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<br />0001?5 <br /> <br />resulting from silver iodide over an extended periOd of <br />time." [4, p. B-15J <br /> <br />"The Environmental Protection Agency has reported that <br />silver and silver compounds have a rather low order of both <br />acute and chronic toxicity to experimental animals and to <br />man. The principal effect of large quantities of silver in <br />the body is argyria, 'a skin discoloration that results <br />when hundreds of times the proper amounts of silver com- <br />pounds are injected or taken orally. Silver becomes <br />deposited under the skin and stays there; it kills bacteria <br />that might be present, but, naturally no one wants gray <br />ski n.' <br /> <br />"Although the air concentration of silver which will result <br />in argyria is not accurately known, th~ TLV (threshold <br />limit value) has been set at 0.01 mg/m . <br /> <br />"No systematic toxicity attributable to silver has been <br />reported in workers who are occupationally exposed to it <br />even though accidental and suicidal ingestion and medical <br />overdoses of various silver compounds have produced poison- <br />ing. Thus, a report from the Health Effects Research <br />Laboratory of the Environmental Protection Agency concludes <br />that silver and silver compounds apparently do not pose a <br />significant environmental health problem though large <br />amounts are discharged into the air and otherwise lost into <br />the envi ronment. <br /> <br />"In the concluding section of Appendix B, the Skywater <br />programmatic Final Environmental Statement states: <br /> <br />'A re ate impacts of Skywater and other pro rams. - The <br />questlon must e a resse w et er t e ywater experi- <br />mental program and operational programs of precipitation <br />management that may ensue from it might, when aggregated <br />with other programs of weather modification dispersing <br />silver iodide, have environmental impacts that would not <br />ensue from the other programs alone. <br /> <br />'Such overlapping of silver accumulations from different <br />weather-modification operations is most likely to come <br />about in connection with suppression of hail and severe <br />storms. Some operations for suppression of hail have <br />rejected operations for suppression of hail have <br />involved releases of silver iodide at rates and in <br />concentrations exceeding those of Project Skywater <br />experiments by tenfold or more, and at least one has <br />been conducted over the same study area as one of the <br />Skywater pilot projects. <br /> <br />28 <br />