The History of PCBs

The History of PCBs 1865-2001

When Were Health Problems Detected?

PCB history is not pretty. As the timeline shows, the manufacturers and major users of PCBs knew by the 1930s and 1940s that PCBs caused serious health problems in their workers, and doctors advised them that other effects could be occurring as well. But this did not stop industries from producing and using PCBs, or from releasing PCBs into our environment, contaminating our public waterways, air, croplands, and wildlife. It appears from this PCB history that several companies also deliberately misled workers, customers, regulators and the public for many decades, allowing the PCB problem to spread and become much worse.

(Courtesy of Fox River Watch)

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Timeline

1865 — First PCB-like chemical discovered; a by-product of coal tar.

1881 — First PCBs synthesized. [2]

1914 — Enough PCBs had already escaped into the environment to leave measurable amounts in the feathers of birds held in museums today. [3]

1927 — PCBs were first manufactured commercially by the Anniston Ordnance Company, in Anniston, Alabama. [4] The Anniston Plant’s legacy began in 1915 when Theodore Swann founded the company to manufacture six-inch explosive shell cases for the U.S. Army. To see photos and learn what the Anniston plant makes now, visit http://www.solutia.com/corporate/worldwide/anniston.html

1930 — The company’s name changed to the Swann Chemical Company. [4]

1933 — Problems soon arose at the manufacturing plant. 23 out of 24 workers in the plant had acne-like pustules on their faces and bodies. Some complained of loss of energy, appetite and libido as well as other skin ailments. These symptoms are now known as classic first signs of PCB exposure. [6]

1935 — Swann was purchased in 1935 by the Monsanto Industrial Chemical Company of St. Louis, Missouri. Monsanto produced PCBs at plants in Sauget, Illinois and Anniston, Alabama (until 1977.) [5] Monsanto then licensed others to make PCBs and the product took off. PCB’s have been produced in other countries including Italy (Caffaro), France (Protolec), Japan (Kanegafuchi Chemical Co.), Germany (Bayer), and they may still be produced in Russia. [7] As electricity came into widespread use during the first half of this century, equipment suppliers like GE and Westinghouse became major users of PCBs. One Monsanto engineer allegedly called it “as perfect as any industrial chemical can be.” [8]

1936 — A senior official with the U.S. Public Health Service described a wife and child, both of whom had developed chloracne, a combination of blackheads and “pustules,” merely from contact with a worker’s clothes. The same official wrote, “In addition to these skin lesions, symptoms of systemic poisoning have occurred among workers inhaling these fumes.”[9]

1936 – Scientists issued a report attributing the plant workers’ disease symptoms to poor handling techniques and the “natural laziness of the black man.” [6]

1937 — A study published in the Journal of Industrial Hygiene and Toxicology suggested links between PCBs and liver disease. [10]

1937 — The Harvard School of Public Health hosted a one-day meeting on the problem of “systemic effects” of certain chlorinated hydrocarbons including “chlorinated diphenyl” (an early name for PCBs).[10] The meeting was attended by representatives from Halowax Corp., Monsanto, General Electric, the U.S. Public Health Service, state health officials from Massachusetts and Connecticut, and others. Before World War I, the Halowax Corporation, in New York City, began manufacturing chlorinated naphthelenes as a coating for electric wire, and companies like General Electric began using it. The president of Halowax, Sandford Brown, told the meeting that they had observed no problems in their workers until “the past 4 or 5 years… Then we come to the higher stages [greater number of chlorine atoms in the mixture], combined with chlorinated diphenyl and other products, and suddenly this problem is presented to us.”[10]By the mid-1930s, workers at Halowax and at GE, and even some of their customers, were breaking out with chloracne—small pimples with dark pigmentation of the exposed area, followed by blackheads and pustules. In 1936 three workers at the Halowax Company died. Autopsies of two revealed severe liver damage. Halowax then hired Harvard University researcher, Cecil K. Drinker, to investigate. He exposes rats to these chlorinated compounds, to see if they could discover the underlying cause. The Harvard researchers made “a number of estimates of chlorinated hydrocarbons in the air of different factories,” then designed experiments to expose rats to similar levels. The rats also suffered from severe liver damage. Conference notes report that “the chlorinated diphenyl is certainly capable of doing harm in very low concentrations and is probably the most dangerous [of the chlorinated hydrocarbons studied].”[10] Dr.Drinker added, “These experiments leave no doubt as to the possibility of systemic effects from the chlorinated naphthalenes and chlorinated diphenyls.”[10] From a brief report on the one-day conference, we can gather that problems caused by PCB exposures were serious and widely known. Mr. F.R. Kaimer, assistant manager of General Electric’s Wireworks at York, Pa., said, “It is only 1 ½ years ago that we had in the neighborhood of 50 to 60 men afflicted with various degrees of this acne about which you all know. Eight or ten of them were very severely afflicted—horrible specimens as far as their skin conditions was concerned. One man died and the diagnosis may have attributed his death to halowax vapors, but we are not sure of that….”[10] GE’s medical director, Dr. B. L. Vosburgh of Schenectady, N.Y., attended the meeting. He said, “About the time we were having so much trouble at our York factory some of our customers began complaining. We thought we were having a hysteria of halowax mania throughout the country.” Monsanto Chemical Company was represented at the meeting by R. Emmett Kelly. Mr. Kelly told the meeting, “I can’t contribute anything to the laboratory studies, but there has been quite a little human experimentation in the last several years, especially at our plants where we have been manufacturing this chlorinated diphenyl.” He went on to describe the results of Monsanto’s human experiments: “A more or less extensive series of skin eruptions which we were never able to attribute as to cause, whether it was impurity in the benzene we were using or to the chlorinated diphenyl.”[10] GE’s F.R. Kaimer described the HUMAN reaction of GE executives to the disfigurement and pain of GE workers exposed to PCBs: “[W]e had 50 other men in very bad condition as far as the acne was concerned. The first reaction that several of our executives had was to throw it out—get it out of our plant. They didn’t want anything like that for treating wire. But that was easily said but not so easily done. We might just as well have thrown our business to the four winds and said, ‘We’ll close up,’ because there was no substitute and there is none today in spite of all the efforts we have made through our own research laboratories to find one.”[10] And so GE executives—contrary to their personal ethics—reached a business decision to continue using PCBs. Sanford Brown, the president of Halowax, concluded the meeting by stressing the “necessity of not creating mob hysteria on the part of workmen in the plants” where chemical-safety inspections were being made. Problems with PCBs and napthalenes, he predicted, “may continue, probably will continue for years.” [11]

1938 — A study of PCB-oil mixtures manufactured by Westinghouse and GE demonstrated that liver damage could be caused by skin contact alone, and called for the “greatest personal hygiene” in minimizing exposure. In further research for Monsanto, Drinker warned that adequate ventilation was necessary when handling the chemicals. [11]

1947 — E.C. Barnes of Westinghouse’s medical department wrote, in an internal company memo, that long-term exposure to PCB fumes “may produce internal bodily injury which may be disabling or could be fatal.”[7]
1947 — GE began using PCBs in the manufacture of electrical equipment at its Ft. Edward plant on the east shore of the Hudson River. Soon, GE began mixing PCBs with oil in their own formula they called Pyrosol. In 1952 it began using PCBs in its plant in Hudson Falls. By 1977, GE had dumped 500,000 to 1.5 million pounds of PCBs in the Hudson River. [6]

