Document E9pogv45gRQZ8pjXMQ4B9NkV
]uhf 29, 1971
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD --HOUSE
II7445
fity health ofllrlala In a twoprogcd attack ited-pAUW yowling. One pan of the* program would detect and
treat children suffering Jc*d*pat poisoning. rue M*ond part would amend the housing rode io require elimination of lc*dbnt>cd
iliiiu from use ht housing. Only one donih from lead.pnlnt poisoning
has been recorded in the city in recent years, till oflielalM fesr that hundreds of children juny be sunermg from Ita eficcu. A study
hy the Poison Control Center of Children's lli.|ilial of two dKcn Homowood brushion V'nur.Hlfm found that a fourth of them had t ilsniierous level Of lead in their systems.
The committee adopted a thrcc-polnt res* M-.hot which provides for:
V ..'ht'iuunmiM to Upfilh dufling nola * amriulmenU to the housing and health
A.\ Application fvr federal funding to car
et ,,ti a h>ad*pnlnt removal program in cxist-
c housing; lApioration of Kiting up a fund to give
hixn home owners low-interest loans to re*
n.tiHi thrlr homes with no-lead paint,--Piffs-
l.srgii/'rcsi, May 7,1P7I.
*
' VraOINlA
Ti,f No.r.fvo,lrk Lye,-and. Control P...r.o..g..r..a..m.....l.a....t.h. e.. , am (.ns to be funded under a new set of
1 *W**d oommmilly guidelines drawn up ! by the Public Health Bervloe and also is
1 l!','i!r?ti.<'n'Xn" *
pm>-
tMimnipd 500 who arc *o sick they should bo h*jiun4 rtaut away, they **td
The current screening procedure Is op* .rated out of a mobile touting facility. Communlty aides knock on doors m the neighborhood and ask parent* to bring their children
to the trailer for testing. The test involves drawing blood from the arm into a small con*
vainer whioh Ls taken to the city's testing
lab or
^j11 ,c*d
level.--Wasbrnpron Fof. May 28, 1971.
-Wisconsin Lefta poisoning among Inner city children
become so severe -in Milwaukee, that Children's Ha|j|Utl has established a special
clinic to provide improved diagnosis, treatfient and aftercare of lend nojsonlnp victims,
h llidTi Kin children (lilt! from lent) polNJumgi and in 1070. close to 60 youngster* were
treated for the poisoning, None have died, but an undetermined number have been left menially retarded or otherwise brain dam aged.
Lend poisoning hat also been found among racing drivers and meohanlo*. Several years ago, a MilwAukee surgeon, Dr. Mlehaei A.
Poiacck. medical director of the Wisconsin Auto Club, found abnormally high amount* of lead in the blood test* of two nationally
known drivers who had been hospitalised
** a
Kr;"?"hK h.VMrl;~u ";
Commission on Product Safety, the
Council on Environmental Quality, and
the Environmental Protection Aeenev
uko snerinoa
u.a lmer
r\K
acuotta to protect the Amer-
lean people a* well a* fish, wildlife,
poultry, and livestock from tho hnsards of PCB's.
Yet in an almost unprecedented dis piny of callous disregard for the safety
of our citizens, that action was not forth
coming. The result* are now tragically
apparent.
.
And despite the unfortunate lesson of
this massive PCB contamination of poul
try, the Federal bureaucracy till has not
acted to iiioYunt it recunencs In Mu (u*
tUrc. The failure of the Federal Govern
ment In this entire matter ls both shock
ing and Inexcusable.
In view of the unconscionable neglect
on tho part of the executive branch, the
Congress must now act.
