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environment ,L < < r . // L c ,v- <+ V \ si ,v f PVC WORKERS use respirators with airhose attachments to keep exposure to VCM below 1 ppm. Great Lakes* - Masked men get drop on VCM PVC plants meet new OSHA standard with few exceptions, but most must use respirators and lose some production to comply If requests for variances are any crite rion, most polyvinyl chloride plants have complied with the Apr. 1 deadline limit ing worker exposure to 1-ppm. vinyl chloride monomer. Only four eompanies-Firestone, Union C arbide, Air Products and Chem icals, Borden--have applied to the Occu pational Safety and Health Adminis tration for temporary variances. And all operating PVC plants appear to have re duced time-weighted average exposures to the monomer to well under the 25ppm. limit that went into effect in April 1975. But meeting the new 1-ppm. limit requires "extensive use of respirators," say several chemical companies. And with extensive engineering changes still being made at a number of older plants, requests for an extension of standards usually are being based on the difficulty of doing construction work while wearing respirators. Air Products, for example, has a major rebuilding project under way at its Pensa cola, Fla., plant, where it is expanding ca pacity from 80 million lbs./year to 150 million by December. And changes are being made at its Calvert City, Ky., unit Delays in equipment delivery are slowing progress toward minimum use of respira tors. Firestone, whose request for an interim six-week extension was turned down by OSHA (OK Mar. 24, p. 9), is waiting for a response to its request for a variance until Sept 30 for discretionary use of res pirators. Last week the oompany dosed its Pottstown, Pa., plant to complete six to seven weeks of construction work. Oper ation continues, with respirators, at Penyville. Md. "The temporary variance was re quested because it was our judgment that we could not continue the massive engi neering changes and equipment installa tions required in our polymerization buildings if our craftsmen were required to wear respiratory equipment on a full time basis," says Todd C. Walker, presi dent ofFirestone Plastics. "Under the law, we can grant variances only when equipment is unavailable," says John Concannon, chief of the divi sion of variance determination for OSHA. Union Carbide isn't optimistic about its request for a one-year extension, and the company says 62 workers at its Texas City, Tex., suspension-resin plant will have to put on respirators for "extended periods and they won't like it" The aver age respirator time there is 30%, Longer for maintenance work. Carbide adds. Another reason for its request for an extension, says Carbide, is the "uncer tainty about the Environmental Protec tion Agency regulations for VCM emis sions from the plant" EPA initially proposed a 90% reduction of emissions; ' 'b ``tSa |v whenlfou looK^" ' Jj Cftearlcal foip^ fa M BROMOBENZI Vest Lafayette, IN 47906 Phone:317463-2511 O^itW/WeTfA'9270S^^ Circle 021 on Mgt. Info. Service Card April 7, 1976 CHEMICAL WEEK 31 UCC 093720 environment -tv; .v.tviVJ*; ssm! fteiv \x o^SiSS1 \trteW ip fig**' V.*V.'.yAv/ CORDOVA CHEMICAL COMPANY P. O. Box 13400 Sacramento, California 95813 EAST WEST 203426-6687 916 355-5000 MIDWEST 614 457-1200 Circle 022 on Mgt. Info. Service Card 32 CHEMICAL WEEK APRIL7, 1976 final proposed regulations are expected in June. Meeting Limits: An informal survey of PVC plant managers by one company in dicates that 70% are averaging below 1 ppm. Some plants have levels as high as 3.5 ppm., while others report levels as low as 0.3 ppm. David Kuhn, director of environmental and biomedical affairs for Conoco Chem icals, says background levels at his com pany's operations are mostly below I ppm., but in the process area they ate musually above 1 ppm. And an official at one company ob serves; "Even if you are averaging 1 ppm,, the individual worker may be ex posed to higher levels during the day." The OSHA standard establishes a max imum permissible employee exposure limit to vinyl chloride monomer of 1 ppm. for an eight-hour, time-weighted average and a 5-ppm. ceiling for a 15minute period. Plants are required to use engineering controls to reduce the level as much as possible, and workers must re sort to respirator* when necessary, Until Apr. 1, respirators,were optional at levels.above 25 ppm. Now respirators must be worn to keep the daily exposure below a. 1-ppm, average. No Breathing Room; "At the moment, there is no way to meet the final standard without extensive use of respirators," says John Bair, technical manager of Air Products' Chemicals Division manufac turing department Only respirators connected to air sup ply tines have been approved by the Na tional Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. A Carbide official calls them, "instruments of torture." Maintenance and construction workers find them par ticularly difficult to live with. And Carbide points out that workers must communicate with each other and. often must use the phone, but "with those things on it is impossible." Ray Abramowitz, technical director of Hooker's Rucco Division, agrees that res pirators slow work, but he maintains they are not "debilitating." There is no ques tion that workers dislike them, however. Abramowitz says that in one case work war done faster than usual because the workers were so anxious to get out of the respirators. James Daniel, Robintech vice-presi dent, reports his company's joint-venture plant (with Japan's Shinetsu) at Freeport, Tex., was given a "clean bill of health" by OSHA. There are no emissions above 1 ppm. and respirators are not needed. But an engineer at another company says; "You can average 1-2 ppm. most of the time, but you just can't guard against excursions, like valve teaks, to 10 ppm." And while companies wait for NIOSH approval of respirators that won't require long air hoses, the outlook is not encour aging, at least this year. Only one substi tute device has been submitted to the agency's Morgantown, W.Va., labs for testing. Counting Cost: The engineering changes that have been required to mini mize VCM exposure have not been cheap. Their effect on the cost of produc ing PVC is difficult to pinpoint because material and energy costs have risen dur ing the period when the changes were made. But several firms have estimated the cost increases as higher than 10%. And reduction of plant capacity because of stripping time and monitoring can be 20% for dispersion resins (CfV, May 7, 1975, p. 49), There is also a shortage of pumps, seals and valves that can stop the "nitty gritty" leaks that spell the difference between 5ppm. and 1-ppm. exposure:' And Hooker's Abramowitz notes that some of the money spent to meet OSHA ventilation standards may have been wasted in meeting EPA exposure stan dards. "We just didn't have time to think the whole thing through and do things in an orderly fashion," he says. If activities to meet regulations have been frantic and costly for large com panies, they have been more difficult for the smaller ones. For example, Melvin Rosensaft, presi dent of Oreat American Chemical (Fitch burg, Mass.), says bis company "will meet the standard with some great help from the rest of the industry." Rosensaft notes that small companies can move faster sometimes, - but he concedes that the problems, at - times, seemed "insur mountable His reply when asked about costs to meet tbc regulations: `Want me to get sick?" Rosensaft says compliance with regu lations has decreased plant capacity by more than 10%. But compliance costs may not be as great as first anticipated. The Society of the Plastics Industry estimates the indus try will spend S200 million. And Good rich, major producer, with over 1-milliontons/year capacity, originally forecast it would spend $42 million for compliance by 1977. That has been revised downward 10-15% (CIP, Dec 10, 1975, p. 59). Moreover, many producers, including Goodrich and Great American Chemical, are expanding capacity. UCC 093721