1949 — An explosion occurred at a Monsanto chemical factory in Nitro, West Virginia; as a result, many workers in the plant were exposed to the herbicide 2,4,5-T, which was contaminated with dioxin. (This herbicide was later the principal component of Agent Orange, the chemical defoliant used by the U.S. in Vietnam.) In subsequent years, two Monsanto scientists, J.A. Zack and R. W. Gaffey, studied the exposed workers, comparing their health against the health of a similar group of workers who were not exposed to dioxin or 2,4,5-T.[12] According to court documents “Zack and Gaffey deliberately and knowingly omitted 5 deaths from the exposed group and took four workers who had been exposed and put these workers in the unexposed group, serving, of course, to decrease the death rate in the exposed group and increase the death rate in the unexposed group.” Other studies of this same accident were also fraudulent, according to the same court documents, including a study by R.R. Suskind published in the JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION: “This published study of the workers exposed in the 1949 accident reported only 14 cancers in the exposed group and 6 in the unexposed group (a smaller cohort). However, the medical records produced [by Monsanto] to the Plaintiffs conclusively prove gross miscalculations and omissions… there were 28 cancers in the group that had been exposed to dioxins in 1949 as opposed to only 2 cancers in the unexposed group.” Mr. Suskind published two other reports on the same accident, using his same data, to reach the conclusion that dioxin does not cause cancer. [13,14,15] This experience raises concerns about the honesty of any Monsanto PCB data as well. (PCBs are very similar to dioxins, and are often contaminated with dioxins.)

1950 — A GE instruction manual for PCB transformers assured utilities that “transformer Pyranol [GE’s trade name for PCBs] may be handled in the same manner as mineral oil.” [11]

1951 — Monsanto also had in its files a 1947 scientific finding that there was “need to give warning” about PCBs because “the toxicity of those compounds has been repeatedly demonstrated.” [11]

1953 — Although Monsanto was the sole domestic manufacturer of PCBs, Westinghouse prepared its own Material Safety Data Sheets and Safe Practice Data Sheets for PCB-laden fluids. In fact, Westinghouse’s in-house knowledge about PCBs was so sophisticated that the company participated in federal and industry task forces and working committees on PCBs. [16]

1954 — Appleton Paper Company began making PCB coated carbonless copy papers, and discharging PCB contaminated wastewater to the Fox River. [45]

1956 — Monsanto considered the chemicals toxic enough to give workers protective gear and clothing, and encourage them to hose off after each shift. Monsanto researchers and executives began writing confidential memos describing their fears about the chemicals’ toxic effects, but they drafted plans for continuing to sell them despite these suspicions. Along with other chemical manufacturers, the company publicly expressed skepticism about PCBs’ association with disease, but over the next decade the evidence became harder and harder to dismiss. [5]

1956 — Monsanto knew that PCB products could be contaminated with dioxins and dibenzofurans from the time they were shipped from the factory—a piece of information it sat on until the late 1960s, when independent researchers discovered this hazard. According to the record of one lawsuit, new PCB oil can be contaminated with dibenzofurans at concentrations of up to 10 parts per million. As the oil ages, according to documents from Monsanto’s files, the concentration becomes considerably higher. [11]

1956 — GE’s files contained a bibliography of 43 references on the health dangers and possible lethality of PCBs and PCB component chemicals. [11]

1957 — From 1957 to1977, the Westinghouse Electric Corporation (now owned by CBS) manufactured electrical capacitors in Bloomington, Indiana using “Interteen” (a mixture of PCB Arochlors in mineral oil) as a dielectric (insulating material). The city now has several contamination sites, including some Superfund sites due to PCBs. [17]

1959 —- The assistant director of Monsanto’s Medical Department wrote to the Administrator of Industrial Hygiene at Westinghouse saying, “…sufficient exposure, whether by inhalation of vapors or skin contact, can result in chloracne which I think we must assume could be an indication of a more systemic injury if the exposure were allowed to continue.”[18] Monsanto also sent Westinghouse animal toxicity studies on PCBs and Material Safety Data Sheets with specific warnings about the risks of overexposure.

1964 — A Swedish researcher, Dr. Soren Jensen, was trying to study DDT levels in human blood when a mysterious group of chemical compounds kept recurring in his samples, interfering with his analyses. The chemical was so pervasive that his first task was to determine whether it was natural or synthetic. Tests had to be developed to distinguish PCBs from the pesticide DDT. A two-year investigation established that the mystery compound was chlorine-based and chemically similar to DDT. Jensen knew it wasn’t a pesticide, though, because he found it in wildlife specimens collected in 1935, years before chlorine-based pesticides were in general use. All of Sweden and its adjacent seas were contaminated, even hair samples taken from his wife and three children showed traces of the compound, with the highest levels in his nursing infant daughter. The mystery pollutant was everywhere he looked. Eventually, Jensen says, “I was convinced that what I had to deal with were chlorinated biphenyls, but I didn’t have the faintest idea where such compounds were used in the society.” Searching the literature, Jensen learned of PCBs’ industrial uses. A German chemical manufacturer provided Jensen with a sample, which he analyzed and found to match the “peaks,” or chemical readings, found in a massively contaminated white-tailed eagle. [11]

1965 — Monsanto knew that dioxin “can be a potent carcinogen.” Dioxin is frequently a contaminant in PCB mixtures. [11]

1966 — The general scientific community first became aware of PCBs as an environmental problem when a Dr. Jensen published his research which found PCBs in 200 pike from all over Sweden, in other fish, and in an eagle. The report revealed the capacity of PCBs to “bioaccumulate along the food chain.” The chemicals, which take many years to biodegrade, pass easily through the lipid portions of cell membranes and are readily absorbed into mammalian fat tissue. Animals at the top of the food chain, like whales, polar bears, dolphins and humans, can store PCBs at highly concentrated levels. [19] For the next decade, scientists accumulated information about PCBs, finding them disrupting food webs all over the planet. “Truly the PCBs are a worldwide ecological problem,” declared a Monsanto company memo that included a list of concerns under the heading “Business Potential at Stake on a Worldwide Basis.” [5]

1967 — According to Monsanto telephone logs, Shell Oil called to inform the company of the Swedish press reports, and to ask for PCB samples for its own analytical studies. [11]

1968 — After Jensen’s discovery, Monsanto executives visited him in Sweden, and company records indicate that Monsanto obtained an unpublished 1968 paper he wrote with two colleagues detailing the analytical method for detecting PCBs in the environment. Neither did Riseborough’s findings take the company by surprise: a January 18, 1968, internal memo about PCBs in shorebirds warns a Canadian colleague to “expect publication from California.” [11]

1968 — 1,300 residents of Kyushu, Japan, fell ill after eating rice-bran oil (yusho) contaminated with PCBs fluids. Many showed immediate symptoms including severe chloracne, respiratory ailments, and failing vision. Two out of 12 children were stillborn and nearly all of the babies showed signs of PCB diseases. Since then, more than 50 people have died; many with internal tumors and irregular lymph nodes and livers. Subsequent studies published in leading medical journals showed that PCBs cause a statistically significant increase in lung cancer [20], and damage to the immune system, reproductive system, nervous and endocrine system. It was from the “Yusho Incident” that scientists would soon document birth defects, low birth weights, and numerous other chronic effects from PCB exposure. Nine years after, there was a sixfold increase in liver-cancer deaths among affected men and threefold among women. Ultimately, researchers found liver cancers at 15 times the normal rate. Despite international attention to the Yusho Incident, just two months later Monsanto’s corporate-development committee set a four-year goal of increasing by 20 times its sales of Therminol heat-transfer fluid – essentially the same PCB product that poisoned the Japanese victims. In the United States, Therminol was used as a heating medium inside the coils of deep-fat fryers. [7,11]

