Document 0J2La3M3aLmmGZrLvmz808aam

by EUZABCTH N. LAYNE N 1906 A SWEDISH SCIENTIST nomad SArtn Jensen, Iwith the Institute (or A40yBcai Chemistry at tht University of Stockholm, detected Bio wow made ehemteei compound* known a* polychtannete# Mpflenyl (PCBs) in fish taktn from different parte of Sweden, in an eagle found daad in the Stockholm ArtMpetego. and in the hair of hi* wile, himself, and his Baby daughter. Neither Jensen nor any other scientist had any idea what quantity of PCBs might be dangerous or possibly even latal. He knew, however, that the compounds are a chlorinated hydrocarbon closely related to DDT. and that the high-concentrations of PCBs in the dead eagle would have been close lo a lethal dose il PCB toxicity were similar to that ot DDT. Further, an examination ol a sequence Ot eartlo (ealhors from Ihe Swedish Nalimial Museum of Nntiir.il History outing to 1830 revealed PCBs in one bird collnctctl .is fnr hark as 1944 Since Jensen's miUcil cfiscoveiy 01 PCBs in the environ ment. scientists have been dismeyod to find the chemical virtually everywhere they have looked for it--in rainwater In England, mussels in the Netherlands, seals oil ihe coast ol Scotland, porpoises in Canada's Bay ol Fundy. sea lions in California waters, cod in the Bailie Sea. Adeiie ocn(;um eggs in the Antarctic, brown pelican eggs m Panama, osprey eggs on Long Island Sound, river water r Japan, coho salmon in tha Great Lakts, tuna oil the Galapagos and Hawaiian Islands, petrels and shaarwaters from tne Pacific Ocean, plankton far out in the North and South Atlantic, notar bears in Arctic Canada, trout in remote lak s >n noi thorn Quebec, in the air over cities >n ihe United States, and m human milk samples and human fat. PCBs hava joined DDT as a truly global pollutant hut while DDT was deliberately cast into tne environment l-'CPs have leaked their way into the world's ecosystems We know only sketchily how it has come about. PCB* are not a cm pie cunipouoc t -it : mature ol r I, j1 Compounds made up. like DDT. Of chlorine, hydrogen. carbon. They are available in Ihis country-where ttvy n.-w been sold to industry for 40 years--as a colorless. odt'Hss. HONS 202417 AUDU?C1N syrupy liou'd or as a rosin The sole manufacturer m the United States. Canada, and Britain is the Monsanto Indus trial Chemicals Company ot St. Louis, which markets them under the tradename Aroctor. PCBs are also made in France, Germany. Italy, Japan, and (he Soviet Union like DDT. PCBs are described as insoluble in water, and highly soluble m oils and fats. They can withstand incredibly high tempera tures (up to 1600*F). and are exceedingly resistant both 1o biological and chemical decomposition. The compounds are probably at least as stable as DDT and its long lived breakdown product. DDE. In other words. PCBs have all the necessary characteristics tor persistence and accumulation within the lood chain. The very qualities that make the compounds a threat to the environment are those that make them of great value to Industry. Since the 1930s PCBs have been used primarily as coolant-insulation fluids in power transformers located in populated areas, whera the danger of explosion from tha intense haat produced by voltage chengeovers presents a special hazard: and in what art called heat-transler systems, in which PCBs are circulated through coils or tubes to conduct heat from furnaces toovensor radiators. They havelong been used in those black boxes called capacitors that sit on poles and regulate the llowot electricity through transmission lines, and in capacitors in liuerescenl lights and air conditioners. Theoretically PCBs cannot escape Into the environment from these "closed system" uses, but systems can and do leak, and Insulation fluids degrade end are discarded. To cite one recent example, e best-transfer system leek in e fish meal plant last summer made it necessary to destroy 80,000 chickens and a like number of contaminated eggs. It was not until about 1960 that Monsanto encouraged the use of polychlorinated biphonyis for a wide variety of "open" applications--to prolong Hie Ml life of somo pesti cides. in soalants end synthetic adhesives, in paints, var nishes, and wax, in printing inks and carbonless copy paper. In automobile tires end brake lintnpt. end in plasticizers, which is presumably why PCBs appear in many consumer plastics. All these new uses accelerated the release of PCBs info the environment through factory waste, abrasion, and trash incineration. Not long ago tha fadaral Food and Drug Administration discovtred PCBs in a variety of cardboard boxes used to package dried foods such as cereal, tn addition, they found PCBs In soma samples of shredded wheat and noodles packed in those boxes. Carbonless copy paper that want into tha recycled paper from which the cardboard boxes ware made is behoved to be tha source of contamination. In response to mounting evidence of PCB pollution of the environment. Monsanto stopped selling the compounds for these "open'*' uaee test year. And the Department of Agriculture has chmM registration for pesticides mixed with PCOs- What pvttan of total sales these uses represent ed is not known because Monsanto has not come forth with such infoi motion. However, the