US AEROSPACE giant Lockheed Martin is coming under fire for funding a health
study in which volunteers will be fed small doses of a toxic chemical used to
make rocket fuel. The company is facing a lawsuit following the discovery that
the same chemical is polluting groundwater close to one of its former
factories.
The plant is at Redlands, California, about 50 kilometres east of Los
Angeles. In the 1970s it used the chemical, called perchlorate, to make solid
rocket fuel. After perchlorate was detected in groundwater in 1997, some 800
residents filed lawsuits against Lockheed Martin, claiming the chemical had
caused cancers, birth defects and other health problems.
Last summer the company asked researchers at Loma Linda University Medical
Center near Los Angeles to examine the health effects of perchlorate. The study
has recruited 100 volunteers who are each being paid $1000 to take part.
Half of them swallow up to 3 milligrams of perchlorate daily for 6
months鈥攎ore than 80 times the dose you would be likely to ingest from
water polluted with the maximum legal amount. The rest take a placebo. The
$1.75-million trial has been approved by ethics boards at the university,
the hospital and Boston University.
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At high doses, perchlorate inhibits production of thyroid hormones. Normal
thyroid function is critical in regulating the growth of fetuses and young
children, and the metabolism of adults.
But critics say the study鈥檚 purpose is to bolster Lockheed Martin鈥檚 position
in the court case. 鈥淚t鈥檚 really an attempt by Lockheed Martin to . . . reduce
their liability,鈥� says Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working Group in
Washington DC.
Bioethicist Arthur Caplan of the University of Pennsylvania says he doesn鈥檛
object to Lockheed Martin gathering data for its own purposes, as long as
鈥渟ubjects clearly understand that鈥�.
Lockheed spokeswoman Gail Rymer says that the volunteers were told of the
corporate funding. The results will be published whether or not they support the
company鈥檚 position in the courtroom, she says.