Document m6bqmQr2e8Lx2X2xKmNGMz4

Cx,\ - APR 2 8 19/6 made oilier* in biomedical research want one Uio Hut you cannot clone Henno Selinudt. and you cannot mandate the kind of influence he has hud on White Home oflieiBli who were freely prepared to he receptive to him An attempt to do for all of biomedical research wliat the cancer panel has done for the propiams of NCI was made in 1974 bcfoic legislation creating the piesent 1`iesidenl s Biomedical Research Panel passed the Congicss The original Idea was to mandate a permanent panel with the same White House access that the cancel gioup enjoyed, but u was Hopped by threats of a presidential veto So tire present panel, whose only job is to issue a single, one-shot report was put in place instead Destined to officially dissolve by I July, its only hope of con tinuing oit in spirit is to have its recom mendation to expand the cancer panel accepted It is not certain whether this recommendation will be adopted but it most surely will come up when (he Sen ate the House hold hearings on the pan el's full report The Senate hearings are already on (lie calendar for 10 April, the same day the report must go to the President In all of this, it might be noted that there already exist a number of advisory bodies to oversee the conduct of biomed ical research Every institute at NIH has an advisory council, the NIH director has an advisory council too 1 he former exist to review the scientific projects sup ported by the individual institutes: IIk latter is supposed to advise the NIH director on the way things are going over all It is (rue that, in (he past, these groups have not taken their policy-mak ing responsibilities as seriously as they might, but there is no immutable reason might, but there is no reason that could not change. 1 he authority is there. The NIH directors advisory com mittee. long plagued by vacancies (5<rerite. 31 October I97J) IV iiui ai futl strength, and director Donald S Fred rickson says he intends to make full uve of the committee as a policy-making re source In fact, an additional recommen dation of the President s Biomedical Re search Panel, one with which Fred rickson concurs, wilt be that the mem bers of the director's committee now appointed by the Secretary of Hcalili. Education and Welfare be api'omted m the future by the President 1 To make the NIH director's advisors Pievidcrn.il appointees would raise their visibility and lend a new tone to their work, one biomedical panel siadcr observes One foresee* a situation in which one prcxidentially appointed committee on bio medical research is ovcrvecing anoihcr li hardly seems necessary to have both.- Baxxara J CuitnoN Michigan's PUB Incident: Chemical Mix-Up Leads to Disaster 1 he haraids posed by the manufacture and distribution of dangerous toxic sub stances, and by their dispersal to the en vironment. are being pointed up by such siark episodes as the widely publicized Keponc poisoning incident in Virginia. Some of these episodes tail to attract na tional attention, however, and when the ipjury is not so much to human health as It is to farm animals the Incidents may be little noted outside the regions where they occur. A prime case In point is the episode (hut first came to light 2 years ago in Miehignn. where, apparently as (he result of a frightening and extraordinary mix-up of two chemiciil products, nearly 30.000 cattle plus thousands of other furm animals have hud to be quuran(tned and destroyed On hundreds of fHrms (he livestock and poultry was contumimilcd with polybrominated bi phenyl fPBli), a fire retardant closely related to polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB), one of the most notorious and wldcsptcad of all chemical contami nants PBB has been employed in the manufacture of certain haid plasties, such us some that hove gone into iele- 2 vision cabutets and other products in which heat resistance ts desired Disastrous as this Michigan episode has been- damages for livestock and poultry losses are variously estimated be tween something leas than $75 million and $100 million or more- it could have been still worse had the nature and source of the contamination gone unde tected even longer than actually was the case. Yet, except for a remarkable com bination of circumstances and good luck, the cause of the disaster might remain a mystery even today. Because of this, supporters of the pending toxic substances control legisla tion. which has already passed (he Sen ate and now awaits further eoninttltee ac tion in the House, point to the Michigan disaster as another strikingly clear dem onstration (hat (hi* legislation is criti cally needed Also, (he great difficulty many Michigan farmer* have had in cop ing with and overcoming the PBB con tamination is cited as compelling evi dence that the farmers victimized in such episodes often need emergency help from Washington. The most commonly ci>H hvnmhcxls as to how the Michigan PBB disaster came about is as follows. Sometime dur ing the summer of 