Document aJOLN4on0xQ7w1bqnY5pEjevM

Telephone: (503) PAUL MERRELL & CAROL VAN STRUM 74 93 E a s t F i v e R i v e r s Road Tidewater# Oregon 97390 528-7151 Telefax: (503) 528-7105 iR A X T R A N S M I T T A L, S H E E T To: A d ria n , From: V s d / c/ o 3 /9 - ? 3 i - 7 2-03 \ tra n sm ittin g from (503) 528-7105. Date: (O ?3 . Pages ( including th is sheet) Jl Me s s a g e : ~7%l~ v / c c f c s re s __/ 7 v , f i -------------- lo p id o r y o u d f k n "7 A .e I<l L rv ic.M t 5 ^ ------------------------ ------------( j k v w o ^ / / f v u c j t r~/ ScnM SL^cr^_d_ ^ / ( ' / -fa f lw ,' ^ r . -/6c, tfi c.t p t c n l I n f a n t I f you e x p e r i e n c e d any d i f f i c u l t i e s in r e c e i v i n g t h i s t r a n s m i s s i o n # p l e a s e c a l l ( 5 0 3 ) 5 2 8 --7 1 5 1 . N o t e : We now h a v e a s e p a r a t e f a x 1 i n e a n d c a n r e c e i v e t e l e f a x messages au to m atically . If the message is urgent# please follow-up with a telephone message because the t e l e f a x r e c e iv e r is in a remote location. NEWS FOCIS ' / V- , o . v t r*. L - CCI Concerns Broaden over Chlorine and Calls for gradual phaseout o f classes o f chlorinated organics are being made in response to evidence o f adverse health effects on humans and m idlife Bette Hilema'n/C&EN Washington forward. Some of these solvents are ozone depleters and must be phased out under foe Montreal protocol. A1 of them ar l-oncems are growing. that -.chlorinated organics are : skin.and eye irritants and may produce adverse effects n the ' causing-cancer in adults, and adverse health and re central nervous systems of workers. There'also is concern that productive effects in. the offspring of both humans several of them are carcinogenic. ' and wildlife. .; Hie arguments against foe continued .use and. production Evidence of such connection between chlorinated- or of other chlorinated compounds and chlorine as bleach in foe ganics as a class and-htiman health-- and, hence, of the need pulp and.paper industry are less clear and more complicated1. for sweeping reductions in the production nd.us of chlo One is that some of the compounds are believed to cause .can rine and many chjorine^containing products-- is'still patchy. cer in humans. Another is that both, foe chlorine bleaching It ranges from the essentially certain, -to the suggestive, .to process and production of many, chlorinated .hydrocarbons, the. circumstantial. .such as PVC, inadvertently produce 2',3,7,8-tetrachlorodiben- ' Put, .whatever the merits of the scientific evidence; public zb-p-djoxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD) and hexachlorobenzene (HCB)/ concern over the. health and environmental impacts of chlo .which are considered mildly carcinogenic. Also, fires hi build- . rine, is an issue that is'not going to go away. If has already .ings constructed with PVC materials may produce dioxihs brought regulations arid the banning of selected products as and furans, similar to. what happens when PVC is destroyed well as. calls from highly responsible[ groups for an eventual . in incinerators that ar not operating properly. Butan increas: phaseout of at least sonie sectors of the chlorine industry. It is ingly prominent element of foe argument against se of chlo- something chemical makers are haying to treat with increas . -rinated hydrocarbons is that many of these compounds cause. ing seriousness. / noncancer health effects---endocrine/immune, arid neurologi- . Today there aie about T5,000 chlorinated compounds in cal problems-- principally in the offspring of exposed hunians continence. They include pestiddes, pharmacuticls, disinfec and wildlife,and seem to create these problems at extremely tants for drinking water; and many modem consumer prod-. low exposure levels* * * ucts siich as items made of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) that have -Governmental bodies and industries, particularly the improved the quality of life in both developed and develop chemical industry, are responding to these health concerns. ing countries. In addition, chlorine . One year ago, the International intermediates are very Useful in re Jomt .Commission (IJC), the U.S.- action pathways leading to many nonchlorinated products, .such as . silicon for electronic chips or epoxy Largest single use of chlorine is in plastics . ' Canadian agency that is foe envi ronmental watchdog for the Great Lakes, called for a gradual phase resins. Almost 85% of foe pharma out of the use of chlorine arid ceutical manufactured in the world chlorine-containing compounds require chlorine at some stage of production. Therefore, a broadbased Ban on chlorine would have enormous practical and economic . Manufacture .of other chemicals 35% as industrial feedstocks. Similarly,. last September; the Paris Commis sion, the European equivalent; of IJC that oversees emissions of pol -implications. lutants into the northeast Atlantic How did chlorinated compounds : Ocean, recommended that dis come to be portrayed in such a Pad light, almost cast as environmental villains? In foe case' of chlorfluorocarbonis (CFCs), the answer is sim Water -14--%, I. So1lv8e%nta purification charges of organochlorines be re duced, while programs are initiat ed1to phase out their use1. In addition to .foe. broad phase ple. Their phaseout is mandated under the Montreal Protocol on Substances That Deplete the Ozone Layer. For chlorinated solvents, foe -, Pulp & paper bleaching - a Polyvinyl chloride makes up the bulk ol chlorinated plastics S o u rc e : Ctikxtne Institute out advocated by the IJC arid foe Paris Commission, new regulations'' have been introduced in various. \ countries that would restrict spedf- explanation also, is fairly straight- . ic. uses of chlorine .or ban certain NEWS FOCUS Pulp and paper industry cuts its chlorine use The U.S. pulp and paper industry, According to some estimates, the which uses chlorine to produce white amount of chlorine used for pulp and paper, has sharply reduced its use of paper bleaching in the U.S. will fall the chemical and plans to curtail use from 1.4 m illion tons in 1990 to further during the next few years. In 920.000 tons by 1995, w hile the part, this reduction can be traced to the amount of sodium chlorate used to increased sophistication of pulp and generate chlorine dioxide for bleach paper plants during the past decade. ing will rise from 670,000 tons to The cooking and bleaching operations 975.000 tons. During the same time pe have been fine-tund. Wood chips are riod, note hydrogen peroxide and oxy cooked more before they go to the gen vrill be used as bleaching agents. bleach plant, so less bleaching is re At least one plant in the U.S. will quired. Also, in some plants other soon be producing white paper with-' bleaching compounds, such as chlo out the use of chlorine: Louisiana Pa- rine dioxide, have been substituted for qfic in Portland, Ore. However, Van chlorine. When chlorine dioxide is Hook contends that mills using differ used, less dioxin is produced. ent bleaching sequences, including These changes have resulted in an . those that use some chlorine, "are able 80% reduction in the amount of to achieve comparable environmental 2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin performance overall." But, he cau (2^,7,8-TCDD) associated with bleach tions: "You cannot make the entire ing says Matthew Van Hook, senior range of products that require bleach environm ental counsel with the ing without using some sort of chlo American Forest Products & Paper In rine compound." And he says effluent, stitute. When EPA surveyed 104 mills from modem mills is quite benign. in 198S-89, it found that all the mills However, a report prepared by generated a total of 2 3 lb of 2,3,7 3 - John H. Carey at Environment Cana TCDD during that period. Now, that da (the Canadian Environmental Pro total Is below 8 oz per year. tection Agency) and coworkers says: "The physiological disruptions in fish near pulp mills are associated with significant effects on their re productive development." These ef fects occur from the effluent from all types of pulp and paper mills and seem to have no relation to the level of 2^3,7,8-TCDD or total chlorinated organics in the receiving water. Carey's report, however, is highly controversial and is not yet pub lished in the scientific literature. Gord Perks of Greenpeace in Tor onto says the important issue sur rounding chlorine is that it is very corrosive, so plants that use chlorine cannot easily recycle process water, and must produce liquid effluents. In plants that do not use chlorine, it is easier to eliminate effluent produc tion. He predicts that in 10 years or so, pulp and paper mills will have very little liquid effluent. In contrast, Van Hook contends that it is almost impossible to operate a pulp and paper plant so it produces no