company did release some tlgyjjjj_IOlt(aiier. myJggjujijjjrj Irom the scientific community end the government, that show production in the U. S. reached a high of 42.527 tons in 1970. more than double what it had been in 1960. How directly lethal to life are PCBs? In Japan in 1968. more than 1.000 people suffered a severe skm acne and liver rianvicc as a result Ol LC/nsufvnng a commercial rice oil used <t>r cooking. In addition, there were t-.vo still births out of nrne pruimiinocs among Ihe women atiecled. The rice oil had been heavily contaminated with PCBs used as a heat-transfer Ituid m the food processing equipment. Recent studies m the Netherlands indicate the culom m such cases IS probably a highly poisonous contaminant, chlorinated djJjeyjOfufans found in some PC3s nian-jlac lured outside the United States, ralher than the PCBs themselves, -uhlormated dibenzofurans are among iho most poisonous compounds known." says Dr Robert Rise biough, this country s foremost aulhorttyon PCBs in w.KJMe The presence ot these contaminants explains the high toxicity of German and french PCBs compared to ihose i manufactured here. I Studies thus tar indicate that American made PCBs tree of Chlorinated dibenzofurans. have a relatively low acute toxicity compared to DDT and to dieidrin. interestingly enough, they are not highly toxic to insects but do have e synergistic effect with DDT end dieidrin It is the shellfish thel have been found to be more sensitive to PCbs than Other forms of life thus far tested- However, it is perhaps significant that elf testing in the United Stales and Canada j is done with PCOs supplied by Monsanto. Ar>d in incident j in 1963 suggests that at least some pest batches of Amen can-made PCBs may have earned the lethal contaminants. Professor EL McCone at the University ol Missouri cisco* ered his chickens were dying because ol PCBs (Arocior) used as a binder in an epoxy paint that had been Ireshiy applied to parts ot thetr feeding house. Ihe symptoms shown by his chickens are now known to be characteristic of poisoning from chlorinated dibenzofurans. > UT AS WITH SO MANY environmental pollutants, the Bpossible long term, subicthal effects of PCBs are what frighten scientists. Three separate tests in recent monthswith rabbits, with mink, and with ring doves-have ail hod disturbing results. In the two studies using mammals. the animats were fad food saturated with American l-'CB concern trationsot lOto 15 parts per million, a level commonly lound these days in Lake Michigan coho salmon. (The mink in tart were fed on salmon.) The first generations of both mink and rabbits failed to produce young. The sgcond generation of ring doves, which hed been fed the lowest dose of PCBs. produced an extremely high rate of embryonic deaths in the light of these results, it is not unreasonable to surmise that PCOs pose aeon siderabteJ2n^ran^ch**d to all animal life. The extreme concern among scientists is that there ,$ no clear evidence that tlie PCB contaminant, the highly poisonous chlorinated dibenzofurans. is not produced Irom the PCB* after they have entered the environment-or has not been widely present in batches produced in the past that now lie buried in dumps or in laka or river sediments. . Dr. Risebrough. who ^jjsgggts PCBs to be the cause of macabre birth delects and feather loss in young ternf in a nesting colony in Lone Islanrt Snurpt conjectures m a recent article In Natural History that the contaminants may be the agent causing the defects. Such speculation is prompted by recent experiments with chlorinated dioxins, a close chemical ally of the chlorinated dibenzofurans. which . produced similar birth defects in birds >n the laboratory Risebrough grimly concludes that "these contaminants may. someday soon, result m an increase in the numbers i of human defects as they work up through the lood chain to the ultimate consumer " Until it rs known hn*r much pnlychlorin.-iti -J biL"cn, l i-;s been produced and ihe m,-.|or sources tor rcie->. -m. t-i environment, we wilt be hindered m eMorts to assess or reduce the potential hazards. Dr. tan Nishel ol thr m scientific staff ol the National Audubon Society and M is JANUARY 1972 MOMS 20241B sachusetl* Audubon, and Dr. Adel Sarofim of MIT, who read paper on PCBs at a December seminar of the National Institutes of Health, estimate that about ono halt to three quarters of all PCBs so far produced have escaped into the environment. Since dumping by industiy must account for a large part of that quantity. Nisbetand Sarofim guess that a good many PCBs ara stiH in dumps and landfills, where they have not yet come into circulation. Most ol the remain ing loose PCBs, they believe, lie in the shallows ot estuaries, bays, and rivers. Here there is a danger they may be released Into the food chain, where they posa a special threat to tha thousands of aquatic organisms that use these waters as feeding and spawning grounds. It is expected that the PCBs will be released slowly over a period of decades as the sediments in the dumps and in the shallows are turned over and leached out. The highest concentrations of (he chemical so far found are in the waters In industrial, urban areas. Researchers in Great Britain last year discovered