1973 at the Michigan Chemical Corporation plant at St Louis Michigan, ten to twenty 50-pound bags of "Ftremaxler''- the fire rei.irdant PBB- somehow were included in a truck load of "Nutrimaster." or magnesium oxide, a compound used to sweeten acid ic feeds 1 he truck wax bound for the big feed null operated by Farm Bureau Ser vices. Inc (a part of the Michigan Farm Bureau), at Battle Creek Normally, the Firemaster which re sembled Nutnmaster tn physical appear ance. would have been packaged in bags lettered in red But because of a short age of bags with preprinted labeling the Ftrentaster. ax well as the Nuinmauer. was packaged in plain brown bags on which the trade names were stenciled in black How the Firemaxier and Nutri master bags became mixed at the plant if this is indeed what happened, is a my stery. According to Roger Clark, an attorney for Michigan Chemical ihe buildtngv in which Firemaster was manufactured and Stored were several hundred y.,rdv from those where Nutrimaster was pmduced and stored Also. It was the prac tice to load these products directly from Ihe storage buddings onto trucks for shipment, with no need to move them tu some common loading area where a mix-up could have oceurted Yet. the fuel is. a partially filled hog of Firemaster would be found at the Farm Bureau Services null when an tnvesti suiNct vtu i: HONS 208526 for well body is <hc cancer r.mcl which wus created jt a time when those who had won I he political buttle over the launching of a war on earner were deter mined not to see it snarled in red tape as the NCI director tried to fuvtei initiatives with all deliberate speed. The NCI direc tor could have been designated the nun to call 1 he White Mouse if things bogged down, bui he wasn't. The cancer act created a special presidentully appoint ed National Cancer Advisory Board (o advise the NCI director Its Chairman could have been granted a direct line to the While House but he wasn i In the grand si heme of things it si as A. It nci cs sary to hove a rank of supientc com mander that was more pis'sl<gtous still, und so the panel was mandated, and Schmidt, a Ri publii.m businessman who could speak the language of the Adminis tration. was named to lead it Benno Sihnmlt is a petson whose in fluence derives from his position and hts personality Me is strong and determined and not eusily pushed around 1 u top it off, he has taken hts role in the cancer program seriously Thctc is no doubt (hat he has placed an important indeed cenlral part m ihe development of the cancer program People lend to link the fortunes of Schmistl and ihc earner pro gram io e-teh other seeing him as an undefeutaMe power broker on bib iff of hts cause 1 here is some truth to that hut lot of cxaggctaiion as well Schmidt persuades, but he does not dictate to agencies such as the Ollice of Manage ment und Budget where he has won Some bill tics but also lost some Ncvcilhcless the pciccu-cd influence of Sehnudt and the cancer panel has Conferees Collide on Bill for While House Scienee Ofliec Legislation which would restore science advisory ma chinery to the White Mouse hit another snag when House and Senate conferees held their first meeting on 2 Apid, Seeking to reconcile dtflcrcnces between House and Sen ate bills, the conferees agreed equably to mt\jor sections of the bills creating the basic advisory machinery The falling out came over two somewhat secondary issues 1 he House and Senate conferees headed, respectively, by Kepiescntative Olin b league (D-Tex.) and Senator I dward M, Kennedy (D-Mass I. appeared to be sohdiy deadlocked Sources close to both sets of conferees, never theless. said that the principal interested parlies, including those in the While Mouse, are anxious to move the bill for ward and expect to resolve differences quickly. When $<ttn<t went to press on 6 April, however, it was not clear w hat lines such agreement would follow1. As anticipated (jr/rxtr. 27 February), a section of the Senate bill which would provide federal encouragement to stale and regional science policy programs met opposition from House conferees, 1 he Moose conferees also objected to the Senate bill's proposal to invert the word "engineer ing" In all lilies in the legislation Ihc White House office, for example, would be the Office of Science. Engineering, and Technology Policy. The change in wording apparently resulted from a late but intensive lobbying campaign by a coalition of engineer ing societies. The campaign was prompted by feelings in the engineering community that for loo long engineering, and engineers have been slighted in government science policy discussions and arrangements. T he House conferees in general argued that explicit men tion of engineering 1* not necessary because it falls under the rubric "science and technology.'' Furthermore, they suggested that specific mention of engineering might incite olhcr technical subgroups- medical and agricultural scien tists. for example- to demand equal consideration In the ease of Ihc Stale