Word: pcbs
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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Thousands of Americans are already suffering the grim consequences of excessive exposure to such chemicals as asbestos, vinyl chloride, carbon tetrachloride and polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which can-and too often do-cause metabolic disorders, birth defects or even cancer. But now there is hope that many others may be spared such agonies in the future. Calling it "one of the most important pieces of environmental legislation to come out of Congress," President Ford last week signed into law a bill that requires premarket testing of new chemicals...
...compounds have been accumulating in the environment for more than 45 years. In commercial production since 1929, the colorless, odorless, syrupy PCBs were once widely used in industry as softeners in plastics, paints and rubber, as additives in printing inks, and in oils used in the preparation of laboratory slides...
Mine Field. Because of increasing questions about the safety of PCBs, their use has been almost exclusively confined in recent years to transformers and capacitors, in which they are sealed. The chemicals are ideal for these electrical devices because they are excellent insulators, highly fire resistant and good conductors of heat. GE uses the PCBs in equipment manufactured at its Fort Edward and Hudson Falls plants on the upper Hudson, about 45 miles north of Albany...
There was little concern about PCBs until 1968, when an estimated 1,600 Japanese came down with a baffling and painful ailment labeled Yusho (rice-oil poisoning). Their symptoms-skin eruptions, vomiting, inflamed eyes and palsy -occurred after they had eaten rice oil that had been accidentally contaminated by PCBs. Japan promptly banned almost all use of the compounds, even in electrical equipment, and suddenly everyone was wary of their presence. In 1970 the Campbell Soup Co. found high PCB levels in 146,000 New York State chickens destined for its products, and the birds-which probably picked...
Some Symptoms. The long-term health effects of PCBs on humans are still unknown. But GE has admitted that at least 65 of its capacitor plant employees have come down with some of the same symptoms as those exhibited by the Japanese victims of Yusho. The chemicals have also been found to cause cancer in laboratory animals...