Document ZnomVXgy6k8445yrG35p7x0rV

PCB through their own food chttas. .Tito 80,000 chickens destroyed a few wedto ago, for instance, got their PCB from contaminated fish miaL ____ Inevitably, the emergence of FCB as a new source of hazardous pollution made for some headlines, but the FDA seemed to feel that the crisis was aitah real. "Public confusion has crested pubBo alarm and a feeling of still another erisie to the food supply," said FDA admtoie- trator Dr. Charles Edwards. "1 know the confusion is unnecessary and 1 believe the alarm is greater than tha facts ufl Justify." ' But by no means everyone agreed with this assessment "Unfortunately" said Rep. WilUam F. Ryan. Democrat of New York, to introducing a bdl that just bow iluned should om bef would baa PCB. "tha FDA teams to ba more concerned about tha hnsgs of American industry than tha lava! or pub lic knowledge of its food supply." Moan- The PCB Crisis .... fti ftorBurwauinf-yuiii, thrpead- dda DDT nil been Public Environment ml Enemy No. 1. Ik has been blamed for lb* derimotion of a score of bird species, earned that the six to seventeen parts per miBion of PCB being found in Coho salmon may discourage people from com ing to that state-and spending money in quest of the fish. In California, investiga tors claim to have found a correlation be while, s number of scientists made ft dear that they are worried about both the short- and long-term effects at PCB, They point out that large doses of Jhe chemical can ba fatal and that Junto amounts are known to result to .aoMb wnertnd of causing cancer in humans, and damned for disrupting the balance of nature. But now it appears that some -of'tbia damega may actually have been tween high levels of FCB in adult female sea lions and aborted fetuses; about 1,000 aborted pups have washed up on California shores over the last two years. impaired vision, abdominal pains and-Jh* er ailments. Laboratory tests with ant* mals have also given rise to fears of gm netie defects to future generatioaa. Jaliettd by a class of liquid chemical Interestingly, PCB is not a wonder Doves: In one experiment conductod laelt allkee that are used in a variety of chemical of the postwar chemical boom. with ring doves, Cornell University sab oomumar goods and industrial procetaas; The odorless, cblorfast and virtually non entists discovered an unusually bin rato tbasa are polychlorinated biphenyls, or flammable chemical was first identified of embryonic deaths to the second gsw- PCS as they art known collectively. to 1861 and has bean man-produced by eratkm of birds raised from a colony of PCB has an amazingly wide range of the Monsanto Co. to the U.S. since the PCB-fed doves. Aod in another experi Industrial uses. Manufacturers of inks ifrJm (it is aiio manufactured in large ment carried out by the UJ. Fnherief and pastkklai uso it as a solvent or ad* quantities in four other nations-France, Milton Friend and Dr. Daniel O. Trainer, dMvo, preducera of sealants use it to Germany, Japan and tha Soviet Union). dean of the University of Wiscoorio's maba their product lets brittle; btceeso Samples: Then to 1906, Swedish College of Natural Resources, duddtop tbe compound can withstand very high chemist Stfran Jensen used a gas chro wore given food containing varying tompeialiuis, it is also used as a coolant matograph (an instrument that can sep amounts of PCB. When later noosed to in mdustrhd tianafovmcn. Other products arate complex chemicals into constituent duck hepatitis, the PCB-fed oucktosgs wboss manufacturing process make uso parts) ana made the first identifications had mortality rates three to five times of PCB Include automobile tires, brake of PCB in tissue samples of fish and birds greater than a control group of PCB free Untop and paints. and to human hair. Two years later, five ducklings. Tha researchers rmrlariail Recently, becauaa of the current inter* Japanese died after eating food cooked that the sub-lethal doses of PCB sharply eat In recycling waste products, the com in an oil heavily laced with PCB, and in reduced tha ducklings' natural body dm pound has been showing up In increasing 1970, after 146,000 New York State fentive mechanisms against disease. amounts in cardboard packages made chickens had to be destroyed because of For its part, Monsanto says it has dis from discarded paper and other printed PCB contamination, scientists began tak continued sales of PCB to users for whom _ zjvhnaa Inks presumably used PCB ing another look at tha substance. "It's suitable substitutes could be found. But as a solvent Already, U.S. Food and possible," says Dr. Milton Friend, a re for. some heavy-duty industrial applies Drug Administration investigators have search biologist at the U.S. Fisheries and tions (notably as an Insulator to ennari found PCB in 36 of 00 sampled boxes Wildlife Center to Denver, "that much of tors), no alternate compounds nave containing such diverse foodstuffs as the environmental contamination once at proved satisfactory, and so PCB cootim bnekfatt cereals, crackers and bread tributed to DDT has actually been ues to be used. As a result, publio oom crumb*, macaroni and noodles, snack chips, chocolate, cocoa and dried-milk products. Tha chemical has also been found in commercial poultry and wildlife*, in the caused by PCB, or PCB to combination with DDT.** H<- was quick to add, how ever, that DD'i' tcmains definitely on the list of dangerous contaminants. For the moment, the FDA said, there fusion and apprehension about tha coon pound seem likely to continue. At onn point lost week, Edwards and other FDA officials insisted that an outright ben ou PCB would not be feasible. past three months, some 50.000 turkevs, is no Indication that PCB to the contain They then were startled when told 60,000 chickens and 00,000 eggs have ers (s contaminating the contents. The by reporters that a voluntary ban has had to ba destroyed because they con FDA thinks that probably the only way been in force in England since March. "I tained PCB levels for In excess of the humans could be- aOictcu by the chemi hate to say this," said one FDA scientist federally allowable standard of 5 parts cal would be by consuming inordinately later in private, "but PCB is everywhere. par million. In Michigan, tourist and large quantities of animal or vegetable And wo really don't know if wo should products that had somehow absorbed or should not-be alarmed." i i Newsweek, October II, 1971 HONS 033560