Document Z8nqdQ5xGO89461jOnODMjaKO

Sports Illustrated SEPTEMBER 1, 1976 POISONED FISH, TROUBLED WATERS Toxic chemical compounds called PCBs are being discharged into rivers and lakes, contaminating food fish, which are contaminating us by ROBERT H. BOYLE r ' - : v . Anglers, commercial fishermen, 'fislifl ` dealers, restaurateurs. Senator Ed*^ ward Kennedy and just plain citizcmf were up in arms last wee^, all because of some colorless, viscous fluids known PCBs. PCBs is the abbreviation for poly"t chlorinated biphenyls, a group of chem-J ical compounds that are used by indus-Jj tries throughout the world because of; their resistance to heat. PCBs are toxic to a wide range of animals, including hu-5 mans. These chemicals, when ingested Id,!] large doses, cause miscarriages and stilk births, and they are turning up in dan gerous amounts in the upper Mississippi'! River, the upper Ohio, the Hudson Riw er and several of the Great Lakes. ;. STLCOPCB4101140 i i i | ir f, Scientists in the U.S. Environmental present "an imminent and substantial Protection Agency have been aware of endangerment to the health of persons the PCB menace for several years, but or to the welfare of persons where such the bureaucrats in charge of EPA have endangerment is to the livelihood of such dithered and dallied rather than take ef- person^. ..." fective action. For example, last Febru- Since 1942, G.E., which uses PCBs in ary EPA officials in New York stayed the manufacture of electrical equipment, abatement plans for two polluting Gen- has been dumping them into the Hud- eral ElectricCompany plants at Fort Edward and Hudson Falls after the company objected and requested an adjudicatory hearing to challenge PCB limitations. Conservationists maintain that EPA should have acted under Section 504 of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, which gives the agency the right to sue to halt discharge of pollutants that son, an average of 30 pounds a day since 1971, 90 pounds on some occasions, the largest nonaccidental release of these poisons yet discovered in the U.S. and pos sibly the world. The threat of PCB poisoning became a national concern three weeks ago when Ogden R. Reid, former ambassador to Israel and the new commissioner of the New York State Department of Environ mental Conservation, got a copy of an EPA study that prompted him to warn the public against eating striped bass from (he Hudson and coho salmon from Lake Ontario. Reid was further upset when he learned that his department, long deplored by conservationists as a sick joke, had known of PCB contam ination since 1972 and possibly as early as 1970. On Oct. 26,1970, Sports Illustrated published a lengthy article of mine on chemical contaminants in game fish from the Atlantic, Gulf and Pacific coasts, re porting that the WARF Institute in Mad ison, Wis., which did the laboratory anal- continued STLCOPCB4101141 PCBs continued yses, detected high levels of PCBs in ture protein source into a futile and frus Hudson River stripers. On Feb. 17, 1971 trating endeavor." Since 1971 Michigan I wrote to Carl Parker, chief of New health authorities haveadvised fishermen York's Bureau of Fisheries, telling him ' not to eat salmon or trout from Lake that Hudson stripers had 11.4 parts per Michigan more than once a week. million of PCBs in their eggs and 4.01 in Large lake trout from Lake Superior their flesh. In my report I informed Par are generally contaminated, and coho ker, "These are grim figures, and 1 cer and chinook salmon in Lake Ontario tainly think the state should warn fish have excessive levels. PCBs appear to be ermen not to eat striped bass eggs." I also a threat to fish-eating birds in the Great noted that the levels in the flesh did not Lakes region. "Severe reproductive fail make "great reading," and I suggested ure has been identified in herring gull he read the SI article. Parker's reply was colonies around Lake Ontario," wrote derisive. Karl E. Bremer of the EPA Chicago of Tests ordered by Reid or previously fice on July 24 to the Lake Michigan performed by EPA scientists and New Toxic Substances Committee. "There is York State disclosed that numerous spe a positive correlation between early em cies of Hudson fish in addition to striped bryonic mortality and PCB contamina bass were contaminated. These included tion. The major effect on young birds is rock bass, Iargemouth and smallmouth to produce symptoms ofchick edema dis bass, shiners, white perch, northern pike ease. .. . Officials have observed unnat and sturgeon. Apparently fish can ingest urally high mortalities of gulls in recent PCBs by taking in bottom sediments, eat years from Saginaw Bay and Grand Tra ing lesser organisms or simply by swim verse Bay. Analysis of the liver and brain ming through water that contains PCBs. of a dead herring gull from Grand Tra The striped bass pose a particularly vex verse Bay in 1973 showed the presence ing problem, which was Senator Kenne of 2,600 ppm of Aroclor 1254 [a PCB]." dy's immediate concern. After spawning, PCB pollution is not restricted to New Commissioner Ogden Reid got semi-tough. bass from the Hudson migrate as far York and the Great Lakes. Earlier this north as Massachusetts and as far south year the FDA seized and eventually bur ber of greater