Document omORk5j58Lqm6py6Nqp4azn7g

Pftcte eddrzst dnjr rtpif (a THt OOY1KMMINT CHIMIIT quett: Your reftrfict; Ministry of Technology LABORATORY OF THE GOVERNMENT CHEMIST ............- Cornwall Home, Stamford Street. London S.E.1 Telephone: WATer/oo 7900, ext. ftflf- RECD27 FED 1967 2Jrd ybruarjr, 1967. Bear Dr. Hardy, Tltb reference to your letter of 20th February to the Covarnaant Cheaist and our dlaouaalon on the telephone the following day, I eaa confine that we ere very Interested In thle Laboratory In the suggestion by Jenaen of the Dniverslty of Stockholm that ohlorlnated biphenyl oospounds ooour in wildlife. As you are aware, we have for eoeM years been ezanlning aeleotsd fooda, huaan tissue, wildlife, eto. for organoohlorine pesticide residues. The work on food end buaan tleaue has been oarrled out on a eystanatie basis for the Soientifie Bub-ceuaitte* on Poisonous Substanoea used In Agriculture and Food Storage, while the wildlife work la for the Nature Cooserraney. He bate found that wildlife, in partioular, often oontains a nuaber of ooapounda which produoe a ssriee of peaks on gas ehroaatograas when using slsotroo-capture detector*-. These peaks do not correspond to peaticidea or their known breakdown products or metabolites but they souetiwes interfere with the do'eruinatlon of the pesticides. V# have epent ooe tiao attenptlng to identify th -.a unknown oenpounds whioh ooour at quite low lewela, probably parta per nilllon nost. Their close alnilarity has presented us froa Isolating indiwldual coapounds but, collectively, we know they have a , high chlorine content - about 50f - aiailar to the organoohlorine peaticidea. This led us to think that they wight be derivatives of suoh peaticidea aa DDT or dialdrln beoaute we nevar aeeaed to find then without one of those also being present in aubatantial aaounta. Ve alao considered that they night be ooapounda of the paetioldea with aterol or protein aeterial or be polynere or inter-oondensatioB produots of the pesticides, /* dv> Experimental work failed to oonflrn any of theee hypothaeee end being short of staff we abandoned the work until we obtained a positive lead. Jensen'a announcement oauted us to examine a saaple of Aroolor Besin which we found in another seotlon of the Laboratory. Vs find it gives peaks on the gaa ohroaatograph fairly oloae to thosu- which arc given by avian livsr and we ara now oarrylng out further work whioh looks proalslng but ha^ whioh it would be foolish to prejudgs. Sven if ve find Aroolor ooapounds to be responsible it will raise a nuaber of iup orient questions such as how doss it get there and why aainly bird life, end sous Kerins life like seals, end so seldom in nan or his foods such as ailk, butter, eto, Ve shall be pleased to examine any further sample* of Aroolor which you send us and 1st you know the results. I enclose a reprint of th* section of th* 1965 Annual Hsport of this Laboratory whioh nay ba of Interest to you. TRAN 056615 Tours slnoerely. Dr. D.V.N. Hardy, Monsanto Chealoals Ltd., 10-18 Vlotorla Street, S.V. 1. J.O'C. Tati WATER PCB-SD0000024940