Document 7799RmQDKObx2VN5JZkQyBNV

THE SOAP AND DETERGENT ASSOCIATION 475 PARK AVENUE SOUTH NEW YORK, N.Y. 10016 (212) 725-1262 //, /* 7 9 9re _ jo gpwriwi to The Pott Washington -- Pollution is ruiningAsssrican mn sppmur to ba going sterile. - A mw study released lodijr (bowi (perm den (My declined by one- UMMallM. U Um decline continues t this rate, most Ameri can men would be sterile In another #0 to 100 years. - The study suggests that chemical pollutants assy be to blame. . Hr. Ralph Dougherty Of Florida State Univer sity, who conducted the Study using 133 volun teer college students, said, "It, Is possible that the American male toxic substances In the environment may be partially responsible." Dougherty said a 1929 study showed the sperm density of an average American man was 100 million per milliliter of semen. By 197f, the figure had dropped to 65 million. And the new study put It at GO million a mlllillt- A man with a sperm density of 20 million a milliliter Is considered by many medical author ities to be sterile, Dougherty told a meet Ing of the American Chemical Society. Using this standard, he said, 23 per cent of the students who partici pated In the test were sterile. Dougherty cautioned. however, that college students may not be typical of the general population, and that some sterility may be temporary. Some studies indicate that stress, dgarvt and marijuana smofclng and very high sexual activity can lower sperm count. These conditions often arc more common with college students. All of the semen samp les studied were conta minated with toxic subs tances at low levels. Among the chemicals 9/17/79 FYl! j. Ortig J. Weber that may be to blame, he fuid, are FCDs, which have been used In var ious industrial processes F. Provorny R- Isham for 50 years. Federal environmental officials restilitcd their FROM: G. Young use In 197<I. The problem Is not con fined to the United States. The sperm count Is also decreasing among men living In Western Europe, Japan and other industrialised areas. HONS 007134 rs1-***** HONS 007135 PCB--power transmission's ALEX KRISLOV invisible menace Assistant Editor 4 'i qualities took more than forty years Eliminating a potentially carcenogenlc chemical Is Gov to congeal, the dangers are not in ernment's headache. But when the illegal substance has been used In plants for decades, It becomes an Industry nightmare. dispute. This once-'*heneficial" substance produces birth defects, tumors, and skin lesions in animals, Workers exposed to PCBs display symptoms ranging from jaundice and impotence to skin disorders and Bakliek this year, the transformer, developed for capacitors in 1929, throat and respiratory irritntions the most innocuous of static de With fifty years of use, this chemi Most damning of all, studies show vices, officially became the source cal has spread to virtually every in that exposed workers develop of a new industry scourge: rCBs. dustry using transformers or statistically unlikely numbers of Odds are that you have some in your recycled otl. This summer, it was cancers plant right now. pronounced hazardous, toxic, and Acting under the authority of the rcB Is shorthand for polychlori illegal. Toxic Substances Control Act, the nated biphenyls, a dielectric fluid While perception of Pelt's fatal Environmental Protection Agency PTooirrs si an a i I'm vupsw t\ r l i !! (EPA) put sweeping PCB control they are tested and their safety is be destroyed in just any furnace An measures into effect on July 2nd of proven. EPA-approved furnace must be ca this year. This rule applies to any Another problem lies in the pable ofa PCB destruction efficiency party who manufactures, pro* recycling of oil drained from the of no less than 99 9#: and even then cesses, distributes tn commerce, or transformers. Naturally, this is now the PCB content of the feed is limited uses or disposes of any item with out of the question --but for almost to 10# Nor can the chemical be substantial PCB contamination. The key word is "substantial." How much Is too much?