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Those cans are filled with transformer oil, which until relatively recently consisted mostly of polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. Imagine how many of those ca

Those cans are filled with transformer oil, which until relatively recently consisted mostly of polychlorinated biphenyls or PCBs. Imagine how many of those cans exist across the United States and you get a sense of how big the PCB industry used to be, and why rivers such as the Hudson in New York [1] and the Housatonic in Massachusetts [2] are polluted with olympic swimming-pool sized quantities of the durable oily poison. PCBs were used because they are really good thermal conductors, which is the same property desired of cooking oil for frying. In recent years, thieves in Kenya (which has yet to replace PCBs with something less toxic) have been vandalizing [3] transformers and selling the oil to street vendors, which has the twin effects of destroying the fragile electrical infrastructure and poisoning the neighborhood. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_of_the_Hudson_River https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pollution_of_the_Hudson_River [2] https://www.epa.gov/ge-housatonic/understanding-pcb-risks-ge-pittsfieldhousatonic-river-site#FastFacts https://www.epa.gov/ge-housatonic/understanding-pcb-risks-ge... [3] https://www.reuters.com/article/kenya-electricity/thieves-fry-kenyas-power-grid-to-cook-fast-food-idUSL6N0U81JB20141227 https://www.reuters.com/article/kenya-electricity/thieves-fr...

mirimir 9y ago
Yes, PCBs have high thermal conductivity and low electrical conductivity. Also better thermal stability than hydrocarbons. But unfortunately, quite toxic as well. And they tend to be contaminated with dioxins, which are far more toxic. Seriously, PCB/dioxin contaminated oil sold for frying? That is insane. But then, people sometimes adulterate sugar with lead acetate :(
- dogecoinbase 9y ago
  It's kind of astonishing how far people will go in the absence of a punitive regulatory environment. One of my favorite books in Project Gutenberg is this 1820 treatise on the adulteration of foods: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19031 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19031 Everything from copper to make pickles green, to molten lead to clarify wine.
  - stevenwoo 9y ago
    Don't need to go that far back, only five years for the gutter oil (the most famous of many in the area) phenomena to make the news. https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/10/chinas-frightening-unpleasant-cooking-oil-scandal/281000/ https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/10/chinas-fri...
  - jackhack 9y ago
    >It's kind of astonishing how far people will go Indeed it is. This is a widespread practice: What comes to my mind is the Chinese milk & baby formula "sweetener" (melamine) incident from 2008 with 300,000 victims. 54,000 babies hospitalized! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal Related: it was also in pet foods. 1 dog and 9 cats died during "taste test trials" and Petco pulled chinese-sourced products due to 1000 pet deaths. https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/RecallsWithdrawals/ucm129932.htm https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/RecallsWit... it was also implicated in farm animal feed and fish food. https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/RecallsWithdrawals/ucm129575.htm https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/RecallsWit... yet almost ten years later, Petco once again pulled pet treat due to contamination! https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/01/06/pet-stores-are-pulling-chinese-made-dog-treats-after-years-of-mystery-dog-illnesses-and-deaths/?utm_term=.78cf90a30e00 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/01/06/pet-s... And if they aren't adding poison, the wikipedia article links to a prior incident where 12 babies died from malnutrition, due to watered-down baby formula. Such callous disregard for life (human and animal) is beyond comprehension.
    - mirimir 9y ago
      Yeah, it sucks. And melamine. It wasn't added as a sweetener. It was added to boost apparent protein content, because it was less expensive than actual protein. As I understand it, the simple test for food protein content reported melamine as protein.
  - gumby 9y ago
    Oh, but surely the market will sort it out, right? Who needs those pesky regulations?
Dangeranger 9y ago
The story about Kenyans selling PCB oil is truly sad. I cannot imagine the damage that is doing to children and families in that country. It reminds me of the Vice News story about the illegal oil refineries which are present in the Niger River delta and the environmental and humanitarian destruction they are causing. Additionally when authorities find illegally refined oil they simply dump it on site, contaminating the villages and markets where it is stored.
- pasbesoin 9y ago
  I used to know a fellow who spent some years working for "the oil industry" in the far east. That would be a couple of decades ago. He really enjoyed the street food. But, as he told me, you had to be careful. How did a vendor have fresh fare without power nor evident means of fresh supply and cooling? Well, per him, some vendors kept supplies submerged in formaldehyde. I've never looked up independent confirmation of this, and I haven't been there and so had to worry about it. But he was, in my experience, a straight shooter and not one inclined towards tall tales.
js2 9y ago
There's a nice recreational lake here in Raleigh, NC. People run on paths by it, sail on it, and used to fish out of it. Sadly, it’s also an EPA Superfund site because a company long since out of business, Ward Transformers, saw fit to dispose of PCB-laden transformer oil right into a ditch behind the plant. The PCBs ran off into the lake and streams for miles. All the nearby waterways warn not to eat the fish caught therein. This company wasn’t just irresponsible, it was malicious. At one point, a contractor it hired to dispose of the oil was caught spraying it along rural roadsides. http://sph.unc.edu/superfund-pages/srpresources/ward-transformer-superfund-site-resources/ http://sph.unc.edu/superfund-pages/srpresources/ward-transfo... https://sph.unc.edu/files/2015/08/SRP_Soil-Still-Toxic-25-years-later.pdf https://sph.unc.edu/files/2015/08/SRP_Soil-Still-Toxic-25-ye... Related story – “How the Benzene Tree Polluted the World“: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/benzene-tree-organic-compounds/530655/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/benzene-...
- mirimir 9y ago
  Dirt and gravel roads were commonly oiled to keep down dust, and eventually create something like macadam. But they tended to use the least expensive oil available. Such as used motor oil. Which, back in the days of leaded gasoline, contained considerable lead.
aaron695 9y ago
> In recent years, thieves in Kenya (which has yet to replace PCBs with something less toxic) have been vandalizing [3] transformers and selling the oil to street vendors I see no confirmation on this. Sounds like an urban legend. All reports come from the one source which also talks about the legitimate reason of scrap stealing. The doctors quote should be the biggest tip off. If it makes people sick(Off what seems like a once off) why would street vendors use it? This is just nonsense. Why do we demonize people from the underdeveloped world. Whats the point of cheap oil if your customers never come back. It lacks basic commercial sense. How can this become widespread. Nonsensical urban legends on the other hand I'd guess they catch like us. Another Urban Legend - transformers contain P2P, which tweakers drain them for. It's interesting lore at least, they are a big part of the community.
- adonovan 9y ago
  After further digging I think you're probably right. Variants of this story seem to have been reported in many countries over many years but none cites an actual authority such as government report or scientific paper. Copper theft does seem more likely.