and Regional Scienee and Tech nology Program, which appears in the Semite bill, (he House conferees indicated sympathy with the aims of the propositi but argued that it should not be included in a bill designed to establish federal science policy machinery T he Senate proposal has two main parts It calls for crea tion of an Intergovernmental Science. Engineering, and Technology Advisory Panel with mixed federal-state mem bership to Identify major problems important to the states and to foster technology transfer and utilisation. The second provision is a one-shot piograni of grunts to the executive and legislative branches of the states to hc'p establish or strengthen state offices of science, engmecung and technology. A total of JS million would be authorized with each state to receive not more than $200 000 on a 80 to 20 federal-state matching basts The House conferees urged that stieh a progttim would be handled more suitably through National Science Foundation (NS!) legislation and (hat financing tt under the federal science advisory leg islation might create ptacliea! difficulties under new budget procedures Despite the impasse on the two disputed points, the con ferees agreed easily on the mam sections of the bill, rat tfying a scries of compromises between House and Senate versions reached in detailed negotiations in which staff members had acted as go-betweens In addition to the creation of a science advisory office headed by a director and four assistant directors, reminis cent of the Office of Scienee and Technology abolished by President Nixon in 1973. the bill imposes on the new office policy responsibilities which are more highly formalized than in its earlter incarnation The bill, for example calls for creation of a blue-ribbon study committee to conduit a 2-year survey of the federal science and technology effort and to come up with a report containing comprehensive rec ommendations. The compromise version also requires the new office to produce an annual report on science and technology w hich would supplant the report now done by the Nat ion,tl Sci ence Board and also to prepare and update each year a 5year forecast of federal investment in science and tech nology and assist the Office of Management and BuJgci in planning federal R & D investment, One issue which had contented many proponents of re turning the science adviser to the White House had hecn the question of the adviser's role in military matters With the present arrangement, under which Ihc NSP director serves as the President's science adviser, scientific nepicts of military matters are excluded from his jurisdiction In the language of the new bill, (he science adviser would be a "statutory adviser of the National Security Council (NSC) '* This docs not make the science adviser a full mem ber of the NSC. but affords hint the same status ns ib. diru,lor of the Central intelligence Agency and is s.nd to restore' the science adviser to an effective role in military qui-, lions--J.W It APRIL l MONS 208527 f.iiion or the Pint poisoning modem got under way, furl her more. Michigan Chcmk-.il was the sole miiflufiiciiirer of Pllll for sale in the United States (today, no PUB is pioduccd in this country). And. nhhough Michigan Chem ical has not conceded that the hypothesis cued above is correct. $270 million law still brought Against the company by I arm Bureau Services whs smiled last pcccnil>cr foi an amount exceeding $20 million In any event there is no question it all but dial Pol<n lluic.iu Scivices mixed 500 to 1000 pounds of PBB tnio feeds linn ixeic then widely sold and distrib ute! to Michigan farmers. Besides the heavy pnmary contamination caused by this initial mixing of PBB into feeds, thcic was secondary contamination re sulting fiom traces of the PBB remain ing at the Battle Creek nidi and at * number of other nulls and grain eleva tors around the state As events unfold ed. funuers whose herds were afflicted during the early months of the PUB poisoning incident initially were un aware that their troubles were simply pud of a pattern of affliction emerging tnvosl stuicw'idc 1 he discovery that PBB was the cause of the trouble wns not made until the end of April 1974, which was at least 8 months wfter the presence of this highly stable and persistent chemical in live stock feeds had begun having its effect, furthermore, after PBB was finally fingered ax the malefactor, another year and a hair would elapse before all of the contaminated livestock and poultry would be identified. In the late summer of 197). Frederic Halbert, a dairy operator near Battle Crec k. happened lobe the farmer who re* , eeived what was nodoubi the most heav ily contaminated consignment of feed in volved In the entire PBB episode. Hal bert believes this feed contained the equivalent of four bags of FVemaster. or 200 pounds of the stuff, and that some of his cows each ate as much as a half pound ofpure PBB. It nlo happened that Halbert was no ordi miry dairymnn He had earned a master'* degree