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In the past, GE has taken the position that the period between 1932 and 1977, during which they used PCBs in their electrical transformers, was a different time. People didn’t know about the harm that could result from PCBs. The following historical information is taken largely from the website of the Housatonic River Initiative (HRI). Citations and further details can be found there.
In 1936, one year before GE began using PCBs, Dr. Lewis Schwartz, Senior Surgeon with the United States Public Health Service, wrote a paper in which he warned of the dangers of Pyrenol, the version of PCBs used by GE. In it Dr. Schwartz said:
“In addition to the skin lesions, symptoms of systematic poisoning have occurred among workers inhaling the fumes. Those working with the chloro diphenyls (PCBs) have complained of digestive disturbances, burning of the eyes, impotence and hematuria. The latter symptom developed among a number of men making amino diphenyl, which is used in the making of a rubber antioxidant. Causes of death from yellow atrophy of the liver have been reported among workers exposed to the fumes of the chloro naphthalenes.”
Also in 1936, Dr. Schwartz cautioned in an article that “workers in chlorinated naphthalenes and di phenyls (PCBs) should be periodically examined for symptoms of systemic poisoning.”
This is not some obscure reference. This is the United States Public Health Service. And in case you’re thinking that maybe GE was unaware of the problems associated with the chemical that they were using in massive amounts, here’s a statement made in 1937 by F. R. Kaimer, Assistant Manager of a GE plant in Pennsylvania where PCBs were being used to treat wire. [NOTE: halowax is a name for PCBs used by one of its manufacturers.)
“It is only one and a half 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 were concerned. One man died and the diagnosis may have attributed his death to exposure to halowax vapors but we are not sure of that … we 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.”
You may wonder if GE took a more responsible attitude over the years. No. Not at all. In 1990, filmmaker Mickey Friedman interviewed retired GE workers for his documentary entitled “Good Things To Life.” Among those interviewed were retired GE workers Ed Bates and Charles Fessenden. They worked with PCBs at GE in the 1940s through the 1970s when it was phased out. Around the age of 40 or 50, Ed and Charlie started noticing that they were going to a lot of wakes and funerals for friends. They were concerned. They read in the paper that there was a high incidence of cancer in Pittsfield. In 1979 they heard that a researcher from Harvard University was going to do an independent study of GE workers and the incidence of cancer. They contacted GE and offered to be part of the study. They were not included. They wondered what was going on. They submitted the names of fellow workers who had died and tried to get them included in the study.
Ed: “Charlie and I had submitted the names, 60 names back in 1983, and they finally gave us the list of 60 names and the causes of death in 1988, five years later, to do 60 of them, 61. Out of 61 there were 13 people they excluded from the study because they said that they couldn’t find them or it was out of the time range and we agreed with that. Left 48 names on their with the causes of death. … Out of these 48 names and the 48 causes of death, every one of them was wrong. Every one. And Charlie and I knew some. They had a fellow dying in a fire – and so Charlie and I went to every town hall in Berkshire County. We got their death certificates which indicated they were wrong.”
Today (8/19/2011) EPA is considering how cleanup of the Housatonic River should proceed and what role GE should play in the cleanup. GE has already told EPA in writing that if GE is ordered to do any work at all in the Housatonic River they will appeal in court. Why? Because they claim PCBs are not harmful. This is very similar to the outrageous stance the tobacco companies took in years past in trying to defend themselves from charges that tobacco products are harmful. When the only voice claiming that a product is harmless is the voice of the person making money from the product, people are justifiably skeptical.