Document G5a48oBNnYgxzXx7QjXeoD3ZN

LGW Sites Ooze Indestructible Chemical '\ 1 By CHARLES THORNTON SIH Writer only 2.5 parts per million caused stillbirths, miscar they are changed to a dangerous family of chemicals riages, skin lesions and hair loss. known as PCDFs --- polychlorinated diphenylfurans Once or twice a month, somewhere in Memphis In 1966, Swedish scientist Soren Jensen was check -- according to power industry reports to LG&W and Shelby County, one of the more than 3,100 electri ing for DDT contamination in fish. He found PCBs in Merryman said there also is some evidence that cal capacitors owned by Memphis Light, Gas & Water tissue taken from a fish. Later, he began to find PCBs PCBs change slowly with the passage of time and Division or TV A ruptures, spilling chemicals known almost everywhere in the environment, including become more dangerous. as PCBs the hair of his entire family. He said that LG&W is gradually phasing out equip The capacitors contain 1^ to 2 gallons each of the ment that contains PCBs, but that the process could chemical. - The shocker that eventually led to global concent take another 30-35 years because the equipment, espe Depending on which literature one reads, or the about the health effects of PCBs took place in Japan cially transformers, is long-lived. i expert talking, PCBs -- polychlorinated biphenyls -- in late 1968 He said, however, that LG&W is not able to repair are either the apocalypse straining at its chains, or During a period of a few weeks, it was discovered or replace leaking PCB-laden transformers as quick only slightly more threatening than grandmother's that more than 1,000 residents of Yusho, Japan, had ly as EPA would like because of technical problems. sugar cookies. eaten rice oil accidentally contaminated with PCBs "It takes several days to replace a transformer, But: that had leaked into the oil during a heating process which means that customers would have to be with PCBs are virtually indestructible. . at one factory. out power for a long period of time." Wherever researchers have looked for PCBs in animal life forms, the chemicals have been found. They have been shown to cause miscarriages and stillbirths in animals. PCBs can cause a painful skin ailment. PCBs have been shown to cause cancer in rats. Some humans who inadvertently consumed PCBs developed liver cancer. The capacitors, plus 211 20tgallon capacity trans formers in the midtown and downtown areas, use PCBs as an insulating fluid. Some of them may still be in use 35 years from now, said an LG&W engineer. Because PCBs are almost indestructible, they at first appeared to be an ideal fluid for industry, as insulation and coolant in high-voltage transformers and capacitors, heat exchange fluids and hydraulic fluids, to name Just a few uses. For years after PCBs were developed in the 1920s, health and industry officials hailed them as wonder chemicals. When they were unveiled by Monsanto Chemical Co. in 1929, the Industry gave them rave notices, even to the point of proposing them for use as binding agents in chewing gum. Since then the electrical industry have used PCBs Within five years, five of the Yusho victims had died of liver cancer -- six times the normal death rate for Japanese liver cancer victims. Others who ate the rice suffered severe chloracne, swollen eyes, stillbirths and miscarriages. Japan im mediately banned all trade in PCBs. The Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976 banned all PCB manufacturing in the United States, but pro ducts containing PCBs, primarily electrical compo nents, are still being assembled. "Due to a quirk in the law," said Ralph Jennings of the Environmental Protection Agency in Atlanta, "manufacturers are not required to tell you that electrical components contain PCBs. They are sup posed to tell you if they don't." Many scientists now believe that PCBs, a close relative of DDT, are among the most subtle and tena cious toxic substances known to man. PCBs have been identified as capable of causing an awesome array of health defects, including liver dtfmage, miscarriages, birth defects, impotence, Jaundice, digestive disturbances, throat and respira tory irritations, severe headaches and chloracne. PCBs also are suspected of causing cancer because laboratory animals given PCB doses of 100 parts per The problem of the transformers is compounded because they are all underground and have pumps that automatically operate when fluid is in the vault. Merryman said that LG&W is preparing to modify all its PC&equipped transformer vaults with special pumping switches that can tell the difference be tween PCBs and water so that if an explosion occurs, the PCBs will not be pumped into the environment. Only one of the PCBcontaining transformers has exploded since EPA began requiring reports on PCB incidents. That was late last year when the switching element of an underground transformer exploded at 969 Madison seriously injuring one LG&W worker and dumping 20-30 gallons of PCB fluid into the transformer's vault. Merryman said PCB contamination has never been known to make an LG&W employee ill. EPA records in Atlanta show that only two PCB incidents have ever been reported by LG&W -- the transformer explosion at 969 Madison and a capacitor explosion last year in Germantown. Jennings said EPA did not follow up on the Madi son incident but did follow up the Germantown ca pacitor explosion because it contaminated the soil. as insulation, and they were incorporated into parts for household appliances -- color W sets, microwave ovens and fluorescent light fixtures. Industry used them in paints, plastics, printing inks and marine caulking. Nobody paid much attention in 1936 when a team of American scientists reported that 23 of 24 workers involved in making PCBs at one plant were found to have developed chloracne, a persistent and unsight million in their food developed malignant tumors. Jennings, hazardous waste expert for the Environ mental Protection Agency, said during an interview that scientists have not been able to show that pure PCBs are harmful. The key phrase is "pure PCBs." Most persons in the chemical industry believe that once PCBs have been Eut into use and escape their containers, they are no rnger pure and constitute an environmental hazard. Merryman said LG&W crews went to the Surrey Lane site after the capacitor exploded and removed all the soil and foliage that appeared to have been splattered by the PCB fluid. "We didn't take any soil samples during our inspec tion," Jennings said, "because LG&W had re-sodded the area." No one knows how contaminated the area may be. Usually, he said, "If the PCB oil falls on soil, we dig ly skin disease caused by some chlorinated hydrocar Jennings said PCBs can be changed by the heat up the soil and put it in cans for disposal in an bons, the chemical family that includes PCBs and DDT. ?;enerated in electrical equipment so that they are no onger "pure." approved landfill. If it falls on the street or on con crete, we wash the area with solvent, then use a Between 1940 and 1948, various scientific investi As an example, he said that PCBs found on utility material that absorbs the solvent. Foliage is cut gations linked PCBs to liver damage, impotence and poles have been found to cause changes in bacteria. back." digestive disturbances in workers who were in Generally, any substance that causes a change in the The fluids are packaged in spill-proof containers volved in the manufacture and use of PCB-based genetic structure of bacteria is regarded as potential and shipped to one of two EPA-approved landfills -- insulating waxes. ly harmful to man. one in western Arkansas, the other in Alabama. The first indication that PCBs might be dangerous Merryman said that while LG&W does not consider to unborn children came in 1963 when a team of C.E. Merryman, manager of LG&W's central shops the PCB-loaded transformers and capacitors a haz scientists found that injections of small doses of and the man charged with handling LG&W's PCB- ard, he said that if persons notice oil around either, PCBs into fertilized chicken eggs caused stillbirths containing transformers and equipment, said indus they should not touch anything, but should notify and deformities. try tests show that when PCBs are heated but not to LG&W. In experiments in rhesus monkeys, often used for the point that they are destroyed -- such as when "Well know about it if a transformer breaks down, experimentation because their reproductive system 12,500 volts arc through them creating an explosion but we might not know very quickly when a capaci -SUM Photo UTILITY POLES WITH CAPACITORS, SOURCES OF PCBf is similar to that of humans, Dr. James Allen of the University of Wisconsin found that PCBs In doses of -- the normal PCB structure can be changed. When PCBs are heated to 410 degrees Fahrenheit tor goes out. If one explodes. LG&W should be noti fied immediately," he said. i PCB-ARCH-EXT0378164