Document vBDL29d6eqjq5bx8BBx93jw7Z

HONS 0 0 8 7 1 3 SEP 2 6 1979 . Angle and Walters { ' s -.j \ Poisonous PCBs pose persistent, prevalent problem WASHINGTON (NEA) WHh apologia to compear Woody Guthrie, tore's a new Mm for one of the country's bat-known (oik mar Tam the redwood forests to the GaU Stream oiters, lii land is aekod with PCB" PCBs are pofychtoriqlad htpbeeyb, a family of toxic, high ly pmbtant mdatria] theminto that have caused liver dam age and birth defects in laboratory animals. The redwoed fovate span the leathern coast of Oregon, where a m--iiriil bakery recently discovered that it had purchased -- and now not dertroy - SI.W PCB-cmUmi- utodegp. The Gmf Stream water* wash the wot coast sf Florida, where a cheaieC recently found a marhad dectiae in the poten tial fertility rfyaung month* appeared to be related in part to PCB trams fwmdle the subjects'sperm. This amok's repsrts sf Pra cantemtantion arml Limited to them Inn stoSss. in FrmdtUn. Mate. s psnttry ceapeny is in the peeam ef dmtujing mere than 319,900 contaminated ehteheaeand mere than! mUBen pauanad eggs. la CMntsa, town, a packing company is destroying the mat from 39,900 mere cbckmi, all porrhisad from the Idaho firm la Mohamad, Utah. PCB trncm ham been feimd in 7>,did freon oka that alee mot he destroyed. In BHBigr. Meat, federal toaKh officials have converged oe a beg praeamiag firm whoa mat meal bypreduct is sus pected of hong tbs source ef the most receut outbreak of widespread PCB cuataadMtmn. The gnvirummt invatigstlm elruedy encompsmm most of the country's aorthwal quadrant heesae the Montaa com pany setts IdMdd to 290,999 pemds of sauna) food weekly Lhroughuut Washington, Prague. Montana. Idaho. Miwrts. North Daheta and Seath Ookats. The Plarida esperience. described's! the mid-September aanaal meeting ef (he Americdn Chemical Satiety, led i mearchers to ceartede that 23 percent ef a group ef male cwilepe students involved m the study non function- at sterility. Other scientists reported at the American Chemical Society conventioa that tana of PCBs tall from the air each year into the Creat Lakes. Food products confiscated, destroyed or banned by federal officials became * PCB contamination discovered in the arIjr 1970s include the following- more than 490.00# eggs in Vir ginia and North Carolina, 230.000 pounds of turkey roll in Sooth Carolina, 30,000 turkeys in Mmneasti and 330,000 chickens m Maine. New York and North Carolina. There's more. New York's Hudson River, Alabama's streams sad Lake Michigan were found to have such high levels of PCBs that fishing in those waters was banned. Mflk rontimmstion has beeo reported in West Virginia and Ohio. Maanuhile, the campeay that was tbs sole U.S. producer and marketer ef PCBs far almost half a century b busily in spsgsivtiiag the public about the real and imagined glories of industrial cMfiiicab. The MnifipfoYo. nf St Lais finally halted its production of PCBs (sold under the Aroclor trade name) in the aotonm sf 1977 - but not until it bad produced enough of the toxic liquid to float so entire navy. Monsanto has claimed ia recent years that K always was concerned about the dangers posed by PCBs and '1ms made every effort" to keep the public informed about the baaards. But when the threat of PCBs was first disclosed in the arty 1979s. Monsanto denigrated thorn revelations as mere "polit cal charges and sensational beadliaas... sure tactics and smsational reportine." The company new Ims mounted an ambitioa and espaowre advertising campaign desiped to demonstrate that chemicals are valuable, if net Mbpoeable, to modern life. Monsanto's ubiquitous televiaiea commereiab extol the virtnee ef chemicals ranging from preservativa to firefighttM cowiBBWidi. Never motioned, however, b the product that will Meat the uatioa tor many decades to oma -- PCBs. wwgimwiwnstoBi .