Word: pcbs
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...chemical cousin of the PCBs has also been causing problems these days. During the past two years, some 32,000 cows, more than 6,000 swine, 1,370 sheep and 1.5 million chickens, not to mention considerable quantities of eggs, cheese, butter and dried milk, have been destroyed in the state of Michigan after they were accidentally contaminated by a fire retardant containing polybrominated biphenyls, or PBBS. Furious farmers, many of them near bankruptcy as a result of the poisoning, have accused state officials not only of failing to protect producers and the public against PBBS, but also of attempting...
...several other species. Now, fish and game officials fear they may also have to forbid fishing for the roe-laden shad that are just making their appearance in the Hudson. Reason: the river is polluted with a particularly persistent and dangerous class of chemical compounds called polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs. Worse, despite remedial action by General Electric Co., the principal polluter, the Hudson is likely to be contaminated for years...
...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...