Document ZB33X350LqDdK50603RBaELjd

Gljr G'lanmi-irfigrr 'Jackson Daily News lor MIN. 111.003 MAR 20 >977 <&%. Toxic Almost . > Spread bnRoads ; DBS MOINES. Io* - * >IVCTt contain- mg enough of * highly task . 'substance to kill or cripple almost everyone to lows wes about to be spread or the state's gravel roads, ar *official oaid Saturday. S . Pete Hamlin, a stale Do 5 partment of Envlronmen tal Quality official, said dlI.raster may have been e averted by detection of Hr -substance. T Ike solvent contained po riyehlorlnated biphenyl SPCH). a thick, colorless and odorless liquid that is "almost Indestructible, he w-sald. PCB can cause JTaonf and birth defects If "Ingested and has been held responsible for deaths ^throughout the world, * Hamlin said. " HIE SUBSTANCE was "mistaken by a trucker lor * crankcase oil and would '..have been spread on dusty ravel roads, he said. Hamlin said the Environ?mental Protection Agency "to Kiinsas City informed !! him Thursday of the 18,000 gallon shipment containing . thc KTt and be located the truck Krldny. The truck's driver had "mistakenly loaded his i '.'tanker with a solvent con- | "* lalng sis parU por thou- I - sand PCB. Hamlls said, adding that the safe level drinking water is one ptr trillion. i The Drlroii News MICH. n. fi.'j.WU NU!.. 8JCs ^ oF MAR 21 1977 foe Shipment was bound Jtpr an Iowa firm that sprays gravel roods to keep 'down dust. Hamlin said, and If the roads had been sprayed and the PCB had "contaminated food or "water suplies. il could have t-'been "catastrophic." THE DRIVER said he Twas unaware the liquid ".contained PCB when he -purchased it to St. Paul, Minn.. Hamlin said. " Monsanto Industrial Chemicals Co' of St. Units is the only U S manufacrlurer f the chemlcl, 'Hamlin said. It has an ;nouncod plans to dlscenttaoc production by late this year. I; Monsanto owns the only incinerator that can de- utroy the chemical, hut II ;>efuses to burn imported -PCB. Hamlin said. The rstate agency will test the shipment, to determine 'where it originated, hot "it ! would be loo good lb be "true If it were from Mon- santo," Hamlin said. ` The costly alternative <*would he to ship It -to a chemical landfill, he said. " to IMS. about 1.800 Japa -nesc accidenUlVy ate rice contaminated with PCB'They suffered several tu 1 effects. Including ulcers, jaundice, swelling, toss of hair, birth defects and 'death. ' * Iowa averted an "ecological disaster" when it prevented a toxic chemical, PCP.from being spread over its pave) roads with a road oil mix, said Pete Haiaha of the Iowa Department of Envi ronmental Quality. A solvent containing the chemical was \ accidentally shipped to Iowa from Minnesota, hut found in . time by police. J U HONS 001b*>