I have Introduced legislation--H R,
10065--to .prohibit t.h...e.....I..n..t.e...r.s...t.a..t.e. distrlbutlon of PCB's. And 1 urge that the appropriate congressional committees
Immediately undertake a full and ex-
haustlve Investigation, not only of tho Cerent massive contamination of poul-
try and uw need lor Federal leglrUUon
1 r^
involve* Initial ecreenlm
mfwurwTwnductedbye*heelth depsruiilnt
I luff asaell a* a communltywlde project to < Utahal support and Interest tn combatting
i bad poisoning at the neighborhood level,
I KSfR'tlcS'i* i!*thJm fTM'the*?*** trobum ' *
~ .TkKArw(Sai mt MetaHteSdiMd Seiuir
Miktlty Model City Neighborhood Center ...d arterding to prop am ooordinator Ario Vim Coker, he and hi* staff have collected mere than 76 paint eamplee from home, iii*;..;fhont the city. Working through a list
j tt..\Attn treated for lead Pawning at !.g> Daughter* Children * Hospital in J."> and namee supplied by olty*wJde ollntcs,
. k eald that in most Instaneos, as many ts half of th* samples oohseted com* back
^olwuln, K. Vh.t
d: had such high levels that poisoning to control this deadly chemical, but also wov,ld be *peoi*d; they also had poisoning into the indefensible failure of Federal
symptoms, including abdominal pain, ooneti- agencies to take the necessary actions Potion, nausea, muscle weakness and dli- which would have prevented this Inci-
"J!' (MM,.dent.
" TM P'nl I include an article Sy man of environmental medicine et the Medi* Hank Burchard which appeared In tho
cal College of Wisconsin, found that the lead ,n lh" blood * `,rlvers nd driver-mechanic*
unrelated to breathing fumes from leaded gMolln, or Hbltttl Instead. It was ab*
through the skin when team mem-
bsr* dismantled snglnes and washed the parts
,n lteroaen#
*
*
contract`drivers, who merely drove the
ORr( ^a<3 normal .blood levels of lead. But drlv.rt wh0 )lo worked on the engines
aometimes had a high blood lead level, hun eating that lead poisoning might be a oon*
July 29 Washington Post detailing the extent of the current problem. I also inc.l.u..d..o....a...J..u...l.y....2..9...W....a..s...h..ington Evening Star article by John Fialka on PCB's.
The articles follow* |Prom the Washington (D.C.) Poet, July 20, 1971)
Millions or Chickens Tainted
* * <By Honk Burchard)
The Agriculture Department conceded yes* rtneerdtfacyotnhuamt imnailltieodn^swoltfhe^hi leDkDenTs-nfekd. on fish
found are In bleok neighborhoods where th*
have been told in stores in the Wash-
older deteriorating home* are,*' Coker ealdj-^"^
In^on area and much of the rest of the
tHsrrlouroaltelndgthhaomt emsoarteoIfnththeei#_Boeldrkeler ya, nHBdui^r PpCQBB'S-g----TTHHEE HHEEEEDD FFOORR CCOONNOORRBES8--
chemleel. polychlorinated biphenyls
sreville, Bfamhleton and East Ohent arcak.pL
6IONAL ACTION
' 1^0cb). leaked into fish meat produced at a
I.h...t...e...i.t.y....w...h..i.c..h are .M...o..d..e..l...C...i.ty areasi. A ree-^>y. uvvTrjiTTRRYAN Maskkeed and was given -p0i r-^ wWilnlmlngton, N.O., p.la.nt.b.etween A.p.r.il.S.O
cent survey off homos in th* city showed mi^on to extend his remarks atr this and mid-July. Prom thore It was widely dis
that over SO perornt of all dwelling unit* ,,olnt ^ Rtcoa and to include ex- tributed to poultry grower* and hog raisers,
built prior to 1999 were in these four areas. STlLj?.
,n B *
mixed into up to 806,000 tons of feed.