in chemical engineering nnd worked I years Tor the Dow Chemi cal Company before reluming to the family form in 1971. Except Tor these unusunl circumstances, and Tor the fact that Halbert is exceptionally resourceful and persevering, there is no telling how king it would have taken to discover that PUB w.is responsible for the chemical plague that was descending on Michigan furms * Up until the last week in September It APRIL i 197}, the Hutbcri farm had hast ex ceptionally good milk production, but in that week production began to fall and by nikl-Octohcr it was off by 40 percent. And now- the cows were eating much less and showing varisius symptoms of sick ness such is kiss of weight, abnormal hoof development, rheumy eyes, and runny noses But neither Haibcn nor the veterinari ans he consulted were able to pinpoint the trouble. although blood samples from sick cow's were analyzed and the car casses of several cows that died under went autopsies An obvious thing to do was to analyze ilic feed for chemical con taminants But such a contaminant might be extremely hard to identify unless it were something such as dieldrin. DDT. or PCB- all frequently implicated in agri cultural contamination problems- which the analysis would know to look for. So. not surprisingly, the early analysis of Halbert's feed turned up nothing Faced with nun. Halbert did every thing possible to press on with the inves tigation He sought the help of scientists with the Michigan Department of Agri culture and those with the U.S. Depart ment of Agriculture's National Animal Disease Center in Antes, Iowa The first break in the situation came at Ames, where, partly by accident, a peculiar reading showed up in a gas chromato graph analysis of Halbert's feed. Aa Uabmllar Reading The more common chemica! con taminants that one might have suspect ed. such as those mentioned previously, show up as early emerging peaks on the chromatograph. But PBB- because of its exceptional stability- is revealed by a late emerging peak. Nothing showed up in the analysis of Halbert's feed until one day in Isle January 1974 when the re searchers at A met forgot to turn off the chromatograph during their lunch hour. By the time they returned, a wildly unfamiliar reading had appeared on the chromatograph. "Our machine is turn ing out the Rocky Mountain range." one of the researchers later tokl Halbert. Yet no one knew what the reading meant, or even whether it meant any thing at ail. Although there was now more reason than ever for the scientists at Ames to continue the investigation, word came from Washington headquarters of the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service that they would have to call it off because ail of their center's funds were (When's key role la MtMiryma the twuama wit ertcnbfdby Cun K StadlcM la the lawny ISIS tasac ofAatfaSiM earmarked for other pur(>o-ec So Hal bert. understandably frustrated and dismayed at having this buie.iaci.iue obstacle placed in hts p.uh. had to turn elsewhere A sample of his feed was sent to George fries, n scientist tn the pesti cide degradation labor,urny at ilic USDA's AgnculHire Research Center at Beltsville. Maryland By pure good luck. Fries happened to be otic of the few scientists on this earth w ho knew how to recognize PUB on a gas clilumatugiapli A few years earlier he hud obtained sonic PBB from the Michigan Chemical Corpo ration after seeing an ad in a journal laying that ftec samples were available for experimental w ork In a telephone conversation with Fries, Halbert mentioned the odd lateemerging peak Ihcn. when Fries ob served tliai PUB behaves in thai way. Halbert inquired, "Docs Michigan Chemical make PUIP " Why was he ask ing that**. Fries responded, quilt sur prised Because, said Halbert. Michigan Chemical makes Nuirimasier. So. with one quick intuitive thrust. Halbert had draw n the critical linkage be tween Firemasier and Nuirimasier And. sure enough, by 29 April 1974. Frits had established, both by gas chromaiogiaphy and mass spectrometry, that the feed sample contained PBB Several weeks later. Farm Bureau personnel and fed eral Food and Drug Administration (FDA) investigators were io find ihc partially filled bag of Fireniaster at the Battle Creek null In May 1974. the FDA established the first so-called "aclron levels." or toler ance levels, for PBB contamination and the Michigan Department of Agriculture began placing contaminated farms under quarantine- eventually, 54Y> farms were to be quarantined, but it would not be until the end of 1975 that all of them would be identified For meat and dairy products, the maximum was pui ai I part per million (ppm): Tor feed. 0 ) ppm. and for eggs. 0 I ppm. But only 6 months later these levels were lowered to 0 3 ppm for meat nd dairy products and to 0 05 for feed and eggs Residues could now be routinely detected at the lower levels and there was also the fact that many farm ani mats- though by no means nil- had been found to manifest symptoms or PUD poi soning