Document VJ5mLk19zRjkqv0Ngnw3w5nB8

R.H. 2, Box T28 Danville, led. ^6l?2 Oct. 23, 3973 H.A. Ericeon .... ... Monsanto Chemical Company 800 N. Lindbergh Blvd, St, Louis, Mo. 63166 Dear Mr. Ericsont I recently read an article, dPCBi The Worldwide Pollutant That Nobody Noticed by Kevin P. Shea. It told of the dreadful yusho disease outbreak in Japan in 1968. The disease and the cause (K-brand rice oil contaminated with PCBs) are very startling to me and the article has raised some questions which 1 hope you could answer for me since Monsanto is reportedly the major manufacturer of PCBs in the United States, .\ y . Since the Yusho outbreak, I understand Monsanto has agreed to-sell PCB compounds for closed systems from which the spent PCBs are theoretically re coverable, But couldn't it also be theoretically true that the closed system could falter in some way (spring a leak so to speak) and be released into the environment in a variety of harmful ways? T also read that Monsanto has constructed a high temperature incinerator in which you will destroy spent PCBs for your higgest customers. Your com pany should be commended for this however you make the customer pry for the shipping and incineration? This I can not comprehend--why make a customer pay for something which in reality is a defect on the part of your manufactured product? I realize that a company such as yours is out to make money which is only right but at the expense of contaminating our streams, livestock and our own bodies? How many companies that buy your product actually return it to you to be incinerated or do they just dump it into a landfill ( for the sake of saving money) to spread to our ruvers, livestock, etc,? Are your customers sufficiently warned that the product they are buying does contain PCB compounds and shoudl be disposed of very carefully? Do they know of the Yusho disease or of the 1^0,*f50 Campbell chickens that had to be slaughtered in 1970 due to the dangerous level of PCBs in their bodies which made them unfit for human consumption? Would it be feasible for your company to charge a deposit fee (some what like on Coke bottles) which the customer would get back i_f they returned the spont PCBs back to you? I realize you would still be losing money but it might insure that the spent PCBs would To sent back to you. Isn't it worth it OSU 020160 STLCOPCB4008089 for the sake of our environment---the only environment we will ever have? As a final question, is it possible toft&nufacture your products using a com-' pound less dangerous than PCBs? * Thank you for spending the time to read my letter, I would appreciate a reply answering my questionsj perhaps Monsanto is doing more towards the elimination of PCBs than I realize--! truly hope so. Annella Smith DSW 020161 STLCOPCB4008090