PCBs AND COUNTRY LIFE

(Page 7 of 7)

September/October 1976
By the Mother Earth News editors 
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The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that of the 1.4 billion pounds of PCB's that have been produced in the U.S. since 1929, some 500 million pounds have entered the environment. Of this half-billion pounds, 300 million pounds are probably buried in landfills, 50 million pounds are thought to have degraded, and 150 million pounds are believed to be present in the atmosphere, the oceans, the soil, the bottom sediments of lakes and rivers, and living organisms.

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According to Dr. George Harvey, Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute, "PCB's have been found in all organisms' analyzed from the North and South Atlantic oceans, even in animals living under 11,000 feet of water. Based on available data it seems safe to assume that PCB's are present in varying concentrations in every species of wildlife on earth."

WHAT'S BEING DONE ABOUT PCB POLLUTION?

In September 1970, the Monsanto Company — sole U.S. producer of PCB's — voluntarily limited the sale of PCB's to the manufacturers of large electrical components. PCB's continue to be imported for non-electrical manufacturing uses, however, and an estimated nine million pounds of these chemicals continue to be lost to the environment every year through vaporization, spills, burial in landfills, and discharge into sewers.

The EPA on December 22, 1975, announced a policy of "totally eliminating the use of polychlorinated biphenyls as rapidly as possible". Whether the EPA — or any other governmental agency — can or will take action to bring about this goal remains to be seen .

PCB's IN BLOOMINGTON INDIANA

Tests for PCB's in the Bloomington area are by no means complete. A few of the results that ARE known, however, are given below.

The data shown were obtained from the city laboratory, the State Board of Health, and the Environmental Protec tion Agency.

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