mirimir 9y ago

Yes, PCBs have high thermal conductivity and low electrical conductivity. Also better thermal stability than hydrocarbons. But unfortunately, quite toxic as well. And they tend to be contaminated with dioxins, which are far more toxic. Seriously, PCB/dioxin contaminated oil sold for frying? That is insane. But then, people sometimes adulterate sugar with lead acetate :(

dogecoinbase 9y ago
It's kind of astonishing how far people will go in the absence of a punitive regulatory environment. One of my favorite books in Project Gutenberg is this 1820 treatise on the adulteration of foods: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19031 http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19031 Everything from copper to make pickles green, to molten lead to clarify wine.
- stevenwoo 9y ago
  Don't need to go that far back, only five years for the gutter oil (the most famous of many in the area) phenomena to make the news. https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/10/chinas-frightening-unpleasant-cooking-oil-scandal/281000/ https://www.theatlantic.com/china/archive/2013/10/chinas-fri...
- jackhack 9y ago
  >It's kind of astonishing how far people will go Indeed it is. This is a widespread practice: What comes to my mind is the Chinese milk & baby formula "sweetener" (melamine) incident from 2008 with 300,000 victims. 54,000 babies hospitalized! https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2008_Chinese_milk_scandal Related: it was also in pet foods. 1 dog and 9 cats died during "taste test trials" and Petco pulled chinese-sourced products due to 1000 pet deaths. https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/RecallsWithdrawals/ucm129932.htm https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/RecallsWit... it was also implicated in farm animal feed and fish food. https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/RecallsWithdrawals/ucm129575.htm https://www.fda.gov/AnimalVeterinary/SafetyHealth/RecallsWit... yet almost ten years later, Petco once again pulled pet treat due to contamination! https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/01/06/pet-stores-are-pulling-chinese-made-dog-treats-after-years-of-mystery-dog-illnesses-and-deaths/?utm_term=.78cf90a30e00 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonk/wp/2015/01/06/pet-s... And if they aren't adding poison, the wikipedia article links to a prior incident where 12 babies died from malnutrition, due to watered-down baby formula. Such callous disregard for life (human and animal) is beyond comprehension.
  - mirimir 9y ago
    Yeah, it sucks. And melamine. It wasn't added as a sweetener. It was added to boost apparent protein content, because it was less expensive than actual protein. As I understand it, the simple test for food protein content reported melamine as protein.
- gumby 9y ago
  Oh, but surely the market will sort it out, right? Who needs those pesky regulations?