~Substantial contamination is de fifty years it was business-as-usual. The reusable oil could end up any where, including transmissions. The EPA calls this "waste oil" and added to the combustion chamber during start-up or shut-down. Fi nally, emissions from the furnaces have strict limits as well. fined differently for different condi notes that it may be found as a rem (f incineration is too large a prob tions. A transformer with over 500 nant of fuel oil, transmission oil, or lem, burying the stuff is a parts-per-million (ppm) PCB in the various lubricants. possibility--but, once again, strict, dielectric fluid is considered a "PCB Of course, if old transformer oil limiting regulations must be fol Transformer." The same trans ended up as a lubricant on exposed lowed. pcbs can only be dumped in former is considered merely con gears, it it probably already in the a special EPA-approved chemical taminated if it has less than that environment. Oil that found its way landfill. If an industry is near or in amount. However, in a spill, there's into a transmission is another mat New York, Oregon, California, no safety cut-off; any delectable ter. If your transmission has been Iowa or Kentucky, it's in luck. level of PCBs in spilled fluid is abso sealed for more than a few years, Those states house the eight tp- lutely forbidden. Any item falling the oil that went into it might have a proved landfills--there are no more into these classifications demands dangerous level of contaminant. in existence. special treatment. That treatment, The best bet, in such a case, is to regardless of cost, is industry's re assume suspicion is warrented. sponsibility. Keeping It around To bury or to burn--By 1975, With all these limitations and reg Searching It out ---pcbs were pro over 500 million pounds of PC Bs had ulations, it is inevitable that some duced in this country exclusively by entered the general environment people are going to have problems the Monsanio Corp., which volun according to the EPA. The ban rule getting rid of their PCBs. The final tarily stopped making them in 1977, naturally forbids any disposal alternative left open to them is stor However, while Monsanto used the methods that might add to this load. age. The attraction of this choice is name "Askeral" on all its PCB In selling up rules for junking PCB the low-initial cost; the drawback fluids, other companies, buying items, though, the EPA created comes with the continuing expense wholesale quantities for resale, another load for the already bur of time and money. marketed it under different dened shoulders of industry. The EPA will allow the storage of tradenames, Aroclor, Pydraul, If discovering all the pcbs in a nonleaking pcb articles for up to Abestoi and Inerteen are common factory is difficult, disposing of thirty days, as long as no damage examples; there are many others. them is so complicated as to be can occur in the storage area Stor Even wi'S a list of them all, there is monstrous. The epa mandates spe age for longer periods requires a no guarantee that the outlaw chemi cific methods for cleaning up~-and special EPA-approved storage area cal will be found. All too often, levies stiff penalties for. error. The These must be walled, roofed, and likely prospects for contamination punishment for breaking the rules diked,^and the floor must be con simply have no label. includes civil flnes of up to $25,000 structed of some impermeable sub Here lies the net which ensnaris per day, plus criminal fines of stance such as concrete or siccl all industry; while some PCBs lurk in another $25,000 per day, plus up to Even then, the items being stored solids, the majority are mixed into one year in jail. must be inspected every thirty days mineral oils. From 35 to 40# of There are only two ways to be rid Additionally, the storage room muM mineral-oil transformers, says the of PCB-conlaminated articles.' The be above the 100-year flood level EPA. are either contaminated with first is incineration. This sounds But there's still more: while ccn- PCBs or filled to over the 500-ppm simple enough--but stringent regu contaminuted equipment need be mark. Thus, all transformers are as lations make it an expensive and inspected only once a momh. rcH sumed to be contaminated, unless complex proposition. PC8x cannot transformers come up for check a Picvtirrg MGNS 0 0 7 1 3 6 * outs once > week. And the following control are rigorous. The proper ab items may not be stored for more sorbent materials must be used to than thirty days: leaking PCB articles soak the liquid up; leaking contain and equipment (which, during their ers must be transferred to nonleak 3CHlay grace period, must reside in ing ones; and the absorbents used containers approved by both the are then considered PCB materials, EPA and the Department of Trans and slated for proper disposal. The portation); non-liquid PCBs in con power transmission engineer should tainers; and PCB-contaminatcd liq keep these rules in mind; uids in 30 to 449-ppm concen trations. Using