Document LpeKXZOJ8YM7Jjv8KRjqgzakg

r iPollution unit backs PCB ban ?g By Don Boxmeyer Staff Writer Water quality specialists from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (PCA) are now in agree ment with scientists from four other Midwestern states and the federal government that the use of PCBs. a group of highly toxic in* dustrial chemicals, should be na tionally banned. The PCA staff will urge the agency's citizen board, at its * meeting Tuesday, to support a move for a national ban on the sale and use of PCBs except in certain "essential" applications. ' LAST WEEK, the Lake Michi- ' gan Toxic Substances Committee, ! made up of technical representa tives from Illinois, Indiana, Michi gan, Wisconsin and the U.S. Envlr o n m e n t a 1 Protection Agency . (EPA), similarly urged a national ` ban on the use of the PCB com* ' pounds. jtfaasaaUL-Chemlcal Co. is the only domestic producer of PCBs* a family of chemical compounds with a variety of industrial appli cations, as electrical insulators, heat transfer agents and hydrant , ic fluids. It is also used in making ; fsoap. But it has recently been found that PCBs -- Polychlorinated By phenols -- can produce birth de fects in fish, birds and mammals. It is suspected of having similar effects on humans and oi being a . cancer-oauslng substance. PCBs have been found in fish taken from Lake Pepin, Lake Michigan and Lake Superior. The compound does not occur in na ture, |t is used In the manufac turing processes of plants around the Great Lakes and on the Mis sissippi River. THE U.S. FOOD and Drug Ad ministration (USDA) recently en forced its "action limit" of 5 parts per million of PCBs on several shipments.of commerciallycaught carp from Lake Pepin, leading to the voluntary disposal of several thousand tons of carp fillets prepared for outstate sale. Since the USDA enforcement, commercial carp fishermen Lake Pepin have been idled by PCB investigation. Late last, month. Dr. Warren Lawson, Minnesota Commissioner of Health, advised the public to limit consumption of fish from the Mississippi and from the Metro- See PCB, Page 2 ipaiil Bffljiaffh ST. PAUL, MINN. tLiaaj&z JUH 2 0 1975 MONS 031208