Document N2a1vza8jk5wQxNB5pjYQ9zBQ

Or 56-65C RODAIE'S ENVIRONMENT ACTION BULLETIN I.O.W. 10,900 fCUrfCOBYl OCT 18 1975 [BACjfoJ I^PCBs Worse Than DDT, and More Widespread ll'i bow bufldlag up to al living Ikaes. Industry bsUu ( cleanup order. by Laughlngbird PCB, or polychorlnated bl- phonyl, hat boon with us sines 1861 when It was synthesized In Ger many. it didn't see much of the world until 1029, when the Monaento Industrial Chem(cola Com pany began manufacturing It In the U.S. Monsanto has turned out about 400,000 tons of PCB between 1018 and 1973; the company produces about half of the world's output. PCB haa become Increasingly popu lar--It Is used In paints, printing Inks, soap, and electrical Insulation, to name only several of its myriad applications. In 1970, the U.S. produced 30,000 tons of PCfe. PCB Is highly toxic to living systems and organisms, and la very difficult to destroy. It Is only slightly water soluble, whioh explains why ocean life as deep as 11,000 feet haa been found to contain the chemical. However, it Is very soluble In fats and oils; it crept Insidiously Into a rioe oil manufactured In Japan and seriously poisoned thousands of people--but that story comae a little later. PCB does not bkMfsgrade, and It requires temperatures of 2700 degrees Farenheit to bum It. Because of all these properties, It accumulates In the natural world and the oreaturee whloh live here. The Environmental ProtectionAgency, traditionally a very conser vative gueseer to put it mildly, estimates that 90 percent of the human population of the U.S. now contains one to three parts per million of PCB accumulated In the fatty tissues of their bodies. The "temporary tolerance" level adopted recently by the FDA Is five parts per million. PCB Is likened to DDT (what an era of abbreviated reali ties!) because they are both difficult for organisms to throw off or expet, and because they Interfere with normal sex hormone activities, exert a noxious Influence on liver en zymes, and are highly suspected of causing liver cancer. I would like to go over parts of the Japanese experience with PCB, because It exists as empirical evidence of PCB's tragically de structive properties and their effect on living form. The Japanese experience, condensed as It Is by land mass and population density, gives us some foreboding of what to expect from one poison up until now taken for granted In the ethic of progress and products. The first real indications of PCB's toxicity came In the U.S. In 1936, when an outbreak of a very severe skin disease called chloracne was reported among workers In volved In Its manufacture. The outbreak fell Into the cracks of Industrial progress, however, end few even recalled PCB's ability to dsstroy until 1963, when Japanese workers in an Osaka factory fell victim to e similar skin disease. Even then, the matter wee hushed up until 1968-49 when the matter began to surface In a major way. First, the residents of Tama no Ura, a tiny fishing villaga In southern Japan fell so III that they began to think themselves victims of an Inexplicable curse. The village Is very Isolated; oontaot with the outside world le limited to tele vision! This rusticity and s native reticence made the villagers' plight even more tragio. They lost their appetites; their bodies broke out In greet eweete; they became weak ened end could no longer work. Ugly pus-filled bolls appeared all over their bodies; their eyes deteriorated, end e viscous discharge glued them shut for hours. These excrutletlngly painful diseases the villagers bore In secret from March through October, 1968, hiding from each other end from the outside the symptoms which they conceived ae shameful. In October, 1968, they saw a televised news report on s strange disease that had struck other communities in their district. The disease, it turned out, originated with PCB whloh had leaked into e rice oil used for cooking. Within two weeks, 12,000 people appeared for treatment in three southern prov ince# of Japan. The story of the contaminated rice oil end the msnner In which It was discovered is sadly typical of whet goes on with Industrial pollution much of the time. It was an early victim who later died of PCB poisoning who found whet he thought wee responsible for his sickness. When he tried to get health and university authorities to examine the Kameni rice oil, how ever, he wee turned away or Ignored. Finally, a Tokyo journalist exposed the situation--U.S. journalists could take lessons in ethical paper reporters, who ere very active and socially conscious. Now, this same story of Industrial Indifference, government Ineptitude end neglect Is being acted out In the U.S./ fishermen on I____ BTFfcsdnoilo j million. UVBI III IHouaand pounds of frozen coho end Chinook salmon from the lake were also selzed,J2B levels in tham ranoed fmml2 to 9J peill (W minion, in May 1978, an EPA study group titled Lake Michi gan Toxic Substances Committee PCB, suggesting that its use be restricted to "essentials"--in this esse, Its use in electrical trans formers and capeeltatore. According to s 1972 EPA report on environmenial health hazards, 1,900 to 2,000 tons of PM are lost In the air each year; 4,000 to 9,000 tone MONS 032328 tNVIRONUINT ACTION BULL t TIN-- OelObf 19. 