Document 7O6R2JKoMvgeZb1LDY0G0ZNke

Monsanto i' f^OM IN.ME ft LOCATION) . V . JOhtl - St . LOUlS October 8, 1969 fECMCt TO Field Sales Offices Plant Communicators Pollution Control Engineers Plant Managers cc: Mr. J. J. Spano - JSPAN Mr. W. R. Richard - WRICH Mr. E. P. Wheeler - EWHEE Mr. M. W* Farrar - St. Louis Mr. D. B. Hosmer - DHOSM CONFIDENTIAL You are probably aware that for the past seven months there hasi been considerable interest in the possible environmental contamination by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB). The subject first came up in the U.S. in connection with a research study done by a Dr. Robert Risebrough of the University of California. Dr. Risebrough was investigating the possibility of environmental contamination by DDT when he discovered an "interfering substance" which later was identified as PCB. The San Francisco Chronicle published a story based on these findings. Further DDT investigations by government, state and university laboratories have substantiated that PCB's are showing up in the environment, generally in the parts-per-billion range, but occasionally in the parts-per-million range. PCB's are manufactured by Monsanto and marketed under the trade name Aroclor. (There are other producers in Europe and Japan). We have received numerous inquiries from the press and private, governmental and university laboratories for information about PCB. In some cases, requests have been made for samples of our Aroclor products. Monsanto's position is one of complete cooperation. A position statement has been prepared and is furnished to news media on request. To date no major national publicity has appeared. The company recently has appointed a task force to gather information and to make recommendations for future actions to protect our position in the manufacturing, marketing and customer use of Aroclor products. This memo is to alert you to the procedure for handling inquiries. Should you receive a request for information concerning PCB's from any source (press, government, university or private citizen) please direct the inquiry to St. Louis. If the request comes by telephone, take the name, address, return phone number and the nature of the inquiry. By providing information from one central source, we can project our corporate position of cooperation, and emphasize our efforts in research and study being directed to eliminating any possible contamination sources. in to rfv ti DSW 203040 STLCOPCB4052998 Field Sales Offices Plant Communicators Pollution Control Engineers Plant Managers 2 October 8, 1969 Following are the individuals in St. Louis to whom inquiries may be directed for prompt action: Mr. Elmer P. Wheeler, Medical Dept., Sta. 2196 Mr. Ed John, Public Relations Dept., Sta. 2891 Your cooperation in handling inquiries on PCB's and Aroclors as suggested will be appreciated, and hopefully will result in greater control over the flow of information. E. V. John Public Relations Manager Organic Chemicals Division Paul B. Hodges Manager of Environmental Engineering Organic Chemicals Division EVJ-PBH/stw P. S. Attached are newspaper clippings which may provide some background on the present controversy. II STLCOPCB4052999 S. F. Chronicle Feb. 24, 1969 A Menacing New Pollutant MlnWfuhi The peregrine falcon, a b i r d of prey that, once abounded all over Ameri ,___________id cheml- cloaefy related to it are ' cancer-causers. - -- ^ ca. is bearing a bitter In California the pollutant: warning to man: Is widespread: in the San| A newly-identified chemi Francisco Bay Area, where-, cal pollutant has arisen on many industries use many our planet: it threatens not varieties of the compound.' only the existence of falcons the chemicals have concen and countless other birds, but trated heavily. its molecules are already en tering the bodies of humans The new pollution threat It a class of organic chemicals Its' long-term hazards at called polychlorinated Id- low levels to the human spe phenyls. Few laymen have, cies are wholly unknown -- ever heard of them, yet they although in concentrated gas eous form the chemical is See Bock Page 20 ^raemre C^raaidr -c. Aden , Feb. 24,19d9 SAP FBAPCrSto CJ&Xjicl.G RBRoABs/ J1), ftGfl Bay Scientist's Pollutant Warning From Fage I .' The Berkeley scientist is- he came upon it. chemical pollutant Eighty ently starts concentrating iz leagues point out that all the not survive as a species In an cause they remain localized,' epatrmarycin.ittatshfoeamnyrmdaajporeltrahsuebtsoiceocsdnh,ienetmolemiccianatrkdliciunaisgsl.".pMDrveaerasnerrmiRrantroefecbnhReoele.rfrots*foaVCutNratchRleuiefsiostIreirnnnbisitrattiohi'otsueugntheUDa.neoial--i