Flfty.three perornt of all the eity* subetandard housing is looatsd in these areas,"
Rr--r .. TT -- _ Mr- RYAN. Mr. Speaker, the U.6. De
Coker added.--{Norfolk) Virginia-Pilot, payment of Agriculture conceded yester-
October id*. '1--970, --February *9*6, *1--971.
day that millions of chlckene fed on fish
Borne 96 minion broiling ehlekens alone are sent to market each week from the 19 eutce
where feed containing the fish meal was sold. How many of those chickens consumed
WAeillNOrOM, B.C.
meal contaminated with a dangerous ths eonuminalod feed and how mueh PCB
The Community Health Services Adminis tration. under a 9209.164 grant from the Model CIMo* Coinmlnnion. la conducting a mass icMlng of ehlldren In a section of the
Inner city for lead poisoning, Of the 360 Veiled so far, five have had to be hoapliaiiKcd. Another 80 children have a hlRher concen tration of lead In their systems than Is con sidered safe. These have been referred to hos
chemical--polychlorinated biphenyl-- PCB--have reached the marketplace and In turn consumers' market baskets.
The*potential ooiucqucnccs of this con tamination are stagnering. But lust as
dismaying Is the fact that this Incident could have been prevented If Federal agencies had lived up to their responsl-
was In their flesh when sold "cannot be known," Dr. Clnylon Yculler. chief of Agri culture's Oomminer and Marketing Survey, said yoKtorday.
Last Friday. Dr. Fred Fullerton of Akrieut* turos Consumer and Marketing Service which had withheld announcement of the PCB affair for a week, eald there wae "no evidence that any contaminated chicken*
pitals and neighborhood health clinic* for biliUos to protect the public health and have reached any consumer."
treatment on an outpatient basis.
welfare.
Dr. Yeutter explained the apparent con
Health officials say they would like to test For 2 years, I have urged the appro- tradiction this way:
11,000 children between th* ages of on* and priate Federal agondes to take epedflo "There was no statement that ehlekene
s..i.x. f*rom *the. model olttes are..a..:...t.h..e....t.o. tal pop< protective measures that would have fed on th* oontamlnated Ash meal had not
ulatton of ths area Is about 80,000. Th* of< flelals wtlmats that th* eity has about
safeguardend,,t,hiKe.'p4ui,b.licf!romi twh.ehazards
reached the merket. Th* statement was that there wae no evidence--and there still is
nono--that any of th* marketed ehlekene In old and dilapidated bouses--who have upon Uw Depirtment ot Agriculture, the contain,* non fob then th, part, sr
higher levels of lead in their bodies than are Department of Interior, tho Food and < million considered acceptable by the govern*
ensldersd safe. Of that 6,000, there at* an Drug Administration, the President's ment."
HONS 03080S
H 7446
CONGRESSIONAL RECORD --HOUSE
July 29, J 97J
Asked if there *u any evidence that santo Company, tha nation's sole manufac
chickens containing more then 5 p.p.m. bed turer of PCBs, has been quietly moving vari
not been marketed. Or. Yeutter sata an an ous products oontalnlng It off the market.
nouncement on the mult* o{ field test* By last August, aooordlng to William B.
mould be made by the department today.
Pspsgeorge, manager of environment pro
In any ease, Dr. Yeutter said, "no ohlckena fed contaminated meal are on the market now and none will be relented for market."
Asked If the tame could be anid lor frosen chickcne and chicken meat need In the pro duction of soups, hot dope and other foods.
Dr. Yeutter referred tbe question to Dr.
Fullerton, who could not be reached yester day afternoon or last night.
The effect* of POB upon humane, If any,
tection for Monsanto, the oompsny had
topped selling It exoept for use in closed systems, such as in large electric trans formers. heat transfer unit* and In eleclrio capacitors.
It was felt that it would bf highly unlikely
that the ehemlea! could pose a dangor when it* use was restricted to such Closed systems, Papsgoorge explained.
are not known. It has been shown to cause
NORTH onouxi l**K
low fertility In fowl and liver damage In rnu, and te thought by many scientist* to be a serious long-term danger to man and animals.
Dr. Yeutter said the public "should not
be unduly alarmed" over tha PCD case, **H la not worthwhile to worry the consumer now about something he ala a few weoke ago. D hasn't affected my consumption of chick en. As far a* we know every chlokan tilting on every shelf is safe and wholesome."