liquid effluents. There is no plant in the world today, he notes, that does not produce liquid effluents. types of chlorinated organics. The Canadian province of Brit ish Columbia has decided to reduce the chlorine content of the waste from its pulp and papier mills to 1 5 kg per ton of pulp manufattured by 1995 and to 0 kg per ton of pulp by 2002. The provinces of Quebec and Ontario have established similar standards for 1995 and goals of 0.8 kg of chlorine per ton of ptilp by 1999 or 2000. Sweden also is committed to eliminating chlorine use in its pulp and paper mills. A number of cities and towns in Germany and Austria have decided not to use PVC materials for any of their new public buildings. Four of the nine regional capitals in Aus tria-- Vienna, Linz, Salzburg, and Innsbruck-- have PVC- free construction policies for public buildings, and two en tire Austrian states have followed suit. More than 100 Ger man communities will no longer use PVC in their new public buildings. The German state of Lower Saxony banned purchase of PVC products by the government for any purpose, unless no substitutes can be found. The use of chlorinated herbicides is also under pressure in Europe. Application of atrazine, one of the most heavily used herbicides in the U.S., is restricted in Germany, the Netherlands, several Nordic countries, and northern Italy. Use of a number of specific chlorinated organics has been severely restricted and in some cases banned in the U.S. over the past 20 years; DDT was restricted in 1972, poly chlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in 1976. What is new today concerning global efforts to curtail use of chlorinated organics is that the IJC and several environ mental groups, such as Greenpeace and the Sierra Club, are calling for a very broad-based phaseout in the production and use of chlorinated organics. They base their call for drastic changes in industrial production on a weight-of-evidence ap proach. "Even though many of the (chlorinated organicsl have not been proven to be individually toxic," the IJC says in its sixth biennial report, "there is a growing body of evidence that these compounds are at best foreign to maintaining eco system integrity and quite probably persistent and toxic and harmful to health... . Thus, it is prudent, sensible, and indeed necessary to treat these substances as a class rather than as a series of isolated individual chemicals." Several large chemical firms in the U.S. have responded to such concerns by developing long-range strategic plans to cut back on their use and production of chlorine and chlorinated organics. Vehicle manufacturers in both Europe and the U.S. are now trying to move away from the use of chlorinated solvents in their paints. Such actions do not mean that industry would support a chlorine phaseout nor that it thinks one is necessary. Ac cording to a Washington, D.C.-based industry association, the Chlorine Institute, phaseouts and bans are "neither sci entifically supportable nor a socially responsible policy for dealing with chlorinated organic compounds used by soci ety at the present time." The group charges that the reasons advocates present for such a ban "are of questionable scien tific significance as well as misleading." In fact, none of the efforts to phase out chlorine and chlo rinated organics focus on all uses. None of them are direct ed at pharmaceuticals nor are any directed at chlorine use for producing inorganic chemicals. Furthermore, in the U.S. teria seem to be the immediate cause of death, some re at least, little effort is being made to ban chlorine as a drink searchers hypothesize that organochlorines in the animals! ing water disinfectant, which accounts for a very small part tissues depressed their immune systems and made them- (1%) of this nation's chlorine use. Most of the phaseout more susceptible to ordinary infectious agents. In some ar moves are aimed at organochlorines such as pesticides, eas, researchers found that the dead animals had higher ' PVC, CFCs, and solvents; and at the use of chlorine in the levels of PCBs in their tissues than did animals in the gen pulp and paper industry. eral population. Trends in human and animal health In the Great Lakes, 100% of the sexually mature pink, coho, and chinook salmon have vastly enlarged thyroids Some disturbing trends in the health of both humans and that do not appear to be caused by an iodine deficiency. wildlife have been observed during the past few years, health (Thyroid enlargement is an indication of a disturbed endo effects that many researchers theorize may be caused in part crine system.) Some of these salmon species also experience by environmental exposures to organochlorines. Devra Lee a variety of reproductive problems, thus waters must be re Davis, senior scientist at the National Research Council stocked with hatchery-bred fish. (NRC), and colleagues from 20 countries have reported "in Although no one trend can be linked with certainty to or creases in cancer that cannot be explained, solely in terms of ganochlorines, many researchers think that most of these aging, changes in coding Ifor individual diseases I, or access to health problems may be caused by persistent exposure to care." Increased mortality from multiple myeloma, prostate organochlorines that are widely distributed in the environ cancer, breast cancer, brain cancer, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, ment. They note that levels of some very persistent toxic or- - kidney cancer, and testicular cancer have been observed. ganochlorines, which peaked in the early 1970s, have either Breast cancer increases are particularly puzzling. Thirty now leveled off at a recalcitrant plateau or have begun tp years ago, an American woman had a one in 20 chance of d e - . rise again, which means that exposure continues even for veloping breast cancer by the age of 85. Now her chances are those compounds that have been restricted in the U.S. one in nine. After falling from a peak in 1972, DDT levels have begun to. Another trend is that sperm counts in men throughout the rise again in Great Lakes fish--probably from long-range at developed world appear to have fallen 42% since 1940. Dur mospheric transport of the chemical. Levels of mirex, which ing the same period, the rates of birth defects in the reproduc was used as a fire retardant and to kill fire ants, have also be- tive tract of males, such as undescend ed testicles, have increased. Because these same effects are produced in the offspring of lab animals exposed to very small amounts of organochlo Variety of health effects hare been observed in creatures in the Great Lakes Basin rines, such as 2,3,7,8-TCDD, during pregnancy, researchers are consider ing the possibility that these human health problems are caused by expo sure of the male fetus to organochlo rines that cross the placental barrier. Bald eagle 6 0 In related studies on women, Jo seph and Sandra Jacobson, psycholo gists at Wayne State University, De Beluga w hale 0 Black-crowned night heron 6 6 -r j troit, found that women who ate as few as two or three meals a month of . Caspian tern Tv ____ Lake Michigan fish for at least six years preceding their pregnancies gave birth to babies who weighed less, Chinook-coho salmon 6 had smaller crania, and experienced shorter gestation than babies bom in the same communities of mothers Double-crested cormorant Forster's tern 66 lit'' i_____ who did not eat fish. The major con taminant in the Lake Michigan fish is PCBs, compounds that cross the pla cental barrier. In addition, these FQ3exposed babies had behavioral, motor, Herring gull Lake trout M in k f 6 0 Q 1 i and cognitive problems at birth and, Osprey 06 i even at age four, had reduced memory skills. ' O tter ~~ 1 ____ ! Since 1987, communities of marine . mammals such as dolphin, seal; and whale have experienced wide-scale Ring-billed gull Snapping turtle 6 6 6 9_ ]r die-offs in various parts of the world. Although common viruses and bac Nota: Effects listed have been in scientific literature published during the1past decade. NEWS FOCUS gun to increase. The concentrations of several other persistent mais; decreased hatching success in birds, fish, and turtles; pesticides, although down from high points reached in the mid- gross birth deformities in birds, fish, and turtles; metabolic 1970s, are no longer dedining. Concentrations cf these same abnormalities in birds, fish, arid mammals; behavioral abnor pestiddes in human adipose tissue have plateaue as welL malities in birds; demasculinization and feminization of male At the same time, researchers realize that the health prob fish, birds, and mammals; defeminization and masculiniza- lems seen in Great Lakes fish, marine mammals, and humans tion of female fish and birds; and compromised immune sys could be due to some other nonchlorinated