insulators and rubber tires, waxes, sealants and epoxy Scientists. . ' resins. Dr. Risebrough and a team i of colleagues from Davis. The tale is an ironic one. percent of California's breed for it all started with the per ing peregrine falcons. Dr. egrine falcon That bird.. Risebrough estimates, have once described by an emi- now Been destroyed, nent ornithologist as "the It was barely two years embodiment of noble rapaci- ago that Dr. Risebrough. on ty and lonely freedom." in an expedition to Baja Californow eztinct as a breeding'nia. found an unhatcbed the lowest links of the ma chlorinated hydrocarbons, rine "food chain" -- the mi .like DDT; cause enzyme croscopic oceanic plants and changes in animal livers and animals -- and becomes that these new-formed en more and more concentrated zymes break down many vi as tiny Osh eat plankton, big tal hormones, including sex ger fish eat Small fish, sod hormones. In laboratory ex birdk est bigger fish. periments with pigeons, us environment altered by Dr. Risebrough says, are man's new chemicals. -'misleading, irrelevant and And wbxt of the effect of wrong." ; the biphenyl compounds In ; How the PCB compounds .; humans? The compounds i may affect human food sup- have already been found, i plies and human lives are! ominously. In the milk of (questions for future re- mothers analyzed by Dr. J. i search. The ere certainty Despite their widespread ' San Diego and Cornell Uni- species in the eastern United' abandoned egg of a peregrine; Peregrines preying on Pa ing a biphenyl compound H. Endersan and Dr. F. A. now ts that they can be found' use. in America they are versitv in New York, have States and southern Canada- .-falcon! He analyzed the egg's cific sea birds have now vir called Aroclor 1202. made by ! Beland at Colorado College, i everywhere, that they have made only by Monsanto been alerting ecologists to- Its rapid population declir. contents, found DDT in it. tually vanished Dr. Rise Monsanto, Dr. Risebrough's rand Dr. Risebrough is now : invaded the food-producing Chemical Co., which markets the hitherto unsuspected during the years right aftei and also found it contained brough reports. But small in group has found that PCB is hoping lo test for their pres ' levels of the oceans, and that many forms of the com iprevalence of the byphenyl, World War 11 -- when DDT.another unidentified chemi- land colonies of California five times more powerful ence among nursing mothers ' their presence is rising swift pounds under the trade name compounds and to their inva- was first introduced as a nia- - cnl. , falcons, which prey mostly than DDT in Its bormooe- here ly- ul Aroclors. . . don of man's environment, They apparently enter the ui man's environment atmosphere ronment by and marine vaporizing, envi vent i FALCON ' ing from factory stacks, by : They have published their waste discharge Into water {Undines in the British sci- ways and eVen by the abra ' race journal Nature, in Us sive wearing of tires on free (American counterpart Sc l ways. - ence, and have discussed it ! Their chemical structure Is at conferences on environ-, 'very similar to that of DDT, - mental poisons. Risebrough: ! the potent and long-lasting will be presenting more evi insecticide. Both DDT and dence on the problem at a La the biphenyls are known as Jolla scientific- meeting on chlurinaied hydrocarbons, the "Chemical Invasion of and in the words of a Berke the Ck'ean" - - ley researcher they are now In an interview-w-itlrThe ' the most abundant synthet Chronicle recently, pr. Rise- jor pesticide -- first served * to alert ecologists that a new;=' -- damaging the environment. p(--g | chemical (ound fl, of EurtK bln)( ^ Swedlfh .DRY .scientists identified it as a Investigations showed the I polychlorinated biphenyl, falcon was succumbing by (which was to gain its scien- preying on birds that had in- j titic notoriety as PCB. g e s t e d Urge quantities of i Dr Risebrough and his col- DDT. a chemical that con-; leagues then began an ex- centratet in animal fats. So;haustive hunt for PCB in the falcon, in a sense, was; birds and fish along the West man's first messenger to Car-; Coast They are still at it ry the warning that DiTT was They have found, for ex- hefoiiling the world. ample that rr", 1S present And just as Spartan kings in almost all tuns of prey, slew their messengers who but its quaniities .