Document 0qVXJvBr1QvnxXYgpByzLk5ak

James J. Hali TJ^ 2)e - &t44y 4/ /^C J S*v4t<. CjU*. (conoco) Da,e ^CLJ -/cy ^ y-es/ 4/OS# S^^4 " / 2,0^0^ 0000 vj'jC see How the scare started/page J3A By BILL INMAN Post Reporter- r' . * The Houston Poet, 1575 _ * An unusually high number of workers at Union Carbide's Texas City plant died of a type of brain tumor that has been linked to the cancer-causing agent, vinyl chloride, federal health authorities con firmed Thursday. The substance was once manufactured and is now processed at the large chemi cal and plastics plant. A top Labor Department official said scientists associate the chemical with a cancerous tumor known as glioblastoma multiform. The Houston Post has learned medical! certificates from at least nine Texas City workers who died between 1962 and 197B listed that type of tumor as the cause of death. About 455 death certificates have been examined thus tar by health authorities. In addition, federal authorities say, a 10th plant employee -- still living -- has been diagnosed as "probably" having the same form of tumor. Health records of current and former Texas City plant workers -- 8,000 to 10,- 000 people -- are being reconstructed for study by scientists working for the Occu pational Safety and Health Administra tion and the National Institute for Occu pational Safety and Health. Those records, which companyofficials describe as '`sketchy'' and "dif ficult to piece together." go back to 1941. "The company feels this is not a crisis that poses any immediate exposure haz ards for current employees," said plant manager Damon Engle Thursday. "Practically all of the affected employ ees worked for substantial periods of time from the mid-'40s through the present in a period in which neither the government nor the company had any reason to suspect vinyl chloride." The company, he said, is ``not yet ready" to assume vinyl chloride is re sponsible for the deaths, as OSHA sug gests. "We do think that if vinyl chloride should ultimately be implicated that OSHA and the industry should take credit for recognizing hazards at this stage. "Our plant has been in compliance and remains' in compliance" with cur rent chemical safety standards, he said. The joint OSHA-NTOSH investigation was prompted by a worker complaint, said Eula Bingham, assistant secretary of labor for occupational safety and health in Washington. The complaint was received at a local OSHA office Nov. 27 of last year and an investigation launched Dec. 13. Bingham said. A team of three scientists from NIOSH, two from OSHA and OSHA area technical personnel made the prelimi nary study. "The company has proved to be very cooperative thus far in our joint study of this situation," Bingham noted. The total number of brain tumors found so far "would appear to be higher than expected" at a plant like that at Texas City, which currently employs about 2,000 workers, and represents an "unusually high incidence'' of such Please see Deaths/page ISA February 16, 1979 00002050.2 Deaths at plant probed Cf?!?TM pager ^ ^'nSham said. .`II.* J00 early and there are too 23'V,, riay a .majr >le in the study scientific available;- ouia alj>0 ** made Tex^^hf'1^6 this month sent its S^rl^lWOrkers may * and SS- tu^"BinSLnid.CaUSe8 - -thes* na^S*?,SLI?Pn*eot 0nJy PUi- done/'Engie said. .. .. yet to ** dozensof chemirfi ^ manufactuf'ed by SE sssswSSs?We have an indication thai NIOSHV