bioaccumulative tems in birds and mammals," chemical like mercury, which is elevated in fish tissue, or The scientists who attended the Wingspread meeting also some substance that is not being monitored. came to a consensus on a number of other issues. They d e a d -. Organochlorines and endocrine disruption ed that chemicals that disrupt endocrine systems often have entirely different effects on the embryo and developing fetus Evidence that organochlorines can cause cancer and can. than they have on an adult, and the effects are most often seen have adverse effects on the endocrine, immune, and n er-' in the offspring. Very low dose exposures during fetal devel vous systems of exposed fetuses has grown during the past opment caribe damaging to embryos, whereas large dose ex- . few years. For example, one study found that if pregnant posures may have no effect on adults. They pointed out that female rats are fed one meal containing a dose of 2,3,7,8- the timing of exposure is critically important for determining ' TCDD as small as 0.16 jig per kg of rat weight on day 15 of its final outcome. The effects of exposure may not become ob- - pregnancy, the sex organ weights vious until the exposed offspring in the male offspring are reduced. reach adulthood. The .offspring at In addition, when the affected birth often have no visible defects, male pups reach adulthood, their . . but some organ systems may be sexual behavior is both demascu- undeveloped or deformed and. tinized and feminized and their never function properly. . sperm counts are reduced. Although less is known about However, only since mid-1991 the effects on humans of endocrine has a diverse group of researchers disrupters, humans, too, have studying humans and a broad probably been affected by some of range of wildlife begun to realize the same chemicals that are known that certain organochlorines, as to harm wildlife, the Wingspread well as a number, of other chemi : researchers say. They believe this cals like tributyltin, may cause al because, as Leon E Gray Jr., of the terations in sexual and functional. Environmental Protection Agency's development in exposed fetuses,- Health Effects Research Laborsto- even at the low levels usually found in the environment 3r, Research Triangle Park, N.G, escribes it, "Many of the basic In summer 1 991,Theo Colbom, mechanisms underlying the [fetal] senior fellow at the W. Alton Jones developmental process are homol Foundation, Charlottesville, Va., ogous in all mammals, although and the World .Wildlife Fund, con th timing of certain events varies." vened 21 scientists at the Wing- Thus, "chemicals that have adverse spread Center in Racine, Wis. Par ticipants included experts in a Dauts: cancer increases cannot be explained solely in terms o f aging "effects on reproductive develop? ment in rodents should be consid variety of fields, including repro ered potential human reproductive ductive physiology, ecology, com toxicants as well," he explains. parative endocrinology, histopathology, immunology, and The effects of a strong synthetic estrogen in humans can zoology. Few of the scientists who attended the meeting knew be seen in the daughters and sons of the 3 million to 4 mil about each other's work beforehand. Each was surprised to lion women who, between 1948 and 1971, took diethylstil- learn that the adverse health effects being observed in his or bestrol (DES) to prevent miscarriage. The daughters have her object of study, such as Great Lakes salmon, were being- increased rates of vaginal cancer, abnormalities of the.geni- seen across a broad range of spedes (C&EN, Nov. 16, 1992, tal tract, and higher rates of autoimmune diseases. The sons page 5). show high rates of abnormalities in their reproductive sys At the end of die meeting, the scientists concluded: " A tems. Other endocrine disrupters are expected to have ef large number of man-made chemicals that have been released fects on humans that are similar to those observed from into the environment, as well as a few natural ones, have the DES. "In humans," Gray says, "exposure to D ES. . . during potential to disrupt the endocrine systems of animals, includ gestational development provides us with grim examples of ing humans. Among these are the persistent bioaccumulative the potential for environmental chemicals to induce mor oiganohalogen compounds that include some pestiddes (fun- phological and pathological alteration of the reproductive giades, herbiades, and insectiades) and industrial chemicals, tract of both men and women." other synthetic products, and some metals. How can minuscule amounts' of endocrine-disrupting "Many wildlife populations are already affected by these chemicals cause such havoc for the developing embryo or fe compounds. The impacts include thyroid dysfunction in birds tus? The corripounds, which are usually lipophilic (fat loving) and fish; decreased fertility in birds, fish, shellfish, and mam- and have low water solubility, accumulate in the mother's fat throughout her lifetime. Some portion of what is in the moth er's fat then passes through the placental barrier into the fetus, cals that are known endocrine disrupters "and the healthof tlie offspring of exposed animals/' she adds. or, in binds and.fish, passes from the mother into the egg; There, according to John A> McLachlan, director of intramural For example; herring gulls usually lay two to three eggs per nest. DDE (a metabolite of DDT), mirex, and 2,3,7;$- . research at the National Institute of Environmental Health TCDD residues in herring gull eggs on Lake Ontario shores Sciences (NIEHS) in. Research Triangle Park, N.C., these. peaked in about 1972.. By 1977, herring gull.clutches with chemicals are believed to interfere with endocrine function in ^ five to six eggs were prevalent.- Each of these nests resulted * ' five possible-ways. They may recognize the binding sites of natural,hor from two females'engaging in a shared breeding attempt. However, the number of eggs, per nest declined rapidly mones, and mimic the effect of natural'hormones, especially during the next four years as levels of DDT and other per- .estrogen. They may block the. effect of natural hormones by . -sistent organochlorines declined. Glen A. Fox of the Cana- keeping them from binding to their natural binding sites. diari Wildlife Service spcultes that female-female pair- ' They may react with a hormone directly or indirectly.. They ' * ings, which almost never produce offspring, probably result may alter the pattern of hormone synthesis..Or they may from male mortality or feminization ofthe.male embryo by change the number of hormone receptors. However, says endocrine disrupters, such, as DDT. Feminized male birds McLachlan,. because cellular ndocrinology is undergoing a would be incapable of reproduction. ` revolution, the -ways in which these chemicals act is still . . - Studies of great blue heron exposed to pulp mill fflent.in . partly, theoretical. "Wliat the.ro- ' ceptors are and* h1 o'w they wo' rk1 is . ' ' British Columbia's Georgia Strait . found growth.retardation in chicks an evolying moving target." ' ;that correlated with . levels o f : interfering with natura! hor-' . 2,3,7,8-TCDD, Fox says. The Geor- mones in a developing fetus, can have devastating effects, on th off- . spring because it-is. the balance of * male to female hormones that caus- . , es the sexual organs in.the'fets to ' * | gia Strait receives the greatest con ' ' cehtration of wastes from forest products industries in Canada. The .rrirat-contaminated colony of blue ' , . 1 herons did not produce any young. deylop.normally.. In the early d e -. *,. volopmonlal stages, the mammali an .fetus has rudimentary, ducts fo r. Lab evidence shows, however, that . some of thc*;wiid.Iifo.effects may r e - . -.- suit.from unidentified substances: the genital tracts of both sexes - . in.wood pulp,such as plant sterols,; ^ called.' Wolffian- and _M ullerian . ducts: If the;|ehis-is/genetically. 