Document 4JkMZp6RyV8EEd10M8Ee2rqGG

TO: Industrial Relations Managers FROM: R. M. Montgomery THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, i Wednesday. Oct. 29. 197S | Goodrich Unit's PVC Facility in Quebec Has Had 9 Deaths Due to a Rare Cancer .. \ By Barky Kramer The plant, formerly known as Shawinigan $tmtt Reporter of Te Wau Sriterr AM'INU Chemical Ltd., employs about 200 workers. A Canadian plastics plant, with nine The U.S. parent company said in its annual deaths so far, has gained the grim distinc report irsued last spring that the Shawini tion of having more known fatal cases of a gan angiosarcoma toll had climbed to eight rare liver cancer caused by occupational ex deaths. And it recently reported to the Na posure to vinyl chloride gas than any other tional Institute for Occupational Safety and Single plant In the world. Health that the total had reached 10 deaths. A spokesman for B.F. Goodrich Chemical But a company spokesman said yester Co. in Cleveland confirmed that nine deaths day that one of the deaths on further exami due to angiosarcoma of the liver had oc nation had turned out not to be angiosar curred over past years among former work coma. ers at the B.F. Goodrich Canada Ltd. polyvi All of the angiosarcoma deaths were dis nyl chloride plant in Shawinigan, Quebec. covered by Dr. Fernand Delorme, a patholo Both are units of B.F. Goodrich Co.. Akron. gist at the Maurice Central Regional Hospi Angiosarcoma was first linked early lost tal at Shawinigan Sud. Both Shawinigan and year tolong-tcrm exposure to vinyl chloride Shawinigan Sud are about SO miles northeast gas, which is used to make polyvinyl chlor of Montreal, about midway between Mon ide plastic, or PVC. Including the Canadian treal and Quebec city. cases, 45 workers around the world exposed The Shawinigan plant was built in 1941 to vinyl chloride in PVC plants have devel and Is, like the Goodrich plant In Louisville, oped liver angiosarcoma. Almost all are one of the oldest PVC plants in the world. dead. Seven other cases of angiosarcoma Goodrich said that after the first cases of also have been linked to exposure to the angiosarcoma were uncovered at Louisville chemical. It "greatly accelerated" a plant moderniza The first cases of vlnyl-chloridc-linked tion program at Shawinigan and that worker angiosarcoma were discovered in January exposure to vinyl chloride gas has been 1974 at the B.F. Goodrich PVC plant at drastically reduced. Louisville. Ky- That plant currently has rec The company said the province of Quebec orded eight angiosarcoma deaths, with a hasn't set occupational standards for vinyl ninth case still living. chloride exposure, but the company adheres Three cases have been uncovered at the to standards set by the province of Ontario. Union Carbide Corp. plant at South Charles (Occupational safety is a provincial matter ton, W.Va., and another three at the Good in Canada, unlike the U.S. where the federal year Tire & Rubber Co. in Niagara Falls, government sets standards.) N.Y. One case each has occurred at a Good In the U.S.. federal standards require rich plant in Avon Lake, Ohio, and at a Fire- PVC plants to prevent worker exposure to stone Tire & Rubber Co. plant in Pottstown, levels of vinyl chloride of more than one Pa., according to records kept by the gov part per million parts of the air they ernment's National Institute for Occupa breathe. The Ontario standards allow a tional Safety and Health in Cincinnati. maximum exposure of 10 parts per million Abroad, five cases have been reported averaged over eight hours, although Good from PVC plants tn West Germany, three rich said exposure levels at the Shawinigan from France, two each from Czechoslovak plant were currently averaging between two ia. Britain, Italy and Yugoslavia, and one and three parts per million. each in Norway, Sweden and Japan. Other coses of occupational exposure to vinyl chloride that resulted in liver angiosarcoma: include two each in the U.S. and Canada.! and one each in Britain, Italy and Sweden. ` Goodrich Canada announced in a newai release last December that tour case* of liver angiosarcoma had been uncovered froht death records of former Shawinigan workers, with the earliest occurring In l**tx. Goodrich purchased the plant Irom Gull Canada Ltd. in 1972, and the company noted in the December release that only one of the deaths had occurred while Goodrich owned the plant. < 23998001