Document ZnNV40mk3K2ZNEg99BYxKvD1Z

Deseret News LAKE CITY, IM'H 0. 70.930 10/23/79 FYI: C. F. Callis R. C. Istiani J- Ortiz F` A. Provorny J C. Weber D. Wood OCT 8 879 FROM: Glynin Young Vegetarian couple awaits word on their contamination from PCB LAFAYETTE. Colo. (AP) - A vegetarian couple, who moved to a farm near here five years ago seeking a cleaner environment, won't know until Tuesday or Wednesday whether they have been seriously contaminated with the dangerous chemical PCB. "Well find out Tuesday or Wednesday," Wayne Darling. 32, said Sunday. "We don't know whal to do 'till then except wait The Boulder County health deportment couldn't tell us how much the concentra tions were. They said they found traces of it (polychlorinated biphenyl) in the breast milk from my wife and the chickens." Darling and his wife, Marie. 29, had been told they would get an answer Sunday on the levels of PCB found is their chickens and Mrs. Darling's breast milk. Darling said Sunday that health authorities told him "quantitative measurements" still were not available from the tests. "! would say we're in Umbo. My wife is very worried. The worse thing la we're trying to live a dean life. My wife quit smoking before the baby Matthew, 1. was born and she breastfeeds him ... he's our biggest concern," Darling said. Source of the PCB is 17 barrels of the chemical that had been stored for years against the barn on the farm they rent in the rolling plains between Denver and Boulder et the foot of the Rocky Mountains. Darting said he knew the barrels contained PCB but only last week, watching a Public Broadcasting System program, did be discover the chemical was dangerous. When be wrote (fguiolo Agricultural Products two or three years ago. " Monsanto said it was banned by the feds but didn't toll me it was hazardous to our health," Darling said. * Health authorities erected a chain-link fence ; ground the oil drums after discovering some were - leaking tnd plan to move the chemical sooo to Idaho * tor permanent disposal. - T Robert W. Harding of the U S Environmental *' protection Agency said "really significant" amounts k of PCB were found around the barrels and that the oil I should be removed. The EPA banned PCB earlier this year Slate * health officials say PCB's effects can be cumulative * and not immediately apparent. PCB waa used for * insulating electrics! transformers and other ap Operates where extreme heal is present. Darling said the leakage around the barrel* i not apparent to the eye because "the grass and the sunflowers grow up around them like every place else." Before the fence went up. he said his cows and chickens grazed and fed around the barrels often. Although professed vegetarians. Darling said hi* family eats the eggs and they do drink the cows' milk. "I'm also concerned because there are placet all over the country like ours where there may be these old barrels and people don't know what's in the barrels .. . and Monsanto doesn't seem to be liable for the stuff," Darling said. JT[;r g.ilt lafif criiumr SALT l AKE CITY, UTAH 0 K.23.' SUN. lfiS.3fJ SEP 2 8 1979 Of*' ! 1970 USU Studies Focused on PCB Mn (DPI) -- PCB wus isolated ia brown pelicans, bald eagle uggi and row's milk in the early 1970* and Utah State University rmarrhen found evidence at the time that one mixture of the chemical produced abnormalHtat* tat iMecta. I The researchers -- Nabil Yonssef, William A. Brindley, end imumh C. Street - said that polychlorinated biphenyl fed to twine fly lanee caused changes In the testes of the Inserts. PCB wus ] recently found in eggs in Montano. Utah and Idaho ` and chicken farmers voluntarily destroyed hundreds I of thousands of chickens to prevent coatemtawhoa of I humans. I The chemical is used as a cotant in riectricul I equipment such as generators Long-term exposure esn cause liver problems and lesions la burnous. The USU researchers raid their studies shoved that some trout fed the flies which were contami nated with the mixture-- Arvcior Ifit -- desekiped minute physiological changes. The larvae of the fKc were injected with the mixture while others wore impregnuted with acetone I for control purposes ' ,Day-old male flies were immobilized and dtsscc- ' ted. Examination with a .microscope showed that the spermatids nuclei of the> flies treated with the K B / failed to divide. * HONS 0109a7