Document 4ajYBM5Ldd2pr8VBREeL15KwG

Or. noas Adams J. F. Odom Cost o PVC Medicals 30 August 1974 'oniirming our teleohone conversation recently* following is a breakdown of the cost ox the medicals we are giving to employees exposed to PVC: Laboratory Tests Chest Hand X-Rays Review of data by Dr. Dsidleman $ 73.CO 30.00 _____ 3.00 Total $ 108.00 If you need any additional information, please advise. J7C:<sr J. 7. Odom AP00031f24 / \ cr/ti. /"ftotriucZl W G6&Mtca& f 'u i*c. INTEROFFICE MEMORANDUM From A. R. Adams Howard L, V.ratson cc: J. T. Barr R. J. Calkins T. L. Carey T. W. Herbig J. Odom 1 /A Date 15 August 1974 Subject - -vJi- Valley Forge (Location, Orsannzation, or Oeoartment) Valley Forge________________________ (Location, OrgAPiaation, or Daoartrnsnt) 1 o 1974 I contacted both Calvert City and Escambia relative to retirees. Escambia has 4------2 in Connecticut, 2 in Florida. Calvert City has 5 retirees, only one of which would have had any exposure. However, one man, is on LTD (Long Term Disability). He was a former PVC Plant Superintendent. Prior to that, a Lab Chemist, concerned with PVC. Please review the attached draft and let me have your comments. Also, names o doctors with whom our personnel people can arrange examinations. HLl'Aheg Attachment 1ioward_Lr hatson (320) AP00031125 1 Mr. Dear Mr. ___ You no doubt have read recent articles concerning the finding of a rare form of liver cancer in some workers or former workers in the PVC Industry. The presumption is that the disease has been contracted from lengthy exposures (15-30 years) of high exposure of vinyl chloride monomer. Air Products and Chemicals, Inc. has gone to great lengths to review the work histories of our employees and to provide medical examinations for all of those with significant work histories in PVC production. We have also examined pathological records of deceased employees. Attached is a recent news release outlining the results of all of these tests. We were pleased to find that the results of all of our examinations were negative. Air Products wishes to pursue this study even, further by contacting former employees no longer with our company (other employment, retirement, or other reason) and offering to provide them with a similar set of physical examinations. Our records indicate that you were employed by our predecessor, the Company prior to their acquisition by Air Products and were (retired, quite, placed on LTD) by this owner. If you will avail yourself of this physical examination, it is offered to you free of charge by Air Products. You will be given the results of the examination and an interpretation of these results by the finest doctors in the field. Please callat______________________ for full details of the doctors to whom you will report, locations, and dates available for this series of examinations. Sincerely, AP00031126 NEWS RELEASE J. Scbastianelli 26' July 1974 AIR PRODUCTS AND CHEMICALS, INC. recently completed comprehensive medical examinations for 492 employees engaged in the Company's polyvinyl chloride operations at Calvert City, Kentucky and Pace, Florida, Commenting on the results of the examinations, Richard Fleming, Air Products' Group Vice President for Chemicals, stated that: "The results of medical testing of our current employees and our review of death certificates of our former employees, show no case of cancer of any kind related to employee work experience. These results have been made public as a contribution to the national study of the health status of employees working in plants handling vinyl chloride. We fully expect to see many similar results issuing from other firms in our industry as their health programs are completed." The medical examinations were conducted in combination with a complete program to reduce employee exposure to vinyl chloride at Air Product's plants. This program was precipitated by the announcement in January, 1974, of the death from angiosarcoma (a form of cancer, in these cases, of the liver) of several workers at a PVC plant of another manufacturer. AP00031127 r Immediately following that announcement, Air Products retained Paul Kotin, M.D., a pathologist who was then Dean of the Medical School and Vice President for Health Sciences at Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Dt. Kotin, in cooperation with William Blalock, M.D. for the Calvert City plant, and Barcley Beidleman, M.D., for the Pace plant, developed a special examination program, including an extensive series of Laboratory tests, for the Air Products' employees. The results of the medical testing program disclosed no case of cancer of any form among the 492 employees examined. One case of acroosteolysis of the hand, a bone deterioration known for some time to'be related to PVC operations, was 1 diagnosed and this employee has been reassigned from PVC operation. In his concluding statement at the U.S. Department of Labor hearings held in connection with occupational exposure to vinyl chloride, Dr. Kotin stated that: "except for the case of acroosteolysis... findings or diagnoses which point to VCM as a causative agent or \ mechanism were not identified. More specifically, we can state at this time that no cases of angiosarcoma have been identified." A summary of the medical results and Dr. Kotin's complete report to the Department of Labor were issued to all employees at both Air Products' plants by T. L. Carey, Vice President .for Chemical Manufacturing on July 5. 2- - i AP00031128 The medical program for AirtProducts' PVC employees will continue and will involve reexamination on a frequent periodic basis of employees exposed to vinyl chloride. As an extension of the program, Dr. Herbert Hyman, M.D. and Sanford Klein, M.D. were recently retained by Air Products to establish and imple- ment medical testing programs for the Company's laboratory employees in Allentown, Pennsylvania and Middlesex. Mew Jersey. Dr. Kotin has accepted a position with Johns-Manville Corporation and in his place Air Products has retained Marvin Kuschner, M.D., Professor of Pathology and Chairman of the Department of Health Sciences for the State University of New York. Dr. Kuschner will coordinate the efforts of Drs. Blalock-, Beidleman, Hyman and Klein in Air Products continuing health monitoring program for its PVC employees. \ -3- AP00031129