Document VJ5MeMM3NvYKgdpOR5vbVEaGw

i. ____D. 63,139 41-119 SCIENCE NEWS U'KIV. 1)0,500 .SEP T9 1970 / ct iprro nr' fSAcorhs. i OCT 41970 4A- ! 1| News of Tennessee's . . . AND <5' \H(^ h\a Lsai m y w u By Dan Cook PCB's insulate w I am taking the liberty of writing to correct a statement which appears in the item "Monsanto reduces sales" (SN: 7/25, p. 69): "Monsanto will con tinue to sell pbc's for use as a lubricant in transformers and for paints and ad hesives, the company said." Polychlorinated biphenyls, known under the generic name of askarels, as well as by various trade names, are not used as lubricants but as insulating liquids. These compounds arc used for various reasons but especially because they are nonflammable, whereas petro leum-base insulating oils will, of course, burn. Samuel Saxs, Librarian William Stanley Library General Electric Co. Pittsfield, Mass. . // Pollution 'Score' Although pollution is one of the most serious issues of the day, mayibe they should set up a football-type , scoreboard for if. Make the score 12-6, polluters ahead. Our side, Public, scored when f. the Monsanto Company, only U.S. producer of a group of environment ally persistant chemicals known to chemists as polychlorinated biphen- als, announced it is restricting pro duction and tightening controls over their handling and disposal. PCB's, as they are called for ... . , \\. short, have been in use for more S than 40 years and have been show- l- ' .. / ; ing un with alarming regularity in " y i tests on wildlife. In the tests, PCB's > \ i / % were confused for some time with 1 i; E | DDT. The two resemble in their L--___ i chemical structure. The public outcry led to Mon- DAN COOK santo's action. It is commendable. This chemical will no longer be used in "open systems." These are described as adhesives, sealants, chlorinated rubber, specialty paints and other similar items. It will be limited to "closed systems" such as electrical transformers and capaci- tors. In this look at pollution on the national scene, however, the Polluters still hold the lead on the basis of findings in the Mississippi River. Other pollution cases still unchecked are numerous. The testimony presented on Aug. 26-27 before the Senate Subcommittee on Energy, Natural Resources and Environ ment, a group chaired by Michigan Senator Phillip A. Hart, indicates there's plenty battle room for congressional heroes in the war on pollution. The testimony tends to erase any belief that mercury con- tamination of our lakes and streams was a mere fluke. It erases the thought that this was an isolated case of one metal by-pro- duot which happened to slip out the back door of industry. ' Toxic substances such as lead and arsenic were discovered dumped into the Mississippi. Lead Found .Conservation News, an educational service of the National Wildlife Federation which reported the congressional proceed ings, labels it an "I'll-do-it-until-you-stop-me" attitude. Almost 2% tons of lead is being discharged daily into tb lower Mississippi between Baton Rouge and New Orleans, ac cording to the report. The Interior Department's Federal Water Quality Admini stration officials have named the Ethyl Corporation (producer of gasoline lead additives) as the leading polluter with lead. Other firms have been indicted. Dr. Harry Schrocder, professor of physiology of Dart mouth Medical School, expressed the serious nature of toxic metal pollution. "I must emphasize," he said, "that environmental pollu tion by toxic metals is a much more serious and much more insidious problem--pollution by organic substances such as pesticides, weed killers, sulfur dioxide, oxides of nitrogen, carbon monoxide and other, gross contaminants of air and wa ter. . "The importance of this problem is illustrated by the fact that rats and mice spending their lives in an environment con trolled as to metallic contamination live 20-25 per cent longer than do animals in the contaminated environment of the usual D sW 552481 STLCOPCB4090898