Nation IN BRIEF : IOWA : Blame Assigned for Contaminated Corn

Iowa environmental officials said that a federal agency and a grain elevator operator were equally responsible for cleaning up 12,755 bushels of corn heavily tainted by aflatoxin, a natural cancer-causing toxin. The order from the Iowa Division of Environmental Protection gave the Farmers Home Administration and the Pruess Elevator Co. of Lowden, which purchased the corn, until next Friday to remove it. But a lawyer representing the FmHA, which sold the corn from a foreclosed farm at Chouteau, Okla., and knew that it was tainted, contended the agency has no responsibility.