PCBs AND COUNTRY LIFE

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Yet the dollar loss is not the only loss we feel: Gone, too, is the joy of being able to plant, grow, and harvest a variety of foods ... for the land we've worked so hard to improve over the past three years is now useless to us.

Whether we will also lose our health is a matter that may not be resolved for many years.

This much is certain, though: Sometimes, what you don't know CAN hurt you.

EDITOR's NOTE; This has been the first half of a two-part feature. In MOTHER NO. 42, Ron Nehrig will discuss the steps that he and other Bloomington-area residents have taken to help put an end to PCB pollution in southern Indiana.

STRAIGHT TALK ON PCB's

WHATARE PCB'S?

Polychlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) are complex hydrocarbons that contain anywhere from 12 to 68% chlorine. They're used as the insulating fluid in large electrical transformers and capacitors, and are also found in such products as brake and hydraulic fluids, caulking compounds, "carbonless" carbon paper, paint, plastics, epoxy resins, silo sealer, paper food-packaging materials, printer's ink, Xerox toner, and a good many other items. (PCB's have also been used to solubilize-and increase the effectiveness of-DDT.)

ARE PCB'S HARMFUL TO LIVING THINGS?

PCB's have been shown to cause both benign and malignant liver tumors in mice, rats, and mink, and to cause reproductive disorders in birds and other animals.

The harmful effect of PCB's on human life was established beyond doubt in 1968, when more than 1,000 Japanese became ill after they had consumed rice oil that was accidentally contaminated with PCB's at the rice oil factory. Among the symptoms these people displayed were: headache, fatigue, dizziness, blurred vision, nausea, numbness of extremities, skin discoloration, skin lesions, swollen eyelids, nerve damage, liver damage, menstrual disorders, and reproductive abnormalities (including stillbirth).

Monkeys — after being fed PCB's in their diet at concentrations of 2.5 and 5.0 parts per million (ppm) for two months — showed symptoms similar to those listed above. Ironically, 5.0 ppm is the upper limit set by the Food and Drug Administration for PCB's in human food.

ARE PCB'S BIODEGRADABLE?

Not very. Polychlorinated biphenyls remain in the environment for 60 to 100 years ... while in the human body, the breakdown of PCB's is (according to Dr. Joseph Highland, Environmental Defense Fund) "even slower than for

some of the most persistent pesticides, such as dieldrin and DDT".

HOW WIDESPREAD IS PCB POLLUTION?

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