Anchorage Daily News

Perchlorate, a rocket-fuel chemical that disrupts thyroid function in adults and may damage babies' brains, has turned up in soil, drinking water, lettuce and even breast milk across the Lower 48.

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A normal breeding male stickleback fish.

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A perchlorate treated stickleback fish.

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At the University of Alaska Anchorage, researchers recently discovered that the contaminant may make fish overly masculine, causing female fish to become hermaphrodites and males to have abnormally large testes. The finding could mean perchlorate may affect humans' sexual development.

"We know from contaminants that mimic estrogen that they are linked to both male and female cancers," said Frank von Hippel, the UAA professor who supervised the work. "It's quite possible (contamination) could cause an array of health problems among humans."

There hasn't been a lot of testing for perchlorate contamination in Alaska, but odds are it's here, von Hippel said.

"We discovered the first evidence that perchlorate masculinizes both male and female organisms," said Richard Bernhardt, a UAA doctoral candidate who conducted the research. "This will open up a whole new realm of study."

Bernhardt's study, published recently in the journal Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry, found that baby sticklebacks from contaminated parents, hatched in contaminated water, did not grow up to engage in normal mating behaviors. What scientists first thought were male fish began to swell with eggs and turned out to be genetically female, but they also contained sperm. Male fish looked dull compared with uncontaminated fish and had enlarged gonads.

The scientists need to do more research to determine how the fish became super- masculine and what that means for people, Bernhardt said. The changes could have been caused by the chemical acting as a male hormone, disruption of hormonal processes or changes in the genes of the fish. Sticklebacks and humans share about 70 percent of their genes.

There is no indication the chemical is in drinking water, von Hippel said. It's more likely it could have contaminated soil and water near weapon storage, weapon testing and rocket-launch facilities, he said. The chemical is most often found in states like California, where there is military munitions storage, production and testing.

There are many defense sites in Alaska that have not yet been cleaned up, von Hippel said.

"For communities near those sites, perchlorate is one of suite of contaminants potentially there."

Marti Early, with the state Department of Environmental Conservation's contaminated sites program, said the agency has tested a handful of munitions sites in Alaska it suspects might be contaminated with perchlorate.

"They have not found any contaminant at levels of concern," she said.

The Department of Defense has also done some recent testing at Fort Richardson and Fort Wainwright, and no perchlorate was found, according to the department's perchlorate- monitoring Web site.

A July report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry recommended that Elmendorf Air Force Base add perchlorate to the chemicals it tests for in drinking water.

James Weise, manager of the state's drinking water program, said he wasn't aware of any specific testing for perchlorate at Elmendorf. The state isn't required to test for the chemical.

"There has been very limited munitions testing (in Alaska) and not near any sources of drinking water," he said.

Perchlorate has been found in the public drinking water supplies of more than 11 million people in 26 states, according to a National Academy of Sciences report last year. A study released last week by the CDC found that even small amounts of perchlorate, which is a chemical salt, inhibit the thyroid's ability to absorb iodine, slowing metabolism and resulting in weight gain, fatigue and depression. Fetuses are at a higher risk because of their small size and developing brains.

Even if it isn't in Alaska's water or soil, it could be in milk and produce, including organic varieties, shipped in from Outside, Bernhardt said.

"It's really widespread. It really hasn't been searched for thoroughly," he said.

Daily News reporter Julia O'Malley can be reached at jomalley@adn.com or 257-4325.

FOR REPORTS on the Department of Defense testing, log on to www.denix.osd.mil FOR MORE on the contaminated military sites, go to www.dec.state.ak.us/spar/csp/mmrp_sites.htm