Document 6bQwpgDMgN6kV57LgDjLE39r6

WST. r. V:r,T,- li-p/.fo 0. OCT 6,975 4** Monsanto to halt PCB production ST. LOUIS (AP) - Monsanto Industrial Chemicals Co. will haId production of PCB in sulating fluids next year be cause of the public's fear of ad verse effects from the chem former and capacitor manufac turers have said they would be unable to convert to other ma terials any earlier. Monsanto is the only mamh fact or er of PCB (poly the virtually indestructible chemical have been dumped into landfills, leaked into water supplies and allowed to stft into production sites, the EPA con tends. The problems still need to be addressed vigorously by gov ernment and industry." PCB has been blamed as a major source of pollution in New York's Hudson River. cease production as soon as th electrical industry could fin alternate fluids and convert il ical. chlorinated biphenyl), a stable, EPA Administrator Russell New York State officials and Monsanto will withdraw com pletely from the market no lat er than Oct 31.1977. said Earle H. Barbison Jr., general manager of the firm's specialty chemicals division. fire-resistant chemical. The Environmental Protec tion Agency has found that PCBs build up in the environ ment and are thought to cause reproductive failures, gastric E. Train praised Monsanto's decision, terming it "a signifi cant step in dealing with the to tal problem of PCB con tamination.'' But he noted that PCBs al the General Electric Co. recently reached agreement for GE to contribute 93 million to ward the coot of cleaning PCBs from the Hudson. MarUson said Tuesday the disorders and akin lesions in ready in the environment "will The acaanulatkm of PC8i to target date would have been mammals. be there for years, moving into waterways, Harbisoo said, Brtfr rarer, but electrical trans About 300 million pounds of life systems, including humans. gered the firm's decision Is equipment and components to their use. Monsanto had earlier quit making PCBs for use in car bonless copy paper, fire resist ant hydraulic fluids, heat trans fer fluid and plasticizers. The chemical is manufac tured at a Monsanto plant in Sauget. ID. Twenty jobs will be eSmtoated by the decision to withdraw from the PCB mar ket, bat a company spokesman said employes working in those positions would be ifaiM to other work at the plant. MOMS 050924