Document 8538aL3RRqxpe31ej3qR87rVo
MILWAUKEE S);MTINEL
MILWAUKEE,'...oC.
D. 160.011
MAY 7 1969
Chemist
sanoc
. By Quincy Dadisman
peaks" at the point where production, a phenomonon of
Sentinel Staff Writer
DDT should have been indicat which scientists had been un
Madison, Wis. - A chemist from the university of Wiscon sin Alumni Foundation labora
tory told a hearing on a p o s a 1, to bah DDT Tuei
how tests are made for tl^ pes
ed on the graph.
.
Swedisb_and British scientj^drs about two~years ago traced the false peaks to PCB's, he said. PCB's is chem
aware because they had con
centrated their studies on tis
effects on nerve tissues.
tafford and Victor J. Yannactine, jr., the attorney for the^Citizens Natural Resource i
ticide.
ists' jargon for polychlorinated association and the Wisconsin!
Francis B. Coon, th^chief chemist for the laborai used a strip of gas chromato graph tape to explain methods used in' analyzing a coho salm
biphenyls. '
--PCB's are chemicat"compounds distantly related to DDT which are used as "plasti
apter of the Izaak Walton
league, the petitioners for the
ban, engaged in several bitter
exchanges over Lofroth's testi
mony.
.
on from a creek in Michigan. cizers" in making tires, artifi Lofroth's trip to the United
The Creek,
fish, caught in "Bear a Lake Michigan tribu
cial rubber and various other materials, including lipstick
States was financed by the En vironmental Defense Fund (EDF), a conservation minded
tary,- Sept, 14, 1968, was pro and cutting oil, which is used group of which Yannacone is a
vided by the chemical firms extensively in machine shops member. But Robert Mc
which oppose the proposed bar to the use of DDT, he said.
to cool tool edges when cutting
metals.
'
Connell, an assistant attorney general and the state's public
Coon was called by Willard
intervenor, had called him as a
S. Stafford, chief counsel for > Techniques Worked Out witness.
the industry task force for Coon said techniques had Lofroth's' testimony general
DDT of the National Arricul- been worked out for separat ly favored Yannacone's case
tural Chemicals association. ing the indicators for DDT re and examiner Maurice van
"False Peaks"
Coon said that chemists using the gas chromatograph had long been puzzled about "false peaks" which showed on the line traced on the graph by the indicator pen.
lated compounds and PCB's and showed how this was done in the sample coho salmon. He said it reduced the indication of DDT and one of its rela
tives, DDD by about 70%. The indicator for DDE, the com
pound into which much DDT is
Susteren several times asked, "Whose witness is he?" Staf f o r d argued from that base that Yannacone's questioning
of Lofroth should be restricted to the rules for direct examina
tion rather than the broader limits allowed- in cross exami
The instrument, used in ana changed in living animals, was nation.
. ... .
lyses for minute quantities of a particular chemical in a sam
not affected by the PCB sepa ration, he said.
Lofroth returned to Sweden Tuesday night. .
ple, is sensitive enough in , Earlier, S.-Goran Lofroth, a
some cases to read to one part Swedish scientist, said that in per billion in a sample, Coon h i s opinion "it is a shame"
said.
that no tests of the effects of
But he, said some samples DDT in human mothers' milk
containing DDT showed "false
were not made in 1951 When it was first detected there.
Now, he said, "we don't have any controls. The whole
earth is a test tube." '
. Lofroth repeated his argu
ment that there should be a-t
moratorium on the use of DDT;
until the changes it is known;
to produce in laboratory ani-i
mals are evaluated as to the,
possible harm to human-
beings.
>
. No Proof of Harm
]
DSW 201017
He said that there was no positive proof that DDT was harmful but that there was proof that it causes these changes, particularly in induci n g changes ^jr^liver enzyme
STLCOPCB4059081