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Show Geneva Steel Continues Utah Fluoride Studies More than 60,000 examinations of livestock involving several hundred thousand manhours of work by teams of veterinarians and livestock specialists have gone into one part of the agri-cultral agri-cultral phase of U. S. Steel's "Operation Good Neighbor" program pro-gram in Utah. These teams, working from an eight acre experimental farm located lo-cated on the grounds of the big Utah County steel mill, have pioneered pio-neered in extensive basic research re-search into possible effects of fluorides on farm animals. When the emanation of fluorides fluo-rides from Geneva's stacks was brought to U. S. Steel's attention late in 1950 an all out campaign was launched to determine the effect of the emissions and to develop equipment to control them. Faced with a unique condition, con-dition, caused by the high fluorine fluo-rine content of Utah iron ore Columbia-Geneva officials took some original steps for the steel industry, including the establishment establish-ment of an integrated agricultural agricul-tural department composed of some of the top farm scientists in the country. Recognized men1 in veterinary medicine, physio-' logy, plant pathology, horticulture horticul-ture and agronomy and meteorology meteor-ology work side by side with; veteran steelmakers at the mill, i The Geneva agriculture department depart-ment has had two main functions since its beginning in 1952: in-vestligation in-vestligation of claims from the neighboring farmers alleging damage to crops and livestock; and, since this was a new field about which very litle was then , known, basic research into the I effect of fluorides in agriculture. ' During its first three years of operation the agriculture department depart-ment investigated over 1000 claims from dairy farmers which resulted in the negotiated settlement settle-ment of 880 of them at a cost to U. S. Steel of $4,450,234. Basic research to determine the effect of fluorides on dairy cattle is being carried cooperatively by U. S. Steel, the Utah State University, Uni-versity, and Utah County dairy farmesr. The main experiment involving some 45 dairy animals is being conducted under a U. S. Steel grant at the University experiment farm at Logan. Another An-other phase, involving ten cows, is being conducted at the University's Univer-sity's Utah County experiment farm located about one and one half miles from Geneva. The University's Utah County : farm is located on land donated by Utah County farmers. U. S. ' Steel provided the funds to build facilities, purchase the animals, and operate the project. A vast amount of detailed information in-formation has resulted from the cooperative approach taken by farmer, university and steelmaker. steel-maker. Some 20 years of dairy production records in Utah have been thoroughly studied. All types of feeds are analyzed regularly and 10,000 to 15,000 chemical analyses of vegetation have been made each year. Animal Ani-mal autopsies, X-ray studies, and chemical analyses of bones and soft tissues from slaughtered animals ani-mals are part of the daily activities activi-ties of the plant's specialists. Corrective equipment, at a cost for research and installation of nearly $9,000,000, which controls fluorine emanations from the Geneva plant, has been in operation opera-tion sine 1955, but the work of the agricultural scientists is continuing. con-tinuing. At a meeting in Provo in November, No-vember, Leslie B. Worthington, president of the Division, said: "While we are satisfied that our program has solved the fluorine fluo-rine problem in Utah County, we will continue to make certain that our operations at the Geneva Ge-neva works are not causing damage dam-age to agricultural interests in the area. We will not relax in our long range program to insure that corrective equipment is operating op-erating efficiently and to continue con-tinue the beneficial activities of our agricultural unit." |