1968 — Workers at a Westinghouse plant in Bloomington, Indiana, began to ask questions after the mass poisoning in Japan. They say, Westinghouse officials led them to believe PCBs were entirely safe. Jason Morrow, a former union local president at the plant, recalls employee meetings in which then-plant manager Donald M. Sauter “washed his hands and face in what he told workers was liquid PCBs to convince them not to worry.” A Westinghouse spokesman, Christopher C. Newton, confirmed for BUSINESS WEEK magazine that Sauter “dipped his hands” into PCBs at a meeting. [1]

1969 —Widespread PCB contamination of the food chain in the United States was first demonstrated by Dr. Robert Riseborough of the University of California at Berkeley, who happened upon it in the course of his research on peregrine falcons. [3] San Francisco Chronicle reporter David Perlman learned about Riseborough’s findings; his story, “A Menacing New Pollutant,” ran on February 24, 1969, and was picked up by numerous other papers. Monsanto launched its public-relations defense the next day by denying that the chemicals were PCBs. “The Swedish and American scientists . . . imply that polychlorinated biphenyls are ‘highly toxic’ chemicals,” Monsanto said in a statement widely distributed to its customers and the press. “This is simply not true. The source of marine-life residue identified as PCB is not yet known. It will take extensive research, on a worldwide basis, to confirm or deny the initial scientific conclusions.” [11]

1969 — Between 1969 and 1971, at least 9 major food contaminations occurred with PCBs. [11]

1969 — Monsanto wrote a “Pollution Abatement Plan,” which admitted that “the problem involves the entire United States, Canada and sections of Europe, especially the United Kingdom and Sweden…. [O]ther areas of Europe, Asia and Latin America will surely become involved. Evidence of contamination [has] been shown in some of the very remote parts of the world. They knew “the evidence proving the persistence of these compounds and their universal presence as residues in the environment is beyond questioning.” The plan warned that “the corporate image of Monsanto as a responsible member of the business world genuinely concerned with the welfare of our environment will be adversely affected with increased publicity.” More to the point, “direct lawsuits are possible” because “all customers using these products have not been officially notified about known effects nor [do] our labels carry this information.” The plan proposed three options, with charts showing their potential profits and liabilities. Should Monsanto “Do Nothing,” profits would likely decline and liability extend into the future. “We cannot deny the findings and the accusations of various agencies,” the plan said. “If we took no action we would likely face numerous suits.” Under the “Discontinue Manufacture of PCB” option, profits would cease and liability would soar because “we would be admitting guilt by our actions.” But with the “Responsible Approach,” which involved acknowledging certain aspects of the problem, tightening restrictions, and continuing to manufacture and sell PCBs, profits theoretically would increase and liability slowly decline, all but vanishing by the mid-1970s. It was this latter approach that Monsanto chose, making some adjustments to its business practices but going to battle with the government to keep PCBs on the market, despite growing scientific evidence that they constituted a public-health menace and an environmental nightmare. Henceforth, Monsanto required its customers to sign indemnity agreements to hold it harmless from any future liability. Monsanto also vowed to sell PCBs only to customers who would use them in “totally enclosed systems” – even as it continued to market PCBs in products that directly contacted food. [11]

1969 — Monsanto established a committee to keep abreast of the state of knowledge on PCBs. The issue was beginning to look like “a monster,” in the words of one former executive. According to the notes of one Monsanto researcher, these were the thoughts of the group: “Make the Govt., States and Universities prove their case, but avoid as much confrontation as possible…. We can prove some things are OK at low concentration. Give Monsanto some defense…. We can’t defend vs. everything. Some animals or fish or insects will be harmed…. The Dept. of Interior and/or state authorities could monitor plant outfall and find [discharges] of chlorinated biphenyls at…Anniston anytime they choose to do so. This would shut us down depending on what plants or animals they choose to find harmed…” Also, he wrote: “Problem: Damage to the ecological system by contamination from polychlorinated biphenyl (PCB). Legal Liability: Direct lawsuits are possible. The materials are already present in nature having done their “alleged damage.” All customers using the products have not been officially notified about known effects nor [do] our labels carry this information.” Public Image: The corporate image of Monsanto as a responsible member of the business world genuinely concerned with the welfare of our environment will be adversely affected with increased publicity. [5]

1969 – The National Environmental Act was passed by Congress. This required an Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA) for every major new project. It also focused the country’s attention on the conditions of our rivers. [6]

1969-1970 — Paper company discharges of PCBs into the Fox River peaked.

1970 — Annual U.S. production peaked this year, with 85 million pounds of PCBs produced.[21]

1970 — Monsanto physician Emmett Kelly revealed to W. B. Papageorge that tons of cattle feed from several Ohio silos had been contaminated by leaching and flaking paint based on the company’s Aroclor 1254 PCB-oil. As a result, milk from three herds was tainted. Kelly estimated up to 50 other silos in the state were painted similarly. “All in all, this could be quite a serious problem, having legal and publicity overtones,” the Monsanto doctor warned. “This brings us to a very serious point. When are we going to tell our customers not to use any Aroclor in any paint formulation that contacts food, feed, or water for animals or humans? I think it is very important that this be done…. I think we should make a blanket recommendation against these uses.” Despite years of discovery in lawsuits, Monsanto has not produced any evidence that such a warning was issued. [11]

1970 — Monsanto purchased 50 hogs from Jeremiah Smith, local farmer in Anniston, Alabama, after the hogs grazed on property near the company’s PCB plant. The hogs were shot and buried, not sold for market. Local residents cite this as evidence that the company knew about serious local contamination but didn’t warn the public, who continued to eat PCB contaminated local foods for decades to come. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the US Department of Health and Human Services, completed a health study in Anniston recently, which found that PCB exposure in the town is a public health hazard. It also suggested that eating local pork, fish and chicken has been a major source of PCB contamination. [5]

1970 — The first proposal for a total ban on PCBs was made by Representative William Fitz Ryan (D-N.Y.). But partly due to false health reassurances based on Monsanto’s fraudulent IBT tests, the substance stayed on the market until the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1976. Monsanto officials responded to Ryan by saying they were “well aware of the concern” over PCBs. [11]

1970 — Monsanto said steps had been taken to insure public safety, but denied knowledge of whether any PCBs had been released from its W.G. Krummrich plant in Sauget, Illinois. (Monsanto’s plant in Sauget has over a dozen chemical dumps on it, according to the WALL STREET JOURNAL, several of them containing substantial quantities of PCBs, at concentrations as high as 74,000 parts per million (ppm), or 7.4 percent. For years, the Sauget plant was the nation’s largest single manufacturer of PCBs. Monsanto officials insist that the PCBs on their property do not necessarily belong to them. Anyone could have dumped PCBs there, they say. All told, there are more than one million tons of chemical wastes on Monsanto’s property. Monsanto insists the wastes did not necessarily come from their plant, located half a mile north of the dumps. It is company policy to destroy waste records after 4 years. Meanwhile the state of Illinois has spent 12 years and $1.3 million trying to get the Monsanto site listed on the federal Superfund. An estimated 13 tons of chemical wastes leach off the Monsanto site into the Mississippi River each year.) [1]

1970s — Scientists studying damage to wildlife from DDT realized there was something else causing problems similar to DDT, and soon they identified PCBs as the culprit. [1]

