Document 2N2vbay2b76G8aaRr0MBD4Oo5

Monsanto St. Louis - General Offices March 5 1969 " Inquiry from Langerman, Begam and Lewis (legal firm), Phoenix, Arizona, Concerning Inhalation of Chemical Vapors from 54201KA Letter 2/25/69 to^Monsanto Chemical Company TO ^W8Sv';: Bergen-fl P. 0. BenigiufS-PBENI D. A. Olsop/DOLSQ W. R. Richard-WRICH E. P. Wheeler-EWHEE N. T. Johnson-NJOHN J. R. Pallon-JPALL Los Angeles - C. L. Bradford-CBRAD To Insure that everyone Is not caughj^tfs cold as I was upon receiving this inquiry, I woujxi like to pass on what background information I have obtained. Since the inquiry came from Phoenix, wh^Te Westinghouse has a large manufacturing facillty^and the subject was a Westinghouse mix of 70#Arcelor 1254 and 30# trichloro benzene, I called John^Penwlch at the Phoenix Plant to obtain any backgrounpl/lnformation they may have. John turned me over to B^n McGowen who related the entire story^tS'rae. The'story goes as follows: W^stin^joysenphoenlx has no railroad siding, so the fluid isVtaken from the tank car in a tank truck (capacity 1500 gallong__per load) to the plant storage tank. It was in this transfer from the tank car to the plant storage that the difficulty occurred. In April 1967, the tank truck ruptured in the alley behind the plant where the entire 1500 gallons emptied on the dirt. Most of the fluid soaked into the dirt but some of it puddled. The next day they hauled in dirt and dumped it on the puddles to absorb the remainder. However, in the meantime the driver of the steel hauling truck (type with half cab) drove through some of the puddles. The fluid either splashed on the muffler or was picked up on the tires and thrown on the muffler. In any case the fluid flashed off the hot muffler system. The driver claims he received considerable lung conjestion from the exposure and in turn sued Westinghouse. McGowen was not sure which side these lawyers were on, so he referred me to Wilbur Splker at Pittsburgh who had done all of the Westinghouse correspondence in the case. I called Wilbur Spiker and since he was talking with Elmer Wheeler at the time I called, I bowed out and told them Elmer would be our contact. Later I talked with Elmer 0057632 PCB-ARCH0743453 Page Two March 5, 1969 and he will answer the request after he obtains some additional Information from Spiker. If anyone feels he has anything further to contribute, please let Elmer know. Pollution control Is becoming a very active subject. Certainly this request (and I am sure we will see others) Is loaded. The original request Is attached. If there Is further question, please do not hesitate to let me know. JGB/mjs Enclosure J. G. Bryant QQ'jlb'i'S PCB-ARCH0743454