scaup shot on Lake On as New Jersey, and they are indistin ied 20,000 pounds of carp taken from tario and Long Island Sound. He also guishable to fishermen from stripers em Lake Pepin, a reach of the Mississippi found excessive PCB levels in white anating from rivers in (he Chesapeake 70 miles downriver from the Twin Cit winged scoter dying on Lake Ontario. Bay where no serious PCB concentration ies. EPA scientists have also discovered Moreover, he found 30.16 ppm of PCBs has yet been discovered in the flesh of excessive levels of PCBs in channel cat in the liver of a great blue heron from adult fish. fish and carp taken from the Ohio River. Albany County; 11.05 ppm in the liver The U.S. Food and Drug Administra On Sept. 29, 1972 Dr. Donald J. Lisk and 21.49 ppm in the muscles of a dead tion has placed a tolerance limit of five and Carl Bache of the pesticide research herring gull from Oneida Lake; 20.3 ppm parts per million of PCBs in fish; accord lab at Cornell University contributed a in the liver of a porpoise washed ashore ing to the EPA National Water Quality paper to Science on PCBs in lake trout at Westhampton Beach, N.Y.; and 49.39 Laboratory in Duluth, all Lake Michigan in Cayuga Lake, N.Y. As a general rule, ppm in the brain of an otter from Twit- trout and salmon longer than 12 inches trout exceeding 24 inches in length had chell Lake in Herkimer County. exceed that limit. Last May 30, (he FDA excessive levels, the highest reading of 30 But not just mammals, birds and fish seized 124,812 cans of Lake Michigan ppm being found in a 9-year-old fish. are affected. The water is, too. in a re coho salmon because the PCB levels in Queried by SI, Dr. Lisk said no one in view of PCBs in the Hudson, Dr. Gil the canned coho ranged from 7.6 to 10.9 government had ever bothered to ask man D. Veith of the Duluth lab report ppm. The FDA a Iso seized 6,480 pounds about the findings or the possible sourc ed that "the river for many miles of frozen Lake Michigan coho and chi es of the PCBs. downstream from the G.E. discharge has nook salmon from the Point Adams Dr. Ward Stone, a New York State not been adequately tested. It could be Packing Company; the PCB levels wildlife pathologist, warned conserva contaminated with PCBs at levels 100 ranged from 8.2 to 9.2 ppm. Wis tion department superiors for several times over the 10-parts-per-trillion guide consin Lieutenant Governor Martin J. years of the PCB crisis. He found his line set forth by EPA in 1972 and 1,000 Schreiber wrote with some foresight last warnings "futile." Dr. Stone says, "No times higher than the newly recommend Nov. 8 to A. Gene Gazlay, director of one really cared. In one memo I wrote, ed water quality criteria [of one part per the Michigan Department of Natural Re T hope the department begins to take trillion]." Poughkeepsie and other river sources: "There exists now a problem some of these toxic problems seriously towns draw their drinki tg water from the with contaminants in Lake Michigan , . . because it is doubtful these prob Hudson. Water supplies for cities on the that has the potential of destroying both lems can be put off. In fact, they have al Great Lakes may also be endangered. sport and commercial fishing in all the ready been put off far loo long.' " In au Chicago and Milwaukee draw their wa Great Lakes. This situation could turn topsies Dr. Slone discerned excessive ter from Lake Michigan, and EPA re any efforts to develop the lake as a fu- PCB levels in breast muscles of a num- ports indicate that PCB levels in certain 16 DSW 385302 STLCOPCB4101142 areas of the lake range from four to 10 to announced it would voluntarily re suffered miscarriages and stillbirths, and parts per trillion, well above the recom strict sales to "closed cycle" systems in surviving infants suffered from abnormal mended one part per trillion. transformers and capacitors. However, pigmentation as the result of transplacen PCBs have been manufactured in the PCBs were already omnipresent. tal transmission of PCBs. U.S. since 1929 by one firm, Monsanto Dr.GeorgeHarveyoftheWoodsHoIe Recent research by Dr. James R. Al Industrial Chemicals Company. It is es Oceanographic Institution says PCBs en len and Deborah Barsotti of the Uni timated that Monsanto has turned out ter the environment from sewage out versity of Wisconsin Medical School has pbout 400,000 tons of PCBs between falls, industrial and municipal wastes, demonstrated that even very low PCB 1948 and 1973. The company's output is leaching from dumps and the burning of levels are dangerous to primates. The sci about half the world production. PCBs refuse. PCBs occur in rain and snow. For entists started with six rhesus monkeys have also been made in Great Britain, example, measured snowmelt in Keno that ate food containing 25 ppm of Ar France, Germany, Italy, Spain, Czecho sha, Wis. contained .22 parts per billion oclor 1248 for two months. They devel slovakia, the Soviet Union and Japan. of PCBs. "The atmosphere is the major oped facial swelling, loss of hair--includ PCBs are a family of partially or whol pathway of global transport," Harvey ing eyelashes--and acne lesions within a ly chlorinated isomers of biphenyls. has written. "PCBs have been found in month, and one monkey died from PCB Monsanto has marketed