Vintage work crew photos

[bruce.desertrat]

In a previous career, we used Arochlor 1254 (a specific PCB formulation) as an agent to stimulate liver enzymes (p450 variants) in rats for use in cancer research; we ran out of our supply, had to get some more and what had previously cost us $$ cost $$$$$ since it was no longer made.

Some wags told us 'just go get some mud from the river' (this was in NY along the infamously polluted by PCB's Hudson River.)

We had an entirely separate room in the building that I had to wear a bunny suit, respirator and two layers of gloves to weigh it out into the container I was going to use. We took that stuff and all the other crazy chemicals and radioactive materials we worked with pretty seriously, (one of our younger research chemists died of liver cancer soon after I started working there, he was only 34).

I can't imagine what life was like for the workers filling those transformers back then...