Document KRorE0N0Vq200M0xeXQzeY56X

Monsanto on, C.PROM (NAME a LOCATl Paton - General Offices OATE March 5, 1969 SUBJECT DDT ON TRIAL REFERENCE TO W. Richard WRICH cc Ho S. Bergen - HBERG M. W. Farrar - JFQ Dr. R. E. Keller - RKELL --Scott Tucker - STUCK W. F. Waychoff/W. E. Schalk/ J. E. Springate E. Wheeler/Dr. R. E. Kelly I am sure the attached article in the Wall Street Journal of March 4 on the DDT "trial" in Wisconsin has not escaped your notice. It emphasizes several things. 1. Dr. Risebrough seems to figure prominently in the proceedings. It could bode ill for Aroclors if the quotation attributed to him is true. "No responsible person could now get up here and say that this constant nibbling away at our steroids is without any physiological effect'. It would be Irresponsible." Not only does' he appear t.o be setting the stage that anyone disagreeing with him is irresponsible, he seems to be equating any effect with a bad effect. This attitude has un pleasant implications. 2. The fact that the DDT "task force" (Diamond/Allied/ Olin/Lebanon/Montrose/Geigy)"did not retain an attorney to represent it at the hearings until less than a week before they opened, and apparent ly had almost no idea of what it would face" is a sobering thought. Have we taken steps to obtain the transcript of the proceedings as discussed at our meeting in January. Should we alert our legal people to the possibility of Aroclor "hearings" in the future so that we are fully prepared. 3. .1 note that several of the witnesses for the pro secution have also been asking for Aroclor samples. In the worst light, this could mean future trouble for us. CP: dbw DSW 230364 STLCOPCB4053760 O.) THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, Tuesday, March 4,1S53 Periled Pesticide . Wisconsin.Hearing on Bid to Ban DDT Could Affect Future of All Such Products By RrcHAKi/ D. James tists that has waged a steady battle against harmful use. Besides. Industry spokesmen say, Staff Reporter o/The Wall Street Jocrnal DDT and similar insecticides, chiefly in the DDT is safe. It must be approved by the Fed MADISON, Wis.--The agricultural chemical courts, ever since it was formed in October 1967. eral Government, they assert, and the Govern Industry is under attack--again. It has met only limited success In the mental agencies Involved--the departments of: Ever since 1952 It has led a somewhat har courts, but its lawsuits against state and local Agriculture and Interior and the Food and ried existence. That was the year the late agencies haven't been totally ineffectual. Drug Administration--wouldn't approve any Rachel Carson's best seller, "Silent Spring," Among other things, the pressure the suits agent harmful to humans or wildlife. appeared, alleging widespread, indiscriminate have generated is credited with prompting The industry backs up its contentions on use of pesticides produced by the industry. more than 50 cities in Michigan to stop using safety by citing a study of Montrose Chemical Now, as before, the issue is pesticides, this DDT against the Dutch elm disease. employes at a DDT plant. The study reports, time specifically i,l,i-tr;ch;oru-2,2-bis lp-chlo- The industry is fighting back through a the employee arc exposed to much higher j rophenyl) ethane--better known as DDT. , DDT task force, organized several years ago levels of DDT than to the generai public, yet The battle is being waged on several fronts. under the. aegis of the National Agricultural they don't show any signs of harmful effects. Last summer. Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan Chemicals Association to contain the brush Possible Effect on Humans and Indiana signed an agreement calling for stricter controls on all pesticides. DDT in cluded, that arc polluting Lake Michigan. The Illinois legislature is considering a bill banning the use of DDT. In Pennsylvania, a state sen ate committee recommended a ban on its use in fields and forests. And Sen. Nelson (D., Wis.) says he plans again to seek legislation outlawing the insecticide nationally. "I think it's been clear for a long time to those scien tists vho are knowledgeable that DDT is hav ing !- devastating environmental effect," he says. A Hearing in Wisconsin (ires ignited by DDT's opponents. Most of its members are the companies that make DDT: Diamond Shamrock Corp.. Allied Chemical Corp.. Olin Mathicson Chemical Corp., Leba non Chemical Corp., a privately held company; and Montrose Chemical Corp. of California, the largest maker. Montrose is owned jointly by Chris-Craft Industries Inc. and Stauffer Chemi cal Co. A sixth member, Geigy Chemical Corp., Ardsley, N.Y., doesn't make DDT. Caught Off Balance . Thus, the industry is well organized to de fend itself, but the Wisconsin attack seemingly caught it off balance. The task force didn't re So far, the issue of DDT's effects on hu mans hasn't been raised directly in the hear ings. It was touched on briefly, though, by two witnesses. Richard Welch, a pharmacologist with Burroughs Wellcome & Co., a drug manu-. facturer, said the sex hormones affected in rats by the DDT-activated enzymes are the same ones found in man. He also explained that the amount of DDT needed to produce