Word: velsicol
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: during 1970-1979
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Pesticides provide other toxic horror stories. The pesticide Phosvel (also known as leptaphose) has been banned from use in the United States, but it was produced here for export from 1971 until 1975, by the Velsicol Corporation. In 1969, Velsicol commissioned a testing group to study Phosvel's danger to humans. The group advised Velsicol not to manufacture Phosvel because of its high toxidity and its adverse effects on test animals. Velsicol ignored the report and began producing the pesticide in 1971, providing no industrial safeguards for its workers. Employees shovelled the pesticide into bags, while clouds of dust containing...
...Velsicol Corporation began production in 1976 of another pesticide, EPN, which scientists suspect is twice as toxic as Phosvel. EPN and Phosvel have the same chemical base. The EPA has recommended the EPN be banned from the United States. At present, several major companies manufacture EPN, the largest being DuPont Chemical Company...
...Velsicol is a subsidiary of Northwest Industries. The Michigan Chemical Company, the manufacturer of Firemast that began the PBB fiasco, is also a subsidiary of Northwest Industries. Both chemical companies are facing civil suits and criminal charges...
...pesticides involved are hepta-chlor and chlordane. Velsicol, a subsidiary of Northwest Industries Inc., sells them to other firms, which market them under myriad brand names. They have been widely used by both farmers and homeowners against termites, fire ants and the like. According to the indictment, Velsicol, at the behest of the EPA, began studies of both chemicals in 1971 to determine what, if any, dangers they posed...
...Velsicol Chairman Paul F. Hoffman called last week's indictments an "outrage." Said he: "We do not understand how the Government can complain about the delay in submitting two scientifically insignificant, incomplete readings when the authors of those readings have subsequently stated they were meaningless." Dr. Rust, one of the authors, told TIME last week that he found tumors and severe liver damage in the mice tested but no satisfactory proof that the pesticides were a cause of cancer. Still, he believes that his findings were alarming and should have been brought to the attention...