Document 4vrNo27mz9wbb2DEgj6nbv2oV

I! PRESS QUERY COMPANY (OpUnit or Corporate): MIC v ySUBJECT:/ OCP; AND D IO XIN REPORTEIC&rMEDIA: L a r r y M o r r is TIME & DATE: K B IA C o lu m b ia , MO May 2 2 , 1979 - 1 1 :14 882-7591 a.m . Roger Jo lle y A sso ciated Press May 2 2 , 1979 - 1 :4 2 p .m . X J . R. F o eh r X T. L . G ossage X E. H. H arbison X E. L. Head X J . C. M cP hillip X J..' ,S . ' M e t c a l f _x_ J . D. W ils o n X News Bureau X J. T. Nolan X J. E. McKee X D. R. Bishop ___ W. J. McCarville ____ W. R. Mutilali X J. F. Hussey-Washington, D.C. X S. Pickard-Washington, D.C. X New York Public Relations ___ Brussels Public Relations ____ MAP PR _JEL_ MCI PR ( J . Sp an o) JK - MIC PR (G . Young) ____ MPR PR ____ M T CPR _____ IN T L PR Q . Have you s o lv e d th e problem o f d io x in c o n ta m in a tio n o f OCP? A . As we d i s c u s s e d l a s t w e e k , w e 'v e made some c h a n g e s i n o u r OCP p r o c e s s . B a se d on o n e sam p le a n a ly z e d b y o u r l a b in D a y t o n , we c o u ld d e t e c t no TCDD i n t h e c h e m ic a l i n t e r m e d i a t e c a l l e d O C P . Q . D oes 't h a t mean y o u a r e no l o n g e r s h i p p i n g t h e b a d m a t e r i a l an d now make a p u r e v e r s i o n ? How w i l l y o u d e s t r o y y .o u r b a d m a t e r i a l ? A . The t r a c e l e v e l s o f TCDD a r e no h e a l t h h a z a r d . -W e've c o n t in u e d t o s h ip OCP w it h c o n t a m i n a t io n o f TCDD b e c a u s e o u r c u s to m e r s c h l o r i n a t e d t h e p ro d u ct fu r t h e r to make PCP; no b a tc h e s a re b e in g d e s tr o y e d . Q. What have you done to th e p ro c e s s to c le a n i t up? A . P r e v io u s ly we u s e d c a u s t i c so d a in t h e d i s t i l l a t i o n p r o c e s s t o p r e v e n t c o rro sio n o f th e p ro d u ctio n eq uip m en t. W e'v e,b een e x p e rim e n tin g w ith u s in g no c a u s t i c s o d a . T h a t 's hov.T we g o t t h e n o -T C D D a n a l y s i s . W e 'r e . now t r y i n g t o s e e i f we c a n ru n t h e p r o c e s s w i t h o u t t h e c a u s t i c . Q . You s a id TCDDs were no h e a lth h a za rd ? W hy-did you c le a n up yo u r p r o c e s s i f th e TCDDs a re no h e a lth h a z a rd ? A . Review ed s it u a t io n from p o s itio n p a p e r . (A tta c h e d i s a r e c e n t C h e m ica l Week a r t i c l e on S t u r g e o n ) . Reviw ed above w ith A s s o c ia te d P r e s s . SOURCE OF ANSWER Jim W ilso n HANDLED BY: CHEMICAL WEEK May 2 3 , 1979 ! i DksrfnEsfound tn : cleanup workers' hlm d Two professions! cleanup workers who helped mop up a 2(11)00-^1. spill of ortheehUirepliciiol in Sturgeon, Mo., lost . January have bean found to have low levels of tcoli (2,3,7.8-titiflchIarodibcn' 7^0 -7^-rii-ilioxin) in their blood, according I to f-na Environmental Protection Ag^ni cy. The highly to^ie dioxin--a conteim| nanl. of nrthochloropbenol--has so far i ' caused no adverse heaW-h effects in the workers. Tiie ort-hochloropfcertdl was on route, fnwi Monsanto to a customer on Jcnui ary 10 when the Norfolk & Western taiik car carrying it derailed in Sturgeon. "Quito a cloud of obnoxious gas" was i released, fc*Asays, and forced temporary evacuation of moil of Sturgeon's dob ; residents. Cleanup workers from West ern Environments) Services (Foriiajid, - Ore.)--hired by Die raUr6l--arrived : the frr,e (lay to contain the orthoehtoro; phono) and eventually remove the con! Laminated soil from over a mile of i trackball. Although "Western EnyircmI 'mental puppiied full protective equip! meat for all employees," according to ; li&W, five-of the men ftuksequontly ; . tested allowed [races of 6rthoi*.hJproph&* liol in their urine. Monsanto later noti fied UVAthat its orthnohluKipheiiOl ship ment. contained 37 parte per l.niiiim of ' Tcum. although the company said it was. , not possible to determine whether the dioxin was the highly toxic. 2,3,7.B isomer of Tvon. (ePa's own later analysis of the ^. ortho from Revoral laboratories- eonI drmed the pressnw nf the 2,8;7,o tcpp isornsr, officials report.) Ilia live work*I ere conterninsled with orthochluraj/he* nol were then tested for dioxin. One worker who reportedly di*re garded safety procedure and let his hands come in oonlaci with the ortkochlcrophenut hoa approximately 31 part* per trillion of ,3,7,3 rcuu in his blood, Ei'A says. Another warkar hyy 7 parts per trillion and N&W pays it diiosn'i know hoiv ho could have been conteinlr.sted. Western Environmental declined comment. Becaure human dihxin conteimination is rarely reported in aciau ntie literature, ifpa nificiids are um.ure whether the workera Icvr-a arc cause for concern. " We don't know if IbeyVe high or low, but I would guess the.-cm no ioxicctlogicrd sigmfiuini*," said Dr. Joflrph Kaifter, an K?A physician, e&pceinl^ biwuiae |.here have been no saverTM health effects thus far. lJal the woreera