumulative toxicity point?

Sadly my favorite mushroom guide... "Mushrooms Demystified" by David Arora doesn't have a comprehensive web resource like the Roger Phillips one.

health.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

[edit on 3-4-2009 by grover]

reply to post by grover

the chemical in question accumulates in the fat and organs. It can be eaten for years with no harm until a tipping point is reached and it kills you...

That depends on the concentration.

Cyanide-containing compounds are occasionally found in 1 part per billionth of tap water. Does that make it dangerous? Of course not.

The amount of tap water you would need to ingest to build up a fatal level of cyanide in your blood stream is significantly outweighed by the amount of blood your liver can detoxify within an hour.

Most people I know stop eating baby formula after the age of 12 months.

So unless for some reason you're going to continue eating baby formula into adulthood I seriously doubt anyone could feasibly build up significantly dangerous levels of trace chemicals in their tissue after 12 months.

This is another case of too-little, too late.

Baby formulas are only meant to be occasional substitutes for breast milk anyway, not a complete dependence for an infant's nutrition.
Your supposed to exclusively feed your child breast milk for the first 6 months.

So that makes the likelihood of toxic chemical build up in soft tissue even less likely.

[edit on 3/4/09 by The Godfather of Conspira]

I am fully aware of all of that... what I am interested in is the so-call acceptable risk levels... why do we have to tolerate that at all?

Since they don't test every batch what we have are nothing more than averages. One batch may have next to none and another far higher concentrations...

... allowable concentrations benefits no one except the manufacturer.

what I am interested in is the so-call acceptable risk levels... why do we have to tolerate that at all?

Well that's another lovely by-product of our wonderful, Capitalist, mass-producing nations.

Baby formula is processed on a wide variety of equipment and assembly lines which handle a lot of other food products, as is true of almost every other pre-processed food.

When you convert a plant that processes one food to another, inevitably trace elements of one food end up in the other.

That's why you see the "May contain: Nuts/Soy Beans/Meat products/Calcium/Lactose/Pork" labels on a lot of pre-processed food.

It's another cost-cutting production measure that affects the consumer in a negative way.

[edit on 3/4/09 by The Godfather of Conspira]

Saying that you are supposed to breast feed kids for the first six months is all very well , but unfortunately what with many parents at the low end of the earning bracket , also being overwraught with stress about money , lifestyle, the state of the world thier kids are inhereting, some mothers milk dries up. This happened to my mother when my sister was born. She was being harrassed by my fathers mother over money at the time, and my sister got precisely a week of breast milk before it all went wrong in the mamory department. So not every kid gets what they should idealy have, and sometimes it cant be helped.

reply to post by TrueBrit

So not every kid gets what they should idealy have, and sometimes it cant be helped.

Most sane individuals don't continue feeding their kids breast milk or baby formula past the age of one, is what I'm saying.

Irregardless of what they're fed, most infants are simply not exposed to infant formula long enough to see any long-term side effects from it.

reply to post by Asset1911


"Uh Houston, we have a bit of a problem. You didn't change his diaper before he left did you? Ah great."

So if your baby blows off his diaper in such a way that it flys across the room and hits the far wall with a soggy splat, you know you have a rocket propellant issue.

Does this also increase the possibility of your baby being attacked by the US ?

Click here for more information.

No studies have ever linked perchlorate to health problems, so the risks the baby formulas pose are unclear. Scientists say they believe significant amounts of the chemical could affect thyroid function. Researchers are not disclosing which brands were studied, though they said the biggest traces were found in formulas derived from cow’s milk.

Thyroid function? Maybe it was put their on purpose, to make these children fat and suffer future health problems? Maybe the cows inhaled too much con/chemtrail air?

reply to post by sadisticwoman

Maybe the cows inhaled too much con/chemtrail air?

Maybe it's like a conspiracy on the part of the Baby Formula makers to turn all of our children into mindless zombie, drones for the NWO by poisoning them with rocket-fuelled baby formula, which when they grow up will render them exceptionally faster runners than the average human, so they can turn into the super-soldiers of the future NWO revolution who will be able to hunt us all down with their super speed!?!?!

OMG!

[edit on 3/4/09 by The Godfather of Conspira]

reply to post by The Godfather of Conspira


:/ I don't believe in chemtrails, but I do believe that the air left behind jets and airplanes are not simply air. I believe it's fuel fumes, too.

I don't think it was made that way on purpose, just that it's an unfortunate side effect.

So hey, you keep right on posting anti-conspiracy thoughts on a conspiracy forum, see how far that takes you in life. If you'd rather spend time talking to people you disagree with, then you have fun doing that instead of having a life.

[edit on 3-4-2009 by sadisticwoman]

Well I'm not surprised

but what the hell does baby food need rocket fuel for?

It doesn't, its there to give us the people health problems. Keep us going to the hospital

reply to post by sadisticwoman

So hey, you keep right on posting anti-conspiracy thoughts on a conspiracy forum, see how far that takes you in life.

You too.

See how far jumping to conclusions about people you don't even know takes you in life.

I'm no skeptic, but I have limits as to how fair I'm willing to leap in blind faith.
Especially concerning the ultra-tinfoil ravings of "Chemtrail" theorists.

If you'd rather spend time talking to people you disagree with, then you have fun doing that instead of having a life.

Ah I see, so your definition of "having a life" is being surrounded by yes-men who just blindly concur with everything you say to keep in you in state of perpetual bliss.

Ignorance is bliss after all.

I prefer to disseminate and question what I believe in, as opposed to swallowing it in whole without so much as a blink.

[edit on 3/4/09 by The Godfather of Conspira]

Originally posted by stevedel0
but what the hell does baby food need rocket fuel for?

Well it makes sense... have you ever been on the recieving end of a baby spewing forth from either or both ends at the same time... its not pretty believe me.

reply to post by The Godfather of Conspira


Great job ignoring the real point of my post just to attack me.

A++ would read again.

The FDA always pushes that little statement indicating the amount is not sufficient enough to cause health problems. But what they are leaving out is the fact that children are ingesting small amounts of toxins in formula and small amounts of toxins in baby food and small amounts of toxins in baby lotions and baby shampoos. Then they ingest MORE toxins in the standard mainstream food supply and more toxins in the standard mainstream personal care products. And these chemicals build in the body all through your life and they are passed on to your children. What's the end result? Children have higher chemical burdens than adults. We are all being systematically poisoned and they know most people are not smart enough to figure out that the poison is in EVERYTHING... not just baby formula. And what they call 'genetic predisposition' is nothing more than the passing of toxic chemicals from one generation to the next. So don't believe it when you hear that your cancer was 'inherited' due to genetics. It's all a lie.

I would like to add the following information:


Researchers at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention tested infant formula for traces of perchlorate because of concerns that the chemical can damage thyroid function. Their findings were published last month in the Journal of Exposure Science and Environmental Epidemiology.

Perchlorate has been found in the drinking water of at least 35 states and the District of Columbia. The chemical can inhibit the thyroid gland's iodine uptake, interfering with fetal development.

The highest levels of perchlorate were found in formulas derived from cow's milk, the researchers found. They also looked at soy-based formulas, as well as formulas from lactose-free cow's milk and synthetic amino acids. They declined to say which brands they tested, but said each one contained detectable levels.

The study does not answer questions about how traces of perchlorate affect human health. Some factors could offset the chemical, including the presence of iodine. An infant's weight and formula consumption can also influence risk.


Here are links to the above information:

Worldview

Link to the offical study: Formula


New York Times