Document rxNa9963MMZqMrGO7LYkn4w3J

ROANOKE. VA. TIMES 0. 62.500 S. 106.000 SEP 13 1976 Chemical Linked to Cancer Omnipresent PCBs Cause Ecological Concern MAYBE YOU read, t few weeks ago, that the Boose of Representatives had vot ed to ban, within three jean, the manufect of i dan of Hwmfcab oM PCBs. Maybe yon shrugged and wondered what Maybe yon shouldn't hive. Becaaee yoo have PC3i in your body. So does every body--jut as everyone now has within himsdf or heneU some trace of DDT. Uke that pesticide, PCBs enter the food chain and resist decomposition--and have been linked to cancer and birth defects, water pollution and the contamination of wildlife. Unlike DDT, the primary purpose of PCBS is net to Mil anything. PCBs--poly chlorinated hiphenyls are, in one reportn'l description, "a dam of adoriem and lubricants and plastics." They were fiiat produed commeecyUy ia IPS and iso brgo-scnle use during and after World Warn. idutyifkd PCBs in some Baltic fob, in fee body ef an etyfc. and in eagln leathen from nauseam specimens, that By ROBERT A* WILLIS Associate Editor of Editorial Page 1 "In 1969 the Food and Drug Admtnietration began rurveging alt types o/ food; ft found that of 17,000 sompMa, 3,505 contained PCB*.'* amounts of PCBs in S of 99 ampies of ta2*di*V*np. NortbCaroU**, Somh Cantina, Alabama, Geor?,.P?n<*4' ^"Wlyania, New Jer*y and Midugaa. PCBs* effects began to be suspected. Ibe chemical traces wese not fmmd in'any ea gles, or their feathers, if the birds had beea taken before 1944-the year- that PCBs be gan coming into widespread indotrial use. Evidence of PCBs" penistent and wide spread presence has accumulated since Ittt. In 1961 more than 1,009 Japanese fell iO from consuming rice oil that had bees tainted by PCBs tint leaked from a beating system. The federal Pood and Drug Afenin- istratioo has set acceptable touts of PCBs for foods and several years ago banned Coho salmon from Lake far ho- mao coaumptioa because the fish con- taiaed more than five parts per mitton of the chemical residue, m 1999 FDA began s17mmveyianmg pailel sty.p3e.sMo6fcfoonotda;iiiwt dfoPimCdBlthat of Mom recently, the Tftirtriummd 1 Protnctiow Agency <EPA> enmmtoMwnd a na tionwide survey that found measnrable FDA's "provisional tolerance level" far PCBs la whole mifc Is IS pats per milban; dm renthers' oik sampled in North Carolina averaged 2.9 ppm and ia Maryland 2.5. In one unnamed date it was 10 ppm, a level of contamination anally associated with industrial accident; this figure may not be a valid one. The survey is at a preliminary stage, but the PC8 amounts ia those 10 states were described by a federal official as "worri some." Dr. David Rail, director of the Na tional Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, said he had no advfae now far pregnant or nursing mothers except to avoid eating any fish from the Great Lakes or Hmkan River, where commercial SsMa has been tamed became of PCBs. Actions to Butt spread of PCBs have been ping on far a wntber of yeas. Ttw MtmuBla ffl. la lfTO'aimouoced it had witiMbawa PCEb from sofa for am that could lead to food * other aacoatroUod duperskw into the envfroo- meok PCS mku in the Untied States, at s high that year of mfihon pounds, were halved by the next year, and in 1*72 Moosanio restricted PCB use to "confined" sys- Tfaat was an important advance io PCB control But biologist-ecoiofiJt Bury Com moner has pointed out (Environment mag azine, July/August 1973) that worken ia plants that use PCBs are still subject to rel atively high levels of etyasoe to the chem ical and that tram can cling to the body or clothing and be broigbt home. This b not the only way in which in^a. trial PCBs leak into the envirofrraent Com moner cites one estimate that "1,999 to 2.900 tore of PCBs per year are `tot' to the air, 4,000 to 3,000 tore per year to fresh and coastal waters, and 11,000 toa per year to dumps and landfills." Gude. R-Md., who told the Home tfat "We have identified a mad dog in PCB and it's time to get rid of it" 11* anmwts of PCB Some day, though, we may know more shout PCBs' effects. Even if they're banned, because ef their resistance to chemiral breakdown theyB be around far genmatioa to came HONS 037208