Document O1LZQO3y2Xzbogoy2nmx8zm8X

CHICAGO DAILY KEffS B. 418,314 SUN. 4?<V,Z03 APR 2 51875 Lake fish | still full of toxic PCB By Hariaa Draeger 1 High level* of tnrto P(*!R. an Industrie! chemical aimllar to DOT, are continuing to turn up (n Lake Michigan fish. The eole American producer of PCB, Monsanto Chemical Co., ha* cut Ite production drastically since 1971. But Robert Reinert, a re* searcher with the Great Lakes Fishery Laboratory In Ann Ar bor, Mich., says there Is no sign of a drop-off In PCB con centrations In fish. "THE BEAL problem with PCB Is that the levels are not going down/' Relnert told a Lake Michigan Day conference sponsored by the Lake Mich igan Federation. : Rainert traced a steady de cline In DDT levels in Lake Michigan chubs, coho salmon and lake trot since the pesti cide was banned In surround- tog states in 1970. But his samples showed al most identical levels of PCB in chubs and increasing levels in coho and lake trout in the last couple of years. Monunto has cut its annual production of PCB by half to 40 million pounds a year in the past three yesrs. it also re duced its thousands of custom ers to less than SO large cus tomers, which use it to make closed electrical transformer systems. 1 REINERT SAID some PCB uses may be unknown and car- tain Industries may ha import- big PCB, (technically polych- 1 o r i n a t e d biphenyls* from other countries, , i "I do feel the PCB problem , can be settled," said Relnert "But it will taka a lot of work and money. The history of .DDT cohvlnces me we wiU see 'a drop of PCBs in time." Relnert says that PCB Is "something we should be con cerned about" because fish- food with high PCB levels caused mink to die or not re produce. HONS 030938