Document Qk3DQRyyze7qMnxRrQZ4vz2JE

Monsanto D Wood IMM'IOOIIOM- -`lone I B2SD - 2623 October 30, 1979 CALL REPORT - DAN BENCH DENVER EPA - OCTOBER 26th CALL REPORT !" " E. T. Mollica J. C. Weber F. G. Wohlschlaeger R. A. Stohr C. F. Callis ' J. G. Ortiz R. C. Isham Dan called to give us a status report on Lafayette, Colorado incident. The 17 drums have been lifted and placed in oversize open top steel drums to reduce risk of further escape. The drums are still on the farm inside a fenced off area. The next problem is to get them disposed of or incinerated. I re-emphasized our suggestion that Denver EPA should seek Region 6 cooperation in burning these 17 drums as part of the November 5th trial burn at Houston. I also reminded him that Region 10 had permitted Chem Nuclear to store PCBs pending incineration. Dan reported alerts on several other PCB exposures in Colorado. He could not give much detail since they might involve release of product by another agency and they had not yet investigated thoroughly. Dan to help our understanding listed for me the present results on some of their tests on the Darling incident. Mrs. Darling - milk Mrs. Greenberg - milk Eggs Chicken (1) Chicken fat (average 4 chickens) Cat Cows Cows' milk House dust Turnips Hay (Garden) Hay (Near Barrels) Tomatoes Green Beans Soil at 6 inch Soil at 12 inch 1.8 ppm 2.5 ppm 2.3 ppm 65 ppm 37.5 ppm 34 ppb 5 ppb except for 2 __2.5 ppb 3.6 ppm 0.08 ppm 0.08 ppm 0.08 ppm <0.01 ppm 0.13 ppm 53 ppm <1 ppm __ .. at 17 ppb/7 ppb respectively - .. IN . *4* HIV, |4. 77 HONS 0016D1 Dan recognized that getting the drums off site was a priority if they are to take advantage of November 5 The chicken and egg levels are above FDA tolerances. cow and cow milk levels are below FDA tolerances. high burn. The As we suspected, plant uptake had not been high. I referred Dan to State University of North Carolina who had some results in this area. Dan asked what information existed on average PCB levels in mother's milk. I referred him to the 1976 EPA report and suggested he call Dr. Savage at Colorado State who had been, believed, following up on that work. we He asked if there was any data on blood serum levels. I told him that I could not recall any paper that gave these on a wide geographic basis but that some data should be available from the Selikoff Mt. Sinai data. We agreed to maintain contact. DW:pb HONS 001602 $0 33,aJ 5 HONS 001603 Monsanto D. Wood - B2SD - 2623 October 15, 1979 ' Xaren Newman Rocky Mountaln Journal-Oct. 12th TO R. C. Isham - BIND J. C. Weber J. Ortiz F. Provorny Xaren is covering the Lafayette Therminol FR1 incident and had been given my name by Bob Harding, Denver EPA. Q. When did Monsanto phase out of PCBs? A. Started in 69-70. Final sales of dielectric grades in 77. Q. When did Monsanto become aware that PCBs might be a problem? A. Related Swedish work in 67-6B, Yusho, confirmation of presence in U.S. environment leading us to begin phase out in 69. Q. Do we believe that PCB is as dangerous as EPA do? A. Different EPA representatives seem to have widely varying perceptions of the hazards associated with. PCBs, often depending on how close they have been to the regulatory evolution. While we at Monsanto believed that the persistence of PCBs and the accumulation in the environment were good reasons to replace them in industry the hazards of PCBs are frequently overstated. Q. We understand you talked to Wayne Darling. He reported that he had been told by Monsanto that PCB could not cause cancer. Is that true? A. We told Mr. Darling that PCBs had been identified by the scientific community as 'suspect carcinogens in test animals' but that the most recent study on Aroclor 1254 carried out by NIH had indicated that Aroclor 1254 was not a carcinogen, and that tests in Atlanta had shown Aroclor 1242 to have less effect than 1254 on test animals. Epidemiological studies to date had shown no causal relationship between PCB and cancer in husians. I did not believe myself that PCB was a carcinogen. Q. Does PCB cause birth defects? A. In the Yusho incident babies had been slightly lower than average weight at birth and in some cases skin pigmentation occurred. These symptoms had rapidly disappeared. 1fother birth defects related We are not aware of any DW:pb IN *"1V 'T7>