Against Silence

Pesticide cover-up?

Companies accused of selling unsafe products have drawn steadily harsher penalties from courts and regulatory agencies in recent years. Last week that trend was significantly advanced by Jus tice Department felony indictments against Chicago-based Velsicol Chemical Corp. and six present and former employ ees. The executives, all of whom could face prison terms, are charged with con spiring to conceal from the Environmental Protection Agency the results of tests that showed that two widely used pesticides may cause cancer in humans. The indictment is the first ever sought by the EPA against a company for covering up adverse information about a product.

The pesticides involved are hepta-chlor and chlordane. Velsicol, a subsidiary of Northwest Industries Inc., sells them to other firms, which market them under myriad brand names. They have been widely used by both farmers and homeowners against termites, fire ants and the like. According to the indictment, Velsicol, at the behest of the EPA, began studies of both chemicals in 1971 to determine what, if any, dangers they posed.

In 1972 the company hired two independent pa-thologists -- John Rust of the University of Chicago and Paul Newberne of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology -- to examine the slides of liver tissues of mice that had eaten the pesticides.

Both doctors reported that the tissues contained tumors.

In 1974, a third independent toxicologist, William Mac-Donald of the University of Miami, submitted similar findings to the company. The indictment charges that company officials frequently discussed the scientists' conclusions among themselves but suppressed the findings.

The EPA on its own gathered information and in November 1974 the agency announced it was drastically restricting use of the chemicals. That decision led to three years of public hearings. The chemicals are still being used by professional exterminators and to control fire ants, mainly in the South. Finally, in 1975, the EPA turned the case over to the Justice Department.

Velsicol Chairman Paul F. Hoffman called last week's indictments an "outrage." Said he: "We do not understand how the Government can complain about the delay in submitting two scientifically insignificant, incomplete readings when the authors of those readings have subsequently stated they were meaningless." Dr. Rust, one of the authors, told TIME last week that he found tumors and severe liver damage in the mice tested but no satisfactory proof that the pesticides were a cause of cancer. Still, he believes that his findings were alarming and should have been brought to the attention of the EPA. The EPA'S action against Velsicol is likely to be the first of several of its kind. Agency sources say that other similar cases are now being prepared. -

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