the effect "Is within a range of DDT found in.' human fat. .. . thus, if one can extrapolate j data from animals to man. then one would say ; that the change in these enzymes probably do! occur in man." j The sharpest fight of the campaign, how tain an attorney to represent it at the hearings And Robert Riscbrough, a biologist withi ever, is shaping an hero, and its outcome could until less than a week before'they opened, and the University of California's Marine Re-! have an important bearing on the future of it apparently had almost no idea of what it sources Institute, touched on the subject briefly j DDT and pesticides generally. Focal point of would face in Madison. "Frankly, nobody knew in his testimony. "Our general point Is that 1 the confrontation is a hearing being conducted what kind of hearing this was." says Louis A. (the Food and Drug Administration) hasn't j by the Wisconsin Department Gf Natural Re McLean, the attorney finally picked by the task, taken any consideration of the enzyme indue-1 sources on a petition to ban the use of the force. "We though it would be something like a ing capacity of these substances iDDT and I ' chemical in the state. The agency has jurisdic legislative hearing, where people got up and similar pesticides). This is a decision which the j tion over keeping the state's water resources make statements of position." Mr. McLean is a FDA will have to make sometime in the near free of pollution, and under state law it can. long-time Industry spokesman, who until he re future. Will it permit an increase In the activ upon petition by interested parties, restrict or tired in July 1967 was secretary and general ity of these enyzmcs in our liver? No responsi ban the use of any substance it finds to be foul counsel for Velsieol Chemical Co., pesticide ble person could now get up here and say that ing the water. maker and .Northwest Industries Tnc. subsidi this constant nibbii.vj away at our steroids Uho In November the department was petitioned ary. sex hormones) is without any physiological ef by a group of Wisconsin conservationists called the Citizens Natural Resources Association. They were joined by the Wisconsin division of the Izaak Walton League. The two groups al lege DDT is getting into the water from a vari ety of sources and is harming wildlife. Hearings began in December and continued for 13 days, with about a dozen scientists ap pearing in support of a ban. Then the proceed ings were recessed to allow the chemical com panies time to prepare a defense. They are ex pected to begin presenting their case in a few weeks. The case is of more than passing interest. Since "Silent Spring" appeared, research has turned up new evidence suggesting DDT may harm .wildlife, and possibly humans too. in pre viously unsuspected ways. The hearings mark the first time many of^he findings have been used as ammunition against pesticide makers. If Wisconsin finds the evidence sufficiently per suasive to ban or severely limit the use of DDT, conservationists and other DDT oppo nents arc expected to carry their fight against the industry into other states. &Moreover, if the campaign against DDT proves successful, the industry expects attacks against similar Insecticides. Finally, the loser ihere seems certain to appeal to the courts, raising the prospect of a precedent-setting legal decision. In the past,-pesticide manufacturers some times have tried to dismiss their critics as food faddists and neurotics. For example, in 1967 Mr. McLean wrote: . . the antipesticide peo ple in almost every instance hold numerous be liefs in nutritional quackery and medical quackery, and they oppose public health pro grams." ' The characterization rankled many of the scientists involved here, leading some to sug gest that the industry this time has underesti mated its opposition. Indeed, the Environment tal Defense Fund and its attorney, Victor Jv Yannacone Jr., have spearheaded the case against DDT with expert testimony from repu table scientists brought in from all over the country. Included are fishery and wildlife biologists, botanists, an organic chemist, a pharmacoiogist and an entomologist. Through its scientists advisory committee, headed by Charles F. Wurster Jr., a biology professor at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, the EDF has built up since its inception a pool of about 10Q scientists to furnish opinions or testi mony. Not all EDF witnesses are members. The EDF contends a complete ban on DDT is needed because even small amounts of the pesticide applied in the most rigidly controlled manner will still pollute the water and atmos phere. Mr. Wurster testified DDT i3 easily fect. It would be irresponsible." Finally, the industry can be expected to hit hard on DDT's public health uses and benefits. "Too many people forget we need DDT for control of mosquitoes that carry encephalitis, and the world needs it to control malaria," says Mr. McLean. . Adds Samuel Rotroscn, chairman of the Could Affect Larger Market picked up from the soil and carried throughout The industry attempts to play down its fi the world on wind-born dust and water parti nancial interest in the case. It says the DDT cles. Other witnesses