-.1 - largest bore had news, so Ihe falcon in those birds that feed on on doves and songbirds, still appear to be reproducing normally. In hundreds of analytes of birds and their eggs Dr. Rise brough and his colleagues have found only about a tenth as much PCB as DDT among birda from relatively uncontaminated areas. But in birds from the Farallon Is lands the PCB quantities are higher -- between a fifth and a half Ihe DDT: In birds and their eggs Irom polluted San Francisco Hay -- falcons, gulls terns and mght herons -- there is j destroying activity. The sex hormones, accord ing to Dr. Risebrough. play an Important role in calcium metabolism, and as n result of the pollution by PCB and DDT the eggs of birds like falcons are now far thinner and more fragile than they used to be. HUMANS The calcium-deficient eggs break prematurely and tail to produce hatchlings. Thus the decline of the falcon -- Ihe end of its evolutionary road. It had adapted over As Dr. Risebroagh has Written: "They are highly toxic to man when Inhaled as vapors, and the more heavily ; chlorinated components have greater toxicity. No toleronce limits have been set for (human food supplies and ; their cancer-causing proper(ties remain to be deter mined" FOOD Dr Risebrough and his col leagues have found evidence that the bipheny ls, like DDT. are carried * idelv across the joceans by winds and waicr Officials of the Monsanto .company In St. Louis were i asked for comment on Dr. Risebrough's report last week. After three days of queries a company zpokes. man would only say that lop Monsanto scientists and sales i executives were studyiab it. : Dr. RisebrougbY fellowresearchers attacking the PCB pollulion problem in clude Dr. D. B. Peakail ol Cornell: Steven C. Herman, a zoologist at Davis; Dr Monte N. Kirven at the San Diego Natural Histoi v Musrum..und Paul Reiche in ic pollutants present in the brougli described the new is being slain today as H car- fish or fish eating buds The often more PCB than DDT. millions of years to its naiu- currents Arguments that Ihe. marine resources lab al global environment " pollution menace, and flow riei ftir news of the new material, like I>DT. appar Dr Risebrough and his col ral environment but it could they can be used safely be- Berkeley. . . bkuhINj DSW 203042 1. MILWAUKEE, WlSC. D. 1G0.011 ) MAY 13 1969 -C *: Some Bird Species Galled DDT Victims By QUINCY DADISMAN drocarbon compounds widely Sentinel Staff Writer used in Industry. PCB's show* w Madison, WIs. - A Califor up in some test equipment lit a nia biochemist testified Mon way that makes separation of' day that, his studies have Con DDT In analysis much more vinced him that DDT anil not difficult. - another commonly found con taminant is the cause of thin Only Few Found eggshells which he believes Risebrough said that while will wipe out certain predatory PCB's arc found In large bird species. amounts in many marine birds, he had found only a_few in Robert Risebrough, Bcrkc- which there were mote PCB's. ley, Calif., was called as an ad ffianT5>Tpr ifiTmetabolities verse witness by attorney (forms into which it changes in' defending the peflicidcat a passing through living tissue). natural resource department hearing on a petition calling Ho said that tests with eggs, for banning DDT in Wisconsin. containing up to one part per Testified Knrlicr million (p.p.m.) of PCB's and Risebrough had testified in Deennher for the petitioners up to six p.p.m. of DDT in all forms shower! mathematically, --Citizens' Natural Resource by correlation with eggshell association and thi Wisconsin thickness that DDK and not chapter of the Izaak Walton PCB's, were to blame. The' league -- about DDK, a form tests were made mathematical into which l)l)T changes In liv- ly, he said, with a statistical jlng hnilies and his conviction accuracy of 99.9%. . ' j that DDK causes a metabolic He said that damage to 1 disturbance in birds which eggshells from DDT can '*e lead-, to thin eggshells. . traced not only to the DDE In, : The thin shell cracks easily, the bird's body fat, but also to causing the death of the em the amount present in the food bryo inside the egg. it cats. . Risebrough was called by "DDT may be comparatively Willard S. Stafford, Madison Inactive in the body fat," he \attorney who is conducting the concluded, explaining that per- : defense of DDT for the Nation cgrlne falcons from Arctic , al Agricultural Chemicals asso areas seem to be sustaining i ciation. their numbers better than ; .Stafford questioned Rise those from more temperate cli- . brough about work he has mates because the food they ' done with polychlorinated bi eat while rearing * second phenyls (PCB), a gbiip of hy- clutch of eggs is "clean." | / . . ./%- THE HARTFORD TIMES, Sunday, Augu* 3, 1589 New Puzzle Posed by PCB fblycblorinated biphenals '(PCB) are causing a contnjversial puzzle that raises In industrial uses, PCB's . are self-contained. The transformer is