Document gQVKXY6KEe4rzkxwXB51xkYq

WINCHESTER, MASS. NOV 51970 4** Environmental Threat Is Seen A family of eomercial chemicals willed >PCB' (polychlorinated bi phenyls) ha been accumulating in the environment in much the game way DPT accumulates, says a fea ture story in Environmental Sci ence and Technology. PCB's are chronically toxic to birds, animals, and man, but it may be possible to head o(T this threat before massive damage is done, according to the author, Dr. Carl G. Gustafaon, chairman of the department of chemistry at King's College. The PCB's are depleting popula tlons of certain wild fowl by caus ing the formation of thin-shellcd eggs, It Is reported. PCB's are con centrated by fish, shrimp, andoys-' tors; and white-tailed eagles (Ash eating birds) have been found'to contain as-hlgh as 1.4 percent PCB .in their tissues. PCB's are readily B stored in liver and fatty tissues of human beings, and if nothing is, ; done to control the situation, they i could accumulate in the environ- ' | men in greater amounts than DDT. 1 I The Monsanto Company, only j | manufacturer of PCB's, declared ! Jt intention to atop sailing them, J effective August SO, to customers ! who cannot control the disposal of i the end products, the article states. ' j < < : ! This intention was Indicated in a ! letter to Congressman William F. I Ryan of Now York. Specifically, i customers who net PCB's as soften- t Ing agents (n making pliable plat- tics art singled out, since such products end up as solid waste to 'bo burned in city dumps or ihdn- orators. . . . If Monsanto's former customers look for loss harmful substitutes, rather than buying 'PCB's from manufacturers in Europe and Ja- pan, the quantity of PCB getting .Into the environment eonid be nb- jstantfoity nduced, the article ,! , . , : ipoints out. . t PCB's are used as coolant-insula tion fluids In transformers and fluorescent lights and as softeners in plastics and coatings. The prop erties that make' them useful are the same properties that make them persist in the environment, Dr. Gus tafson comments. They do not burn, but are vaporised and carried into the atmosphere where they collect m particulate matter and art sub- quently returned to the surface jt the earth and into rivers, lakes, and oeeans. "Another source is probably land runoff from Industrial wattes and dumps," tho author adds. "A third Is the point of manufacture and the plants where PCB's are processed into ether products. They can even escape through tho plant ventila tion system into sowers or directly into waterways. : "So frequently action is taken only after it is evident that masa- ivs damage has resulted from a par- / tlcular pollutant. In tho case of the PCB's vre may have an opportu- nity to resolve the situation.before that happens." Although used industrially for the past 40 years, polychlorinated bi phenyls have only recently claimed the attention of environmentalists. Dr. Gustafson points out Since first, detected in Sweden In 1000 and in the United States In 1907, they have been found in rainwater in Eng land, river water in Japan, mussels . in ths Netherlands, penguin eggs in the Antarctic, terns in tha Arctic, waters of the Great Lakes, shrimp in Florida; cod in the Baltic Sea, brown pelican eggs in Panama, brown seals off tho coast of Scot land, nnd in human hair and fatty tinman, . '. * ._ HQNS 032340