testified DDT has been used in Wisconsin in 1367 amounted to sales of found in nearly every part of the world, includ only $17,000.. Even nationally, DDT volume ing dust collected over the Indian and Atlantic Isn't huge. In 1907. the largest period for which oceans. It even has been detected in the- pen figures are available, sales totaled $13.7 mil guins of Antarctica, they assert. lion. However, the larger market that the in dustry believes would b'e threatened if the DDT issue goes against it totals about $200 million annually--more than 25rr of manufacturers' total pesticide sales. The widespread contamination Is harming wildlife, not necessarily by killing it outright, but by producing subtle metabolic changes, un suspected until recently, that are gradually eliminating various species, the scientists say. To bolster their attack, the Wisconsin con Kenneth Macek, a biologist for the U.S. De servationists enlisted the help of the Environ partment of Interior's fish-pesticide laboratory mental Defense Fund, a small Long Island, at Columbia. Mo., reported his research shows N.Y..-based group comprised mainly of scien that feeding low, sublcthal doses of DDT to brook trout causes a higher mortality among their offspring ami makes the ^rout more sus ceptible to environment;*.! stresses. STLCOPCB4053761 fop in Bird Population (--.......... . "------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ {University of Wisconsin wildlife ecologist seph Hickey testified that since 1950 there s been a piunge in populations of birds of 'ey such as the eagle, osprey and peregrine Icon. At first, scientists didn't know why, he plained. Then in 1967 research showed the rds were laying thinner-shelled eggs that ere breaking and failing to hatch. Because .e change in eggshell thickness occurred after >47, the start of widespread DDT use, the sci- itists theorized that DDT somehow was up:tting the birds' calcium metabolism, which is ivolved in eggshell formation. Messrs. Hickey, Wurster and others believe le theory now is well documented. During the earings they explained how researchers quite iy accident found that DDT, even in small mounts, activates certain liver enzymes in ats, rabbits and some birds. Enzymes gener ally control the body's chemical functions; -hose involved in this instance affect estrogen, i female sex hormone that plays a role in cal cium metabolism. In this subtle way, they argue, DDT exacts its toll, | ` DDT task force and general manager of Mon trose Chemical, "I don't say these people (EDF witnesses) aren't true scientists, but their interest appears to be 'let's worry about birds more than people.' I think we'll have qualified scientists who will put the picture in perspective." There's no way. of course, to tell yet how the Wisconsin Natural Resources Board will rule. But it may have given some indication of its attitude on the DDT question last year in one of its technical bulletins. "The use of any persistent pesticide (which includes DDT) re mains a calculated risk. Science has already shown chlorinated hydrocarhon pesticides (the family to-which DDT belongs) to interfere with fish reproduction, behavior, and hereditary factors. Further, these residues may be harm ing a variety of animal life in many subtle ways, which will only become apparent through intensive research. To continue to use DDT ... in the face of the present level of contamination would seem to be an invitation to disaster." i Additional support came from Lucille Stic- kel at the'Interior Department's Patuxent wild- iiife research center in Maryland. She told how she fed small amounts of DDT and DDE, a {breakdown product of DDT, to mallard ducks. The results were thinner eggshells and in i' creased breakage, she said. ! Although the industry hasn't yet presented Jits side of the story, talks with Mr. McLean ! and others give some indication as to what | lines it will follow. Mr. McLean questions the j accuracy of the research studies and the quali- | fications of the scientists who conducted them. I He contends, for instance, that Mr. Wurster j is an organic chemist, "but he was talking about things entirely unrelated to the field of chemistry. If a man wants his opinions re spected, he should be qualified in the specialty in which he's speaking, and a scientist who's speaking outside his area of expertise is really no better qualified to foist an opinion than any person on the street." Mr. McLean indicates the industry will call toxicologists and medical experts in its de fense. "I think it's particularly interesting that although the EDF is basically talking about matters of health. it didn't bring one medical witness to the stand. And frankly I didn't ex pect them to, because I don't know of any med ical toxicologist who's informed about pesti cides who shares their fears." . The EDF argues that there are substitutes for DDT that are as effective but much safer because they are shorter-lived and therefore their harmful effects don't persist in the atmos phere. The industry disagrees. It contends other pesticides aren't as effective and because they DSVV 230366 are shorter-lived they must be applied more often, increasing the chances for improper and