at levels below those first esi.iblixhcd And. in truth, as the FDA free ly acknowledged those levels weie based on analytical capabilities and not on toxicological data Between the lime of the first deliveries of contaminated feeds to farmers in die late summer of 1973 and the nnie of ihe 741 MONS 208528 firs.i quarantining of coninminnicd dairy herds and other form amniuK m May of W74. several thousand Mtcht^tn form families and their neighbnis consumed me.it. eggs. nd mill, th.it were contami nated with Pllll. and in ionic cases hc.tvily contaminated. The jtcneral public tn Michigan wui also exposed to PUN eonla nun.itcd producti. but to noi nearly the mnie degree ai ihe form f.inuiiei The milk marketed by Michigan domes was Briefing ... Clearinghouse for Chemical Carcinogens Critica o< the National Cancer Inatitote havo complained that lh institute has not always pakJ enough attention to die chemical cardnogent that may contribute to tho devolopmont of aa many as 80 or 80 percent of all cancers One indication dial this pclure it changing is the formation of a National Clearinghouse on Environmental Carcinogenesis Frank Ransettor, director of NCI, says that tt>e dcaringtiouso Is to begin operating sometime In May Da goals are to eccumulate Information about potential caromogons, to acted the agents to be tested, end to dissonsnele information about ttm botwcon government agencies end to the public Reuseher described the clearinghouse t tho annuel science writers' seminar sponsored by (lie American Cancer So ciety and held m St Petersburg Beach, Florida, on 25 to 30 March. Ha men tioned tt In responding to charges made by Shokfon Samuels, aalaly and health director for the Industrial Union Depart ment of die AfL-CIO, that NCI was with holding the results of testa on 190 chem icals from the public. Rauecher repfted that tho Information waa nd ready for re lease because the tlaeuoa from the mete treated wtth the euspect chemicals had not yet been examined to see if they contain cancer cels. He said that the cur rent freeze on government hiring pre vented NCMrom hiring enough people to do the Job. Samuels later softened his comments by saying thal he does not think that tho delay was deliberate In any evtnt. Rautcher thinks that the Clearing*oose is one way to keep the public informed 1 is realty a commuteo that will consist of about 30 members. There win be representatives from Indus try. labor, and tho pubbe in addition to thoso Irom NCI end tho various govern ment agencies involved in the tdentdica- never round in h.ive ns much t'0 t ppm 1*1111 fur thiii milk dime Troni various urKom.imiruled ms well as contaminated herds und wui mixed and homogenized before being sold Whether PUB actually h.is harmed any of the individuals exposed to it is a ques tion nbout which there wui. and iv much uncertainly and debate The Michigan Department of Public Health (MDPIIt has never found any syndrome or signs of (ion end regulation of chemical carcino gens These Include the Environmental rrotsction Agency, (he Food and Drug Administration, the National Institute lor Occupational Safety and Health, and tho National Institute ol Environmental Health Sciences The National Cancer Advisory Board and the office of the as sistant secratary for health of HEW wilt al so be represented The cost of the opera tion should be about $90,000 per yearrelatively modeat by NCI standards- be cause the clearinghouse mainly Involves coordination of existing activities The eomnulteo wfff bo divided Into tour subgroups, each of which wM deal with a different aspect of tiw problem of chem ical carcmogena These are selection of compounds to be tested, design of ex periments (how to defect carcinogens rapidly and accurately is stiff a matter of some controversy), analysis of the data, and assessment of the rotative benefits end risks of continued use of pedicular agent. On the basts of tho findings of tho subgroups, the whole comnwtteo w#t then make a recommendation to the director of the Division of Cancor Cause and Pre vention of NCI The final report of the clearinghouse wffl be made pubhe. The meetings of the committee end its sub groups win be open to the pubic. in the pest NC( has been criticized tor not tetkng other government agencies In on what ff Is doing Participation of the regulatory egenoes In the clearinghouse could sotvs that problem. This it Impor tant because once an agent la Identified as a carcmogen it wM be up to agencies such as FDA and EPA to regulate or abolish- muse. Reuscher says that ha sees two poten tial disadvantages to the cieannghouse One Is that ^formation about a chemical that later proves Innocuous may be re leased prematurely The other Is that he will be accused ol seeking pubficky- and money- tor NCI. Nonetheless he thinks thal the idea of seeking to identify carcin ogens In as open a manner as possible is sound---J 4. M hum,in illness clearly .iimhui.iHc posurc to ihn compound nut ihe ade quacy of the MDPI1 s nictlic.il und cpidcniioioficnl ev.ilu.iinm