Document 37LjmGxQQ7RVzj4wJzX35N826

uJJl Si- Jlutmf frt\ fate Y gander Deaths Verified forFirst.Time FdrPolyvinyl Chloride Industry Workers 'i * v,J ^ .j' *. \ ,,: :t - . A'i. By BAMY JOUMa man declined.to identify the factory ln-| - Stag Rtinrter 0/ Tits Wall STjtser Jouxmai, votved, end a labor Department spekeamanj JV. second death from angiosarcoma of in Washington identified It only as a Sira:-! the liver, a rare forroof cancer previously ford plant that makes polyvinyl-coated fab United to vinyl chloride occupational expo rics. A further investigation is being under- sure, has bean discovered in the polyvinyl taken to learn if the accountant ever worked chloride plastic fabricating industry, the on the production line. Connecticut Health Department announced In Hartford. ' The two deaths increase concern that the occupation danger of cancer from vinyl chloride, a gas used to make polyvinyl chloride plastic, may be more widespread than had been thought Since January, 13 cases of Uver angiosarcoma have been de tected among vinyl chloride workers from * Although a definite relatlocihin between occupational exposure and angiciarcoma m the two polyvinyl chloride workers cor-ntt . be made, the Labor Department spokesman j said contact with all other chemicals, dru~sl and disease! that can effect the Uver had] been ruled out in the two dares, leaving cnly; polyvinyl chloride aa a known possiDil'ty. - | plants that manufactured the gaa or that po Connecticut's cancer registry, which un-l lymerised the gas into the plastic. Six other covered the two coses and which is ono of| caeee have been reported abroad. the oldest and meet accurate in Uie nation, i But the Connecticut cases ere the first lista six confirmed coses cf angicsircoma cf known In the polyvinyl chloride fabricating the Uver since the registry was begun in Industry, fchlch turns the plastic Into a myr U35. The other four casee didn't have iad of finished praducti ranging from furni known exposure to either vinyl chloride cr ture to coated fabric to dcotrle cable cover polyvinyl chloride, according to Dr. 3or-i ing.1 German scientists recently reported bare Christine, chief cf the health dec art-i finding "precursers" of angiosarcoma in the meat's chronic disease section. She said cltr I Uvers of six workers in a plant that turned link between polyvinyl chloride and the ,w; 1 polyvinyl chloride plastic into floor tllos_ angiosarcoma deaths "might Just be - But the Connecticut cases, confirmed as chance." angiosarcoma by the National Cancer Instl- , The link between vinyl chlcride gas and tuda in Bethesda. Md,, are the first actual Uver angiosarcoma's strong, and scientist; cases, in the U.8. an estimated (.500 per. believe that if a link is determined between | eons work in the vinyl chloride industry, exposure to polyvinyl chloride piteiie and while the number working In the polyvinyl the rare cencer it will be because the p'.iiac . chloride Industry numbers in.the hundreds contains pockets of unpolymerized vmyl of thousands, chlcride monomer that era liberated m The Connecticut Health Department an heating the plastic when it Is fabricated into1 nounced the first case last week,, and Gen different products. eral Electric Co. disclosed that lt'waa a 60- Labor Department hearings designed to' year-old employe who for 30 years had oper set permanent standards for vnyl chieriaol ated machines at a Bridgeport cable menu; atmospheric concentrations in faetcries ore1 facturing plant that processed various plas scheduled to begin June 35 in W-ulungtcu. A > tics, including polyvinyl chloride. The men temporary celling of 50 parts vinyl ch:cndS| Med last July, GE said. per million ports of air is currently in ei'.'eet The second1 case involved e man who and the Labor Department has pvopcsii a I worked as an accountant in a polyvinyl limit at levels too small to be detected, a re-) chloride fabricat'ng plant In the same pert quirement the Industry has said would be of the state. A heelth department spokes impossible to meet ucc 006821 Cosmo: mixed reviews It was cosmetics show time at the New York Coliseum last week. On stage: CosmoExpo 2, the second annual trade show and conference for the cosmetic, fragrance, toiletry and proprietary indus tries. And like many a show on Broad way, it received mixed notices. The primary reaction was that this year's show was bigger and better at tended than last year's. According to Robert Orayson, of sponsoring Grayson Associates, registration of exhibitors was up to 180, from about 120 last year. But some exhibitors were disappointed by the product mix. They felt there was too much emphasis on packaging--glass and plastic bottles, caps, tubes, aerosols, labels and decorating materials. Exhibits by manufacturers of cosmetic and toiletry items