7 -rather than from 2^,73-TCDD. ' The. emergmg. research oh endo- male, the normal amount, and nor- * mal. ratio of male to female hor- `. ' . crine disrupters,is so new that it re: ally isn't a major reason some* mones will cause the Wolffian* duct -. , groups have been advocating a to persist arid develop while the * * phaseout of organochlorines. How- female Mullerian duct withers - :. ever/ this research is becoming an ' away. similar; though opposite, ' * increasingly prominent part of. the progression, takes place ,in the fe- 7 male ;fetus. .Qimicals that mimic ; .discussion. *IJC cited, findings on ' endocrine disruption as. one of its female hormones (estrogen mim-;* ics) r interfere with them can up: Cclbont: EPA should revise cancer-tenting protocol's-. . to reflect effects o f extremely low exposures chief arguments for advocating :a gradual broad phaseouf oforgano- set this delicate balance and; cause. / chlorines. EPA's proposed Great ,, . the offspring to be bom with both Lakes guidance, announced March sets of sex prgans or faulty or incomplete development of one 31, also mentions the effects of certain organochlorines (arid set of organs, such as undescended testides/If DES is given to ' other'chemicals) on the'developing fetus as brie* important, A f*MprS MegA nH Aanm It mM iIMceA , f( aomr eA UxAaHmA ph lI ea , th male'rtiiceAarAe bomw* t *iiti *hWbmoLtIh reasonm a a m a mb Lfaomr-cont*roll i n! ig ' p- - om l11l.u.LtaantLs. itthatL bi* o___a__c__c__u___m1 ittlate i*1n fis'1h* sets of sex*organs. - ^ (C&EN, April `12; page 22). Th guidance proposs water Interfering with the endocrine system in a fetus can also quality criteria for 28 chmicals with a bioaccumulation factor damage the nervous and .immune systems because the en docrine system exerts some.control over them. It can affect the sexual behavior of th offspring--^feminization of*male greater than 1000. Fifteen of these are organochlorines.*, . . '' * The cancer question f rat behavior, for example. * ' The suspetted cardnognicity of many of the chlorinated Animals in the Great Lakes Basin have .been studied ' organics Was," and probably still is, the primary reason driving ' . more extensively than those of any other region. Scientific papers indicate at least 14 animal species that depend on most phaseout efforts. In .general however, chlorinated or ganics are ndt strong carcinogens in rodents. In animal tests Great Lakes fish ."are suffering severe health problems," ' for cancer, the majority of organochioriries are negative.-Those . says Colbipm, who edited a recently published book titled, chlorinated. Organics that show a positive response are usual-, . "Chemically Induced Alterations iri Sexual and. Functional ly -mild or moderate carcinogens in animals, producing mod Development: The Wildlife/Human. Corinction" (Prince est elevations in tumors in'only one sex of one species. ton Scientific Publishing, Princeton, N.J.). For ach species, Recent research, however, points to .organochlorines as . th research shows "strong associations" between chemi- , one possible cause of cancers whose rates are rising in the NEWS FOCUS general population. The occurrence of several of these can gen, they could artificially extend the time during which a cers is also rising among farmers, but at a faster rate. Can woman is subject to high estrogen levels. In this way they cers occurring, in excess .among farmers include non-. could elevate, two of the risk factors for breast cancer. Hodgkin's lymphoma, multiple myeloma, leukemia, and Endocrine disrupters that cross the placental barrier could cancers of the skin, prostate, brain, arid kidney. also program a fetus to be more susceptible to environmental To NRC's Davis, this increase in certain cancers in farmers toxicants by creating in it an abnormally high number of es points to a common cause, some agents that farmers and the trogen receptors, hence increasing the number of receptors general population are exposed to, but that farmers come into that could bind to-man-made estrogen mimics,during the off contact with to a greater degree. "Of special concern to my spring's, lifetime. So-there may be some similarities in -the colleagues and-me is the fact that the same types of cancer . mechanisms by Which chemical endocrine disrupters cause that kill farmers in increasing rates are also killing people in reproductive and other problems in th developing fetus and the general population," Davis says.* "We do not know the possibly promote'subsequent breast cancer. reasons for these changes..But we sure had better find out." The triazine herbicides; especially atrazine, are coming un Aaron Blair and Sheila H. Zahm/cancer epidemiologists at. der increasing scrutiny as ^ possible, cause of breast cancer. the National Cancer Institute (NCI), speculate that exposure Atrazine is the most heavily used pesticide in. the U.S. How-. - to pesticides, solvents, engine exhausts and fuel, fumes from ever, except for farm workers and people who drink water `molten metals, sunlight,.vimses, microbes, and fungi may be from contaminated wells, exposiire t atrazine is generally responsible for the increased cancer rates among farmers.1Pes low. But exposure is actually very 'widespread because atra ticides may cause lymphoma, leukemia, brain cancer, and zine-is found in rain, in groundwater, ana in 98% of streams non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, they say.- Several studies show a in the Midwest during, the growing season. Atrazine is con strong link .between non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and (2,4- sidered a possible animal carcinogen. In several bioassays, it dichlorophenoxy)acetic acid (2,4-D). Also, dogs whose owners is linked- to mammary tumors in one species of1female rat use 2,4-D, herbicide commonly applied to lawns, hav.high- (SpragUe-Dawley) and, in one experiment, it caused mamma er cancer rats than dogs without Such exposures. According ry tumors in male Sprague-Dawley rats. to Kenneth P. Cantor,'also a cancer-epidemlogist. at NCI, * Atrazine may play a role in human breast, prostate, ovar farmers who have used the insecticide lindane have increased ian,.and endometrial cancer b inducing some hormones, but'- rates of lymphoma. In .another study, children who used inhibiting others, .NCI's Zahm says; "A study m Italy showed lindane-containing shampoo to kill -lice were found to have an increase in ovarian cancer among women exposed to atra increased rates of brain cncer. zine,". she explains. "It seems possible that other hormonally, . Some researchers believe the rising rates of breast cncer in related cancers may also be affected by atrazine." EPA, along industrialized countries may be caused by 'chlorinated organ with the producers of atrazine and other triazine herbicides, ics accumulated in fat tissue. They a te several reasons, for this are-now engaged in a series of workshops to consider wheth-. theory. Ft tissue in women with breast cancer has been . r the Spragu-Dawly rat is a good model for humans and ` found to have higher levels of DDE" than fat tissue from whether there is a threshold for trazine's production of mam- healthy women. Also, blood from patients with breast cancer -, mary tumors.' Darrell Sumner, environmental issues manager ; has been found to contain four.times as much DDE and.about for Ciba Geigy, says the "mechanism [of trazine's actinl sup- 50% more of the insecticide hexachlorocyclphexn (HCH) as . ports' a threshold,-which, when'compared to environmental : blood from healthy women. Researchefs believe the levels of . concentrations, shows very comforfablemarginsofsafety. The DDE are important for breast cancer because DDE is both an risk to humans in such . situation is thus minimal." strogen mimic and, a tumor promoter. Health & Welfare,`Cariada, the equivalent of, the U.S.'s Na Industrialized nations with more severe pollution also tend tional Institutes of Health, is embarking on a study to elucidate to have much higher breast cancer rates than nonindustrial- the role of organochlorines, among other factors, in breast can ized countries. Howyer, when exposure to organochlorines cer. NCI and- NIEHS are supporting similar investigations.. declined sharply, in Israel btween 1976 and 1986, breast can NRC's Davis points out that it is extremely important to tease cer rates Went dow n`8%. In.other industrialized` nations out the causes o f what seems to b a cancer epidemic in th. where exposures did not decrease, breast cancer rates rose. industrialized world. -From 1973* to' 1987, for instance, cancer Lindane, DDT, and a-HCB were banned from Israeli dairy mortality in the US. decreased in younger people, but cancer farms in 1978, causing insecticide levels in dairy products to incidence increased in all age groups..In Sweden,.people bom drop as much as 98%. If pesticide cutbacks were indeed re-, in the 1950s are hyo to three times as likely to develop cancer sponsible for the fall in Israeli breast cancer incidence, the during their lifetimes as people bom between 1873 and 1882. .pesticides were obviously behaving as promoters, rather than "Increases in hew cancer cases' are especially troubling, as they initiators, because the cancer rates fell almost immediately af must stem from factors other than smoking and augur in ter the pesticide levels-droppedMnitiators take decades to act. creased demand for health care and treatment," Davis says. Researchefs suggest several mechanisms by which orga-. Cancer increases cannot be linked to smoking, she adds. In fact, nchlorins could play a role in breast cancer. Estrogen-is lung cancer in men>in some countries has begun to decline. . virtually essential for the initiation of mammary