Document B5Y6jGo9NLpYrdzbB3xaeekEJ

Time. October 11. 1971 , ,, (A- r//*'/7 5. Z1' Tha Menace of PCB fish-meal plant where PCBs were leak For all the grim warning signs, there Environmentalists were confident that ing from a pipe in a heating system ts as yet no proof that PCBs at present they had /circled out the nation's ma into the meal. Officials were dismayed low levels arc harmful to humans. Most jor pollutants after they put the finger to learn that the leak had gone un- l scientists, and critics like Congressman on substances like DDT. mercury, lead discovered for nearly two months and Ulyan, however, feel that the safest course and phosphotes. Now an important new that 13,000 tons of tainted feed had las to treat PCBs just as though they j comer has cropped up in the form of been sent to 64 customers in twelve (were the most potent of pollutants, un polychlorinated orless, odorless, biphenyls (PCBs), syrupy chemicals tchoalt-jt.--SoRutyh&ehrnwaasndlunMoiudsw.e'sTtheren FsedtearatleGosv.- i(ltielrmtesetsffdecettsermmainyebee.xactly what the long- ire msnufoctured in^the^U.S. under ament's actions are inexcusable," he the trade nornc Aroclor ub.y. .thle- \Mo~n~ en|jre incident could have santo Co. Until recently. PCBs were used in mtSmnyin many ways, /or in stance as softeners in plastics, paints and rubber, ns additives in printing inks and papers. Although they are now used primarily as agents in heat ex been prevented if the Department of Ag riculture and the Food and Drug Ad ministration had lived up to their responsibilities to protect the public." He then introduced legislation that would totally ban PCBs from interstate changers. there is growing evidence commerce. that alarming quantities of PCBs have Official Goof. Still, evidence of found their way info living organisms PCB pollution continued to crop up, and that they pose a potent new probably because markets were already threat to the environment. saturated with PCB products. In mid- Two years ago. New York Democratic August, FDA disclosed that it had Congressman William 1:. Rvan was told seized more than 75.000 fresh eggs by a constituent about the dangers of from wholesalers in Norfolk, Va., be PCB. Checking further. Rvan found cause the chickens that laid them had studies showing that large amounts of eaten feed containing the tainted Ash PCBs had been discovered in the fish and meal. Though (he agency assured the sea birds of scvcrul countries. The stud public that no tainted food would ies also revealed that the compounds can leak out, it later admitted an official eause liver damage in mice and disrupt goof: a shipment of 60.000 eggs had the calcium metabolism of birds, which somehow got through federal inspectors than lay thin-shelled eggs. Alarmed by and, presumably, into the stomachs ol the findings. Ryan delivered a House Washington. D.C.. residents. speech on PCB*. The Department of Ag Two weeks ago. the Department of riculture responded by halting the use of Agriculture announced that "unaccept PCBs--but only in pesticides. Then, de able levels of the poison PCB" had spite complaints from customers, Mon been found in turkeys processed by a santo announced that, as of September Minnesota subsidiary of Swift & Co. 1970* It would slop sales of PCBs except About 50,000 birds were voluntarily for "absolutely essential" use in electri withheld from the market while ag cal equipment. riculture experts searched for the source Polluted Poultry. To the public, how of the contamination. Around the same ever, PCB was still largely unknown time, Michigan Governor William Mil- --until the disclosure, in December liken ordered a halt to the commercial 1970, that Campbell Soup had found sale of coho salmon after PCB was high PCB levels in some New York found in salmon token from Lake Mich Slate chickens destined for its products. igan. Last week PDA disclosed that PCBs Once notified, the New York and fed had also been found in several dif eral departments of agriculture stopped ferent kinds of dried foods, including poultry shipments from the three coun baby cereals and shredded wheat. The l ties tupplving Campbell and ordered PCB source has been traced to the card- ' the burtaf of 146,000 contaminated board packaging material, which was birds Where did the PCB come from? made partly of recycled PCB-treated Officials speculated that it had been copying paper. transmitted by chicken feed made from PCBs are difficult to cope with for a stale bakery goods that had been number of reasons, first of all because wrapped * Pf-emu ;he chemicals nre hard to identify. They One ol the worst instances of PCB pol so closely resemble DDT they can be dif lution occurred last spring. A North Car ferentiated only by spcctrogrnphic anul- olina poultry raiser, worried over the ysis. PCBs are long-lived and. like ddt. ' low hutching rate of his chickens, ran in their potency is multiplied as they work dependent tests and found that the fatty their way up the food chum. Unlike | tissue of the birds contained up to 40 DDT. however, these chemicals arc not p.p.m. of PCM (the federal limit for sprayed but get Into the environment ac- ; poultry is 5 p.p.m.). The contamina cidentally, which mukes them even hard- : tion was traced to u Wilmington, N.C., cr to trace and control. | Copies to: Cunningham Corey Mason Bergen Pap ageorge Park Wheeler Pickard Forreatal Marah-Brussels E. John (110 dsul CTkAj t fa*- C MQNS 032286