Document MGn4Qqr8exGvDk5RRGn1kxnM

WATERTOWN, Wj$. IUES EL&SOO AUG 3 0 1975 MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- The state's tried to use PCBS in," remarked W.B. Portage exceed safe levels set by the two-day hearing this week on proposals Papageorge of Monsanto Chemical Co., FDA. . to restrict discharge of the industrial sole producer of PCBS in the U.S. The agency also found shipments of chemical polychlorinated biphenyls, of Environmentalists were alerted to the carp from Lake Pepin with execessive PCBs, found environmentalists and hazards of the chemical when an out- PCB levels, resulting in orders to halt industrialists in a classic struggle. break of PCB poisoning hit Yusho, Ja- commercial carp fishing in the lake. Environmentalists, including Lt. Gov. pan, in the late 1960s. The state HealthDepartment has Martin Schreiber, contend that PCB The culprit was a batch of rice oil, a warned anglers in certain areas not to levels have reached alarming propor- popular cocking ingredient. eat more than one fish a week because of tions and threaten human life. A leaking heat exchanger, it was later possible danger. They want severe controls on PCB use discovered, had laced theoil with PCB Unsafe PCB levels have also been and disposal, if not an outright ban. during the manufacturing process. found in various sewage treatment plants Industrialists, especially paper Since then, federal agencies such as and in industrial discharges, particularly recycling companies, claim the dangers the Environmental Protection Agency from paper recycling factories, of PCBS have been exaggerated and that have urged stricter policieson theuse of As a result, the DNR considered restrictions on the discharge of the PCBs. The U.S. Department of proposals to limit PCB discharge rates chemical could cripple vital production. Agriculture set tolerance levels for and to curtail the sale and use of the Commercial production of PCBs began human consumption in various foods. chemical, in 1929 in electrical transformers. Over Studies by the Wisconsin Department . The paper industry, pointing proudly to the years, increased uses were found for of Natural Resources show that PCB record of efforts in the environmental the chemical and it made its way into contamination has become ubiquitous, cause, feels caught in a squeeze, such products as plastics, paints, in- Fish are the mostfrequent carriers of the . "If we were banned from discharging sulating and hydraulic fluids, caulking chemical. . . any PCBs at all, with our present compounds, inks, adhesives and car- DNR surveillance section chief Stanton technology, we would have to back away bonless carbon paper. Kleinert said PCBs in fish from Green from the use of waste paper," said Groff `There's not anything imaginable that Bay, Lake Michigan, the upper Mis- Collett of Consolidated Papers, Inc., at one time or another someone hasn't sissippi River and the Fox River near Wisconsin Rapids. ...... .. His remark was echoed by. other paper recyclers. ' Limits suggested by the DNR are v t unreasonable, too, they said, and would force companies to use economically un . feasible alternatives. ' i DSW195169 STLCOPCB4052080