gland tu mors in animals and humans arid also promotes such tu Government responses mors. High natural estrogen levels; and sustained levels Even though organochlorines may be partly .responsible during a longer-than-norma| period-of time are known risk for the, rising.incidence of cancer, there is emerging evi ' factors for breast cancer. Organochlorines that mimic estro dence that the effects they have on the developing fetus gen could bind to-estrogen receptors and thereby increase may have broader, mre pervasive impacts on society. ; th body's effective 'estrogen level. Or by mimicking estro n a weight basis, more than half the pesticides and a Colbom says in future toxicological testing, EPA should About half of known endocrine disrupters are chlorinated hydrocarbons revise its. chronic feeding protocols used to test for carrino genidty. One or two groups of animals that receive very low doses of the pesticide would have to be added to the V Herbicides Alachlor Amitrple ' Atrazine (2,4-Dichlorophenoxy) acetic acid (2,4-D) Metribuzin . Nitrofen*- * (2,4,5-Trichlorophenoxy) acetic,add4 (2,4,5-T) . Trifluxalin Fungiddes Benomyl"* . . . . Hexachlorohenzene*... Mancozeb* .Maneb*' Metiram complex* TributyltinV.. Zineb* *. Ziram" '* . Insecticides ' ' Carbaryi- Chlordne* : Dicofol . ; pieldrin*. . ' ' ' .DDT and metabolites4 Endosulfan* -Hexachloro cyclohexaneJ (-HCH) Heptachlor and H-epoxideJ Lindane ty-HCH)" Methbml Methoxychlor' - Mirex' Oxchlordane Paiathion* Synthetic pyrethroids . Toxaphene* Nematoddes Aldicarb' Dibroniochloropropane' industrial chemicals: .. Cadmium *... ' Lead Merciiiy Polybrominated biphenyls Polychlorinated biphenyls Pehtchlorophenoi Penta- tnonylphenols Phthlates. Styrnes Z3,7/^Tetrachlotodibenzop-dioxin (2^,7$-TCDD) usual experiment because endocrine effects often occur at extremely low exposure levels. In addition to examining ' the offspring of the exposed females for gross birth defects, while the animals mature they should be tested for subtle defects such as shifts in hormone balance, lower than nor mal sperm counts, reduced'sex organ weights,-and minor behavioral changes. Also, the offspring would have to be bred to test their fertility. These tests are not now required in most animal bioassays. Persistence should be another major criterion in de ciding whether to. restrict a pesticide, Benbrook says. In general,, persistent pesticides that' are also endocrine disrupters are probably more harmful to humans and wildlife than nonpersistent ones. They usually tend to accumulate in wildlife and humans. Burt, Colbom points out, nonpeisistence may not mean chemical .is safe. Because timing is so important, a woman'.who is .. exposed to a nonpersistent endocrin-disrupting pesti ride at a-critical; tim, during her pregnancy might en*danger her .offspring/.she says. The same criteria that . are applied to pesticides could be applied to other in dustrial chemicals, intermediates, and by-products before they are rlesd to the environment.- Currently, Congressional staff who are rewriting.the Kennedy-Waxraan food safety.bill (Pesticide Food Safety . Act of 1993) re trying to incoipprate endocrine effects . into the legislative language concerning pestirides. lt is a = Chlorinated products difficult task because standard; testing protocols and . RbstridM, eaneoted, or unregistered pestigdo. AD tftesa' chemicals were ported from the U .S. in `1991 except for 2.4.S-T, hexacMorobenzene* metiram complex, p*RCH,. toxpphene, aod dibromochlpropropane, accsrng to U.S. cuorra record* analyzed Iff th Foundation lor Advncsmerti in Sdene & e d u c a t io n .; * . quantitative risk assessment methodology for endocrine . . . effects have notyt been codified by. EPA, though such methods are'in the process of development .. . V , "Given that such a significant percentage of pesticides may at least potentially cause these endocrine effects, one . rational near-term response is to rduce total pounds o f . wide range of other industrial chemicals now used are ca use while we do the science needed to reduce our uncertain pable of causing endocrine disruption. How should govern- ty," Benbrook says. 'The best way to accomplish this goal ment respond to this issue? An immediate ban on all. these quickly would be for EP to comprehensively review and products is not likely. Such a step would cause widespread adjust tolerances downward to safe, health-based levels." economic hardship for farmers, lessen food availability at ' EPA has' already, banned some chlorinated organics, but least for a few years, and adversely affect many other sec- only small fraction of the 15,000 or so that are in com .tors of society. merce. In the 1970s, the agency restricted most of the persis "It will he very difficult to craft legislative language that tent heavily chlorinated insecticides, such as DDT, aldrin, takes endocrine effects of pesticides into account without dieldrin, kepone, lindane, chlordane, mirex, and toxaphene. placing a large fraction of currently registered pesticides in Although these insecticides were known to-be persistent jeopardy," says Charles M. Benbrook, a consultant in Wash and to cause adverse effects in wildlife, they were regulated ington, D .C , and former head of the NRC's Board on Agri-. on the basis of their possible carcinogenicity in humans. .culture. However, he suggests a possible splution to the di A few chlorinated insecticides, such as methoxychlor, ar lemma. . still Used widely, and some of the restricted insecticides are. Of the nearly 270 old pesticides that must be reregistered used for minor purposes in the U S . Dieldrin is employed as - by EPA, only 19 have so far reached the end of the process, a moth repellent in rugs, and lindane is used in a.prepara- and about 250 active ingredients are in various phases of tion for killing head lice in children. reregistration and review. Instead of immediately trying to Unfortunately, even products, that have been .banned in test all 250 or so active ingredients for endocrine disruption, the U:S. still present problems for th nation's environment. Benbrook says, EPA might consider testing known endo PCBs are'especially.troublesome*because, though they are crine disrupters*that biocumulate and cross the placental , not being produced, they r. being used in. closed trans barrier and are applied heavily to crops or consumed in formers. They are also stored in warehouses and are present * large quantities by infants. High priority should be given to in contaminated sediments .and many landfills. Peter j. H. major chemicals now under active review by EPA. Reijnders f the Research Institute for Nature Management, NEWS FOCUS Den Burg, the Netherlands, estimates that mort than 70% of and HCB emissions from the manufacture of vinyl chloride the global production of PCBs is still in use or in stock and in the U.S. "But my understanding is that with current de could reach the environment in the future. "Unless ade tection techniques, the plants can't detect any [such emis quate retrieval and disposal of remaining PQ3s in use is en sions!," he adds. forced, these noxious compounds will in the near future be Some PVC can be recycled easily, Burnette says. In the come an even larger global environmental problem than at U.S., about l% ;of total vinyl production is being recovered present," he says. in the form of packaging. The institute is aiming for a goal Most of the persistent insecticides that were banned or of recovering 25%, ''but-the economics will be difficult to restricted.in the U.S. are still being used in developing overcom e," he says. His institute is also looking into countries. According to Landll Mills, a. market research projects to recycle drable goods. However, Burnette agrees firm in Bath, England, 15 million lb of lindane was used on that recycling some kinds of PVC back to their original uses crops in India in 1991, and aldrin and dieldrin are still be is difficult because there are so many varieties. ing used in India and Pakistan. In addition, the Foundation Burnette also claims that 2,3,7,8-TCDD emissions from for Advancement in Science & Education in Los Angeles, properly controlled and operated municipal incinerators reports:that almost 4.1 million lb of banned, canceled, or have no relationship to the amount of PVC being burned. voluntarily suspended pesticides were exported from the "Incinerator operating conditions are the key to control U.S. in 1991, including almost 96 tons oF DDT. About half of ling dioxin formation," he says. these pesticides went to develop Fires involving PVC are not un- ing countries. Some fraction ,of * :. usually hazardous, Burnette says. . these products return to the U.S. Carbon monoxide is. the main killer via airborne transport, migratory in fires and it is present-in all fires. fish, and, to some extent, bn crops. Following two fires that