Too Much Rocket Fuel in Boston Breast Milk

perchlorate.jpgOn the rare occasion in middle school we witness a classmate light his own farts on fire. Mostly lighter-singed underwear was the result. BU and the CDC have released a study that lactating moms might have the ability to light their breast milk on fire, or more precisely, blow it up. High levels of perchlorate have been found to be delivered by 49 Boston area moms in unsafe doses to babies. The Environmental Working Group released their executive summary of the study warning that perchlorate, the explosive agent in rocket fuel, is a public health risk. Infants can't process it as well as adults – so while mom may be healthy the infant is getting a rocket fuel injection. Of course all this ends with the recommendation that mothers still nurse their children but the "EPA must adopt a maximum contaminant level for perchlorate in drinking water based on the most recent science, including the 2006 CDC study and the Boston study described above." That might help – so would storing solid rocket fuel in areas where it won't leach into the drinking water supply. We don't have the chemistry to dissect the data here, but could this possibly present a new terror threat the airlines should be jumping on?

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You might want to edit your sentence "Infants can't process it as well as humans." As I am parent, I understand how one might want to think of infants as non-humans, but in fact they are humans just like you and me. Toddlers on the other hand are alien spawn...

HHAHAHA - nice comment Liz, and fixed! I'll keep your advice in my pocket: infants=humans, toddlers=alien spawn:)

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