Document G6kXbDDDRy8DK70md7g15oN97

ST. LOUIS GLOBE-DEMOCRAT April 21, 1970 Chemical Pollutant Endangers Young of Birds and Animals PCB Has DDT Effects; Results From Burning Plastics By WILLIAM HINES WASHINGTON -Achemlcal you'll be hearing more about hat bean found in the na tion's waterway* according to a Cornell Uni versity scientist ft's known by Us- initials. PCB, and la a byproduct of the combustion of plastics in incinerators and other open fires. PCB has many of DOT'S effects when it gets into an animal'i system, says ecologist David B. Peakall. This means bed news for birds particularly, becauaa reisarch has shown that DDT and similar chemicals cause female birds to lay eggs with shells that are deficient in calcium, and therefore not rigid enough to prouet the developing embryo un til hatching time. Peakall has found that both DDT and PCB sat up reactions in the bird's liver which al ter the sex hormone, estrogen. These sub stances, in addition to turning on and off the femels's receptivity to advances by the male, also regulate the use of calcium for eggshell. Human beings and other mammals bear their young alive--except for tbe.s t r a n g e duckbill platypus, but that'a another story-- yet Peakall believes PCB may also have ad verse effects on the. reproductive functions of the higher animals. DEEPER AND DEEPER--former astro naut-aquanaut M. Scott Carpenter teya there's mote of interest to explorers on the sea floor than on tha Moon, and urges an intensifleation of undersea research. Speaking here recently, Carpenter said man is now on the threshold of the abtllry to work in "wet suit" freedom at depths up to 1,000 feet. At reaHy great depths, however, he acknowledges, explorers will need the protec tion of deep-submersible vessels. One <4 the big problems today la communtction between divers and surface crews and between individual men working on the bot tom, Carpenter says. At depths of seversl hundred .feet, divers cannot use the normal nitrogen-oxygen mixture which comprise# air, but must rely on a gas combination that is about 90 per cent helium and 1 per cent oxygen. Helium doesn't affect bodily process es, but it does distort the diver's speech, cre ating a "Donald Duck" tone of voice that is difficult to understand. Research is needed. Carpenter says, to provide some sort of "un scrambling" system that will correct this condition. , The former astronaut (Mercury 7 in 1M2) and aquanaut (SeeLab II in 1968) Is now president of the Helium Society, an organiza tion of firms with commercial interests In volving that gaseous element. MEDICAL BOOK GROWS-A medical "bible " that was hardly more, than a pamphlet in its first edition half a century ago has Just appeared in its latest revision, a yellow-endred-covered some 300 pages tfdcfc that cata logs tome of the worst ills that fleeh ie heir to. ' It's the American Public HeaMh Aseoda* Don's 1970 edition of "Control of Communica ble Diseases In Man," which layman ara sort to find as Interesting as doctor* will find use ful. The book covers a 9ectnm of 117 dis eases ranging (alphabetically) from actionmycosis to yaws. Most ofthe diseasea ana not native to the United Stale*, but ia this tima of rapid air travai many ailments oaee cossidered "exotic" turn up in stateside doctors' practices. Inquiries about the book and how to get it may be made to tha American Public Health Association, 1740 Broadway, New. York Qty, HONS 0 3 0 4 6 1