1970 — Monsanto’s R. E. Keller noted in an internal memo that specially prepared PCB samples sent to a lab for animal toxicity testing were free of troublesome dibenzofurans “which might bias the results.” As an aside, he added they were free from dioxin contamination as well. According to attorney Paul Merrell, “The implication is that the PCBs they tested did not contain the toxic material, but that it was common in their product. It’s evidence of a cover-up.” Merrell is an attorney in a lawsuit challenging the informed silence of the PCB manufacturers. His client, the Nevada Power Company, has charged GE, Westinghouse, and Monsanto in federal district court with fraud and deliberate failure to warn the utility and its customers about product defects and negative health effects associated with PCBs. The companies’ initial defense was to argue that the utility was aware of the dangers long before it filed its suit in 1988 and should have suspected fraud earlier, but that the statute of limitations had now passed. “Nevada Power actually knew of the product defects and of facts contrary to those represented” by the PCB manufacturers at the time of sale, argued Monsanto attorney Bruce Featherstone in 1991. “They had actual knowledge of the facts constituting a fraud.” [11]

1970 — Campbell’s Soup Company had to slaughter 146,000 chickens after detecting high levels of PCBs in chickens raised in New York State. [6]

1970 — Bob Boyle, of Sports Illustrated, published an article entitled “Poison Roams Our Seas” in which he warned of dangerously high levels of PCBs in fish. [6]

1970 —- In order to maintain its position that “PCBs are not and cannot be classified as highly toxic,” Monsanto engaged Industrial Bio-Test Labs of Northbrook, Illinois, to do safety studies on its Aroclor PCB products. Seven years later, IBT Labs would be at the center of one of the most far-reaching scandals in modern science, as thousands of its studies were revealed through EPA and FDA investigations to be fraudulent or grossly inadequate. One of IBT’s top executives was Dr. Paul Wright, a Monsanto toxicologist who took a job at IBT Labs in part to supervise the PCB tests, and then returned to Monsanto. Wright was eventually convicted of multiple counts of fraud in one of the longest criminal trials in U. S. history -with his legal fees paid by Monsanto. While fraud on the PCB tests was not raised in the IBT trial, it is strongly suggested by memos and letters that came to light in later civil lawsuits. Several of these show how, at Monsanto’s request, IBT Labs customized its studies. “I think we are surprised (and disappointed?) at the apparent toxicity at the levels studied,” Monsanto’s Elmer Wheeler wrote in March 1970 to IBT president Joseph Calandra. “I doubt that there is any explanation for this but I do think that we might exchange some new thoughts.” In a letter to IBT Labs two months later commenting on a set of PCB test results, Wheeler wrote, “We would hope that we might find a higher ‘no effect’ level with this sample as compared to the previous work.” In later years, Monsanto’s requests would become even more blatant. “In two instances, the previous conclusion of ‘slightly tumorigenic’ was changed to ‘non-carcinogenic,’” Monsanto wrote in July 1975. “The latter phrase is preferable. May we request that the Aroclor 1254 report be amended to say ‘does not appear to be carcinogenic.’” Two weeks later, Calandra responded: “We will amend our statement in the last paragraph on page 2 of the Aroclor 1254 report to read, ‘does not appear to be carcinogenic’ in place of ‘slightly tumorigenic’ as requested.” Testimony about the IBT Labs scandal in a Texas lawsuit against Monsanto indicates that IBT was aware that PCBs caused extremely high numbers of tumors in test rats, with 82 percent developing tumors when fed Aroclor 1254 at 10 parts per million and 100 percent at 100 parts per million. Yet IBT Labs certified PCBs a noncarcinogen. [11] For more information, read: http://www.rachel.org/search/index.cfm?St=1 Enter: “Toxic Deception”

1971 — Papageorge addressed a special committee of the American National Standards Institute that was searching for ways to extend the use of PCBs. “We cannot overlook the emotions that have set in,” he said, “and believe me, there are many and they are deep. As you know, the references in the popular press to hazardous poisons and birth defects, which have not been substantiated, are most difficult to overcome.” [11]

1971 — Fearing lawsuits, Monsanto began requiring its customers like Westinghouse to sign a waiver relieving it of financial liability for improper uses of the chemical, thus putting buyers on notice of possible dangers. [1]

1971 — A group of Westinghouse staff met to discuss PCBs and they noted that PCBs concentrate in the food chain The Dec. 28 minutes of the meeting (stamped “PROPRIETARY CLASS 1 — DESTROY BY BURNING OR SHREDDING”) acknowledged the problems of PCB accumulation in wildlife, and indicated that PCBs caused reproductive disorders in chickens and birth defects in victims of the Yusho Incident. They also acknowledged that Yusho might have involved dibenzofurans [furans], which are created when PCB oil is heated. The minutes said: “It was generally concluded that… there is sufficient evidence that pcbs can be deleterious to the health of animal and human life and that the risks of ignoring the evidence that does exist was [sic] inappropriate for Westinghouse.” Yet the 1971 memo recommended continued use of PCBs.[22]

1971 — A Westinghouse biochemist named Thomas O. Munson says he received instructions directly from then-chief executive officer Donald C. Burnham to study PCB contamination around four Westinghouse plants. In 1972 Munson submitted his report to Westinghouse officials, urging them to tell the local communities of the massive contamination he had found and to take remedial action. Instead Westinghouse kept the Munson report secret and continued to dump liquid PCBs directly into the local environments, Munson says. [9]

1971 — Monsanto destroyed another 88,000 chickens in North Carolina because a PCB leak from a heating system had contaminated the feed. [6]

1972 — Monsanto provided its customers a Q & A sheet, which reads in part: “PCB is a persistent chemical which builds up in the environment. It, therefore, should not be allowed to escape to the environment.” [5]

1972 — The US Attorneys Office, desperate to take some kind of action to clean up the Hudson River, filed suit against Anaconda. Anaconda was found guilty of 100 counts of pollution of the Hudson river and fined $200,000. [6]

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1973 — GE wrote to EPA, saying, “The low order of toxicity to man is supported by several decades experience in the U.S. electrical industry,” GE urged EPA not to regulate PCBs. In its comments, Monsanto stated that “PCB has always been considered less hazardous than many other chemicals in everyday use.” [11]

1973 — Researchers begin reporting that marine mammals are suffering from reproductive problems associated with high organochlorine residues (such as PCBs). [23] Some scientists now believe that as more PCBs reach the oceans, all large marine mammals could become extinct. [26]

1973 — U.S. Food and Drug Administration establishes a tolerance level of 5.0 parts per million (ppm) in fish. (Though in many parts of the country it would be years before local fish were actually tested, due to the high cost.)

1973 — The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) urged all member countries to limit the use of PCBs and develop control mechanisms. (PCBs have not been manufactured in North America since 1977, but continued for 2 more decades in other parts of the world.) [2]

1974 — A General Electric in-house memo reveals that both GE and Westinghouse were secretly aware of the possibility of transformer explosions ten years before the EPA issued warnings about it. “As you know,” GE engineer T. L. Mayes cautioned his colleagues, “Westinghouse had a network transformer explosion recently, resulting in two fatalities.” Mayes also mentioned that some grades of PCBs apparently create an explosive gas when transformers malfunction – a danger the company concealed from its customers. Neither were customers informed that when burned (as in an explosion), PCBs create dioxins and dibenzofurans – although the manufacturers knew this by 1970 at the latest. In fact, PCBs were aggressively marketed as safety products; the manufacturers even convinced insurance companies to require their customers to use PCB transformers. Monsanto, Westinghouse, and GE publicly denied explosion problems. [11]

1974 — Files show that EPA and the federal Centers for Disease Control (CDC) knew about the dioxin and PCB contamination throughout eastern Missouri but waited nine years before taking any action to protect the public. C.D. Stelzer caught EPA officials in outright lies when they claimed they knew nothing about dioxin contamination in Missouri until “after 1980.”[1, 5]

1974 — A publication by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) titled “Guidelines for Handling and Disposal of Capacitor- and Transformer-Grade Askarels Containing [PCBs]” which states that “medical records over a nearly 40-year period show that the only adverse health effects experienced by U.S. workers exposed to [PCBs] . . . during the manufacture of these liquids . . . have been limited to occasional cases of nonchronic chloracne or other temporary skin lesions or irritations.” William Papageorge, a Monsanto employee, chaired the ANSI committee. [16]

1975 — In a letter from William Papageorge, of Monsanto, to Dan Albert in Westinghouse’s Personnel Department, he warned Westinghouse at length of the risk of skin irritation, chloracne, injury to cellular tissue, “serious liver injury” (emphasis in original), and even death, from PCB exposure. [16]

1975 — Monsanto’s lab submitted its findings from a two-year study of PCBs’ effects on rats. An early draft of the report said that in some cases, PCBs had caused tumors. George Levinskas, Monsanto’s manager for environmental assessment and toxicology, wrote to the lab’s director: “May we request that the [PCB] 1254 report be amended to say ‘does not appear to be carcinogenic.’”