Rep. William Pill* Jtyaa (D-N.Y.), who Monday filed a bill that would outlaw all production or use of MB In the United
But In mid-July a heat exchange unit,* used In a plant In Wilmington, N.C.. In a process designed to remove the bacteria from
imported fish meal, was found to be leaking. The result was the possibility that millions
of chickens and other livestock may have bceu eating oontamlnated feed.
According to luip. william P. Ryan, D-NY, who has been studying the effects of ths
ehemlea! for two years, the possibility of sucb a danger has been known tor many months.
Ryan introduoed a bill Monday which would ban. the sale of POB* In th* United
States. said yesterday be w* "shocked and BUtes. He told the House that be hae urged
outraged" by the government'* handling of the Department of Agriculture, the Secretary
the ease.
' of interior, the Environmental Protection
"Iliey'r* Ju*l playing guessing games," ho Agency and the Food and Drug Administra
said. "The setting of the 6 part* per million tion repeatedly to ban POBs.
standard was purely arbitrary Jn the Bret Today, he called tor hearings on bis bill
place. Prom all we ean find, the action of and tha inaction by the federal agencies.
AgrlouHure and PDA (Pood and Drug Ad The leakng* In Wilmington, he said,
ministration) has been insufficient to ssy "tragically Illustrate* the failure of the fed
the least.
'
"They've bushed up earlier PCB con
tamination cases and delayed announcement
in till* oase until the chickens had been
old. Ihli Is unconscionable neglect in a sit
uation of staggering potential harm."
Hop. Ryan said he would call for hearings
. not only on Ms bill ,but "into Agriculture
and FDA's oonduct." '
Used since before World War II until re
eral government to take preventive action against the unoonseionable use of this deadly chemical."
ADMINISTRATION IIU,
Hie Nixon administration meanwhile, it pushing for legislation that could lead to tight regulation of industrial chemicals like FOB.
Warren Muir of th* Council of Environ
cently in a wide range of produet*, PCB has mental Quality said today that the POBs
made Its way Into the worldwide web of life are a good example of toxlo substances not
and has been found In fish, wild bird* (up'to adequately covered under existing law.
1,000 p.p.m,)t human fat and human moth Under the clean Air Act and Clean Water
er'* milk (up to .00 p.p.m.),
Act. the federal government could draw up
Monsanto Oorp., sole producers of PCB In ` standards that might regulate the discharge
the U.8. and In the United Kingdom, last of PCDs into the air or water. This has not
?ear stopped all sales of the chemloal exoept been done,
er "closed-system" uses In heavy equipment The administration's Toxlo Substances Aot,
equipment and industrial heating equipment due for hearings next week before the Senate sueh a* the stcrllliwr In the Wilmington Commerce Committee, would permit the plant where the fish meal was oontamlnated. government to regulate the manufacture and
In that oase, PCB leaked from the ma everyday use of such chemicals as well as
chinery into tho fish meal undetected lor
about 19 weeks. The dlsoovery was made only after one of ths plant's customers found that
Ms ohlckeni were sickening and becoming
Infertile.
The customer. Holly Farms, Xne.. a major
upplior of ohlckena to Washington market*,
tested the feed, then notified Monsanto, which traoed tha source and alerted FDA.
Holly Farm* destroyed IT,000 chicken*.
Th* oontamlnaUon went undetected until
that time because no agenoy of the govern
ment regularly testa marketed flash lor
PCB.
-
regulating them as effluent*. The avidenoe that PCBt, ilk* DDT. oan con*
oentrste and travel through the food chain was discovered by Swedish scientist* in 1908. when they found the ohemlcal in the car casses of Urge birds of prey, primarily eagles.
Dater they found it In other blrde, fish and evergreen needles. Sines then It has been found In man.
tn tests on mice, It causes liver damage and birth defect*.