and suppliers of raw materials were relatively few. Others, however, noted that there were more of these exhibitors than there were last year and saw this as an encouraging sign. Grayson Associates has been working to broaden the appeal of the show, con ceived to bring suppliers and marketers together (CW, Sept, 27, 72, p, 37). For example, a small "machinery row" for packaging, processing and labeling equipment made its debut And seminar sessions in the morning were expanded, to include technical and research and de velopment topics as well as marketing. New Products: Some companies found the show a good time to introduce new products: The Lacquerite Division of Supranics Corp. (Livingston, N.J.) showed off its new nail enamel technology. The enam els are "seashcir finishes--include pink in the bottle but with a blue flash on the nail, and orange with a red flesh. Both Richford American Corp. (New York) and Bakan Plastics (Kansas City) exhibited mechanical aerosols ca pable of producing fine mists. e NL Industries touted the benefits of Bentone-gelled perftime systems, said to help prolong fragrance release. e Meyercord Co. (Carol Stream, QL) showed a high-speed decal application process for cylindrical glass containers for cosmetics and pharmaceuticals. Other companies found the show an opportunity to reinforce corporate mar keting. Among them: Union Camp Chemicals, out to boost its stake in the cosmetics industry, and Gentiy Inter national (Fair Lawn, NJ.), an essential oils house beefing up its work in com pounded fragrances. EXPLOSION ANO FIRE at Nypro plant caused 29 deaths. $96 million In damage. Blast will hurt nylon The explosion and fire that last week destroyed the Nypro plant in Flixborough, England, killing 29 persons and injuring more than 100, virtually wiped out the U.K.'s sole supply of cap rolactam--the chemical intermediate es sential for producing nylon-6. Moreover, according to Britain's Na tional Coal Board, which owns 45% of Nypro (Dutch State Mining owns the rest), the destruction of the 70,000tons/year plant may have significant re percussion on world nylon production. It accounted for one-seventh of total world caprolactam output. Courtaulds was Nypro's biggest cus tomer (about 35,000 tons/year), and Brit ish Enkalon, a subsidiary of Holland's Azko, was No. 2 (25,000 tons/year). Pro duction of caprolactam at Flixborough was below capacity. Only last June, Nypro had brought a new, $36-million, 50,000-tons/year cap rolactam unit onstream at the six-yearold, S48-million complex. The explosion is being tentatively blamed on a cyclo hexane leak--one of the highly flam mable materials used in making caprolac tam--but Nypro officers say they are still uncertain about the origin. Although Courtaulds and British En kalon are reluctant to comment on the ef fects of the explosion on their nylon pro duction, both companies are scrambling for alternative sources. So far, neither company is willing to say how much is .available and at what price, although DSM, which has a reported caprolactam 14 CHEMICAL WEEK June 12, 1974 capacity of 336,000 tons/year, "would do everything possible" to assure supplies to the British nylon makers, according to London sources. Although it will take two years to rebuild the Flixborough plant, at an esti mated cost of $96 million, the benzolbased cyclohexane that was supplied by Stavely Chemical (45% owned by the Na tional Coal Board, 45% by British Steel, 10% Continental Oil) could be shunted to other caprolactam facilities. VCM probe goes outside The Environmental Protection Agency last week asked 27 producers of vinyl chloride monomer and polyvinyl chloride to supply detailed information on VCM emissions into the air from their plants. EPA says the data will be used to help it decide whether rules to restrict the emis sions are necessary. Acting under the Clean Air Act of '70, EPA already is taking air samples outside some of the 14 VCM and 35 PVC plants on which it has requested data. A spokes man says the agency also expects to study liquid and solid wastes from the plants. EPA has asked the 27 companies to supply information about: Points in the manufacturing process where there may be vinyl chloride emis sions and in what quantities. Emission control procedures that have been or could be instituted, and cost estimates for installation and operation of necessary equipment. Any results of ambient air studies the firms may have made by using their own monitoring equipment. For several months before the EPA air study began, workplaces had been the major areas of concern in investigation of the possibility of a link `between VCM and angiosarcoma, a rare liver cancer. Nineteen cases of angiosarcoma had been confirmed among health records of dead and living VCM and PVC plant workers. Now, the