Document dnxVEM9ywamyBv7G3JgR6NRgb

BEND, ORE. BULLETIN D. 3,000 OCT 6 1976 1 Chemical production to cease ST. LOUIS <AP1 -- Monsanto Industrial Chemicals Co. will halt production of PCB insulating fluids neat year because of the public's fear of adverse effects from the chemical. Monsanto will withdraw completely from the market no later than Oct. 31, 1977, said Earle H Harbison Jr., general manager of the firm's specislt/chemicals division., Harbison said Tuesday the target date would have been sooner, but electrical transformer and capacitor manufac turers have said they would be unable to convert to other materials any earlier. Monsanto is the only manufacturer of PCB (polychlorinated iphenyi), a stable, fire-resistant chemical. ' - The Environmental Protection Agency hat found that PCBs build up In the en vironment and are thought to cause reproductive failures, gastric disorders and skin lesions in mammals. About 900 million pounds of the virtually indestructible chemical have been dumped into landfills, leaked into water supplies and allowed to slfttnto production sites, the EPA contends. EPA Administrator Russell E. Train preised Monsanto's decision, terming it I "a significant step in dealing with the to tal problem of PCB contamination." But he noted that PCBs already In the environment "will be there for years, moving into life systems, including humans. The problems still need to be ad dressed vigorously by government and in dustry." Monsanto had earlier quit making PCB# for use in carbonless copy paper, fire resistant hydraulic fluids, heat transfer fluid and plasticisers. The chemical is manufactured at a Mon santo plant In Sauget. III. Twenty Jobs wtU be eliminated by the decision to withdraw from the PCB market. , HONS 050109