The final report adopted the company’s suggested language and dropped all references to tumors. [5]

1975 — A farming family in Bloomington, Indiana, unknowingly spread 100 tons of PCB contaminated sludge (300 ppm) on their fields. The soil tested at 50 ppm and the milk from their cows was measured at 5 ppm (more than twice the maximum allowable limit). This level of contamination endangered both them and their livestock and 80 tons had to be completely removed. [6]

1975 — 124,000 cans of salmon from Lake Michigan were seized because of a PCB. [6]

1976 — Congress passed the Toxic Substances Control Act which outlawed the manufacture, sale, and distribution of PCBs except in “totally enclosed” systems, within 3 years. It was the only chemical Congress itself has ever banned. However, enclosed transformers and capacitors are STILL allowed to contain PCBs.

1976 — After returning to Monsanto, Paul Wright of IBT Labs was given a $1,000 award for “forestalling EPA’s promulgation of unrealistic regulations to limit discharges of polychlorinated biphenyls.” A year later, IBT Labs was found out, and Wright, Calandra, and another IBT exec were eventually convicted of federal fraud charges. [11]

1976 —Doctors at Mt. Sinai Hospital announced the results of their study which showed that nearly half of all workers at the GE plants had developed some type of skin problem; many of which were known types associated with PCB exposure. [6]

1977 – Monsanto stopped manufacturing PCBs in the U.S. and GE finally stopped dumping PCBs into the Hudson River. Dr. Robert Korns published his population study on people from Poughkeepsie, NY who were drinking water from the Hudson as high as 100 ppm PCBs. This study showed increased incidences (5 to 10 times) of colorectal cancer in men in Poughkeepsie. The FDA proposed lowering the PCB tolerance levels from 5 to 2 ppm for fish and shellfish, which was postponed until 1984 due to industry opposition. Occidental Petroleum (owner of Hooker Chemical) was held responsible for the toxic waste site at Love Canal and ordered to pay cleanup costs. It was in this context in 1977 that ARCO took over all of the holdings of Anaconda worldwide. It is naive to think that ARCO was not fully aware of these PCB problems and the cleanup liabilities of Anaconda within a short time after the takeover. [6]

1978 — President Jimmy Carter declared Love Canal a disaster area and ordered the evacuation of all homes in the area due to toxic chemicals. In Sept., The USDA destroyed nearly 400,000 pounds of poultry and pork in Billings, Montana because a mere 200 gals of PCB/oil mixture had leaked from a transformer into their feed. That same month, Dr. Robert Dougherty, at Florida State, released his report which showed that sperm counts had fallen so low among students that 23% were functionally sterile. He attributed this trend in part to increased levels of PCB in their semen. [6]

1979 — The Environmental Protection Agency issued final regulations banning the manufacture of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), after a 3-year phase-out period. In addition, the EPA rules gradually ended many industrial uses of PCBs over the next five years, but allowed their continued use in existing enclosed electrical equipment under controlled conditions.[46]

1979 — A study followed employees who had worked at Monsanto’s PCB production plant. J. Zack & D. Munsch, Mortality of PCB Workers at the Monsanto Plant in Sauget, Illinois (Dec. 14, 1979)(unpublished report), 3 Rec., Doc. No. 11. The authors of this study found that the incidence of lung cancer deaths among these workers was somewhat higher than would ordinarily be expected. The increase, however, was not considered “statistically significant” and the authors of the study did not suggest a link between the increase in lung cancer deaths and the exposure to PCBs.

1980 – Congress passed the Superfund Law designed to provide financing for cleanup of the country’s major toxic waste sites.

1980s — Researchers began to find that workers exposed to PCBs were dying of skin cancer and, perhaps, of brain cancer. Westinghouse and Monsanto maintain that they always informed their workers completely about the hazards of PCBs, but during the 1990s, thousands of workers began to sue for damages, saying the companies misled them. [1]

1980s — Prior to her dismissal, Rita Lavelle, of the U.S. EPA under Pres. Reagan, allegedly used the billion dollar Superfund program for political ends. In addition, congressional investigations in 1982 and 1983 revealed Lavelle had private discussions with officials at Monsanto and other corporations concerning regulatory matters. When Congress subpoenaed documents—including those related to contamination at Times Beach, Missouri — the EPA initially withheld the information on the advice of the White House and Department of Justice. The level of stonewalling reached a crescendo when Congress discovered EPA officials had ordered the wholesale shredding of sensitive files. The showdown with Congress ultimately forced Reagan to replace EPA administrator Anne Gorsuch-Burford with William D. Ruckelshaus, who had headed the agency at its inception. Ruckelshaus’ resume, however, contains more than one entry to that has received criticism. Environmentalists point out that during his career, Ruckelshaus has had many close ties to polluting industries—including a directorship at Monsanto. [1]

1980s — Monsanto begins funding phony “public interest” groups, such as the American Council on Science and Health, run by Elizabeth Whelan, to defend Monsanto’s products, inlcuding PCBs, the cancer-causing herbicide 2,4,5-T, the artificial sweetener Nutrasweet, and the genetically engineered hormone rBGH, which is now being added to much of the world’s milk supply (by injection into dairy cows.) [24]

1981 —In a speech, a Monsanto toxicologist claimed, “There has never been a single documented case in this country where PCBs have been shown to cause cancer or any other serious human health problems. In the classical short term exposure, or acute toxicity sense, PCBs are classified as ‘slightly toxic’ by oral ingestion.” Their toxicity was similar, he said, to table salt. “Monsanto, the government and the electrical industry together concluded that the benefits to society of continued PCB use far outweighed the risk.” Decades after the Drinker study demonstrated PCBs’ toxicity, 25 years after Monsanto’s files indicated that dioxin and dibenzofurans [furans] were contaminants in PCBs, and with a former Monsanto official standing trial for fraud, Monsanto still claimed that PCBs were safe.[11]

1983 — The federal government evacuated all the citizens from the town of Times Beach, Missouri, because the town was heavily contaminated with dioxins, PCBs, and pesticides. [1]

1987 — Westinghouse sues its insurers for defense against pending claims at 74 hazardous sites in 23 states. [25]

1987 — Workers at an Italian capacitor plant who had been exposed to PCBs. Bertazzi, Riboldi, Pesatori, Radice, & Zocchetti, Cancer Mortality of Capacitor Manufacturing Workers, 11 American Journal of Industrial Medicine 165 (1987). The authors noted that lung cancer deaths among ex-employees at the plant were higher than might have been expected, but concluded that “there were apparently no grounds for associating lung cancer deaths (although increased above expectations) and exposure in the plant.”