focus has broadened to include the possibility of health hazards to per sons living near the plants. The New York Times reported last week that New York state lists six cases of angiosarcomathree of them are persons who had worked in Goodyear Tire & Rubber's Niagara Falls PVC plant, and three are women who had lived in the Niagara Falls-Buffalo area. Goodyear, however, says its own monitoring of air around the plant has turned up no measurable amount of VCM contamination. It also disputes the Times' assertion that oae vic tim had lived downwind from the planL ucc 006822 28 Cftarltaton Dailp Qgafl TUE5., JUNE 11, 1974 Examiner Hopeful RECEIVED juh 13 1974 R. N. WHEEI ER, JR. Industry Can Solve Chloride Problem By RICHARD HAAS Daily Mail Business Editor If the chemical industry cannot reduce the cancer risk to its employes, it should be shut down, the director of a medical team studying work ers at Union Carbide's South Charleston plant said Monday, Dr. Irving Selikoff, director of the Mount Sinai School of Medicine unit which conduct ed four days of medical tests at the plant, added, however, that he was impressed with the industry efforts being made to reduce worker expo sure to vinyl chloride.' Dr Selikoff's team is one of the leading research groups studying the possible link be tween exposure to vinyl chlor ide and angiosarcoma, a rare lorm of liver cancer. Carbide and the Local 598. Internationil Assn of Machinists and Aerospace Workers invited -he New York group to the plant after concern developed earlier this year over the pos sible dangers of the chemical. A review oi plant medical ret ords revealed that one South Charleston worker died of z igiosarcoma in 1968 and one ruher former employe is seri ously ill of a liver disease h hich has not been definitive* h diagnosed. Following a tour of the pro duction units at the plant where vinyl chloride monom er is converted to polyvinyl chloride. Dr. Selikoff said the technical progress made in re ducing levels of vinyl chloride in the workplace and the good will shown by Carbide were hopeful signs that the problem could be solved- The South Charleston plant is the fourth major U.S. chem ical facility visited by the Mount Sinai team this year, but the clinical data on the ef fect of vinyl choloride under actual working conditions is very limited. Dr. Selikoff said. Researchers working with laboratory animals have found they can produce the liver tumors associated with angiosarcoma in rats by ex posing them to very limited quantities of vinyl chloride, he said. The problem, he noted, comes in transferring the ani mal findings to the human sit uation. "If you ask me what is a safe level of vinyl chloride. I can't answer that," Dr. Seli koff said. "No one can. I can tell you what an unsafe level is. and I can tell you that if you want to be absolutely cer tain you should eliminate ex posure completely, but I can t say whether there is an in-be tween level that is safe." The goal of industry and its government regulators should be to reduce the cancer risk of chemical workers to the same risk level of the population in general. Eliminating the risk completely would be impossi ble, Dr. Selikoff said, since some cases of angiosarcoma are not linked to vinyl chlor ide! Since the adoption of the Oc cupational Safety and Health Act of 1970 the law of the land has been that industry must 'If you ask me what is a safe level of vinyl chloride, I can't an swer that. No one can.' --Dr. Irving Selikoff offer its employes a workplace that is free from expo sure to accidents and disease. Dr. Selikoff said. If the chemi cal industry cannot reduce the risk from vinyl chloride, gov ernment would be forced U> close the affected operations. he said. Dr Selikoff rejected the contentions of some chemical industry officials that the can cer risk involved in exposure to vinyl chloride is less than that assoicated with cigarette smoking and thus does not warrant strong government action. "The correlation is strong in both cases." he said, "but cigarette smoking is strictly voluntary." Because widespread use of various chemicals is a fairly recent phenomenon, Dr. Seli koff said he expects other problems similar to the vinyl chloride situation to develop. "Those of us involved In can cer research are asking our selves: `How many other vi nyl chlorides should we be looking for?'" If any of [he tests conducted on the Carbide workers prod uce suspicious findings, he said, the workers and their physicians will be encouraged to arrange further testing " A statistical report winch does not reveal names will he sent to both the union and tincompany. Dr Selikotl said Ii any of the workers tested give their approval more detailed findings will he disclosed to Carbide medical officials, he said. y f 'v-- UCC 006823