Cadmium

The families of three people who recently died and were found to have extremely high levels of cadmium in their bodies will be tested for the toxic metal, a deputy coroner said. Ten people who recently died in Indiana County tested positive in autopsies for elevated levels of cadmium, a toxic metal often used in batteries, paint and welding supplies, officials have said. It is unclear whether the deaths are related.

Army experiments in the 1950s and '60s intended to determine how biological warfare agents would disperse over populated areas posed no health risk to people exposed to the test chemicals, according to a report issued Wednesday by the independent National Research Council. The Army dropped zinc cadmium sulfide from airplanes, rooftops and moving vehicles in 33 communities as part of a Cold War program, believing that the compound was not toxic.

Britain, under pressure from neighboring countries to improve its pollution practices, agreed to join other North Sea nations in steps to clean up the sea. Britain, the only nation bordering the North Sea that still dumps sewage sludge and industrial wastes into the sea, agreed with other nations at a conference in The Hague, Netherlands, to reduce by 70% from 1985 levels the amount of cadmium, mercury, dioxin and lead it dumps into the sea by 1995.

Matsushita Battery Industrial Co. said it will begin selling a new rechargeable storage battery next month that lasts twice as long as the one widely used in consumer electronics items. Matsushita is believed to be the first company in the world to succeed in mass-producing the nickel-hydride battery, which will be used in portable telephones, video cameras, office automation equipment and other high-technology products.

Two medical manufacturers have issued recalls for nearly 11,000 hospital and ambulance heart defibrillators that may carry faulty power packs, the Food and Drug Administration said. Officials said the FDA is investigating an undetermined number of deaths but that they may have been caused by devices not involved in the recall. The recalls of the devices, which give electric jolts that can restore proper heartbeats, were issued by Physio Control Corp. of Redmond, Wash., and Datascope Corp.

The Environmental Protection Agency proposed dramatic reductions in the emission levels allowed from medical waste incinerators across the United States. The rules, which will apply to incinerators in nearly every U.S. city, are aimed at limiting the adverse health effects of pollution from the burning of needles, gauges and other refuse from hospitals, laboratories and physicians' offices.