Document ZBkenqNxXkNKMYLVNDddYpE1p

s SEP 211979 THE JOURNAL OF COMMERCE, Wednesday, September 19,1979 . 9/21/79 FYI: 'Fj^P;roxo;rny_E> J. Ortiz . D. Wood J. Weber R. Isham FROM: G. Young FDA Finds PCB Contamination United Press international BILLINGS, Mont. - Food and Drug Administration offi cials Monday discovered more chickens contaminated with the chemical poison PCB at a Montana poultry farm. The FDA also said PCB laden feed supplement pro duced at a Pierce Packing Co. plant in Billings may have been used for up to three months by poultry farmers and hog ranchers in several states before the discovery of the c.ontamination. Health officials stressed that the small amounts of the banned chemical found in chickens and eggs are not dangerous. But long-term ex posure could be hazardous especially if people had other ' contact with the chemical. LeRov Gomez, Denver dis trict director for the FDA, said inspectors found contami nated chickens at Cherrylane Farms in'Three Forks, Mont, He said the entire laying stock of the farms would have to be destroyed and eggs were being recalled. A spokesman for the farms said he had not received any order from FDA. He also declined to discuss how many chickens were involved. . Chickens Destroyed High levels of the banned chemical forced destruction of nearly 400,000 chickens at two poultry farms in Idaho and Utah last week. The Ritewood Egg Co. in Franklin, Idaho, voluntarily slaughtered its en tire laying stock of 350,000 hens and Oakdell Farms in Riverton, Utah/killed 33,000 pullets it bought from Ritewood. All of the chickens were contaminated by an animal meal traced to the Pierce plant. Gomez said. The Cherrylanc chickens contained 8 to 10 parts per million of the chemical, far above the ac ceptable level poultry. ' lie said FDA inspectors de termined that a transformer at the plant leaked oil contain ing PCB into a wastewater storage system. "The firm recovered oil and fat from the wastewater and incorporated it into the meat meal manufacturing process," he said. "Feed samples col lected at the plant contained positive amounts of PCB, but those levels who were below acceptable tolerance levels. They were between 1.5 and 1.8 parts per million." But PCB found in feed at the Ritewood farm was far above the acceptable tolerance level. FDA Seeks Shipments The FDA is attempting to track down suspect shipments of the feed sent to six states, Gomez said. Most of the feed went to Montana, but there were two shipments to Utah, two sent to Washington, and one each to Idaho, North Dakota and Minnesota. The Idaho shipment went to Ritewood. One shipment to Utah was traced to a Richfield feedlot and impounded before it was used. Another shipment to Utah is being traced. Gomez said it is not yet known how widespread the PCB may have become since the transformer leaked. "It was primariy used as a supplemental chicken feed! But it is also known to have gone into hog feed," he said. PCB is a cumulative poison that can cause liver problems and skin lesions after a long exposure. It was banned by the Environmental Protection Agency in 1976. But it was manufactured for more than 40 years prior to that and used as a high temperature lubri cant in electronic gear such as transformers. i PCB-ARCH-EXT0376854 9/25/79 FYI: R. Isham J Ortiz J.. Weber D. Wood . FROM: Shara Taylor SEP 2 01979 ' . . CHEMICAL MARKETING REPORTER 9/24/79 PGB Contamination" in Eggs Traced to Chicken Feed Plant PCB's, the controversial chemical compound, banned in 1976, began showing up in eggs sold in six Western states in early July, sending Federal and state agencies on a two-month chase aimed at finding the source of the contamination. Last week, as Food & Drug Administration personnel traced the PCB (polychlo rinated biphenyl) contamination to a chicken feed plant in Billings, Mont., three supermarket chains took all eggs pro duced in Montana off the shelves at sixty-six stores and chicken owners in the region slaughtered thousands of chickens found to be contaminated by - the chemical. All this began in June with a leak at an unused transformer in the Pierce Packing ... i. Company's feed in Billings. PCB, used as a . . coolant, found its way into chicken feed , - produced at the facility and shipped to. . " . chicken farmers in Montana, Idaho, Wash- ington, North Dakota, Utah and Minnesota. In early July, a poultry inspector from . ' the Department of Agriculture making rou tine checks at an egg processor in Provo, Utah, found unusually high PCB levels in . the eggs. He took samples, put them in a freezer, and waited for his superior to re turn from vacation the following week. Having inspected the eggs, the regional leader sent the sample via US mail to San Francisco for further tests, a trip that took five days. Further delayed by traditional policies of reviewing their initial analyses, the San Francisco scientist sent word of their findings - PCB levels five times higher than the government permits in eggs - to the USDA's regional office on August 3, nearly one month after PCB was found in the eggs in Provo, FDA was finally notified of the problem in mid-August, at which time the agency began a trace of eggs to Ritewood Egg Company in Franklin, Idaho;" which uses feed from the Pierce Packing Company plant. . ` FDA began an inspection of other com panies using Pierce feed and found similar PCB contamination. Ritewood; a major supplier to area su permarkets, last week destroyed more than 1 million eggs and thousands of chickens. The part of the Pierce plant, where the contamination originated, is being disman tled by workmen from an Oregon-based contracting concern that specializes, in decontamination cases. The remainder of the Pierce facility has been g;ivcn a clean bili of health from federal and state offi cials and is continuing with its traditional slaughter of hog parts for animal feed. Health officials, concerned that all of the contaminated eggs and chickens have not been tracked down, are stepping up their activities, including inspections of process ing plants and chicken farms. In addition, health officials are checking residents of Franklin, Idaho, where the Ri- tewood Egg facility is located, to determine if they show traces of the suspected carcin ogen. . ' ;; . PCB-ARCH-EXT0376855