Fertilizer: Hiding a toxic pollutant?

Whether common fertilizers are tainted with perchlorate, a toxic salt, remains controversial, despite new EPA tests.

Susarla, S. . . . and S.C. McCutcheon. 1999. Perchlorate identification in fertilizers. Environmental Science & Technology 33(Oct. 1):3469.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Ground Water and Drinking Water maintains a Web site about perchlorate at http://www.epa.gov/OGWDW/ccl/perchlor/perchlo.html.

The Fertilizer Institute’s Web page entitled Questions and Answers about Perchlorate and Fertilizer is available at http://www.tfi.org/perch.htm.

Renner, R. 1999. Study finding perchlorate in fertilizer rattles industry. Environmental Science & Technology (Oct. 1):395A.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Office of Research and Development. Perchlorate environmental contamination: Toxicological review and risk characterization based on emerging information. Available at http://www.epa.gov/ncea/perch.htm.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1999. EPA approves nationwide perchlorate monitoring. Sept. 20. Available at http://www.zerowasteamerica.org/PerchlorateMonitoring.htm.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. 1999. Region 9 Perchlorate Update. June. (Available from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency).

The State of Arizona Department of Environmental Quality offers a list of facts about perchlorate at http://www.adeq.state.az.us/water/safe/fact.htm.

The State of California Department of Health Services’ Perchlorate in California Drinking Water Web site is available at http://www.dhs.cahwnet.gov/ps/ddwem/chemicals/perchl/perchlindex.htm.

Annie M. Jarabek
USEPA Mailroom
MD-52
Research Triangle Park, NC 27711

Steve C. McCutcheon
USEPA National Exposure Research Laboratory/ORD
Ecosystems Research Division
960 College Station Road
Athens, GA 30605-2720
E-mail: mccutcheon.steven@epa.gov

Ron Phillips
The Fertilizer Institute
501 Second Street, N.E.
Washington, DC 20002
Web site: http://www.tfi.org

Edward Urbansky
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency
National Risk Management Research Laboratory
Water Supply and Water Resources Division
Cincinnati, Ohio 45268
E-mail: urbansky.edward@epa.gov

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, Region IX
75 Hawthorne Street (SFD-3)
San Francisco, CA 94105

From Science News, Vol. 156, No. 16, October 16, 1999, p. 245. Copyright © 1999, Science Service.