=======================Electronic Edition========================
RACHEL’S HAZARDOUS WASTE NEWS #144
—August 29, 1989—
News and resources for environmental justice.
——
Environmental Research Foundation
P.O. Box 5036, Annapolis, MD 21403
Fax (410) 263-8944; Internet: erf@igc.apc.org
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THANKS TO MONSANTO…
This is a modern tale about how everything is connected to
everything else in the environment. It begins in 1929 when the
Monsanto Corporation started selling PCBs (polychlorinated
biphenyls). PCBs are oily liquids that are very stable (they
don’t change their characteristics) even when they get hot, and
they don’t conduct electricity but they do conduct heat.
Therefore, they make good insulators in electrical transformers
and capacitors. They have also been used as hydraulic fluid, and
in metal finishing. They are found in electrical systems and
other components of automobiles (which is one reason junked cars
and “car fluff” may be quite hazardous to your health). For a
time, carbonless carbon paper was made with PCBs.
Then scientists in the 1970s studying damage to wildlife from DDT
realized that there was something else causing the same problems
as DDT, and soon they identified PCBs as the culprit. It turns
out that PCBs interfere with birds’ reproductive systems just the
way DDT does–they cause egg shells to become thin, so the eggs
get crushed when the mother sits on them, and they never hatch.
Other evidence about hazards from PCBs came to light and in 1976
Congress banned PCB production–the only chemical Congress itself
has ever banned.
Nevertheless, Monsanto had sold a lot of PCBs before Congress cut
them off at the knees; as a result, there are 1.2 million tons
(2.4 billion pounds) of PCBs loose somewhere in the world.
Remember, they are very stable compounds (that was the reason for
their commercial success), so they don’t degrade or disappear
easily.
Now a recent series of studies has begun to discuss the
whereabouts of all the world’s PCBs. Sixty-five percent of them
are still in use in electrical equipment that will be getting old
and ready for replacement during the ’90s, or are in landfills.
Twenty percent have already reached the oceans. Eleven percent
are in terrestrial soils and sediments; 4% have been incinerated
or otherwise degraded.
Eighty-five percent of the world’s PCBs are held within developed
countries, fifteen percent exist in developing countries.
PCBs have a broad range of unpleasant effects. They accumulate in
fatty tissues of living things (birds, fish, people, etc.) and
they readily pass through the walls of cells. Cells are the tiny
bags of fluid of which every living thing is built. For example,
a typical human is constructed of 50 trillion cells. Chemicals
that can pass through the walls of cells can cause all sorts of
mischief, and PCBs are no exception. PCBs can cause cancer and
they can promote cancer (that is, other chemicals when combined
with PCBs develop the ability to cause cancer). PCBs also cause
birth defects in humans and animals. PCBs damage the human immune
system (and probably the immune systems of other creatures as
well). PCBs also cause hypertension (high blood pressure) and
they cause strokes in humans. Women who ate fish from the Great
lakes mildly polluted with PCBs (at or below legal limits) bore
children with small heads and who suffer from significant
learning and behavioral defects. (See RHWN #61.)
PCBs enter the ocean by two routes–by deposition from the
atmosphere (when it rains) and by drainage from rivers.
Atmospheric deposition is by far the largest source; 98% of the
PCBs entering the ocean arrive as air pollution, only 2% arrive
via river water.
Because PCBs can become airborne when they are released into the
environment, they have spread everywhere on earth. Recent studies
in sparsely populated areas of Canada (northern Saskatchewan,
Ontario, and New Brunswick) have revealed that rainfall now
carries 17 parts per trillion (ppt) of PCBs. As a matter of law,
the Ontario government allows only 1 ppt of PCBs to be discharged
into the environment, but it has been difficult to get a court
injunction against rainfall.
Between 1969 and 1984 the levels of PCBs in arctic polar bears
quadrupled. At the current rate of increase, by the year 2005 (16
years from now) the average polar bear will have 50 parts per
million (ppm) PCBs in their fatty tissue (adipose tissue) and
then polar bears will meet the EPA (U.S. Environmental Protection
Agency) criteria for being classified as a hazardous waste.
Some species of cetaceans (the whale family) already far exceed
polar bears in PCB concentrations. Killers whales from the deep
ocean have 410 ppm PCBs in their blubber, and blue-white dolphins
off the coast of Europe have 833 ppm. Thus these creatures must
definitely now be classified as hazardous wastes by EPA criteria.
The upper layer of water in the oceans plays an important role in
this story. The upper 50 micrometers of water (called the
microlayer) concentrates pollutants from atmospheric deposition
(rain), terrestrial runoff (rivers) and sewage disposal. (The dot
over the letter i in this newletter measures 400 micrometers in
diameter, so 50 micrometers is 1/8 of the diameter of the dot
over an i.) In the microlayer, the uppermost surface of the
ocean, pollutants are found at concentrations 10 to 100 times
greater than the average concentration in ocean water. Plankton
are the tiny creatures that form the bottom-most level of all
ocean food chains. They carry out photosynthesis, using energy
from sunlight to convert carbon dioxide and water into plants,
which are then eaten by creatures that are eaten by other
creatures, and so forth. Plankton live in the microlayer because
that’s where there’s most sunlight for photosynthesis. Therefore
they absorb the concentrated pollutants. Then when they are
eaten, they pass the pollutants to the next creature, which
passes them on to the next creature and so on. Because PCBs are
soluble in fat, they are retained in the bodies of fish and
mammals and at each step in the food chain, the concentration of
PCBs increases. Animals at the top of an oceanic food chain (like
whales) will have a concentration of PCBs in their bodies 10
million times greater than the concentration in plankton at the
bottom of the chain. (This is called biomagnification or
bioconcentration, and it is the reason why dilution is no
solution to pollution.)
The next-to-last chapter in our unfolding story is that marine
mammals (seals, porpoises, whales, etc.) have a genetic
predisposition to reproductive failure caused by PCBs. This is
simply bad luck. PCBs happen to act like hormones in marine
mammals, interfering with their ability to reproduce.
Joseph Cummins, Associate Professor of Genetics at University of
Western Ontario, writing in the journal, THE ECOLOGIST, says that
if even as little as 15% more of the world’s stock of PCBs gets
into the oceans, “the extinction of marine mammals would be
inevitable.” He says, “The consequence of failing to control PCB
releases to the oceans will be the extinction of marine mammals
and the chemical fouling of the ocean fisheries, rendering them
unsuitable for use by humans.” Dr. Cummins believes that the
“developed” world can manage its PCB stocks sensibly. (We note
that he does not offer a basis for this belief.) However, he is
concerned that the developing world hasn’t the financial
resources to control the PCBs now in use in its domain. He
therefore suggests that Monsanto should purchase back all its
PCBs from wherever they are located in the developing world, to
avoid PCB-induced calamity for all the world’s oceans in the
coming decades.
For its part, Monsanto makes no apology for its behavior. It
continues to operate very profitably, introducing new chemicals
into use at every opportunity. And that concludes our modern tale.
Get: Joseph Cummins, “Extinction: The PCB Threat to Marine
Mammals,” THE ECOLOGIST Vol. 18 (1988), pgs. 193-195. And while
you’re thinking about it, why not send a note of thanks to our
friends at Monsanto who have done so much to make the modern
world the kind of place it is today: 800 North Lindbergh
Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63141-7843. Or phone them at (314)
694-1000.
–Peter Montague, Ph.D.
Descriptor terms: oceans; pcbs; water pollution; air pollution;
wildlife; fish; marine mammals; biomagnification; extinction;
species loss; developing countries; monsanto; global
environmental problems;