1*TS s an lost to (rash and eoaatal waters, and 18,000 ton* ara lost annually to dumps and landfills. "PCB la truly a global contaminant," noted Or. Oilman Veltti of the EPA National Water Quality Laboratory In Duluth, Minnesota. Dr. Qeorge Harvey ot the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institu tion on Cape Code reports that PCB has been found In all organisms examined from the North and South Atlantic Oceans. He saye, "Baaed on available data, It seems sale to conclude that PCB la present In varying concentrations In every epeolee of wildlife on the earth." Proof that PCB builds up In living organisms came from a study made In 1972 by Cornell University's pesticide research lab. Two scien tists there examined lake trout In Cayuga Lake, New York, and discovered that as a general rule, trout larger than 24 Inches In length had excessive levels of PCB. The highest reading, 30 parts per million, came, from a nine-year-old fish. PCB has been found In signifi cant concentrations In not only Lake Michigan, but In the upper Mlsslsslpl, upper Ohio, and Hudson Rivera. The greatest popular outcry tras focused on the Hudson River, where a group of determined environmental activists headquar tered In Poughkeepsie, New York, have organized to try to stop the Hudson's poisoning with PCB. The group Is called Hudson River Sloop Restoratlon/Clearwater, and one of Its early organizing figures was folksinger/actlvlst Pets Seeger, who Is still very Involved with Its work. In conjunction with the National Re sources Defense Council, the Clearwator circle hae asked Russell Train, EPA administrator, to use his emergency powers to halt PCB dumps Into the Hudson. Although the seriousness of the situation emerged only recently, the rumbles of troubled waters became public In August 1975 when the EPA released a study to New York state's commissioner of the Department of Environmental Con servation, Ogden R. Reid, advising Reid to warn the public against eating striped base from the Hudson and coho salmon from Lake Ontario. Since the Initial warning, Reid has broadened his advisory to Include small mouth bass, white perch, suckers and eels from the Hudson, and lake and brown trout from Lake EPA to Host PCB Conference Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Russell E. Train has called a national conferenoa to discuss environmental contamination by polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), a group of Industrial chemicals, November 19-21 at the Pick Congress Hotel In Chicago, Illinois. The Department of Health, Education and Welfare will moderate a special session the flrpt day of the conference devoted to recent infor mation about health aspects of exposure to PCBs. "PCBs have long been a grave matter of concern for EPA and all people who work for e clean environ ment," Train said. "Action taken In 1972 was expected to reduce PCB discharges to the environment, but recent evidence Indicates the con tlnued presence of high concentra tions of these chemicals In fish In several of our nation's waterways. This conference will help EPA clarify the feasibility of further stepa to help reduce PCB contamination of the environment." Representatives from Industry, conservation groups, the scientific community, local and State govern ments, and the Federal government will be Invited to participate. The conference Is frse and open to the public. Dr. John Buckley of EPA will serve as general chairman. Persons who want to participate and thoae who want to attend should contact the administrative coordinator tor the conference, Mr. Franklin A. Ayer, Research Triangle Institute, P.O. Box 12194, Research Triangle Park, North Carolina 27709. Tele phone: (919) 549-8311. Ontario. Most recently, Reid's de partment hee discovered telnted fish In the St. Lawrence River, the Mohswk River, and Lake Champlain. Sportsman/activist Robert Boyle wrote a very well-documented and earnest report on PCB for the September Issue of Sports lllustrstsd, and the New York Tlmss ran two articles on PCB In the Hudson on September 8th. The chemical has actually been dumped regularly Into the Hudson slnoe 1942 by General Electric's two riverside factories. Since 1971, Q.E. has dumped an average of thirty pounds a day into the river; some days the corporation has dumped as much as ninety pounds. It le the largest continuous PCB dump In the country. It Is unfortunate that the Environmental Conservation Depart ment did not act sooner. According to the Clearwater newsletter, the department conducted 99 sampling tests of Hudson River fish between 1970 and 1975, and found that over fifty percent contained levels of PCB greater than the allowable five parts per million set by the FDA. In an Interagency memo originated from EPA offices In Washington in May 1974, Alan W. Eckert used an accepted scientific formula to pre dict that the level of PCB contami nation In the Hudson could be seven times more toxic than FDA guide lines allow, aa a result of the Q.E. discharge of thirty pounds dally. Robert Boyle, In his fine article In Sports lllustrstod, reports that In 1971 he had Hudaon River fish analyzed by the Warf Institute In Madison, Wisconsin, and that he wrote to Carl Parkar, chief of New York's Bureau of Fisheries with the results of the testa, which Indicated unhealthy levela of the contaminant: 11.4 ppm In striper eggs; 4.01 In their bodies. Boyle suggested that the state advise fishermen not to eat striped base, but according to Boyle, Parker's reply was "derisive." Environmental Conservation Com missioner Reid wee also upset when he `Teamed that his department, long deplored by conservationists as a sick |oke, had known of PCB contamination since 1972 and pos sibly as early aa 1970." Now, the IPA la trying to get Q.E. to atop dumping PCB alto gether by September 30, 1978. Predictably, tha eorpovatloa'e tosponas haa not boon anthualaatlc; HONS 03Z329 ENVIRONMENT ACTION BUUETIN-Oclottf t. tpT9 6 Hie oompany hoe Indicated that It does not tool M It It will bo (Mo to oompty. In ono roeent report