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PERCHLORATE IDENTIFICATION IN FERTILIZERS AND ACCUMULATION IN LETTUCE SEEDLINGS
Citation:
Susarla, S., N L. Wolfe, A W. Garrison, AND S C. McCutcheon. PERCHLORATE IDENTIFICATION IN FERTILIZERS AND ACCUMULATION IN LETTUCE SEEDLINGS. Presented at 20th Annual Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry Meeting, Philadelphia, PA, November 14-18, 1999.
Description:
Perchlorate has contaminated groundwater, drinking water and soils at several locations in the U.S. The primary source of contamination at sites that have been investigated to date seems to be from industrial and military operations that use Perchlorate as an oxidizing agent. However, recent examination of several fertilizers showed that Perchlorate is present at levels up to 0.84% by weight. Individual experiments conducted with lettuce seedlings over approximately 24 days show that Perchlorate can bioaccumulated by a factor of approximately 350 in the leaves, with little or no transformation. These preliminary results obtained in the absence of soil buffering and competitive ion, suggest that fertilizers could be a source for Perchlorate accumulation in the food chain.