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Page 6 Friday, June 4, 1982- The Michigan Daily
The Michigan Daily
Vol. XCII, No. 22-S
Ninety-two Years of Editorial Freedom
Edited and managed by student,
at the University of Michigan
Wasserman
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Symbols of hope
NEARLY 30 SURVIVORS of the atomic
bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are
in the United States this week vividly
describing the aftermath of nuclear war as
"truly a portrait of hell."
But the group has not come to New York
merely to serve as a reminder of the greatest
scourge of man, but as symbols of hope. Indeed,
hope that perhaps man can eliminate or at least
reduce the danger of his self-inflicted menace
to the world.,
The survivors recounted the horrors they
lived through and their tales were ghastly
similar. The landscape was littered with
charred humans as they searched, mostly in
vain, for friends and relatives.
And they live with the bomb today, but with a
much more gruesome conception of nuclear
war than Americans could, ever understand.
The wounds of atomic scourge run much deeper
than the scars on their arms; it is indelibly et-
ched into their psyche.
They remember, but with bitterness toward
none except the bomb that still threatens their
very existence. Thus, the survivors come to
New York to herald the opening next week of
the United Nations special session on disar-
mament and to join with thousands of others in
protest against nuclear weapons on June 12.
Their hope, along with that of millions of
others, is that one day, maybe not next week or
next fall or next year, but one day the public
outcry of the world will end this nuclear mad-
ness-before it is too late.
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Cost vs. Benefit:
The industries win
By Diana Hem bree
and Susan Ferriss
Just seven years after a study:
by the Environmental Protection'
Agency (EPA) found traces of
the chemical PCB in the milk of
an alarming percentage of nur-
sing mothers, the agency is
quietly moving to deregulate the
highly toxic substance.
In what some scientific experts.
- including reviewers in the
agency itself - regard as a
dangerous step, the EPA has
proposed to authorize the
unlimited use of PCBs
(polychlorinated biphenyls) in
many types of electrical equip-
ment. The agency also is
proposing a ten-fold increase in
acceptable contamination levels
for equipment using PCB, which
was technically banned in 1976
following the milk controversy.
THE REGULATIONS are
based on two new studies by elec-
trical and chemical industry con-
sultants which conclude that
"PCB poses no serious risk of in-
jury to human health."
The studies were submitted to
the EPA in February by the
Chemical Manufacturers
Association (CMA), the Edison
Electrical Institute (EEI), and
the Utility Solid Waste
Management Group (USWMG).
One of the studies that workers
exposed to PCB on a regular
basis exhibited little more than
skin problems. Yet according to a
document released during the
Carter administration, "Studies
of workers exposed to PCBs have
shown a number of adverse effec-
ts, included but not limited to
chloroacne (skin irritation),
digestive disturbances, jaundice,
impotence, throat and
respiratory irritations and severe
headaches."
IN INTERNAL documents
never officially released to the
public, even EPA health
reviewers have criticized a PCB
report submitted by the Chemical
Manufacturers Association as
"unobjectively written" and "not
of sufficient scientific interest in
most cases to warrant a respon-
se."
Dr, Irwin Baumel, who directs
the EPA's Health and Environ-
mental Health Review Division,
said, however, that his staff
members "do not agree that the
information presented proves
that PCBs do not pose any serious
risk to hunian health."
Particularly disturbing to some
inside EPA is the agency's new
emphasis on weighing risks to
public health against the costs of
PCB regulation. Though the EPA
admitted that phasing out PCB
transformers would reduce
health risks, for example, it con-.
cluded that the dollars needed for
a 10-year phase-out would be too
high: $2,661 per pound of PCB
released into the environment.
Said a California EPA official,
who asked to remain anonymous,
"The changes in the PCB rules
are shocking ... The proposed
regulations put a dollar value on
human health."
EPA DIRECTOR Anne Gor-
such arranged a "national sym-
posium" in mid-May on the
health effects of PCB, and invited
several authors of the industry
studies to testify. Scientists from
Dow Chemical and Monsanto also
were invited. But Dr. Renate
Kimbrough, research medical of-
ficer of the national Center for
Disease Control (CDC) in Atlan-
ta, verified that many scientists
who had performed independent
research on the health effects of
PCB were not included in the
conference.
PCB was once hailed as a
"miracle chemical" and was
widely used as a coolant in in-
dustrial electric products for
almost 40 years. But numerous
incidents of contamination even-
tually made it one of the most
controversial substances in the
world.
In 1968, nearly 13,000 Japanese
poisoned by PCB-contaminated
rice suffered severe skin diseases
and vision problems, as well as
liver cancer six times the normal
rate. The Hudson River, con-
taminated by PCB dumping, was
closed to commercial fishing in
1976. And in 1975, an EPA study of
1,000 nursing women in the
United States revealed that almost
one-third had PCB in their milk.
IN 1976, Congress passed the
Toxic Substances Control Act,
which banned the manufacture
and commercial distribution of
PCB.
Ironically, the less stringent
PCB rules now under con-
sideration are the direct result of
a lawsuit filed against the EPA
three years ago by the Environ-
mental Defense Fund (EDF).
The suit sought to overturn a 1976
EPA decision to permit use of
PCB in "totally enclosed" elec-
trical equipment, and not to
regulate the use of equipment
which contains less than 50 parts
per million (ppm) of PCB. The
EDF charged that both decisions
violated the intent of the Toxic
Substance Control Act.
In 1960, the U.S. Court of Ap-
peals ruled in favor of the En-
vironmental Defense Fund and
ordered new PCB regulations.
YET THE EPA's proposed
PCB rules are more lax than the
original regulations, which the
court felt were far too weak. The
new guidelines, for example,
permit the continued use of the
chemical in electrical transfor-
mers - a major source of PCB
pollution.
The new regulations also call
for a 10-year-phase-out of PCB
capacitators - large electrical
units often located on telephone
poles, but may allow PCB
amounts to increase ten-fold. The
EPA's own figures predict that
capacitors will spill ap-
proximately 3.3 million pounds of
PCB into the environment in the
next 10 years.
The' EPA is presently under
court order to adopt new PCB
regulations by August 19.
Dr. Kimbrough of the CDC said
recently that the' difficulty of
proving chronic health effects
argues for more research, not
fewer restrictions. "The
generation exposed to PCB
through mother's milk, the food
chain, water, the air - we don't
have any idea what will happen to
those people," she said.
Hembree and Ferriss wrote
this article for the Pacific
News Service. _ .-.-_r-..
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