Document mBKvz7bVJ1dkyYVJ0M3zaj78Q

And Then There's Dieldrin# Killer Insecticide By ELSIE CARPER Special lo The Press . From (he Washington Post . WASHINGTON--Lust spring a female bald eagle found tangled in a barbed wire fence was taken to the nearby home of conservationist Kenneth D. Otis at Accokeek, Md. The eagle refused to cat and died that night. Oils delivered the carcass to the Patuxent Wildlife Re search Center in Maryland where an autopsy report re leased last week showed that the eagle died from ingesting dieldrin, a highly toxic chemical that enters the food chain. Dr. Lucille Stickol, a pesticide coordinator at Patuxent, said that the lethal residue could have come from high exposure over a short period of time or low exposure over long period. Bald eagles cat fish and other birds. The brain of the eagle contained II parts per million (ppm) of dieldrin. Experimental studies show that residues ,of four ppm lit the brain can be fatal. THE CARCASS contained 18 ppm of the Insecticide, and there wero traces In the brain and body of other en vironmental contaminants Including DDE, DDD, hepta- chlor epoxide and PCD. None were judged to be at a level to cause the eagle's death. Dieldrin and a similar chemical, aldrin, which breaks down Its chemical composition Into dieldrin when applied, are used for termite control. 'Aldrin also is used in the soil to kill com root Insects. Both formerly were used ' on citrus and grains. Because they are persistent chemicals--ones that stay round a long time and work their way up the food chain --the Environmental Protection Agency recently initiated proceedings that would cancel all uses. Manufacturers, have appealed and the National Academy of Sciences has appointed a panel of scientists to advise the EPA. DR. ST1CKEL said it would be Impossible to determine where the eagle was poisoned, since the birds range over ' such a wide Area. 1 Thero is a lot of dieldrin around and it Is found in vary ing quantities in most of the birds on which autopsies are performed at the center, but It is not always the cause of death, she said. . In a 1000 study of 69 bald eagle carcasses sent to the center, 11 were judged to have died of environmental poisons and eight of these were from dieldrin. One each died of DDT, lead and mercury. Earlier lids year the Patuxent center performed autopsies on 22 bald and golden earjlo carcasses found In Wyoming. The center r.uid those eagles were poisoned with thallum sulphate used for predator control. 1 pcV LONG ISLAND PRESS October 31, 1971 , Copies to: ' Cunningham Corey ; Mason Bergen ' Papageorge 1 Park , Wheeler ' Pickard Marsh-Brussels E. John MGNS 07093A