1987-88 — In a 22 page memo, a Westinghouse staff lawyer describes extensive paper and microfilm records held by the Westinghouse Industrial Hygiene Department: “The majority of the documents in Industrial Hygiene’s files are potential ‘smoking gun’ documents,” the memo says. The memo goes on, “The files are filled with documentation which critiques and criticizes, from an industrial hygiene perspective, Westinghouse manufacturing and non-manufacturing operations. This documentation often times points out deficiencies in Westinghouse operations and suggests recommendations to correct these deficiencies. Industrial Hygiene’s files contain information which details the various chemical substances used at Westinghouse sites over the years and often times the inadequacies in Westinghouse’s use and handling of the substances. The files contain many years of employee test results, some of them unfavorable,” the memo says. The memo says Westinghouse executives must ask certain questions before deciding to keep or destroy the smoking gun records. The first question is, “What are the chances of litigation? Is it pending or imminent?” The second question is, “In the case of litigation, which party would have the burden of proof?” “We recommend that all such files generated prior to 1974 be discarded…. In our opinion, the risks of keeping these files on the whole substantially exceed the advantages of maintaining the records….” Westinghouse officials deny that the memo was acted upon. They say they still have all the company’s files intact. However, in a lawsuit against Westinghouse by Nevada Power and Light (NP&L), Westinghouse did not produce documents, such as correspondence between Westinghouse and Monsanto, requested by NP&L in a “discovery” proceeding. Monsanto, on the other hand, did produce correspondence with Westinghouse officials. NP&L is suing Westinghouse, GE and Monsanto for $48.5 million in compensatory damages for costs the utility says it incurred because of PCBs in electric power equipment. Furthermore, in sworn testimony in the NP&L case, three Westinghouse employees or former employees described how files that they maintained about PCBs were taken from them by members of Westinghouse legal staff in the 1980s and never returned to them. Westinghouse attorneys tried to have the “smoking gun” memo declared “privileged” so that it would remain under wraps. On February 9, 1993, Texas Judge Paul R. Davis ruled against Westinghouse, saying the memo “falls within the crime/fraud exemption to privileged documents” under Texas law because, the Judge said, the memo was “prepared, and describe[s] a plan, to commit fraud on the courts of this nation.” Westinghouse denies fraudulent intention, but destroying documents that might be needed in foreseeable litigation is forbidden under U.S. law. [1,26,27]

1988 — The journal Environmental Pollution published an article revealing that marine mammals, such as dolphins, whales and porpoises all contained levels of PCBs that far exceeded that of their terrestrial counterparts. Mediterranean blue-white dolphins, for example, were found to carry 833 parts per million in their blubber ˜ nearly 17 times the level requiring goods to be labelled and handled as toxic waste. Marine mammals are acutely sensitive to PCB hormonal effects, and may be threatened with extinction. Numerous scientific studies have occurred on this topic. [28]

1990 — Studies find children exposed in the womb to PCBs at levels considered “background levels” in the U.S. were found to experience hypotonia (loss of muscle tone) and hyporeflexia (weakened reflexes) at birth, delays in psychomotor development at ages 6 and 12 months, and diminished visual recognition memory at 7 months. [29]

1990 — EPA research chemist Cate Jenkins wrote a memo to Raymond Loehr, the chair of the Executive Committee of the EPA’s Science Advisory Board asking that the EPA reassess the toxicity of dioxins. She said EPA relied on “newly revealed” fraudulent data by Monsanto” to assess dioxin risks and set standards for human health protection. Instead, EPA launched an investigation of Jenkins and she was harrassed in her workplace. For more information, read: http://www.rachel.org/search/index.cfm?St=1 Enter: “Dioxin and Cancer: Fraudulent Studies.” Also: “EPA Investigates Monsanto.” This experience raises concerns about the honesty of any Monsanto PCB data as well. [30]

1991 — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services labeled PCBs as a probable carcinogen.[4]

1992 — A compilation study was released linking human reproductive problems with PCBs, due to hormone-like effects. PCBs are now documented disruptors of the human endocrine system. [31]

1993 — Research shows that people living in the arctic regions are heavily dosed by PCBs which migrated to the region via the atmosphere and settled out in the cold air. Local diets are dominated by consumption of fish, seal and whale meat, which puts the people at serious risk from PCB bioaccumulation up the food chain. [32]

1993 — “Monsanto’s actions involving PCBs have always been responsible,” spokesperson Diane Herndon wrote in a 1993 statement. According to GE’s Jack Batty, “Public perception about the health risks of PCBs and the scientific facts are in conflict. Most scientists agree that PCBs are not the hazard to human health that was feared in the 1970s.” [Actually, the EPA’s reassessment found them to be a greater hazard than was feared then.] “PCBs have produced tumors in some laboratory animals, but there is no proof – based on human exposure of more than 40 years – that PCBs cause cancer or any other serious health problems in people.” [11]

1994 — U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service announces the start of a Natural Resource Damage Assessment on the Fox River and Green Bay, to calculation compensation and restoration costs resulting from PCB damages to the system.

1994 — Researchers report that boys in Taiwan exposed to PCBs while in their mothers’ womb developed smaller penises as they mature, compared to normal boys in Taiwan. [33]

1994 — A Los Angeles jury awarded the Transwestern Pipeline Co. a $9.7million verdict for PCB harms. From 1968 to 1972, Transwestern Pipeline Co. used a lubricant containing PCBs in the gas compression of its natural gas pipeline across New Mexico, Arizona and part of California. The contamination was discovered in 1981 and cleanup of the pipeline began shortly thereafter. One of Transwestern’s customers, Southern California Gas Co., sued Transwestern for the costs of the cleanup and won an arbitration. The terms of that arbitration were confidential. Transwestern sued Monsanto Co., which provided the lubricant, for equitable indemnification to recover its costs for removing the PCB contaminatlon. Transwestern charged that Monsanto had manufactured a defective product. Monsanto attempted to deny liability, but lost. [34]

1994 — A 30 page memo by an EPA official accused the EPA of conducting a “fraudulent” criminal investigation of Monsanto. The memo, by William Sanjour to his supervisor, David Bussard, on July 20, describes a two-year-long criminal investigation of Monsanto by EPA’s Office of Criminal Investigation. The EPA opened its investigation on Aug. 20, 1990 and formally closed it on Aug. 7, 1992 without taking action against Monsanto. For more information, read:http://www.rachel.org/search/index.cfm?St=1 and enter “EPA investigates Monsanto.” [35]

1995 — Studies showed (6) that women who eat fish from the contaminated waters of the Great Lakes and Canada give birth to children with an unusually high susceptibility to bacterial infection. PCBs were also shown to damage nerves in the brains of developing mammalian fetuses, leading to behavioral and learning defects. [36]

1997 — Study links PCBs to cancer in electric utility workers. [37]

1997 — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposes the Fox River as a federal Superfund site, for PCB hazardous waste cleanup.

