Document 6wnXbK4q7466XK9gdwMROnjLo

(conoco) Interoffice Communication To 01stribut I on From Tom Grumbles Oats April 15, 1983 Subjtet OSHA BENZENE REGULATORY ACTION V RC'^d Attached is an article summarizing recent scientific and OSHA activity regarding benzene. In summary, OSHA has announced that it plans to promulgate an ANPRM on benzene in May. This action is based on new toxicological and risk assessment data that has been presented to the agency, and probably as a result of other out side pressures (i.e., we understand an undisclosed group has petitioned OSHA for an Emergency Temporary Standard). it appears OSHA has the data it needs to meet the Supreme Court Mandate for justification to lower the exposure limit. The activity should be considered if the plants are looking at budgeting projects for benzene emissions controls in the next several years. I will keep you updated as we receive further information. c -----------------Thomas G. Grumbles Attachment DIs t ribution: Sid Pitts Darrel 1 Riffe Keith Fogg Laurie Mauerman Michele Malloy 940 OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH REPORTER OBMA TO CONSBCR LOWERMG BENZENE RULE TO PROTECT WORKERS FROM RISK OF LEUKEMU Proceedings to lower the current Occupational Safety and Health Administration standard for K*"T*W* to protect against the hazard of developing leukemia will begin in approximately one month when the agency issues an ad* vance notice of proponed rulemaking, OSHA announced. The decision to place the substance on the agency's regu latory agenda was made by Assistant Labor Secretary Thorne G. Auchter on March 30, OSHA spokesman Douglas Clark said in announcing the planned action. The agency will seek new data oo the cancer risk of bensene `'because there is likely to be information that indicates we should move to improve our standard." he said. The chemical is widely used in the petroleum and chemical industries in manufacturing, among other products, solvents, plastics, and insecticides. OSHA's current limit of 10 parts of benzene per million parts of air was first adopted as a consensus standard in 1971 soon after the agency was established. A "lowest feasible" standard of one ppm was promulgated in 1978 to reflect the position that do limit of exposure to a carcinogen can be assumed to be safe, but that rule was struck down two yean later by the U.S. Supreme Court In an 5-4 opinion, the Court found in Industruii Union Department, AFL-CIO v. American Petroleum Insti tute (8 OSHC 1586) that the agency failed to demonstrate that the one-ppm limit addressed a "significant risk of material health impairment" The Justices remanded the case to the agency for further proceedings. OSHA Health Standards Director R. Leonard Vance told BNA that Auchter based bis decision on an "accumulation of facton" recently presented to him by staff. Among them were the Supreme Court remand, new carcinogen icity data expected shortly from two research laboratories, and a risk analysis published independently by two agency scientists, Mary C. White and Peter F. Infante, and a third researcher, Kenneth C. Chu, of the National Toxicology Program. In an April 1 letter to Dan Edwards, safety and health director of the Oil. Chemical and Atomic Workers Interna tional Union, Auchter made reference to discussions held with Edwards "several times is the last few weeks" on the status of the benzene standard. Auchter remarked that be had now found it "appropriate to place benzene on OSHA's regulatory agenda," following briefings oo the new evidence and conversations with "key" agency health standards staff members. He commented that it is "premature at this time to predict exactly where these initial explorations will take us." Representatives of labor and public interest groups, how ever, suggested that the agency's motivation in announcing its plan was to pre-empt a petition to lower the standard being prepared by the Public Citizen Health Research Group and a committee of unions working under the organizational structure of the AFL-CIO. The unions include OCAW, the International Chemical Workers Union, and the United Rub ber Workers. Leukemia Risk The risk analysis by White. Infante, and Chu estimated that a working lifetime exposure of 45 yean to benzene at the current 10 ppm limit would result in approximately 44 to 152 excess leukemia deaths per 1,000 exposed workers. Exposure for a comparable period at ooe ppm would pro duce five to 16 excess leukemia deaths per 1,000 workers, the researchers determined. At different lengths of exposure, incterilng ooe, five, 15, and 30 years, the risk associated with 10 ppen was "cooastently" 10 times greater than the risk at one ppm, the analysis also found. The researchers said they based their estimates on a "ooe hit" model for describing the relationship between the level of exposure to a carcinogen and tbe probability of developing cancer associated with that level. This model, they remarked, is based on tbe tssnmptico that a single dose of a carcinogen "can affect some biological phenomenon in (an] organism which subsequently will lead to the development of cancer." Tbe model, they added, itsmnes that every done level is accompanied by "some amount of excem miw risk." White, Infante, and Chu derived their estimates by apply ing tbe model to data from two earlier Codies. One study, which dealt with mortality among rubber workers in Ohio, was published by tbe National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health in 1977 and corroborated by a 1982 reanalysis (Current Report, Feb. 25, 1982, p. 773). NIOSH found seven leukemia deaths where 125 had been expected. Tbe other study, published by M.G. Ott and three other rurarrhrn in 1978, found that 91 Dow Chemical Company workers had died from myelocytic leukemia over a 33-year period, compared with 0.8 deaths expected. Althoogh tbe scientific literature is "filled" with studies that qualitatively link benzene exposure with leukemia in humans, these two studies are tbe only ones which meet "the minimnm requirements for inclusion in a quantitative risk as--jsment for benzene," the rasa archers inerted Labor Communi "We're pleased that the threat of a petition has moved OSHA to begin action on the development of a standard." Sheldon safety and health director of tbe AFL- CIO Industrial Union Department, which was a party in the Supreme Court case and plans to be among those signing the new petition. "The fact is that tbe mteria for significant risk was achieved a year ago." ____ Edwards of OCAW commented to OSHR that the action oo hmntmwe would be "quite satisfactory" if a final standard can be imued "in a year or leas." However, he added, the union "would not be satisfied" if OSHA plans a "normal rulemak ing of two, three, or four years." A science researcher for Public Citizen said the groups "may well go ahead" with their petition because the rule- making path being planned by the agency "will take a long, long time" and quicker action may be merited by tbe evidence. Tbe researcher, Barbara Freese, remarked that their plan to petition the agency oo bensene was "no secret" and said it was "not fust a coincidence" that OSHA now plans to take action. In light of tbe Supreme Court's mandate, bensene has been "conspicuously absent" from OSHA's regulatory agenda, she added, faulting tbe agency for not taking up tbe matter earlier. Another public interest group, tbe Urban Environment Conference, called for OSHA to lower the standard in a fact sheet issued at a press conference three days before OSHA made its announcement At tbe current level, the group contended, 1,400 to 1,700 leukemia deaths can be expected among every 100,000 workers exposed. In addition, the House Science and Technology Subcom mittee oo Investigations and Oversight chaired by Rep. Albert Gore Jr. (D-Tenn), reportedly has been considering 4-7-S3 Copyright e 1903 by Tha Bur--u of National Air--m, me. ooM-j237/aa/sfr+.so MOD 000016634