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"Durham Science Meet Studies PCB Effects" Durham Morning Herald, December 21, 1971

"Durham Science Meet Studies PCB Effects" Durham Morning Herald, December 21, 1971

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Title

"Durham Science Meet Studies PCB Effects" Durham Morning Herald, December 21, 1971

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

Type

still image

Identifier

https://exhibits.lib.unc.edu/items/show/7433

Text

Durham Science Meet Studies PCB Effects
By Cornelia Olive
Herald Staff Writer

Scientists from throughout the world are gathering in Durham to discuss the effects on humans of PCB, a DDT-like industrial chemical that has leaked into food supplies.

A Japanese researcher who has studied human beings after they ate food containing the chemical, said it caused stillbirths, birth defects, growth retardation in young boys and other health problems.

Dr. Atsuko Yamaguchi of the Department of Public Health at Kyushu University said the chemical caused an epidemic of "peculiar skin disease which was later called yusho in 1968. He said it was traced to rice oil produced and shipped on a certain day. The oil was believed to have been. Contaminated with PCB when a heating pipe leaked.

“Many patients with yusho are·still tortured by the disease even after more than three years," he told the conference at Quail Roost, a conference center north of Durham. “To cure them and to prevent another epidemic, all possible worldwide cooperative efforts are highly desired."

PCB, a liquid, has extreme heat resistance and is used where fire protection is a primary consideration in manufacturing, such as in heat pipes and transformers. It has been in use since about 1930.

The chemical gained public notice last summer when about 90,000 broilers were feared to have been contaminated at a North Wilkesboro plant and were destroyed. Later, about 720,000 eggs in Durham were destroyed because officials feared they were contaminated with PCB.

In addition to Japan, countries represented at the conference inc1ude the United States, Sweden and Canada.

Yamaguchi said yoshu symptoms included acne-type symptoms, discoloration of the skin and nails, perspiring, feelings of weakness and numbness.

He said that of 13 pregnant women exposed to the rice oil

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newspaper article