1998 — After 28 years of continuous publication, THE ECOLOGIST, England’s leading environmental magazine, had major problems finding a publisher, then retailers, willing to risk a Monsanto libel suit for the release of their September/October 1998 issue, which was devoted entirely to Monsanto. A much more limited run was done, but copies are scarce. Monsanto claims they had nothing to do with frightening the publishers or retailers. — Titles of articles being censored included: The Monsanto Files, An Open Letter to Robert Shapiro, CEO, Monsanto; Seeds of Disaster; Monsanto: A Checkered History; PCBs: Can the World’s Sea Mammals Survive Them?; Agent Orange: The Poisoning of Vietnam; Bovine Growth Hormones; Roundup: The World’s Biggest-Selling Herbicide; The Terminator Technology; Revolving Doors: Monsanto and the Regulators; Cosy Relations: Monsanto and the UK Environment Agency; Getting The Government On Your Side; Call to Sack UK Biotech Advisers; Corruption of ‘Organic’ in the US; Monsanto’s Failing PR Strategy; The PR Professionals; Monsanto Propaganda and an African Response to it; Why Biotechnology and High-Tech Agriculture Cannot Feed the World; How Monsanto ‘Listens’ to Other Opinions; Hiding Damaging Information from the Public; SLAPPing Resistance; Monsanto Visits The Guardian; “Monsanto Took Me To Court – and Lost”; A Message from India; “Monsanto, You Have Shamed Us”; The Frankenstein Corporation: Monsanto s Merger with American Home Products; Boycott: Brands and Products to Avoid; Who Are the Real Terrorists?; Return of the Seed Savers. [38]

1998 — An article in the Ecologist highlights the fact that over the years, key govemment figures at the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and other regulatory bodies, have either come from, or gone on to hold senior positions at Monsanto. [39] (That in part might explain why Monsanto gets clearance for its often dangerous products.) The FDA determines the PCBs levels allowed in the U.S. food supply, often setting weak standards such as the 2 ppm PCB federal standard for commercial fish and 3 ppm for chicken. (The Great Lakes standard set by the region’s states for sport-caught fish is only .05 ppm PCBs.)

1998 — For 3 years, the Norwegian Polar Institute has found polar bears with both male and female sex organs. This year, 4 hermaphroditic cubs were seen. Researchers fear up to 4% of the bears may be affected. [40]

1999 — A Philadelphia jury ruled that Monsanto should pay $90 million in damages to the State of Pennsylvania for selling defective and toxic PCBs that left a 12-story building contaminated after a 1994 fire. PCBs were present in glue used in the ductwork of the 30-year-old Dept. of Transportation headquarters. Elevated levels of PCBs were discovered only after the fire, and state officials cited the contamination as a reason for their decision to demolish the building in August 1998. “This is a very historic case,” the state’s lawyer said, “one which establishes an incredible precedent: that Monsanto is responsible for PCB contamination, which for years they have ignored and denied all over the country.” [41]

2000 — U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service completes the Fox River Natural Resource Damage Assessment and proposes a compensation and restoration plan. The plan can’t be finalized until the Superfund sediment cleanup Record of Decision is finalized by U.S. EPA. (Hopefully, in 2001).

2000 — EPA discovered that PCBs made in Anniston, Alabama, were contaminated with lead, which may have come from lead vats used in the Monsanto plant (now owned by Solutia, Inc.). 70 percent of the PCB-polluted spots being studied in Anniston have unsafe levels of lead, from 400 to 3,080 ppm (parts per million). 47 landowners have been impacted. Lead is considered one of the nation’s top pollution hazards to children because it damages developing neurological systems, causing lowered intelligence and learning problems. Lead also causes anemia, neurological difficulties and reproductive problems in people of all ages, but adults usually show effects only when exposed to high lead levels found in industrial settings. [42]

2000 — The United Nations Environment Program committee concluded a 3-years process of international treaty negotiations between 120 nations a global, legally-binding ban on 12 persistent organic pollutants (called POPs), including PCBs, Dioxins and Furans. The POPs Treaty will be signed in Stockholm on 22-23 May 2001. Ratification by at least 50 countries will be required before the treaty enters into force, a process likely to take 3-4 years. [43,44]

2001 — U.S. EPA and Wisconsin DNR are due to release the final proposed cleanup plan for the Fox River.

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References for PCB History Page 1

1. Peter Montague, (National Writers Union, UAW Local 1981/AFL-CIO), Rachel’s Environment & Health Weekly, a publication of the Environmental Research Foundation, P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403. Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@rachel.org. Issues #144, #171, #295, #327, #329, #400, #554.

2. Fisher Associates Environmental Engineers Ltd., “FAQs about PCBs.” Webpage:http://www.fisherenvironmental.com/

3. Robert Riseborough and Virginia Brodine, “More Letters in the Wind,” in Sheldon Novick and Dorothy Cottrell, editors, OUR WORLD IN PERIL: AN ENVIRONMENT REVIEW (Greenwich, Conn.: Fawcett, 1971), pgs. 243-255.

4. Solutia, Inc. webpage http://www.solutia.com

5. Nancy Beiles, “What Monsanto Knew: Outraged by PCB Contamination, an Alabama Town Unearths a Company’s Past.” May 29,2000, The Nation. http://www.thenation.com/article/what-monsanto-knew

6. David Lincoln, Environmental Consultant, February 19, 1999, GREENLITE HOME PAGE — HISTORY OF PCB POLLUTION PROBLEMS

7. Greenpeace webpage on POPS — http://www.greenpeace.org/~toxics/tbg/tbg3.html

8. C.D. Stelzer, “Buried History of Hazardous Waste in Missouri,” RIVERFRONT TIMES February 14, 1996 http://home.stlnet.com/~cdstelzer/Buried_waste.html

9. Michael Schroeder, “Did Westinghouse Keep Mum on PCBs?” BUSINESS WEEK August 12, 1991, pgs. 68-70.

10. Cecil K. Drinker and others, “The Problem of Possible Systemic Effects From Certain Chlorinated Hydrocarbons,” THE JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL HYGIENE AND TOXICOLOGY Vol. 19 (September, 1937), pgs. 283- 311.

11. Eric Francis, “Conspiracy of Silence: The story of how three corporate giants— Monsanto , GE and Westinghouse—covered their toxic trail.” From Sierra magazine, cover story, Sept./Oct. 1994. http://www.planetwaves.net/silence.html

12. Zack, J.A., and W. R. Gaffey, “A Mortality Study Of Workers Employed At The Monsanto Company Plant In Nitro, West Virginia,” ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE RESEARCH, Vol. 26 (1983), pgs. 575-591.

13. R.R. Suskind, and V.S. Hertzberg, “Human Health Effects Of 2,4,5-T And Its Toxic Contaminants,” JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MEDICAL ASSOCIATION, Vol. 251, No. 18 (1984), pgs. 2372-2380.

14. R.R. Suskind, “Chloracne, ‘The Hallmark Of Dioxin Intoxication,’” SCANDINAVIAN JOURNAL OF WORK, ENVIRONMENT AND HEALTH, Vol. 11, No. 3 (1985), pgs. 165-171.

15. R.R. Suskind, “Long-Term Health Effects Of Exposure To 2,4,5-T And/Or Its Contaminants,” CHEMOSPHERE, Vol. 12, No. 4-5 (1983), pg. 769.

16. In the United States Court of Appeals For the Seventh Circuit, No. 97-2469, Johnnie B. Taylor, et al., v. Monsanto Co., Appeal from the United States District Court for the Southern District of Indiana, Indianapolis Division. No. IP 91-626-C–Sarah Evans Barker, Chief Judge. Argued December 5, 1997–Decided August 5, 1998

17. COPA, “Who’s Who: Westinghouse Electric Corporation,”

18. Letter from Elmer P. Wheeler of Monsanto, to H. Wilbur Speicher of Westinghouse, October 23, 1959.

19. Soren Jensen, “Report of a New Chemical Hazard,” NEW SCIENTIST Vol. 32 (1966), pg. 612.

20. Kuratsune, Nakamura, Ikeda, & Hirohata, Analysis of Deaths Seen Among Pa tients with Yusho-A Preliminary Report, Chemosphere, Nos. 8/9, 2085 (1987)

21. National Safety Council webpage — Polychlorinated Biphenyls (PCB) Chemical Backgrounder

22. Memo from G.W. Wiener, Research Director, Power Systems, Westinghouse, titled “Minutes of pcb status,” dated Dec. 28, 1971.

