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Updated: Oct 13, 2026

Long-term Behavioral and Reproductive Consequences of Embryonic Exposure to Low-dose Toxicants
Published on: March 6, 2018
Ammonium perchlorate contamination of Colorado River drinking water is associated with abnormal thyroid function in
R J Brechner1, G D Parkhurst, W O Humble
1Office of Epidemiology and Statistics, Arizona Department of Health Services, Phoenix, USA. rbrechn@hs.state.az.us
Abstract:
The Colorado River below Lake Mead, which supplies drinking water for approximately 20,000,000 people, is contaminated by ammonium perchlorate. We identified populations who were exposed and unexposed to perchlorate-contaminated drinking water and compared median newborn thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) levels after adjusting for age in days at measurement and for race/ethnicity. Median newborn TSH levels in a city whose drinking water supply was 100% perchlorate-contaminated water from the Colorado River below Lake Mead were significantly higher than those in a city totally supplied with non-perchlorate-contaminated drinking water, even after adjusting for factors known or suspected to elevate newborn TSH levels. This ecological study demonstrates a statistically significant association between perchlorate exposure and newborn TSH levels. It suggests that even low-level perchlorate contamination of drinking water may be associated with adverse health effects in neonates and highlights the need for both further study and control of human low-level perchlorate exposure.
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