Editorial: Perchlorate nothing to mess with

Thursday, Nov. 30, 2000 | 9:15 a.m.

It is hard to think of a more insidious act than dangerous medical experimentation on human beings. The Nazis conducted abusive tests involving mentally retarded and physically disabled individuals leading up to World War II.

Here at home, Americans during the Cold War were secretly exposed to deadly levels of radiation. The impact of syphilis on blacks in Tuskegee, Ala., was the subject of a study in which the individuals were not told they had the disease and were not treated for it either. The Army and CIA used volunteer soldiers to test the effects of the drug LSD, and many complained years later that they suffered from depression and flashbacks.

As we enter the 21st century, it is difficult to fathom that such experimentation continues in the United States today. But the Los Angeles Times reported that Southern California volunteers were being paid $1,000 each to participate in a drinking-water study at the Loma Linda University Medical Center. It sounds like easy money, but the volunteers are ingesting pills containing perchlorate, an industrial pollutant found in Lake Mead.

Half of the volunteers are lucky because they are taking a placebo. But the unfortunate individuals taking the perchlorate pills are receiving a dose 83 times the level accepted in drinking water by the California Department of Health Services. The real shame is that three medical institutions approved these tests.

Perchlorate is a rocket fuel booster that has been made in Henderson since the 1950s. Thanks to ground water runoff, perchlorate has found its way into Lake Mead, Southern Nevada's major source of drinking water.

The problem with heavy doses of perchlorate is that it can slow growth by decelerating thyroid gland activity. Our main objection to the use of humans in the study of this pollutant are the unintended health consequences the pills could have on the volunteers. Like earlier medical experiments that went awry, the negative effects may not be known for many years.

We would feel much more at ease if the researchers used rodents in a laboratory. There is no excuse for medical experiments that put healthy humans at risk.