Document 3JoGjbMBGommk3rmBq3k4QLq3

^ . ff*' February 23, 1976 r . > . D U J. t it U" --- W . E. Nessell J . A . Gu id i - St P . S . Park - St hbl, 2/26/76 Dr* George Rousch Medical Director Monsanto Company BOO tf. Lindberg Blvd. St. Louis, Missouri 63166 Dear Dr. Rousch: rhe Motional Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (THOSE) has Decor-* aware of an apparent unusual frequency of deaths from pancreatic cancer among former workers of the Monsanto Polymers and Petrochemicals Company, Indian Orchard, Massachusetts, and is concerned about its possible implications fj- A* 3^5 Hjhe problem came to our attention when a group of workers at the facility Jbecame concerned about a possible problem in areas of the facility where vinyl chloride was used. Mae group attempted to identify fellow workers I and retirees from the plant who had died and might have worked at one a time or another in a department having vinyl chloride exposures* As of July, 1975 , 86 deaths among former employees of the Monsanto facility 2 were S den ti fze^anareported to a 7/JOSH physician stationed in Boston. ^ Review of causes of death entered on the death certificates indicated that cancer was the underlying cause in 2^cases and pancreatic cancer / jin four of these,. Based on the proportion of cancer deaths' to'all /- As'idea t an'the "general white male population (ages 20 and over) in 1970, w ^one^ould_ha_^. ejcpecrtedL15-j--dggth-g from cancer among the 86 Monsanto ,^ i deaths and onlyons death from jpancre&t-^fi gasper. ' '^ere jsVurthgr'reason ^S^concej7r"^,nce--tw^aJ^thefour pancreatic cancer cases from Monsanto (were only 42 and 43 years of age at death. (tfiiie we recognize that these findings are based on a limited set of data, it is difficult to ignore the unexpectedly high frequency of a comparatively rare cancer and its unusual age distribution. Consequent!y, in order to adequately answer the question, further follow-up work should he done It is our judgment that an examination of causes of death among a more complete RSV 0020119 r ( Dr. George Aousch - Page 2 J ^ tr-As whose deaths would have been known to the Company through Its Ufa insurance and retlres_plans or other appropriate sources. addition, 'ws woirlrr attempt todentTfy^Sy~^ofh:^r'~means'^ forvher^fSonsanto workers who died after leaving the Company for reasons other than retirement. This Jlarger set of deaths would be analyzed in much t _* same way as was done. with the first 86, except that statistical adju:. ent for age, race/ sex, and year of death would be incorporated, xlf wou.:be Lhelpiu. aTthougii p^JltEJ!?jmTfiSTm^?ra'cJLlcal, to Know whether each decedent studied was classified as either: .blue collar/white collar, production/non-production, or salaried/houriy. ' ' mmm ' *" 1 *" """" iri ^ l"rwi :,1N "i a the apparent increase in pancreatic cancer holds when evaluated against a more complete data set, s'HS'i^guenc' sveps~wilT be necessary to further elucidate the problem. Thes^woirfiT^ncTude review of detailed work histories for decedents with the disease shown to be in excesstoidentifiL^anu' cgT.inSfr exposure areas that may yield clues to the relationship between exposure and't Depending upon these findings, it may then be appropriate to initiate a full-scale study of cause-specific mortality rates in a population of workers employed in production operations such as those that have existed at the Monsanto Indian Orchard facility. We feel that this is an appr -riate course of action necessary to clarify this matter and to he rasporsive to the concerned Monsanto employees. We would appreciate very much vo:r cooperation in assuring that this t3s.frhe QomJS^ze^Tr^^^me^Ly and'eff^i-tive mznry'r. Dr. DeCoufle will be in contact with you regarding more specific details of a mutually satisfactory date to begin this study If you have any cuostions, please feel free to call me at sfs '-^sr-suir 7/ Wn,l'b 5v H. " ^0 OUTS kU.-No ^ fA\ ft Dobby F. Craft, Ph.D. Acting Director, Division of Surveillance Hazard PErrvaal rlutaaft^iro>nnes sairntAd rF/ie)/l?d Studies CC: Dr. DeCoufle Mr. Ellsworth i Dr. Finklea J BFC:rk & Uu i & y'rff >*? y g a. K f e , ** 1. V. Cw fay? a*, - is`0*af . . ... J?- RSV 0020120