that approximately one ton of PCBs a year Is being dumped in the ocean with the sludge from Glasgow sewage treatment planis. A simitar amount enters the irl5h Sea from Manchester's sewage and I he Thames from sewage in London. Tests at one outlall m Los Angeles revealed an annual flow of 10 tons of PCBs. It is hardly surprising to learn that the main source of PCBs in the human did is fish, or that a recent report to the Environmental Pratcc lion Agency noted: "It appears that me most senous chronic PCB contamination is in fish and fish eating birds . . which are the terminal carnivores of acompiea mesh ol tood chains in the sea." Qynrevs neslmg m the vicinity ol Long Island Sound have been elevated to the dread distinction of pemg "more contaminated with PCB than any other wildlife in North America." The eggs ot the ospreys were found to contain levels three times higher than those that caused massive embryonic deaths in ring dove eggs. Probably relatively few PCBs have so tar worked their way down to the coasts. Despite curtailments of product ion or sales. Ni*bel and Sarofim expect fhat much more will find its way down the rivers, into the estuaries, and out to sea. The situation will inevitably get a lot worse than it ,s now discuss in tha hearing. His statements, of course, have been exploited for publicity purposes by the pesticide industry. Dr. Borlaug does not understand the obieelives of the environmental scientists ha so vehemently attacks. No responsible scientist stands against alt pesticides, fertilizers, and other chemicals, as he assorts Nor have environ mentalists attempted, through anti DDT litigation, to slop the export of DDT to developing nations (hat cannot afford alter natives for malaria control. by CHARLES F. WURSTER The issue is which pesticides for which purposes. E xcess ive dependence on pesticides for insert control, espoused by and ROBERT VAN DEN BOSCH Dr. Borlaug. is an ineffective, costly, and destructive me I hod that ia rapidly being replaced by sophisticated and effective integrated control techniques. DDT is incompatible with THE SPECTACLE OF A SCIENTIST, competent in his integrated control because it disrupts the beneficial balance own specialty, being drawn into fieWs where he hea of insect communities, often creates greater pesl problems no expertise-end exploited by forces he does not under than it solves, is destructive to wildlife, and is a human stand--is a tragedy o> modern science. Thts occupational health hezard. In short, most of the benefits Dr Borlaug hazard is particularly acute for some scientists with Nobel envisions ere not attainable with DDT. But they can be Prizes. achieved by safer means. Dr. Norman E. Borlaug, a piant geneticist, won a Nobal When a broadly toxic insecticide such as DDT is sprayed Prize for his work in developing high-yield grains. Now, into the complex machinery of an interrelated insect com however, Dr. Borlaug is enmeshed in controversies where munity, most insects are killed. The field is stripped ol its his splendid achievements era o( little relevence and his predatory insects and other natural controls, and is thus expertise is nonexistent or 25 years outot-date. vulnerable to the rapid resurgence of the plant eating pests. Last October 7th Dr. Bbrieug testified at DDT cancellation hearings in Washington span invitation of tha U.S. Depart ment of Agriculture. Undv the rutet of evidence, a witness must qualify as an expert in a subject before he can testify about it. When tha USOA attorney ashed Dr. Borlaug tus opinion on the effects of DDT on wildlife, the hearing examiner barred the answer on the ground that Dr. Borlaug Often this leads to greater pest abundance than bdore spraying. And the development of pesticide resist ant strains of the pest insects makes matters still worse. The farmer, faced with nightmarish insect problems, finds himself ad dicted to more and heavier insecticide treatments, often at the urging of pesticide salesmen. With rising pesticide bins end falling crop yiefds, he is on a treadmill to economic was not an expert in that subiocl. Dr. Borlaug tastified that he last studied pesticides in 1944, when he was employed disaster. This sequence has occurred in many countries in ivro by a pesticide manufacturer. Most of his othor testimony regions of Mexico, near Dr. Borlaug's own laboratories, was irrelevant to the issues ot the hearing. severe insect problems crested by insecticides caused aban From that hearing. Dr. Borlaug wont directly to a press donmeni of the cotton industry and collapse Of Ihc assoc-j! conference arranged by Montrose Chemical Corporation, the world'!, largest DDT maker. Without rules ot evidence to ed economies. Excessive pesticide use could desire"/ iu* green revolution" Dr. Corlouc himself Mas npiprrl dp/pio:; inhibit him at ihe press conlercnce. and at oilier forums, his advocacy ol this discredited approach is poor adv'o' he has made un support able assertions about DDT and other a Starving world. pesticides, wildlife, cancer, insect control, hysterical environ mentalists. and other subjects lie was not competent' to Entomologists have developed effective, economical and ecologically sound integrated control programs a number lit MONS 202419 AUDUBON