Document qmQDvw2DB5Zow9v0QYvx9kyNR

S,,S OCT 11 79 Woman told to stop nursing son PCB concentrations found. (. I '/ 7 By ANDREW ROSENTHAL LAFAYETTE, Colo. -- Concentrations o( Bit banned chemical PCB were found in the breast mJft of farm women Wednesday, and a state epidemiologist recommended dial she temporarily stop nursing her year- old ion. prattmlnary tests showed Marie Darling's breast mtik contains I I parts per million of PHI, .1 ppm more than the U S Food and Drag AdMinstrolion allows in cows* milk, said Aaae Lockhart of the Colorado Depart ment of Health. Based oa the rosutu. Dr. Sandra Lapham. a state epidemiologist, suggested that Mrs. Darting temporarily stop breastfeeding her son Matthew. Ms. Lapham said she would esaduct more detailed tosta of Mrs. Darling's mtt to find out whether the conuminotion woo severe enough to pose threat to hu mans. The testa were conducted after Wayne Darling fooad 17 barrels of PCB on his ranch One of the 55-falloa drums was leaking. The chemical, called polychlorinated bi phenyl, was developed in 1929 and used as an industrial coolant for decades. In 1937 it was found toxic to the human liver and in 1968, some 1.609 Japanese were poisoned by PCBcontaminated rice. The Environmental Pro tection Agency banned it earlier this year. The state Health Department also re leased test results showing that egg and chicken-fat samples from the Darling farm were contaminated with even higher concen trations of PCB. William Dunn of the department said there were <25 ppm of PCB in the chicken fat, more than 20 times the federal limit of 3 ppm. There were 2.3 ppm in the eggs, about seven times higher than FDA restrictions of .3 ppm. *Tm sure there Is some sort of safety problem here,'' be sold. "We Just don't know the extent of it yet" Mrs. Darling has said she and hor hus band moved to Lafayette north of Denver ''to live eieen. healthy lives." only to discover "the most horrible thing in the world in our backyard " The Darlings are vegetarians and raised chickens. They ate some of the eggs and gave some to friends. * An investigation showed that the PCB bar rels were put near the Darlings' barn by a relative of the owner, who thought they con tained cooking oil. He was going to use the oil to weatberise fences. Darling, a self-employed auto mechanic. - said he left the barrels undisturbed for "a couple of years" after being told by the manufacturer^Monsanto Chemical Carp of St. Louis, that they cooUiaed "a dangerjuo chemical." He said he become alarmed by recent telecasts of PCB contamination ebtwlw-re and called the Denver EPA office The bar rels now are surrounded by a channhnk frnee while the state decides where to dispose of (hem and bow to pay for K. Monsanto has said disposal is the EPA's responsibility. An unrelated case of PCB eoatamiaaiieo was reported recently in a Mootana mratpacking plant, resulting hi the destruction of millions of eggs and hundreds of thousands of chickens in Montano, Idaho and Utah This story also appeared in: Auburn (Wash.) Globe News Xent (Wash.) News Journal Shawnee (Okla.) News-Star Lewiston (Idaho) Morning Tribune Arkansas Democrat (Little Sock) Baton Rouge (La.) Morning Advocate Pueblo (Colo.) Chieftain Wilmington (Del.) Morning News Des Moines (Iowa) Register HONS 015175