Document QMvagKJmx7OZ121Ja9MkXRn67

Contaminated fish likely; eat less, says scientist By THOMAS C JACKSON Canadian standard which Ahmed predicted the FDA will adopt later this year. NEW MILFORD -- Connecticut residents PCBs are an extremely stable chemical now should "eat lew fish" contaminated by the widely used as an insulating fluid in electrical powerful Industrial pollutant polychlorinated components. Companies like Genera) Electric hintoiwi fpCBl a leading environmental have persisted in using PCBs in transformers scientistwarned Saturday. ' - and capacitors due to the chemical's re Cutting back on PCB laden fish is especially sistance to flame, spokesmen say. this same stability makes PCBs almost in important for women who are or plan to become pregnant. National Resources Defense Council staff scientist Dr. A. Karim Ahmed said during a conference on the long destructible once they enter the environment. Although chemically similar to DDT, PCBs last for decades in nature, slowly poisoning predatory animals. lasting chemical here. Essentially Insoluble in water, PCBs slowly Measurable levels of PCBs have been found in striped bass taken from Long Island Sound and the Gonnecticul River but State Health settle into the fine sediment which fills chan nels of rivers and streams. Ahmed said. Suspected sources of environmental pollution range from industries to dumps where PCB Commissioner Dr. Douglas Lloyd has said the laden products ore slowly decomposing, he contamination is too low to endanger human said. health. `The so-called `no effect lever has not been Dredging urban harbors or navigable rivers can stir up years of accumulated PCB deposits established for PCBs," Ahmed told .the resting in bottom muck, Ahmed said. If Housatonic Valley Association gathering. Federal research linking PCBs to liver cancer in laboratory testa suggests a "safe intake ' tevel" for the toxic substance may not exist, he Mid. Despite strong opposition from commercial fishermen. the federal standard (or PCBs in food will be cut by more than SO per cent, Ahmed predicted. The National Resources handled through standard dredging pro cedures, the pollutant would be quickly re turned to the water to slowly settle out down river. '. Balancing the economic necessity to con tinue dredging programs and the environmen tal damage threatened from riled up pollu tants may lead to a method of cleaning up the bottom while clearing a channel. Ahmed said. Defense Council has called for a gradual pro Sponsored by the HouMtonic Valley As gram to completely eliminate the chemical ' sociation, Saturday's session included from human foods, he said. representatives of the state Department of En "It's really becoming a nightmare/' Mimed said. "PCBs have been found in Just about every part of the world." From fish in An tarctica to tuna caught off the Atlantic coast and recycled paper used to package food, the toxic substance exists, he said. Human health effects of PCB poisoning in clude nervous disorders, miscarriage, birth defects, still birth and painful skin disease, he said. Current US. Food and Drag Administra tion (FDA) limits for PCBs in food are based on a 1972 Japanese incident affecting more than 1,000 persons, he said. New research shows low levels of PCBs may Iso have significant effects on reproduction , vironmental Protection (DEP) and New England region of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). EPA Surveilance Director Edwerd Fitzpatrick said the toxicity of PCBs has been' well established. The agency's monitoring ef forts to dale have centered on a GE plant in Pittsfield. Mass, which dumps up to a quarter pound of PCBs a day into the Housatonic River. * Ahmed said Massachusetts residents should be cautious of eating fish taken from the Housatonic River below the GE facility. Buta "data gap"exists about conditions along and could possibly spark liver cancer, Ahmed the stream in Connecticut, he said. said. Dropping the federal PCB tolerance to "One of the great ironies of the present zero would protect human health but also wipe out some of America's greatest fisheries in the situation is that more than three years ago the, Federal Wafer Pollution Control Act directed northeast, he said. the federal government -- specifically EPA -- Working under the existing standard, FDA to take swift action to reduce the discharge of inspsetors have Impounded several loads of fiah from Michigan for ` PCB contamination. Connecticut levels were generally above the FDA limit now in effect. But PCB readings in striped bass taken from the Connecticut River and all but one of the Sound collection sites surpassed the current PCBs and other toxic water pollutants to safe levels," Ahmed wrote in a recent article for "Environment" magazine. 'The fact that today there is no meaningful national program to regulate PCB discharges is a result of the federal government's failure to carry out theta as written," he wrote. MERIDEN, CONN RECORD 0. 21.500 MAR l 5 1976 A HONS 037098