Document 3Njak5e08L079v11n7NxmVZ96

To: Mr. R. E. Widing , INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE The undersigned attended the SPI meeting in Cleveland on July 11, 1974. Two members from the European producers of vinyl chloride had requested this meeting and the previous meetings in Washington, New York, and New Orleans. The primary purpose of this meeting was for the Europeans to explain their position with reference to the articles that appeared in the C&E News. In addition, they wished to obtain information from various companies on their intent to comply with the standard and on what actions were being taken by. the Americans to reduce exposures. The meeting was primarily directed at the manufacture of PVC and very little was discussed concerning monomer produc tion. Messrs. Barry Barnes and Auguste Gosselin recapped the chronology of the Europeans and expressed considerable concern about the wording of the MCA's chronology. It was related by Mr. Barnes that in their meeting on Tuesday, July 9, NIOSH indicated that they did not like the MCA chronology. The Europeans defended their position that they acted promptly, and not unreason ably, in requesting a nondisclosure agreement based on the preliminary data released to MCA members in early 1973. On other points of interest, Mr. Barnes said that no one in Europe knew of the April International Cancer Congress and the fact that Dr. Maltonl presented some of the preliminary findings on vinyl chloride. Doug Rausch at Dow Chemical said that CBS was to interview Ted Torkelson in a one-hour documentary on vinyl chloride. Ralph Harding of SPI had been interviewed by Mort Dean of CBS. Ralph indicated that Dean was very hard on him during the interview. It is possible to request a tape of the interview from Mr. Harding if this is felt desirable. It is this writer's intention to request a copy of the chronology prepared hastily by Mr. Barnes from Ralph Harding of SPI. The highlights of the chronology discussed included the fact that Dr. Viola was an employee of Solvay when he undertook the study to reconstruct the bone condition known as acroosteolysis. (There was much criticism of the techniques used by Dr. Viola in his studies.) As a result of the findings by Viola, the European companies started research on vinyl chloride on an individual basis, and then later joined together as a group to financially support the research work of Maltoni. Montedison, who had first obtained Dr. Maltoni, was further along than the other three partici pating European companies. The European companies permitted Maltoni to progress along his protocol without criticism of his techniques. FORM 903-A RtV 60*70 SL 096545 Mr. R. E. Widing July 22, 1974 Page 2 On July 1, 1971, Dr. Maltoni comnenced his tests. MCA wrote to Solvay in April, 1972, requesting information on the test results At this point in time, there were no results to be reported. (The study was not far enough along to reveal the cancers.) Dr. Dinman, at the request of MCA, visited Solvay on May 15, 1972, to gather more information on the protocol and tests of Dr. Maltoni. June 15, 1972 Dr. Maltoni verbally reported to the European sponsors that he had confirmed the zymbal tumors. August 16, 1972 MCA was sent a letter which contained conditions for the release of information for MCA members to sign. October 19, 1972 Dr. Maltoni verbally informed the European sponsors that he had found other tumors in addition to the zymbal gland tumors. October 20, 1972 Dr. Walter Harris of Uni royal visited Maltoni and observed the physical layout of his research program. However, he was not given any results. November 14, 1972 A meeting of the vinyl chloride research group was held in Washington where Don Elliott provided fragmented informa tion on the verbal information provided to the European producers on October 19, 1972. Mr. Elliott specifically requested that the information presented not be quoted since his data was based on verbal discussions, and some errors in interpretation could have been transmitted since Mr. Elliott was not a toxicologist or a physician. November 24, 1972 The Europeans received the written report from Maltoni. December 1, 1972 MCA signed the nondisclosure agreement letter. January 16, 1973 Dr. Torkelson of Dow and two other representatives went to see Dr. Maltoni. The remaining events were not highlighted since they agreed fairly well with MCA's chronology. SL 096546 Mr. R. E. Hiding July 22, 1974 Page 3 The rest of the Cleveland meeting was devoted to analytical techniques, use of respiratory protection, and methods to reduce exposures. zeD u. Ben, Jr. ZGB:mal Attachment cc: J. A. Clapperton D. B. Dailey l. B. Grant, M.D. W. R. Harris L. F. Sargert R. E. Sourwine F. J. Trunzo SL 096547