Dangeranger 9y ago

The story about Kenyans selling PCB oil is truly sad. I cannot imagine the damage that is doing to children and families in that country. It reminds me of the Vice News story about the illegal oil refineries which are present in the Niger River delta and the environmental and humanitarian destruction they are causing. Additionally when authorities find illegally refined oil they simply dump it on site, contaminating the villages and markets where it is stored.

pasbesoin 9y ago
I used to know a fellow who spent some years working for "the oil industry" in the far east. That would be a couple of decades ago. He really enjoyed the street food. But, as he told me, you had to be careful. How did a vendor have fresh fare without power nor evident means of fresh supply and cooling? Well, per him, some vendors kept supplies submerged in formaldehyde. I've never looked up independent confirmation of this, and I haven't been there and so had to worry about it. But he was, in my experience, a straight shooter and not one inclined towards tall tales.

js2 9y ago

There's a nice recreational lake here in Raleigh, NC. People run on paths by it, sail on it, and used to fish out of it. Sadly, it’s also an EPA Superfund site because a company long since out of business, Ward Transformers, saw fit to dispose of PCB-laden transformer oil right into a ditch behind the plant. The PCBs ran off into the lake and streams for miles. All the nearby waterways warn not to eat the fish caught therein. This company wasn’t just irresponsible, it was malicious. At one point, a contractor it hired to dispose of the oil was caught spraying it along rural roadsides. http://sph.unc.edu/superfund-pages/srpresources/ward-transformer-superfund-site-resources/ http://sph.unc.edu/superfund-pages/srpresources/ward-transfo... https://sph.unc.edu/files/2015/08/SRP_Soil-Still-Toxic-25-years-later.pdf https://sph.unc.edu/files/2015/08/SRP_Soil-Still-Toxic-25-ye... Related story – “How the Benzene Tree Polluted the World“: https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/benzene-tree-organic-compounds/530655/ https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2017/10/benzene-...

mirimir 9y ago
Dirt and gravel roads were commonly oiled to keep down dust, and eventually create something like macadam. But they tended to use the least expensive oil available. Such as used motor oil. Which, back in the days of leaded gasoline, contained considerable lead.

aaron695 9y ago

> In recent years, thieves in Kenya (which has yet to replace PCBs with something less toxic) have been vandalizing [3] transformers and selling the oil to street vendors I see no confirmation on this. Sounds like an urban legend. All reports come from the one source which also talks about the legitimate reason of scrap stealing. The doctors quote should be the biggest tip off. If it makes people sick(Off what seems like a once off) why would street vendors use it? This is just nonsense. Why do we demonize people from the underdeveloped world. Whats the point of cheap oil if your customers never come back. It lacks basic commercial sense. How can this become widespread. Nonsensical urban legends on the other hand I'd guess they catch like us. Another Urban Legend - transformers contain P2P, which tweakers drain them for. It's interesting lore at least, they are a big part of the community.

adonovan 9y ago
After further digging I think you're probably right. Variants of this story seem to have been reported in many countries over many years but none cites an actual authority such as government report or scientific paper. Copper theft does seem more likely.