h.is iiself become a mutter of dispute among experts W.ilter D Meester. Uimc.il toxicologist itl llWpclt Memon.il Hpspu.il m Gr.mJ Rapids. h,n sh.iiply cnlicim) the MDril study in pail because 70 peiccm of the persons in the Control group h.ul delect, able levels of PUB tn then Wmxt Certainly thde is a presumption dcrived from ihe limited testing Ui.it h.is been done with luhordtory unim.itx tli.it PUB might be bad for you Scver.il yv-.s ago. F. I du Pont dc Nemouis A Com pany dropped the idea of using PtlH m the manufacture of flame tesisi.ini garments after discovering ih.it tins tnn.pound caused Uvti enlargement in r.iis And rat -feeding smdics initialed by st.nc and federal agencies in Oeiobcr 1974 have shown that both PUR and PCIS chuic ''dramatic alterations in norm,il biochemical and physiological pro cesses " and that PBB is the more dan gerous of the two As an FDA official reported, "the weight of the evidence .it this time indicates ih.it PltU caused greater responses at lower levels than PCB and [its tone ityj may be up to live limes (greater)" And, valid or not. numerous com plaints of illness brought on by exposure to PBB have been made For instance. th past February. Hartley and Sharon Cote, who operate a resort business in Chippewa County in the Upper Penin sula. wrote a pathetic open Icttci to the Michigan legislature Hartley Cole and four of the Coles* children, ages 5 to 10. were all sick and miserable, c.tch suffer ing front one or more problem* such as extreme lethargy, severe headaches stomach discomfort, and stiff or swollen joints. 1 hese aflbcllons began sometime after the Coles started eating mc.it from tome pigs that hud been fattened on PBB-contammated grain from the local Firm Bureau elevator T he pork that the family ate was only lightly contaminated, however, and the analysis of n foi sample taken from Cote himself turned up only 0 1.1 ppm of PBB. Various sludics are now under way to Iry to determine the short- and tong term effects of PBB on animals and hununs These include some testing to sec wheth er the Firemasicr contained iiacc amounts of dibenzofurans, these m.itcnalx can be formed tn manufacturing PUU or PCH and they arc more toxic than either of (hose compounds. Whatever the consequences of hum n exposure lo PBB are ultimately found to be. the impact of the PUB poisoning -- * -- -- '*' Michigan f.nm economy n? SC U NCI vin ei; HONS 208529 has been nude agonisingly clear Ihc loss of farm animals continues today and it complete iicciiunting will not he available for xomc nnic yei. flut at Inst lolly. (he losses included IV.WX) cuttle J.9KI hog'll 1,470 'Seep and uhoul I $ million chickens In addition, at kast B65 tons offeed. 17.WO pounds of cheese. 3,MO pounds of butter. W.000 pounds of dry milk pioducts. and nearly J million eggs have been dcstioycd 1 housands of head of cuttle have been hauled by Turn) ItuiCiiii Services lo u remote 30-ucrc burial site or "nninial Auschwm ' tn cenlml Michigan Ity the end of 1975. settlements had been reached tn VIS of the 69) clmms filed against the Michigan (..ml Bureau and the Michigan Chcnncul Coipomnon with Halbert's chum having been one of (lie early ones scaled Altogether. $23 S million was paid out Sonic of the claims and lawsuits that re slit! pending seek compensation for httntan injury, but most seek recovery of damages to farm animals The problem presented by the majority of these latter cases is that the residues piesent tn the animals ate below the action level set by the H>A and observed by stale authori ties. (Halheit thinks that not more than maybe one-tenth of the cattle herds that have such residues actually show symp toms of PUU poisoning Also, such symptoms arc said to be easily confused with symptoms brought on by other prob lems. such as the iodine poisoning that can result ftoni giving cows too much orgaiuc iodine to combat foot rot) By some unofficial estimates, as much as kW million or niore is al slake in such sub-action-levcl cases, and only a few have been settled. 1 he farm Bureau and Michigan Chemical arc hanging tough in dealing with many of the claimants, espe cially those who can only show residues in amounts well below the action levels. For sueh claimants, the prospect is for a long legal hank which they caa ill afford. Recently, several hundred angry farmers descended on Lansing to demand of Governor William G. MiHiken and the legislature that the action kvels be low ered drastically. But. with the slate Itself re sponsible Tor compensating farmers for any animals which might have to be of ficially condemned. Governor MiHiken-- conscious of the state's financial prob lems- has not been willing to have the state assume so large a liability. Many farmers ure scundultttd at this posture on the pun of state officials. Bumper stickers say. "Cattlegate Bigger than Watergate." One troublesome point of contention bears on the fact that. given the existing action levels. Farm Bureau Services und Michigan Chcnttcul are is afan iH insisting