Document VjbRyv1OdX90OqrzgxRdyywew

Workers at a Kosmosdale. Ky., factory sometime this woek will uncrato a now Gener al Electric Co transformer that in the annals of water pollution is something of a landmark. The device was built at UK's transformer manu'acturing plant here, and it is the last one to bo mode by GE that is insulated with poly* chlorinated biphenyls. The polysyllabic chemical, known more sim ply as PCB, is the key clement in Pyranol, an insulating fluid GE developed here to replace oil. But It is also the key element In one of the major environmental conflicts the electrical in* duslry has ever faced, and today marks the end of ll s use In Pittsfield. As lone ago as 1929, GE scientists discovered that PCu is an unusually stable, long-lasting substance that doesn't conduct electricity ana is fire resistant. As such, although It is 10 times as costly, it is an Ideal insulator for transformers and other electrical devices near or inside buildings. Oil-filled transformers, if they explode, shower a cascade of burning oil drops around them, igniting anything nearoy. PCB-filled de vices don't. PCB has, however, sent shudders through health and environmental officials. A Swedish scientist in 1904 looking for traces of DDT in stead found PCB in plankton and birds -- at the bottom and the top of a food chain. Other scientists later discovered that PCB HONS 000993 j PCB-FILLED transformer, last of its breed, is completed bv General Electric C*. assemblers Lawrence J. Ducharmc, kneeling, and Casimer M. Ordyna and. at right. Edward M. Kulpd, the company's manager of transformer and regulator assembly. Last PCB-filled transformer is shipped by GE plant here By Ralph E. Brown caused skin disorders in humans, reproductive disorders in fish and cancer in laboratory ani mats. And last year, a possible link was estab lished between PCB and cancer in humans. Monsanto Chemical Co., the only domestic manufacturer of PCB. in January 1976 decided to end its PCB operations. GE, Sprague Elec tric Co. and other electrical manufacturers lat er decided to stop using PCB as insulating- fluid components. And the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency later said it planned to ban the substance completely. But the characteristics of the substance that first attracted scientists to it -- stability, long life -- mean that the waste PCB emptied into rivers and tandfilt areas during the 40 years it was not thought to be harmful will persist for some time. ' * a GE last year agreed to pay a total cf \A mil lion to the state of New York to search for ways to clean PCB from the Hudson River nr. I to remove it. The state agreed to provide an other J3 million. GE scientists and engineers in Pithfiolo have designed an incinerator to burn iefiov*:.- PCB and a new silicone-based insulating flu:.: to replace it. The research has allowed GE in stop using PCB fluids here nine months before a self-imposed Dec. 31. 1977, deadline. and GE plants elsewhere will replace it by June. But PCB's continued presence in (he water and land, and in medical research labor * torics, means that concern about it isn't go.m; to vanish now.