Document 6wz2GgO0q6wZEOkMmMnxYoB1

0. S. DEPARTMENT OF LABOR SffICE If MFIRtgATfl*, BASglKSTIN, I. C. 21211 a -------V - - - - ss* DSDLW 74-138 Occupational Safety end WealthJdasinle t ration Barr (202)\6l-3914 (Hose) (703) 3SSr0199 FOR RELEASE* 1KKEOTATE Friday.Ntarch 22, 1974 | J % f ? r r1 - fr- % I QSRA ASXOUSCES EHEBEESCY KSASP8ES TO PROTECT WORKERS FROH VINYL CHLORIDE The DepsTtetac of Labor announced today it will issue an etsergency tesporery health I- i 1T. rr |- -I standard to protect workers exposed to vinyl chloride while it proceeds with normal ruIcosting procedures for a pernanent standard. f Assistant Secretary of Labor John H. Stender, head of the Occupational Safety and Health Adalnistracion (OSHA). said the emergency standard will reduce permissible exposure levels of workers in industry froa*500 parts per Billion (ppa) in air to a 50 ppm ceiling, and at tha mm time require workplace monitoring and, vhere exposure is greater than tha 50 level, personal protective measures and equiyaeat. The move tollsved disclosure by officials of the B,f, Coodricb Chemical Co, plant in Louisville, Ky, of e possible connection between vinyl chloride exposure and the deaths of four employees of angiosarcoma--a rare form of liver cancer. One additional i1 r*r. % `r3i: -X 3i 4 death subsequently has been reported froa Louisville, and one each free Union Carbide's South Charleston plant end Goodyear*a Niagara plant. In addition, two present enployees at the Louisville facility have been diagnosed to have angiosarcoma of the liver. Under the law, the emergency temporary standard serves as a proposed permanent standard. Stender said a proposed permanent standard also would be based on reconocnda- tev I '."3r tions which have been published by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (M0SH). * - MORE - 1 BfG29652 V \ h-v. - 2 This proposed permanent standard would establish methods of monitoring vork areas for vinyl chloride, set vork practices to be followed, institute a medical surveillance program for employees, and require specific personal protective equipment. It also would prohibit but exposure to vinyl chloride, a substance that is used widely in the ijanufacture of polyvinyl chloride (FVC), a type of plastic. (Monitoring devices currently available can measure exposures as low as one part per million in air.) The emergency standard, to be published in the Federal Register soon, can remain in effect up to six months. It will be superseded, however, as soon as the permanent standard proposal la adopted. Stender said that "theoretically, the permanent standard can be on the booka at early as June," "Meanwhile," he continued, "the emergency standard will serve to protect workers from the grave danger we know exists." Following the report from B.F. Goodrich, 05HA held an emergency fact-finding hear ing Feb. 15. LateT, Stender and other high OSHA officials visited several chemical plants for on-the-spot investigations to determine possible meant of limiting worker exposure to vinyl chloride. Stender said scientific evidence presented at the -Feb. 15 hearing by Professor Cesare Kaltoni, an Italian scientist, led to the emergency ceiling reduction, Haltoni's studies demonstrated' that reduction from 500 to 59 ppm provides a considerable degree of protection from the 250 ppm concentration observed by Haltoni to b cancer-causing in animals, while those exposed only to 50 ppm shoved no apparent ill effects. Stender'a visits and meetings followed a field study by a team of OSRA industrial hygienists and chemical engineers at a number of chemical plants in Louisians to develop technical recommendations. Although th emergency standard will bccone effective shortly after publication in the Federal Register, the permanent standard will not be adopted until the public has been given an opportunity to comment and, if requested, a public hearing is held. tt# BFG29653 i Si*r g 2 V3