Document a71mO951zmXdZXmZDJ62zbrX

Monsanto ....... D. R. Bishop - BIND October 14, 1975 OCT la 1975 J. E. McKee - C2SA 1 O MESSRS. H. S. Bergen - B3SL ^ P. S. Park - E2NE T. H. Bottini - B2CA 1 c. Paton - B2SC W. R. Corey - B2SA s. Pickard - 1920 K. W. Easley - 1920 R. G. Potter - B3SA F. J. Fitzgerald - B3SA X R. A. Stohr - A3SB R. W. Flint - 1740 J. L. Wikoff - B2SL T. L. Gossage - B2SL ^ W. W. Withers - B2SA D. B. Hosmer - E1SF D. Wood - B2SD W. B. Papageorge - B2SK I've attached drafts of two letters, one to Jeffrey Tannenbaum who wrote the PCB article published in the October 10 issue of the WSJ, and the other letter to the Editor, WSJ. I'm hoping the letter to the Editor will be published in a forthcoming issue. The letter to Mr. Tannenbaum and more strongly worded. I letter to appropriate people Mr. Easley. is, by necessity, morfe detailed intend to send copies of this in the EPA as recommended by I would appreciate your comments ASAP as these letters will quickly become dated. Thank you. r fit -- / 'D'. R. Bishop EX P-3144 Page 1 of 3 0471750 PCB-ARCH0750597 DRAFT/DRB/Oct. 14, 1975. Letters to the Editor The Wall Street Journal 22 Cortlandt Street New York, New York 10007 Editor, The Wall Street Journal: We wish to correct a misleading and false impression created in the article by Jeffrey A. Tannenbaum on "Persistent PCBs." (Oct. 8) In discussing the chronological sequence of actions taken to reduce PCB pollution levels in the environment, Mr. Tannenbaum inferred that Monsanto Company,c_the sole U.S. producer, took no PCBs until 1972 and then only "in the wake of a report by a federal government task force." We can only assume that Mr. Tannenbaum was misled by inaccurate information contained in a U.S. Environmental Protection Agency Environmental News Release, dated Oct. 8, 1975, which discusses the 1972 federal government report recommending a ban on all PCB uses except closed electrical systems and goes on to say that Monsanto agreed in 1972 to limit its PCB sales to only those applications. EX P-3144 Page 2 of 3 PCB-ARCH0750598 DRAFT Page 2 The documented facts, as presented by Monsanto to Mr. Tannenbaum last August, clearly establish that Monsanto began its program of withdrawing, voluntarily and unilaterally, from "open system" markets in 1970 and that by December 31, 1971, (well in advance of the formation of the federal task forceV^ U,.v ' p ' <<- i Monsantojfwae. selling PCBs only to the electrical industry where they were (and still are) used as dielectric fluids in "closed systems" such as transformers and capacitors where there are no known, acceptable alternate fluids available. We submit that, until now, Monsanto's voluntary and unilateral PCB program has always been regarded as highly responsible (if not, indeed, unprecedented) and suggest that, at the very least, it merits accurate treatment in the news media. We trust you will agree. Sincerely yours, D- R. Bishop Director, Public Relations Monsanto Industrial Chemical Co. - EX P-3144 Page 3 of 3 0471752 PCB-ARCH0750599