recently Eggshell-thinning from DDT has took place in German warehouses recently been, reported in bald ea-' vwhere postconsumer PVC waste gle eggs on th Columbia River. and other plastic waste were being ThePVC quandary , stored, the. dioxin and furan levels riyefe .measured and found to be ' Man people find it hard to. un- 1 ' less than background after the fire. deistand why anyone could Be op "So Greenpeace seems to have posed to PVC. It is cheap to manu- . jumped off of that issue," he says. facture, it has hundreds of uses, "In the U.S. ther really have been and it in ert , no serious accidents involving vi However, Greenpeace and many nyl chloride for many years." groups in Germany and Austria want to phase out the use of PVC for a variety of reasons: PVC man Chlorine reduction strategies in industry ufacture produces emissions of SeveraHarge, US. chemical com 2,3,7,8-TCDD and HCB, Green- . panies have taken steps to reduce .peace spokesmen say. .When acci their use of chlorine and their pro dental fires occur in buildings that duction of chlorinated products. contain large amounts of PVC building materials, they -produce Benbrook: legislating to account fo r endocrine . effects jeopardizes registered pesticides They are also trying to limit the gnration of chlorinated wastes dioxin and furan- contamination, ' when they do use chlorine. Du Greenpeace says. Pont does not sell a lot of chlorinatr Because useful products can't be made of pure PVC, it is ed products, but those it does sell are "involved in strategic mixed with different additives to make hundreds of variet business review," sys John Carberry, director of process and ies, depending on the us. Therefore, it is very difficult to environmental R&D. In its review, Du Pont tries to predict recycle PVC back.to its original use because it would have ` regulatory and customer expectations and what effect these to be separated into hundreds of categories for recycling. As. will have.oh the product. "Environmental considerations and a result, only a fraction of total PVC production can be eas the fit of that product in the environmental expectations of the ily recycled, and that fraction is usually down-cycled, that world"' play a major role in the strategic review, he says. `.is, recycled into something like rug backing, a commodity "There is little doubt that all products with chlorine in them that is less valuable than the original product. And inciner will undergo modification/' Carberry a d d s.. ating PVC waste, according to Greenpeace, produces diox- For products- that are not chlorinated, But are produced in. In addition, Greenpeace says, the vinyl chloride used to with chlorinated intermediates, Du Pont "is looking for dif make PVC is highly explosive and therefore dangerous to ferent .ways to manipulate chemical molecules without ris transport. The monomer- has caused a number of serious ing chlorine as n operator," Carberry says. The company is . accidents that have required thousands of people to be doing this to avoid producing waste hydrochloric add, evacuated. For most uses of PVC, it is easy to find substi which is expensive to dispose of. Dii Ppnt is also'frying to tutes, though sometimes they are more expensive. find an economical way to convert waste hydrochloric add * Robert Burnette, executive* director of the Vinyl Institute, back into chlorine. This conversion would reduce Du PonVs Akron, Ohio, says the institute has no data on 2,3,7,8-TCDD overall use of chlorine. Monsanto also is working on a number of ways to reduce . on effects of a few selected orgriochlrines; such asP B s, its production of. chlorinated wastes and to treat those wastes DDT, mirex, and lindane, "that have been phased out of that are generated in the best possible way, says, Michael W .: use." Historical data should not be extrapolated-to the Berezo, director of environmental strategy. If Monsanto is whole class of existing organochlorines, he says. The c o m -: ..consuminga chlorinated productor producing a chlorinated' pounds now in use in the U.S.-- alkanes,.alkeries, and product, "the first thing we do is make sure we have handling lower chlorinated monoaromatics, most, of which have, and treatment Systems that are really in a class with best dem -' half-lives of hours or days-- "do not accumulate in the en -onstratd technology," he says. Monsanto tries to .reduce the vironment and therefore do not reach environmentaT con generation of chlorinated wastes by using substitute material centrations that woujd result in adverse impacts/' he points in its processes.' out.. Most of these compounds have high'water, solubilities . In the development of.new products, Monsanto is design and high vaporpressures .in.contrast to persistent -ones,-- ing processes with the ultimate goal of not producing waste . which generally have low water solubilitiesand low vapor . in the first place by recycling streairjs and eliminating the pressures. . * . . \ use of toxics, Berezo says. For products that will not capture . . Smerko also opposes the idea of zero discharge of chlori a large'market,.he adds,.it is particularly important not t o ' nated, organics. lilis "implies that any level of chlorinated or produce toxic waste because the best available control tech- ganic. material would have an adverse impact, on the; bio . noloey would be relatively too expensive t.instll for .such sphere,", he says! Instead of ."zero discharge a 'no. adverse products. - i '. . .impact? policy .should' be imp.I- Dqw Q i im ^ , a large mnufac- *'->; ; ' iriented/'he argues! The cohcentia- h ire ro f chlorine; vinyl chloride, ., tion of ,a chemical has to reach a and PyC ; has no plans to curtail . : . critical level to have an adverse im these businesses. .However; the pact^For example, the- fact that* company is currently involved in , some bird populations in th Great performing risk-benefit analyses of * , Lakes area have shown improved, its products and applications, says*. * reproductive success Indicates W. Joseph Stearns, director of enyri there ate some concentrations of ` ronmental health and government . chlorinated organic compounds affairs! "If the benefit isn't,greater* that do not have an impact on than the . risk, then We recognize . thse birds; he claims. . .those products, or applications : Risk assessment, Smerko says,. shouldbe phased out," he says.' ` ; . cari be. applied to -determine en v i To help reduce the use of qo'ri; * ronmental concentrations of chemi- nated solvents and assist customers- -, cals, that Have no adverse impact with the safe,handling bf these sol* And new technologies ean.be used vents; Dow has form ed`an ad- to ensure that environmental load- ' variced cleaning systems business, . Steams says. This business has' d e .ing rates, remain belvv the level that would have adverse effects, veloped technologies to caphue.va-. , ..Smerko maintains that tKetireat .pors from chlorinated solvents. It.is .Lakes ecosystem "has shown re-. also aiding customers, lik e`dry- markable recovery arid that chlori-. cleaners,in the proper use. of exist ing control technologies. s part Smerko; evidence-used to support brpad chlorine nated organic, compound oncen- ban-based on few selected qrganochlonnes . trations in this environment are no of this enterprise, Dow has devel- . . . longer inducing widespread d- oped A number of aqueous and ; . vrse effects.in wildlife popula- semiaqueous cleaning products to use as substitutes for chio- . `tions." He also says the Jacobson and-other.studies that.indi- ririated solvents. cate the effects of PCBs.on the offspring of women, who ate Even though some U S. companies are working to cut back Great Lakes fish are inconsistent. On their uses of chlorine and especially on their production of Phasing out the use bf chlorine in the pulp and paper in chlorinated wastes, David H. Marks, director of Massachu- dustry would not improve environmental quality,-Smerko setts Institute of Technology's program in-environmental en says, because 2,3,7,8-TCDD and fiirafis have largely been gineering, education,' and research, thinks .S. industries' are eliminated from pulp mill effluent. For all of thse reasons,. moving somewhat too slowly "in widening their dialogue he advocates considering chlorinated compounds on a case- outside the industry. I think there is a big tidal wave coming by-case basis. ' '- .. here. Industry is making major proactive-swing, but- the - The Chlorine Institute commissioned a"report bn the eco question is: Can it do.it fast enough.and efficiently enough; nomic benefits qf chlorine, which was published recently. It and with enough gusto to protect.itself?" ; has also commissioned "an in-dpth reviw and interpreta Chlorine Institute's response -. tion of the critical scientific, literature on chlorine chemistry .. related to environmental and htiman health," which will be Robert G. Smerko, president of the Chlorine Institute, released in-about two months. : maintains that evidence vised to support a broad-based Chlorine provides great benefits to sddty; says Brad- .chlorine ban-- endocrine disruption, developmental im- Linhart, head of the Chlorine Coordinating Council, a pairment; reproductive dysfunction, arid ca n ce ris based Chlorine Institute-Chemical Manufacturers Association NEWS FOCUS .Caustic soda can be produced without making chlorine Caustic soda (NaOH) is an important , In many processes, other chemicals trolysis of sodium sulfate from nat- industrial commodity used* in a van- can be'substituted for caustic. Car- , ural ores or electrolysis o f the sodi-` - ety of industries, including pulp and bonates, lime,'and magnesium hy- um. sulfate in waste. streams from paper, organic compounds, inorganic ` droxide.can often be used in applica- many industries, compounds, water treatment, alumi- ' tions requiring alkalinity. Dow, for . The Washington, D.C.