ih.u settlements of claims in volving nnim.ils with hclow-.ietioii.level residues should rcflcci the salvage value ol those untnmls Ihc argument is made tit,it to make a farmer sell a contanitn.ued anmi.it or the products derived fuim n is unclhic.il Hut a counterargument is that some of the farmers themselves, knowing how much time and money it takes iu build up a fine dairy herd, w'ant to try to maintain their existing herds, culling out only the sickci or less productive animals It s also noted that, in establishing the action levels the TDA has drawn the official line between what is threat to public health and what is not. Some farmers such as Halbert who have had to live through the BSD epi sode, and some of the scientists and legis lators who have tried to help them, be lieve ttsat several important lessons can be learned from this episode. 1 hey speak of the following. Rigorous premariel /firing ofchemtcah is fsirfilial. Certainly it is now clear that if PBB was to be manufactured at all. it should have been only after rigorous and extensive testing to determine its short- and long-term toxic effects Its cousin relationship with PCH should it self have been enough to bring It under early suspicion. Besides producing Important tox icological data, the testing could also have revealed the compound's identi fying characteristics, including its dis tinctive behavior and fingerprint in chro matograph analysis Such information could have been cataloged for the use of any researchers catkd upon to discover and track it in contamination incidents. .Strict safeguards for handling and distributing hazardous chemicals should be mandatory. Mix-ups such as the one involving Firemaster and Nutrimaster might be virtually impossible if products such as PUB werg red flagged from the point of production ail the way through to Ihc point of use. No happenstance such as the temporary shortage of pre printed bags which apparently figured in the Michigan incident should be allowed to compromise the safeguards' effec tiveness. Federal technical assistance should be readiht available In the event ofchem ical contamination incidents. USDA sci entists played a critical role in clearing up the mystery in the Michigan incident, but. had Halbert been leu resourceful, this might not have been the case In ad dition to seeing the setemists at the USDA's Antes laboratory called off the investigation just when the mil was getting hot. Halbetl experienced some other frustrations which, while n"TM- * found discoumgtnyly symbolic of the government'., unrcsponstvencss On one occasion, for instance, he was Cven de nied it government hill of hiding to ship a feed sample lo u USDA loxicoliigtsi t Texas A A M Univeistty H.ilhcrl ran up *9100 in out-of pocket expenses to cany on the investigation-- something many farmers would have been unwilling or unable io do The Amm.it and Plant Health Inspec tion Service maint.ims a network of emctgcncy teams to cope with outbreaks of foreign animat diseases, such as hog cholera or Afiican horse sickness To prepare some teams to cope wuh chem ical contamination incidents also seems catkd for. Halbert believes that had die USDA arrived in force to help the Michi gan Department of Agriculture, it would mil have taken year and hnlf to place ail the more heavily contanun.ilcd dairy herds under quarantine * Emergency farm rehrf loans are needed in chemical disasters. A king delay in the settlement of claims can be ruinous for farmers, especially tf during the time of waiting they musi continue to feed their contaminated and unproduc tive animals to maintain proof of dam ages None of the existing federal loan programs for farmers meets this particu lar need. The toxic substances contiul bill which passed the Senate on 36 March is responsive to some of the tote going needs, notably through ns provisions for premarkcl testing and for regulation of the marking and dismbulton of hazard ous chemicals. The Senate slso recently approved a bill to make disaster relief loans avaitabk to farmers whose live stock or commodities are quarantined or condemned as the res ult of chc nucat con tamination. Senator PhiUtp A. Hart of Michigan has been one of the prime movers behind both of these pieces of legislation The problems addressed in the disaster relief bill, as well as tn the toxic substances bill, art truly national in relevance and scope, however T he USDA reports th.ii. since 1968. there have been 34 incidents, involving 38 states, in which livestock or poultry have suffered chcniic.it contam ination. 1 he losses involved ure pui at at kust *97 million, an estimate which will probably be proved conservative once all the Michigan losses have been totaled up T hese incidents, together with such prob lems ns the PCB contamination of the Hudson River fishery and the Kepone poisoning Of some Virginia chcmic.il workers, may be enough to trouble even the more complacent guests at what has been aptly called the "chemical feast " - LutHtaJ Cxaua :o HONS 208530