a PCB transformer--The No level of PCB contamination it allowable in oil used as a sealant, dust control agent, or coating. Such rule has built-in exemptions for cer tain uses of transformers. With al most half the transformers in the U.S. falling under the ban rule, wholesale elimination of these units waste-oil use on surfaces introduces PCB contaminants directly into the environment. Almost any electric motor may be a pcb article. Motors using PCBs for cooling processes, it simply implausible. Here's a list such as cenain mining equipment of "do's and don't!1' for the trans are certainly contaminated. But if former that's kept in service; your motor uses PCB transformers X You may NOT add pcb- or capscitors, plan on checking it, contaminaled dielectric fluid with a too. Under the law, determining greater concentration of the chemi possible contamination is your re cal than already exists in the trans sponsibility. former. Some hydraulic systems are con You MAY drain the coolant in the taminated, PCB may be used in hy transformer, add noncontaminated draulic systems until July I, 1984, if fluid in its place, and test it three the system was already in use be months later for possible fore July 1 of this year. Even to, reclassification, users of these systems will have a X You may NOT dilute the PCB fluid number of regulations to deal with. in the transformer by adding non Among them; draining the systems, contaminated fluid, testing the fluid, lowering the PCBs / You MAY rebuild PCB- to an acceptable level, retesting the contaminated transformers (but systems every year, and disposing NOT PCB transformers), of excess PCBs, e Fifty years of waste-oil from dielectric fluid has spread the out Spills and conssqusncss lawed chemical far and wide- What Maintaining a transformer can re kind of oil is in that transmission? sult In trouble (see sidebar). A spill Are those gears contaminated? Involving PCBS is automatically over Should they be checked? any legal limit. The single exception to this rule is a leak In a small The cardinal rule, then, is to re capacitor--and that ceases to be an member that PCBs Save been around exception if it threatens o water for a long time--but they have only course, such as a river or an open been recognized as a danger in sewer. Any spill requires immediate recent years. They could be all EPA notification,even ifIt Is brought around you, or entirely absent from under control. Additionally, the your environment. But it is your re regulations for bringing it under sponsibility to know. HONS Are you a PCB container? The (0 to 900 ppm dassHIceilons desig nated by the Environmantel Protection Agency are aaeenllaily a stopgap mea sure These rules will remove tons o< nee from the environment without forcing in dustry to pay in "unacceptable ' cost At least one proposal suggested that to ppm be the cut-olf. end a figure of t ppm was tossed about at well Lett unstid If the cut-off point IS too tow, a number of human beings would legally be net con tainers If peas are already so widespread, than, svhat'a all lha fuss about? Briefly, the danger of the chemical la Ita tendency to bloaccumulaia sees thrown into the wrong landfill may sink Into the waier ta ble. Prom there, they may tlnd their way Into cattle feed, or toms other pert ol (he food chain From the cattle, they may eventually reach your body. It they do, you rtek any number of toxic effects, including digestive disturbances, Impotence. |iundice, reepiralory Irritations, ssvare headaches, and possibly cancer. The sea Ban Rule la an atlort lo stop the chemical from reaching you. To some ex tant It's already too tele lor that Dalac la de concentrations have shown up in milk, grain, and meat A great deal of the gania. It Is clear, can no longer be forced back Into the bottle. Bometlmes, however, the danger le caught In time--but ai great coal In June, a (ranaformar at Pierce Packing Co , BMIngs, Mont, ruptured, spiking as much as 200 gallons ol Its dialectrlc fluid Among the coats 900.000 hens have bean gassed, and another1 99.000 slaughtered MHliona of eggs have been destroyed 130.000 qoonda of chicken meet are being held in Iowa and Minnesota possibly to be de stroyed. In all, 1 9 million pounds ol possi bly`contaminated meat meal was shipped to six states over a 3-1/2-month period How much contaminated food has es caped the foa net? foa commisioner Sherwfn Gardner is " reasonably certain" that none has--but he could not bf sura he recently said, for at least thirty mors days 007137 pTDri int *