Document 5LMnD15ZzV9RZeLK0QOYvreM4

3 'r~L*- PI "' ' ^ rUESDAYTlAOTA^f'2Ci^l r~\ n-'-n :'V\ - - - :;^^^rn r^v^:t^vTviclPte;-rPspercscptievcctive.^: 3 ^ JiLiving.YYY-- ^*;*^! * ' *' ^4Entertainment, ^^^Telcvision `/f- ^;.'V'-'5'; Comics 7 - -.--.:f 'i . .{l ' *. v r-* i V4^-* --? *,*. 1---; J. .--r^T . .- ."U* r **.%**^;*.r **.,. - <. - ; - /4a^WSTi:-:R*nrc??l fafen *2:r-*v. ^ - **-*- ..tr \% ^v^Researdrsshhoowwiinng a "`'statistically significanntV' - [excess, but the only thing that cam out of the '~`i " - [ incidence of rectal cancer cases among former report was this rectal thing.? . *- . ".XrYV;- -Monsanto Co. workers is sot conclusive, according L^to the scientist who conducted the study.. >' Dr. Gary-' Marsh,, assistant professor of biosta- -4 tics at the University of Pittsburgh, examined rec- ,Tords oi about 2,500 people who bad worked at the ^'.Monsanto plant in Springfield between 1949 and . - - .... } -V ** VThe study was made for Monsanto by the Uni- ..versity at the request of I-ocal 286 of the Interna* tlonarUnion of Electrical Workers, which repre- :' seats Monsanto employees, to look. into, what the- * union saw as high cancer incidence at the plant '. -.^Thcre was a (statistically) significant, excess- for the rectal cancers, hot that was the only sig* , nificant finding in the whole report and you can't place much weight on it" Marsh said. .. " * He said the results of the study did not support the hypothesis, that digestive tract or genital-uri nary tract tumors were related to general expo - sure to chemicals in the plant or were related to -' when workers were hired. \ .. Y' ~ It found that such cancers, except for tumors of -the prostate gland or rectum, were not-related to ^employment at any of 21 specific stations at the /pUnOe said.'V chemical workers with prostatic cancer,'29 percent bad worked In polystyrene processing, but As a result of the findings. Marsh's-repoft 'j*. recommended'"updating the original Springfield study ... so as to better assess the possible TM*" - ~ St. - J ' > I- - i'- 'J1*- An earlier study suggested there might be an excess of digestive tract cancers and tumors of the genital-urinary system, mostly the prostate gland. ' " - . ~r A separate study by a research group from the University of Massachusetts found cancer deaths among former workers at the Springfield plant could be linked to materials used in making vinyl chloride and* polyvinyl -chloride, -the man who - headed that study said.."!.- ; v*. *" : X - Dr. Kenneth Hosenroan, formerly of the univer^ sity's Division of Public Health in Amherst, safd.^Y the investigation of 110 people who worked-at-r the plant from 1950 to 1978 found 24 had died, of ' cancer. * .'H -"People wha worked there longer, who had i longer latency period, bad higher risks of dying of all malignant neoplasms,'' he slid-earlier this'"'"' month. Hosenman is director of occnpational and . environmental health services for New.Jersey "The results of the Roscnman -study are not .>._ - -t confirmed by the University of Pittsburgh study " ; * r- that was not considered statistically significant, was the response from James Shriver, manager of ; -shesaid. '' ' *-\- Y4 * the Springfield Monsanto plant' ,'i j.. V-C*Among workers with'rectal cancer, 57 percent "The principal difference is that the University ' f had worked m cellulose nitrate production, and of Pittsburgh study shows that those employees a*^. :.*-*, ,,that was considered* a statistically significant who died of digestive cancer were-less Likely to . excesr of tsmon. But; . Marsh said, there is no work for a long period of time with vinyl chlty 7 ; .* *> Wti recent literature linking bowel cancer with expo ride," Shriver said. .. ...p-- sure to celloiase nitrate. . ^J "The information we have from the (Pittsburgh) : -j -.. He said, "We tried to identify a particular study shows this (long exposure to vinyl chloride) j . -.workplace or agent they (workers) were exposed is not the case" .in studied cancer-related - i . to that could have been related to this (cancer) deaths. * .Is' * -- RSV 0020969