The Case of the Contaminated Coho

Where did all the DDT go?

The two principle issues of the DDT litigation were whether DDT was really a ubiquitous environmental contaminant and whether DDT was actually toxic at the low levels it was found throughout the environment.

At the time of the Yannacone DDT litigation in Suffolk County, detection levels of DDT in the environment were on the order of 1 to 10 parts per million. To visualize one ppm consider putting four drops of ink in a 55-gallon barrel of water and mixing it thoroughly.This procedure would produce an ink concentration of 1 ppm. Other ways to visualize a part per million are one inch in a little under 16 miles, one second in a little over 11.5 days; or one minute in a little under two years. One part per billion is approximately one drop of ink in a 5,000 gallon tanker truck of liquid.

Between the close of the DDT litigation in Suffolk County and the start of the trial of DDT in Madison, a revolution in analytical chemistry was taking place. Gas Liquid Chromatography (GLC) was coming on line in laboratories throughout the world and scientists were beginning to evaluation environmental samples once considered too small to measure. The changing of the guard occurred at Madison during the direct and cross-examination of Francis B. Coon, Director of Chemistry of the WARF Institute one of the premier citadels of analytical chemistry in the World. On that morning, Willard Stafford, one of the best known and highly respected trial lawyers in the Midwest, presented his surprise witness, Mr. Coon, hinting to the media assembled in the Jury Box that the case was over because Mr. Coon had analyzed a Coho salmon from Lake Michigan and found very little DDT residue.

There had been no advance notice of this evidence or advance notice that this witness was going to testify. An example of why in 1969 litigation was often referred to as, “Trial by Ambush.” Presenting Mr. Coon as a surprise witness was considered acceptable practice in those days, however, as the afternoon wore on the future of environmental analytical chemistry changed forever and a venerable instiution saw its reputation tarnished.

Introducing the witness

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The history of DDT analysis

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Finally noticing PCBs

It appears that there were other toxic substances contaminating the environment throughout the world and being accumulated by plants and animals including human beings just like DDT was.
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PCBs interfere with DDT analysis

The Bear Creek Coho

[docxpresso file=”https://yannalaw.com/wp-content/uploads/DDT/Coon_direct_2b_BearCreek.odt” comments=”true” SVG=”true”] At the conclusion of his direct examination Attorney Stafford believed he had established that estimates of DDT in the environment were overestimated as a result of PCB contamination of samples and erroneous measurements with the new Gas-Liquid Chromatography technology coming on line. As was soon established during the remainder of the afternoon, he was wishful thinking and underestimated the way his adversary would attack the “surprise” testimony.
The spectre of the eagle chick, its unhatched nestmate with the cracked “thin” eggshell, and the carcass of the Coho salmon was ever present during the cross-examination of Francis B. Coon.

The objective of Yannacone’s cross-examination was to establish that there were two two kinds of “DDT” analyses: one for the agricultural chemical companies selling DDT and the other chlorinated hydrocarbon pesticides and another less comprehensive analysis for the natural scientists at colleges, universities, and in government who were looking at problems with entire populations of birds and other animals that happened to be at the top of complex food chains within even more complex foodwebs such as raptors and eagles, and game fish such as trout and salmon and tuna and swordfish.
The cross-examination questioning moved according to the principles of the Chinese internal martial arts, Taiji Quan (Tai Chi Chuan), angles; Pa Kua Chang, circles; Hsing-Yi Chuan, straight lines; and Sun Tzu’s The Art of War.

Who was being told about PCBs?

[docxpresso file=”https://yannalaw.com/wp-content/uploads/DDT/Coon_cross_3_notice.odt” comments=”true” SVG=”true”] At the time of the Madison hearings four scientists were raising the alarm about the worldwide contamination of the Evironment withh DDT and its principle environmental metabolite, DDE. Ornithologist and raptor expert Dr. Joseph Hickey at the University of Wisconsin; chemist Dr. Charles Wurster at the State University of Stony Brook; biochemist Dr. Robert Risebrough of the University of California at Berkely; and wildlife biologist Dr. Lucille Stickel of the United States Fish & Wildlife Service in Pawtuxet, Maryland who has just begun to bring peregrine falcons from the brink of extinctin by hatching and rearing them initially in an environment relatively free of organochlorine pesticides.

Thin layer confirmation

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Sampling salmon

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A question of columns

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Validating Robert Risebrough

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Lost among the peaks

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The attack on Mr. Coon’s analyses of the Bear Creek Coho at WARF targeted the additional chromatograms which were not provided in analyses done by Mr. Coon and WARF for Dr. Wurster, Dr. Risebrough, Dr. Hickey and Dr. Stickel. A curious and telling omission.

Lost among the peaks

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Hydrolysis was the industry secret

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The final exam

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And thus ended the career of Francis B. Coon, Director of Chemistry at WARF.