them under the all organisms analyzed from the North intoxication two months after going off trademark names of Aroclor 1016, 1221, and South Atlantic oceans, even in an the experimental diet. In another exper 1232, 1242, 1248, 1254, 1260, 1262 and imals living under 11,000 feet of water. iment, Barsotti and Allen fed two groups 1268. The last two digits indicate the . . . Based on available data it seems safe of rhesus monkeys food containing five chlorine percentage in the different for to conclude that PCBs are present in ppm and 2.5 ppm of Aroclor 1248. With mulations. Like DDT, PCBs are chlori varying concentrations in every species in two months, both groups had lost hair nated hydrocarbons, but compared to of wildlife on the earth." ' from the face and neck, and their skin DDT, which may persist up to 15 years, The concentrations do vary. Dr. Rob was of "a sandpaperlike texture." Both PCBs resemble the Rock of Gibraltar. ert Risebrough of the University of Cal groups developed acne, although the After the use of DDT was restricted by ifornia at Berkeley has found levels of "2.5-ppm group developed the lesions the Great Lakes states in 1970, DDT res from 300 to 1,000 ppm in cormorants and later in time as the PCBs accumulated." idues in Lake Michigan fish dropped ospreys, and he suspects that deformities In six months both groups reached a 87%. However, the more highly chlori in terris born on Great Gull Island in steady state concentration of PCBs in ad nated of the PCBs are essentially unal Long Island Sound are caused by PCBs. ipose tissue. They were then bred to con terable by microbial or physical chemical Researchers in both the U.S. and Can trol monkeys that had not been fed PCBs. action in the environment. Their molec ada have discovered that ranch-raised Six of the eight fi ve-ppm females became ular structure inhibits enzymes from mink suffer adverse reproductive effects pregnant (in contrast to the 12 females shearing the bonding between the chlo when fed PCB-contaminated foods. At in the control group, which was not fed rine atom and the biphenyl structure. So Michigan State University, R. K. Ring PCBs), four of the six aborted or re far as is known, the only way in which er, R. J. Aulerich and M. Zabik "con sorbed the fetus, one gave birth to a PCBs can be destroyed is in a special in firmed the mink industry's observation stillborn and one to a very undersized in cinerator at a temperature of 2,700 that Lake Michigan coho salmon, when fant. All eight in the group of 2.5-ppm Fahrenheit. fed to breeder mink, resulted in either to females conceived, and of these, three re The apparent indestructibility of PCBs tal cessation of mink reproduction (em sorbed the fetus and five gave birth to horrifies ecologists and gladdens indus bryo toxicity) or kit mortality, the de undersized infants. In the light of these trialists. Just a partial listing of products gree of complication being dependent findings, it appears relevant that EPA's made with PCBs at one time or another upon the percentage of coho salmon fed present calculation is that 50% of the hu includes hydraulic fluids, plasticizers, ad and the duration of feeding." man population of the U.S. now contains hesives (brake linings and clutch faces), Dr. Renate Kimbrough of the Center one to three ppm of PCBs in its fatty paints, sealants (asphalt and concrete) for Disease Control of the U.S. Public tissues. and printing products (carbonless car Health Service in Atlanta and a team of What is to be done? Conservation bon paper and paper coating). PCBs are researchers have "concluded that the groups are discussing lawsuits, and one still used as filling agents or impregnants polychlorinated biphenyl Aroclor 1260 organization, the Hudson River Sloop in electrical transformers and capacitors. had a hepatocareinogenic [liver cancer] Restoration Inc., has asked Russell Imported or recycled PCBs are used in effect in female Sherman Strain rats when Train, the administrator of EPA, to use such products as heat-transfer fluids. fed in the diet." The Kimbrough study emergency powers to halt the G.E. dis Traces of PCBs have been found in toi will be published in the Journal of the charges. Demand for a nationwide ban let soaps, hard and soft wood pulps, col- National Cancer Institute. on PCBs may be forthcoming, but how oringcompounds, fish oil and Xerox ton In 1968, more than 1,000 Japanese de PCBs will be removed from ecosystems ers. Ironically, waste paper claimed for veloped Yusho disease when they used is not yet known. On his own authority, recycling is one of the sources of the PCBs rice oil containing an estimated 2,000 Ogden Reid is expected to issue an im- . that flow into Wisconsin streams emp ppm of PCBs. The PCBs leaked from pin mediate order requiring G.E. to reduce tying into Lake Michigan. These PCBs holes in a factory pipe during processing.' its PCB discharges into the Hudson to come from the inks and papers. Disease symptoms included eye discharg zero by Dec. 31,1976. It is a move in the In 1971, five years after scientists rec es, severe acne, ulcers of the uterus and right direction. By this week would have ognized PCBs as contaminants, Monsan- darkening of the skin. Pregnant women been better. . . j end DSW 385303 17 STLCOPCB4101143