-based in- . na, and soap and detergents. Because example, is planning to substitute dustiy group, the Chlorine Institute, chlorine, inevitably is produced dur-\ lime for caustic in it's U.S, propylene ' maintains, however, that alternative ing the electrolytic reaction .common- pxide production. In processes, that methods .of producing , caustic are Jy used to<`produce caustic, some'ob- require sodium ions; sodium carbon-, more expensive than caustic produc- servers argue that chlorine produc- ate or sodium sulfate can often be - lion, using the standard chior-alkali . tion cannot decline. However, there ` used. process. And the association, adds are a number of. ways to make less- Caustic also.can be made'by three that mining, trona ore in Wyoming , chlorine and still supply Enough other .processes. One process is caus-"causes serious environmental prob: | - caustic--dr suitable substitutes--rfor ticization of sodium carbonate pro- lems. I industry. ' duced from lime and salt using: the . Joe Thornton of. the environmental 1 Recycling caustic within industrial Solvay process: Another process' is *organization Greenpeace iri. Seattle, [ ` processes is one way to help meet' causticization of sodium carbonate . Wash., disagrees, saying-there are no the demand for the compound. In - mined .as trona ore. Huge deposits major environmental threats, involved the; paper industry, much of the of trona ore .exist in Wyoming .and' with mining trona. He says .Green-* caustic used is;already recycled,-but Turkey, and in Africa and Asia. In . peace suggests a'surchaige*be placed' more of.it could be recycled if chlo- ' Wyoming, several companies with a on .caustic produced by the chl'or-alka--. . rine were eliminated from the paper' combined production' capacity of - li process, so. that caustic users wpuld; '.bleaching process. In aluminum.0x7 .290,000: tons per year are already '.have-an incentive.to use alternative . ide manufacture, caustic can also ;be producing caustic from trona ore. manufacturing processes that do-not recycled. Caustic can also be made by elec- produce chlorine. Venture to communicate to the public about chlorine. "Over impossible to obtain. That is why a preventive approach to* half of chlorine chemisfry practiced goes into public health harm'is needed based on weight of evidence rather than on arid human health applications. Ninety-five percent pf all absolut proof of harm ." . . crop protetion chemicals are based on chlorine. Iri;the U S. . Scientists w hohave been following the trail of epidemio through chlorination of drinking'water and sewage we are logical data believe there is now clear evidence from both saving 25,000 lives a year.1'.' basic and epidemiologic studies, that some Chlorinated conv Two philosophies concerning regulation . pounds are risk factors for several types of cancer. But there is also a new wave of informatidn.emerging from studies of* There are basically.two.philosophies.concerning the reg animals and humans that raises concerns about exposures ulation of organochlorines. Some people and organizations, at even lower levels than, have been thought important for like the Chlorine Institute, prefer to take a compound-by cancer. The evidence, that endocrine-disrupting brganpchlq- compound approach. .They demand strong evidence of - .ries at the levels found in the environment cause adverse harm before an individual compound is phased out. "If is health effects-in the-offspring of wildlife is 'strong' Even ludicrous, to suggst that all organochlorine compounds i though'humans have-in their tissues about the same levels should be banned. There is a spectrum of organochlorine found in the tissues of wildlife, th evidence is not as strong chemicals' ranging; from thoroughlynasty candidates for that organochlorines are causing similar' problems In hu banning to relatively innocuous degradable substances/' man .offsprings. says Don Mackay of the Instihite for Environmental Studies However, the concerns about humans and wildlife are af th University of Toronto. definitely going to affect .the regulations taking shape. Other people and institutions require only indications of Such.concerns have already influenced EPA's new Great. harm before advocating, phasing out a compound -or a Lakes guidance and will probably affect many, mor regu whole class of compounds. They say it is not. possible to lations and laws that will be. written during the next few evaluate each compound individually. It will take much years. .\ longer than our lifetimes to thoroughly test all of them. And These "ongoing pressures are forcing action on many di if one chlorinated hydrocarbon is phased out; another chlo verse frontslof chlorine phaseout]. . . and these actions are. rinated hydrocarbon with equally bad or. worse health or . not likely to abate,"'sys.John R. Erhenfeld, research associ ecological effects will be invented'to take its place. It will ate at MTTs Center for Technology, Policy & Industrial De take even longer to test the various permutations and com velopment; who has'recently, completed a report on chlo binations of chlorinated hydrocarbons. John R. Vallentyne,. rine phaseout for the Norwegian government and industry. research scientist emeritus, at the Canada Center for Inland "Although unprecedented, this call for a ban on chlorine Waters, expresses this point of view succinctly. "Because of ' must.be taken seriously. To. government policymakers and overlapping arid interactive effects among persistent toxic * industry decisionmaker^ alike, this call presents both op- substances, causality, and proof of hann are elusive, if- not portunitis and challenges," he adds. FROM PM COSTNER GRhfcNPEACr USA iOXlCS CAMPAIGN DIOXIN TOXICITY RESEARCH Studies show cancer, reproductive risks Two r.ew studies have found evidence for cancer and re productive risks from ex hamsters one minuscule dose of 2,3,7,8-TCDD 0 gg per kg of ani mal weight). Preliminary results posure to 2,3,7,8-telrachlorodibon- show that about two thirds of the ?.o-p-dioxin (2,3,7,8-TCDD).* male rat offspring had reduced A study of the effects of the sperm counts, Gray says. And chemical plant explosion that oc male pups in both rats and ham curred in Seveso, Italy/ 17 years sters experienced delayed puberty. ago indicates that exposure to In female rat and hamster off 2,3,7,8-TCDD increases the risk of * spring, the results are even more cancer in humans. This is the first striking. About 30% of the female scientific study to show increased rat offspring show structural ab cancer rates in people exposed to the dioxin in the accident {Epide normalities in the reproductive and external urinary tract, Gray miology, 4, 398 (1993)1. Previously, says. The defects include delayed the only adverse health effect re or complete absence of vaginal ported from the accident was opening, clefting of the clitoris, chloracnc, an acnelike skin condi and hypospadias--a condition in tion that is often permanent. which the urethra empties into In addition, a study by Envi the vagina rather than into a sep ronmental Protection Agency arate opening. The dose of chem (EPA) scientists has found that a ical was about one 500th of that single low dose ol 2,3,7,8-TCDD which would cause adverse ef in pregnant laboratory animals Rat receives 2,3,7,8-TCDD to test effects on offspring fects, such as cancer, in an adult causes reproductive abnormali animal. ties in their offspring. The HPA results Researchers then compared the cancer Most of the abnormalities are not "the have not yet been published, but they rates in the more than 36,000 exposed kind of thing that an untrained observer will be presented this month at a meet people with the rates in 180,000 people might notice," and many cannot be seen ing in Vienna. living close by in uncontaminated areas. until the animal reaches puberty, says