from Iho Now York Timm, General Elootrlo apokaamon (Ilka many other Industrial apokoapoopla, halaha' ramalna nameless) said that "tha grada of PCB found to ba predomi nant In tha flah aamplaa la not tha aama grada uaad exclusively by Oanaral Electric for the past four years." So It goes In the abstract realities of sconomlcs and Industrial progress, where human response- ability Is often at an all-tlms low. Currently, hearings are being held to determine whether the EPA will even be allowed to Insist that Q.E. stop dumping PCB. Acoordlng to a Clearwater member, "not muoh happened" al the October 6 hearing, and another la scheduled for November 3. Tha Clearwater people seem convinced that General Elec tric Is working to drag out the proceedings as long as possible. Meanwhile, four communities' drinking water on the Hudson Is being poisoned dally, and the rising levels of PCB In the river Is seriously threatening tha life of every creature who comes In contact with the water. PCB Is also contaminating tha drinking water of two ma|or metro politan areas--Chicago and Mllwaukaa. It has also been found In milk, chickens, turkeys and aggs, and In cattle. In 1B71, 140,000 chickens contaminated by PCB In their feed were slaughtered and burled In New York. Later that year, PCB leaked Into chicken feed In a fish meat pasteurization plant In North Carolina. Twelve thousand tone of feed, 124,000 eggs, and 08,000 broilers were contaminated. Recently, the Detroit Free Press told the unhappy story of a family of farmers whose Holstein hard was being eaten away by PB0 contami nation (PCB has many variations; In all, It has 240 possible structures and Isomers.) Since 1973, according to the article, 00 of the Partaka family's 200 Holstelns have died and another 00 have been left stunted or deformed by a disease that no one has seen enough of yet to Identify. John Partaka, Sr. believes that It comes from PBB contamination. Two years ago, a cattle feed supplement sold to Michigan farm ers was accidentally mixed with PBB; samples of the chemical have shown up In the tissues of the Partaka cattle. They have shown up too In the body of the youngest Partaka--a baby named Jennifer, now nine months old. After genera tions on the land, the Partakas are grim and sad. "You know, this atuff never leaves. It's In the dirt, the concrete, the wood, the feeders. We buy-new cows, bring 'em In here and they'll turn out Ilka these," said John Partaka, Sr. Like millions of other Inhabi tants of industrtsl culture, the Partakas feel that they are victims of an Irreversible syndrome. This wide spread hopelessness la s big problem In dealing with environ mental pollutions. The hopeless ness seams to have two heads, and one la saying, "You can't gat industry to stop doing that," and tha other chimes In, "And sven If you do, It's gone so far, there's no getting out of It." These attitudes are so much an accepted part of our cultural quandry, that they are often Ignored even by environmentalists and activists working to transform the environment. But how realistic are thaae attitudes? In the case of PCB contamination, there are obvious places to begin. Even from this article, which Is a simple start, one can see two responsible parties-- Monsanto and General Electric. It seems like it would be the healthiest of energy reversals for Monsanto and General Electric not only to stop using PCB, snd to stop manufac turing it, but to take the technology that has been used to endanger and poison the world, and use It to discover ways to dissolve or trans form the poison. Well now, does that seem far-out or "unrealistic" to you? In fact, It seems that If homo sapiens is ever going to get to the heart of the matter, It will have to expand Its vision considerably, and soon, too. In the spirit of healthy cooperation to solve this problem which affects us all, do you have any ideas? Strategies? Know of any groups working on the problem regionally? Have contact with sclentlsta with knowledge that could lead to transforming or dissolving this pollutant? If you do, let's get together on It. Send your communi cations to EAB, and we'll go on from here. The Domino Theory of PCBs If cktxees doe't vnt PCB, how long belove they doe't waot aactsar wassee, vteyt chloride, acvyloohiBe... "Persistent PCBs--They Lin ger Longer and Are Toxic at Lower Levels Than Had Been Thought" said the headline in the Wall Sheet Journal for October 10, 1975. Tha article, by Jeffrey Tannenbaum pointed up the fact that buslneasmen are beginning to face a massive public concern with the Industrial chemicals-- PCBs snd thousands more--that sustain tha corporate manufac turing machine. "Hazardous Wastes Endan ger Human Life" was the headline In the EPA's recent Solid Waste Report. The story details direct Industrial waste pollution of wells In Illinois--where drinking water contained high levels of lead, mercury and cadmium. How many unchecked wells are simi larly contaminated? Add this to the announcement last spring that moat cities' water supplies, taken from rivers, contain many of the Industrial chemicals dumped Into those rivers up stream. If you want to find out exactly what tha government Is doing about the 50 most prevalent and toxic chemicals, write for EPA-500/4-75-001, Feb., 1975, EPA, Office of Toxic Substances, Washington, D.C. 20400. Our goods and services no more have to be produced with health-destroying chemicals than does our food. Buslnsssmen with their heads on straight see that pollutants will no longer be dumpad In the future. When used at all, they will be recycled, contained and monitored. // RONS 03233 ENVIRONMENT ACTION BULLETIN--October 18. 18TS