23. Robert L. DeLong and others, “Premature Births in California Sea Lions: Association With High Organochlorine Pollutant Residue Levels,” SCIENCE Vol. 181 (Sept. 21, 1973), pgs. 1168-1170.

24. “Public Interest Pretenders,” CONSUMER REPORTS Vol. 59, No. 5 (1994), pgs. 316-320.

25. COPA, “Who’s Who: The PCB Contamination Timeline for Monroe County, Indiana.” Webpage:

26. Stuart Mieher, “Westinghouse Lawyer Urged in ‘88 Note That Toxic- Safety Records Be Destroyed.” WALL STREET JOURNAL February 26, 1993, pg. A-4.

27. Undated “smoking gun” memo by Westinghouse attorney Jeffrey Bair and C.W. Bickerstaff, then Manager of Corporate Industrial Hygiene for Westinghouse.

28. Shinsuke Tanabe, “PCB Problems in the Future: Foresight from Current Knowledge,” ENVIRONMENTAL POLLUTION Vol. 50 (1988), pgs. 5-28. Also: Cummins, J.E., “Extinction: The PCB threat to marine mammals”, The Ecologist, Vol.18 No.6. 1988. Also: Reijnders. P., “Reproductive failure in common seals feeding on fish from polluted coastal waters”, Nature 324. pp. 456-7, 1986. Also: Subramanian, A., Tanabe, S., Tatsukaura. R., Sairo, N. and Miyanznki, N., “Reduction in the testosterone levels by PCBs and DDE in Dalls’ porpoises”. Marine Pollution Bulletin, 18, pp. 643-646, 1987: and Subramanian, A., Tanabe, S., and Tarsukaaura, R., “Use of Organochlorines as chemical tracers in determining reproductive parameters in Dalls’ porpoises”, Marine Environment. 1988. Also: Wolkers, J., Burkow. L. Lydersen, C., Dable, St., Monshouwer, M. and Witkamp, R. “Congener specific PCB and polychlorinated camphene in Svalbard ringed seals”, Sci Total Environ 216. pp. 1-11, 1998. Also: Cummins, J.E., “PCBs: Can the World’s Sea Mammals Survive Them?” The Ecologist, Vol. 28, No. 5, Sept./Oct. 1998.http://www.argonet.co.uk/users/john.rose/pcb.html

29. Hugh A. Tilson and others, “Polychlorinated Biphenyls and the Developing Nervous System: Cross-Species Comparisons,” NEUROTOXICOLOGY AND TERATOLOGY Vol. 12 (1990), pgs. 239-248.

30. Cate Jenkins, “Memo to Raymond Loehr: Newly Revealed Fraud by Monsanto in an Epidemiological Study Used by EPA to Assess Human Health Effects from Dioxins,” Feb. 23, 1990. Jenkins was a chemist with the Waste Characterization Branch of EPA. Loehr was Chairperson of the Executive Committee of the Science Advisory Board, EPA. The Jenkins memo had attached to it 25 pages of a brief filed in Case No. 5-88-0420, in the Appellate Court of Illinois.

31. Kristin Bryan Thomas and Theo Colborn, “Organochlorine Endocrine Disruptors in Human Tissue,” in Theo Colborn and Coralie Clement, editors, CHEMICALLY-INDUCED ALTERATIONS IN SEXUAL AND FUNCTIONAL DEVELOPMENT: THE WILDLIFE/HUMAN CONNECTION [Advances in Modern Environmental Toxicology Vol. XXI] (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton Scientific Publishing Co., [1992).] pgs. 342-343. Also: pgs. 365-394.

32. Dewailly, E., Ayotte, P., Bruneau. S., Lalibert, C., Muir. D. and Norstrom. R., “Inuit exposure to organochlorine through the aquatic food chain in arctic Quebec”, Environmental Health Perspectives, 101, pp. 618-20. 1993. Also: Dewailly, E., Ryan, J. Lalibert, C., Bruneau, S., Weber, J., Gingras. S. and Carrier, G., “Exposure of remote maritime populations to coplanar PCBs”. Environmental Health Perspectives 102 Suppl. 1, pp. 205-9. 1994. Also: Ayotte, P., Dewailly, E., Bruneau. S., Careau, H. and Vezina, A., “Arctic air pollution and human health” Sci Total Environ pp.160-161. pp. 529-37, 1995. Also: Mulvad, G., Pedersen, H., Hansen, J., Dewailly, E., Jul. E., Pedersen, M., Deguchi, Y., Newman, W., Malcom. G., Tracy, R. Middasugh, J. and Bjerregaard, P., “The Inuit diet”. Arctic Med. Res. 55. Suppl. 1. pp. 20-4, 1996. Also: Ayotte, P., Carrier, G. and Dewailly, E., “Health risk assessment for Inutt newborn”. Chemosphere 32. pp. 531-42, 1996. Also: Ayotte, P., Dewailly, E., Ryan, J., Bruneau, S. and Lebel, G., “PCBs and dioxin-like compounds in plasma of adult Inuiy Living in Nunavik”. Chemosphere 34, pp. 145968, 1997. Also: Dewailly, E., Ayotte, P., Blanchet, C., Grodin, J., Bruneau, S., Holub, B. and Carrier, G. “Weighing contaminant risks and nutrient benefits of country food in Nunavik”, Arctic Med. Res. 55, Suppl. 1, pp. 13-19. 1996. Also: Canadian Polar Commission Polaris Papers 10. “The Environment and Human Health In the Arctic Polaris”. pp. 1-15. 1996.

33. [1] Marguerite Holloway, “Dioxin Indictment,” SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN Vol. 270 (January 1994), pg. 25.

34. THE NATIONAL LAW JOURNAL, “Monsanto Hit Big For PCB Liability,” March 7, 1994 pg. 17 Transwestern Pipeline Co. v. Monsanto Co., C643857 (Super. Ct., Los Angeles Co.)

35. William Sanjour, EPA Office of Solid Waste and Emergency Response, “Memorandum: The Monsanto Investigation” to David Bussard, Director, EPA Characterization and Assessment Branch, dated July 20, 1994.

36. Tryphonas. H., “Immunotoxicity of PCBs in relation to the Great Lakes.” Eniroromental Health Perspectives. 103, Suppl. 9. pp. 35-46, 1995

37. Loomis. D., Browning. S., Schenk, A., Gregory, E. and Savitz. D., “Cancer mortality among electric utility workers exposed to polychorinated biphenyls.” Occupational Environmental Medicine. 54. pp. 720-8. 1997.

38. Russell Mokhiber, editor of Corporate Crime Reporter and Multinational Monitor.

39. Jennifer Ferrara, “Revolving Doors: Monsanto and the Regulators,” THE ECOLOGIST, Sept./Oct, 1998.

40. Nuttall. N., “Pollutants blamed for dual sex polar bears,” The Times, June 1, 1998.

41. Extract from The AGRIBUSINESS EXAMINER, Issue # 87 August 30, 2000 Monitoring Corporate Agribusiness From a Public Interest Perspective A.V. Krebs,Editor\Publisher

42. Katherine Bouma, “EPA alerts Anniston residents about lead,” 08/08/00, The Birmingham News.

43. World Wildlife Fund webpage:http://www.worldwildlife.org.

44. International POPs Elimination Network webpage:http://www.ipen.org.

45. Dale J. Patterson, “Fox River and Green Bay PCB Fate and Transport Model Evaluation, Technical Memorandum 2d, Compilation and Estimation of Historical Discharges of Total Suspended Solids and PCB from Fox River Point Sources, Draft,”, Wisconsin Dept. of Natural Resources, June 3, 1998. 30 pgs & appendices

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References for Page 2