TWO CARI4ER CASK*
According to Rep, Ryan, federal aitVhomin
have already had notloe of two inaUmoct
(From the Washington (D.C.) Evening Sur, July 99, 19711
Fieit Ma**. Cct-rnir: Firm Is CuasiNO Scarcer CHtMICAL
(By John Flalka)
where state authorities, alarmed by POB con
tamination. hsv* had to remove large quan
tities of food from the itiarket.
r
- In 1070, h* stated, Uie Campbell's Soup Company discovered that a shipment of
chlekens itreceived from Hew York state con
FOB Is the shorthand name of a family Of tained a high percentage of one type of PCB.
910 chemleat substances, some of which have ' The New York State Department of Agri
had widespread use In the United States since culture ultimately destroyed HC.000 chickens
the early 1930s.
and traced the chemical to plastic wrapping
Because of mounting evidence that the used to package chicken feed. Rep. Ryan
PCIis are tonic to animals aod, like DDT, do aid.
' *
not easily break down >n nature, the Mon That, same year, Rep. Ryau said, the Ohio
State Department of Agriculture found t residue of PCB in mlllr. They remove*
large quantity from th* market and traced the chemical to a material used to line silos, wher* cattle feed was stored.
Exactly how much PCB ts still being pro duced Is a secret which Monsanto, the sole
manufacturer, refuses to disclose.
Dtvxi.orn) in use'*
Aooordlng to Papageorge, a ehemlcal en
gineer. PCB, or polychlorinated biphenyl,
was first developed In the early I930> by the
Bwmnn Chemical Co. in Anniston, Ala., an*
later taken over by Monsanto.
Until, recently, PCBs were marketed in
some industrial paints, coatings, Inks, and in
some plaatloa.
.
Now, because of Monsanto's change In
marketing policy, It is produced only for us*
a* an insulator In onpncHors, an electric
dovlco found In home Mr conditioners; as a
ooolant In transformer*; and a* a Are resist ant medium In boat exchange unit*.
Acoordingto Papageorge, total removal of
POBs from some of these closed system csss will be "next to Impossible."
H* pointed out that large cities in th* U.8
and many other oountrlm use electric trans formers containing PCB because it t* u
explosion proof ooelant, allowing the trans formers to be safely used In densly populated arose.
There 1* no substitute chemical with th*
am* properties and switching to a different oooling system, such as air or gas, would
mean drastically redesigning th* transform ers in use, he said.
"Our entire electrical system depends on It," concluded Papngeorge. "Believe me." he addsd, "If w* could get out of this buelnraa w* would."
LEAVE OF ABSENCE
By unanimous consent, leave of ab sence was granted as follows to:
Mr. Aspinali, from 3.30 p.m.. July 30. 1971. to noon, August 3,1971, on account of official business.
SPECIAL ORDER8 CHANTED
By unanimous consent, permission to address the House, following the legisla tive program and any special orders heretofore entered, was granted to:
(Hie following Members (at the re quest of Mr. Crane) , to revise and ex tend Uidr remarks, and to include ex traneous matter:)
Mr. Findley, today, for S minutes. Mr. Miller of Ohio, today, for 5 min utes. Mr. Harvey, today, for 8 minutes. . Mr. Hogan, on July 30, for 10 minutes,
Mr. Crane, on August 4, for 1 hour.
(The following Members (at the re quest o! Mr. Boggs) , to revise and extend their remarks, and to Include extraneous matter:)
Mr. Faaser, today, for 5 minutes.
Mr. Pnkyea of North Caroimn, tcduy,
for 10 minutes. Mr. aoNEALC?., today, for 10 minutes. Mr. Fuqua, today, for 10 minutes. Mr. Rcuss, today, for 10 minutes. Mr. 6t Oeumain, today, for 10 minutes. Mr. Dorn, on August 8, for GO minutes.
EXTENSION OF REMARKS
By unanimous consent, permission te revise and extend remarks was granted to:
Mr. Bennett, to revise and extend his
MONS 030810