These results and other similar labo No conclusions could be drawn about Linda Bimbaum, who works with Gray ratory studies may affect the way EPA the heavily exposed group because it and is the director of the environmental writes its protocols for testing pesti contained so few people. In the moder toxicology division of the Health Effects cides and toxic substances. The agen ate-exposure group, liver cancer inci Research Laboratory. Dioxinlike poly cy's Office of Prevention, Pesticides & dence was about three times higher than chlorinated biphenyls and furans would Toxic Substances is in the process of in the control population. Men showed be expected to produce effects similar to developing new guidelines for testing an increase in a cancer of the lymph dioxins, Gray says. But none of these pesticides and toxic substances that nodes called lymphoreticulosarcoma, have been tested in lab mammals for will require looking for subtle repro and women had an increased incidence more subtle reproductive abnormalities ductive endpoints in the multigcnera- of multiple myeloma and leukemia. The in offspring. tional studies group with the lightest exposure had el 2,3,7,8-TCDD is not simply an anti In the Seveso study, Italian research evated incidences of soft tissue sarcoma androgen or anliestrogen agent, Gray ers led by Pier Alberto Bertazzi of the and non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. adds. It is much more complicated. University of Milan found higher than Three previous studies of people ex "Dioxin is unlike anything we've seen normal rates of several types of cancer posed to 2,3,7,8-TCDD in the work anywhere in the literature. It disrupts in people exposed to a cloud of 2,3,7,8- place have linked elevated blood levels multiple endocrine systems." TCDD from the plant explosion. The of the compound to increased cancer A panel of experts convened by EPA exposed population was divided into mortality. reviewed the dioxin literature last Sep three categories according to the de In the animal study, researchers led tember and decided that the content of gree of contamination in their area of by L. Earl Gray Jr of F.PA's Health Ef dioxins and dioxinlike compounds al residence-- heavily exposed, moderate fects Research laboratory, Research Tri ready found in humans is at or near a ly exposed, and lightly exposed angle l 'ark N.C g.ive pregnant rats and level where adverse responses would SITTEMHER 6, 1993 C&l N $ NEWS OF THE WEEK be expected to occur, Bin-.bourn says. She and Cray both stress, however, that more work needs to be done to determine the levels of dioxins and di oxinlike compounds that the human fe tus is exposed to, and to assess what effects these are likely to have. The new research is one component of the information that is coming to gether on dioxin toxicology that will be used in the overall reassessment of 2,3,7,8-TCDD, says Dwain L. Winters, director of ERA'S dioxin policy project. One of the questions ERA will ask is over what range do these effects occur in humans. Peter de Fur, senior scientist at the En vironmental Defense Fund, says these experimental results indicate that EPA should move away from the cancer par adigm. Until now, EPA has assumed that if it set a standard stringent enough to protect against cancer, the standard would protect against other adverse health effects. These results show that "fairly low concentrations over a very short and critical period, levels too low to cause cancer, can have profound effects in the developing embryo that don't show up until adulthood," he says. Bette Hiieman Dry ice detctTiP a natural diamond Diamond thieves have long referred to their h.eists as "ice." That argot seems closer to the mark since two geochemists reported last week detection of the un mistakable spectral signature of dry ice--solid carbon dioxide-inside a nat ural diamond. Tne surprising discovery provides di rect evidence that carbon dioxide-con taining fluids exist under great pressure at depths of 220 to 270 km beneath Earth's surface. It also demonstrates that diamonds can trap and carry such fluids to the suiface. Most minerals aren't strong enough to do this. The infrared sjxvtra that revealed the diamond's icy deposit were recorded by assistant professor Oded Navon and graduate student Marais Schrauder at Hebrew University s Institute of Earth Sciences in jerusalern. They describe their findings in the Sept. 2 issue of Na ture 1365, 42 0993)1. Navon and Schrauder purchased the diamond--a very small, unpolished, brownish-yellow stone weighing some 10 or 13 mg--at a diamond exchange in a Tel Aviv suburb. They have no idea when? it came irum Schraudei "picked it for its strange color, hoping to find out why it has rival color, Navon tells C&EN On examining its infrared spectrum, they discovered prominent binds that close!) fit the spectrum of solid carbon dioxide at a pressure of 5 gigapascals, or almost 50,000 times atmospheric pressure. That amount of pressure is enough to keep the trapped gas in the solid state, even at room temperature At atmospheric pies-uire, carbon diox ide sublimes at -78 "C Navon Ivlieves that the carbon dioxide must liave been trupjx-d inside the dia mond at o e n greater pressures--about 70,000 to 85,0t)0 atm. corresponding to depths of alx'/iit 220 to 270 kin At these pressures, he says iree carbon dioxide would be expected to react quickly with metal silicates, which are common in Earth's mantle, to pixHucv metal carbon ates. But the suiviv.il of carbon dioxide suggests that soii-nlL-t- m..y have to u think wluit tl;C) know aUmt flee* mineral c>gy of this hot environment 'ITie source of the trapjvd carbon diox ide remains a matter of speculation. Navon says it might have originated from limestone or other carbonate-containing surface rocks that wi tv pushed divp in'o the mantle in a process known as subdue lion. Ii carbonate lucks were involved, it could have many implications for carlxm cycles on Earth, he says A moie likely possibility is that the carbon dioxide was released from high ly pressurized fluids as they ascended through the mantle--say from a depth of 300 km--to regions of lower pressure. Such carbon-containing fluids are in volved in volcanic phenomena and six important in the formation of kimber lites, igneous locks that erupt explosive ly through the oust, sometimes bringing diamonds to the suiface If free carbon dioxide really is present at those depths, Navon says, it would have to be consid ered in any mechanism of kimlx elite for mation, and in many othei processes that are important to mantle evolution Geochemist David R Beil of the Geo physical i.aboratojy of Carnegie Insti tution of Washington iP C .) points out that "direct samples of the chvp.-i inte rior of the Earth, particularly fluids, are very, very difficult to come by. And (Navon's diamond] is one of the deep est (samples] we have." The scarcity of surl sample:- makes it very difficult to pie.v together the puzzle of mantle chi niistrv, he says. Edwin W. Roedder, a geochemist at Harvard University, echoes this view: "Diamond is sort of the window to the mantle but it's a difficult window to see through Any new revelation about the nature of inclusion-, in diamond is useful." The infrared spectral bands observed imply that the diamond's carbon dioxide is pivsent in a crystalline form But even under high magnification, the Hebrew Uni'visity researchers can see no solid in clusions in the specimen Theivfore, they assume the carbon dioxide resides in submicroNoopic inclusions If that is true, they say, 'the internal pressure of 5 gigapascals is tlx highest pressure ever measured in any inclusion at room temperature." Although, the most intensely colored regions of the diamond show the stron gest carbon dioxide infrared bands, the brownish-yellow hue cannot be due to carbon dioxide itself because it doesn't absorb visible light The coloi probably is dui- to microscopic pressure-induced strains on the diamond lattice, Navon concludes. Carbonates and water previously have been found in fluid inclusions in fi brous diamonds. And carbon dioxide, water, carbon monoxide, methane, hy drogen, and nitrogen have been detected m gases released from mished or healed diamonds---but their origin from inside the diamond could not be confirmed be yond doubt. 1lowever, the carbon dioxide spec trum of Navon's diamond is clean, re vealing no impurities other than gaseous nitrogen and hydrogen Ron Dngmii Ohio plant explosions stir calls for shutdown Starting at 12:10 AM on Friday, Aug. 27, two massive and several minor ex plosions rocked an Aztec Catalyst or ganic peroxides plant in Elyria, ^ There were no serious injuries. But the explosions resulted in extensive damage to two plant buildings, and sent a cloud of hydrochloric acid driftin'' trial and residential a causing evacuatin' pie. Coming * p j,