sealed. In heat-transfer applications, the. many unanswered questions. And the linger of aocusation . may be pointing prematurely. j PCB's have been found by diemists testing fish and ! wildlife samples for residues ^ of pesticides such as DDT. ; "It is simply astounding that the amounts of PCB being reported could poss&ty, be present in our en vironment," said Tom C. V-FOrd of Monsanto, only com- amendal producer of PCB in ; the United States. . He explained that there just PCB fluid functions in a clos ed system. In plastics, they become part' of the solid material itself., . . ..... . . " But "plastics" is a.broad' term.' "Now food storage bags are virtually all made of polyethylene which contains ; no PCB's at all," Ford : reassured us. "There is no : ^requirement of clearance* with the Food and Drug Administration." - The linking of PCB with Since Monsanto is the sole U.S. producer of PCB, the company has launched research programs hoping to answer new questions raised by chemists. One is seeking to identify the compounds reported to the PCB's. This involves analysis o f environmental samples of air, water, soil and wildlife. Also underway are studies to determine the .biological ef fects of deliberate dosage of PCB's on fish, birds and mam mals. But neither Is complete enough yet to draw conclu By Bill Clede Computer analysis, he said, .showed "no significant statistical relationAip" between PCB content i n. pelican' eggs and the i thickness of their shells. But as DDE contamination in creased, "the shells became thinner" in both pelican and d o u b le-crested cormorant ggs. ; While PCB's are found in large amounts in many, Keirstead of the Connecticut Agriculture Experiment Sta tion says it is not likely that tests within the past couple of years would be confused. . But it's an even bigger question that if these findings of PCB's in fish and wildlife are ^accurate, where is it coming from? Chemists have theorized that the source must be in isn't the opportunity for PCB's to be introduced into nature. ' . Polychlorinated biphenals are a class of hydrocarbon chemicals with many indus trial uses. They are used pri marily. as insulating fluids in elecUical transformers and) capacitors. They are 8dded to | a polymer to make certain! ! DOT first happened ' about : three years ago. Scientists ' analyzing pesticide residues In wildlife, found unidentified * "interfering" sttostances in " the same range as DDT on test equipment. ; Professor Gumar Widmark and Soren Jensen of the Stockholm University Institu plastics and adhesives or surf tion of Analytical Chemistry ace coatings. Identified the interference as PCB. It shows up a peaks on, 1 ' sions. One chemist has done I 5,000 test samples but will not assume any facts until he has finished 10,000. Dr. Robert Riseborough, a marine biologist at the University of California at Berkeley, tends to clear PCB of blame. Testifying at the Wisconsin's Natural Recourses Department heart togs on pesticides in May. Dr. ; Although PCB's are similar the graph of a gas - Riseborough even suggested to DDT, dieldrln and other chromatograph very near the that DDT has been wrongly chlorinated hydrocarbon peaks caused by DDT. . blamed for producing thin marine birds, Riseborough has found only a few in which there were more PCB's than DDT or its forms changed by passing through living tissue. But it is now a question whether the similarity of PCB's might have confused earlier tests for DDT. According to Brainerd T. Peck of the State Board of Pesticide Control, tests made prior to 1968 may not have taken PCB interference into consideration. . dustrial wastes. Yet industry spokesmen know of no pro cess that would release these chemicals. Monsanto has car ried out a program for several years for the reclamation of used PCB's for re-use. The only definite statement anyone will make is that these Questions will surely ex pand tne scope of research -- but there won't be any quick and ready answers. pesticides, they have no eggshells in 9ome birds. With the advent of the gas agricultural use. : . "The gas chromatograph is 1 "DDE (a breakdown pro chromatog raph, Lloyd "PCB's would make lousy' pesticides," Ford explained. "It takes' 120 milligrams of DDT per kilogram of animal weight to kill a rat. It would take S,000 to 10,000 sensitive," Ford said, "but -you really can't make positive identification without a mass spectrometer. We have learned that the Swedes did use o' " ~ duct of DDT) appears to be the environemtntal pollutant most responsible tor thin eggshells despite the presence of PCB in some DDE-con- led birds . . ." . , miliigranB of PCB." DSW 203044 I STLCOPCB4053002