Document 71Qdz8mG8vx0MM4jLYppbpdaa

vented tube from each engine blows ajr at very high pressure and forces gray away from the engine intake. Other operating problems "inehi temperatures that are 50F tS^SOFi low zero, 60-mph winds, and tmUtUUk- ness in December and Januifj|iO the High Arctic. Engines on airstrqfeqnip- ment such as trucks and snowplows are not turned off from Dec. 1 to Mar 15. Though the regionals, too, iacy fuel problems, all are predicting revenue in creases this year. They see tnelr big gest growth potential in scheduled pas senger service, although no/one is scoffing at the big bucks to by/made in hauling drilling equipment-afeid beer- to oil teams in the Arctic onto the offagain, on-again $6-billion flames Bay hydroelectric project in northwestern PWA ships cattle to/4 Orient and oil-drillim quipment to the Arctic Quebec. Nordair flies tUire from Mon treal, and Quebecair Operates cargo- only service. Cattle plane. In the evehfof many indus try observers, Pacifiy/Western is the best run of the regiohjals. Its fleet con sists of seven Boeing/ 737s, with three more on order, plus two 727s, two long- range 707s, five Corwair 640s, four Her cules jet-prop freighters, and a few fly ing boats. Pwa's operations range from its scheduled paenger services to shipping cattle tf'the Orient and ex tensive relief wo in such places as Ni geria and Bangladesh. Scheduled pas senger servicesj account for roughly 65% of PWa's /evenues, charters for about 10%, an<f cargo sendees for the remaining 251 Its cattle pjbne is typical of pwa's willingness ty provide specialized ser vices to meet/special needs. A conven tional Boeing 707-3200, the plane can be equipped with either 13 stalls hold ing about Bb 1,000-lb. cattle or double tiers of pens that will accommodate a great mady more smaller animals. Donald N.AVatson, pwa president, says that the plane has carried as many as 700 cattle/from Toronto to Athens. The reil keys to profits for pwa and the other regionais, however, have been jets and charters. The jets boosted/available seat-miles on routes with gpod load factors, and the char ters give the carriers the capability to use their aircraft more economically. Kerth Miller, executive vicepresi dent/ of Eastern Provincial Airways, estimates the seat-mile cost on a 109- pasaenger 737 at 2.2c a mi., compared witn o.5c for each mile on the 41-seat Hamdley Page Heralds the 737s are re- piicing. The break-even load factor on tie jets is 42%, vs. about 80% on the rop planes. ''The stimulation of a 737 i very substantial," Miller says. TECHNOLOGY Industry's latest cancer scare The deaths of five workers in ten years seem linked to working on the plastic Federal officials met last week with plastics industry executives in Cleve land and Washington to try to deter mine whether the industry has un knowingly been exposing some of its 6,500 blue-collar workers to fumes that can lead to a rare form of liver cancer known as angiosarcoma. The focus was on 28 of the 42 plants in the U. S. that make vinyl chloride or use it to produce polyvinyl chloride resin (pvc), one of the most common plastics. The hearings grew out of the deaths of four workers over the last six years at a B. F. Goodrich Chemical Co. plant in Louisville, Ky. They could ultimately bring costly new rules for the Pvc in dustry, whose resins are used in such items as pipe, floor tile, phonograph records, and latex wall paints. "Im provements in work practices will probably require a 100% increase in the work force," says Walter B. Connolly, Jr., labor counsel for Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., which operates PVC plants in Pottstown, Pa., and Perryville, Md. In any case, the current PVC hulla baloo is certain to spark new demands by organized labor for closer exam ination of the possible long-range ef fects on workers of other industrial chemicals. "The cancer took 15 to 20 years to develop," says one federal epi demiologist. Other chemicals could have similar "latency" periods, he says, so there could be more eruptions in the years ahead. "I hope we're not seeing the beginning of a health collapse." The vinyl chloride case is not the chemical industry's first encounter with osha over carcinogenics. Last May the agency invoked emergency standards for 14 chemicals (bw-- May 19, 1973). Final rules for these mate rials went into effect last week, though both industry and labor are suing for judicial review. The prospect of new, petrochemical versions of such health time bombs as "black lung" and mercury poisoning, makes plastic industry leaders shudder. And indeed, new data presented at the standing-room-only osha hearing J>y Italian researcher Cesare Maltoni. aof Bologna's Institute of Cancer, leave little doubt that vinyl chloride is car- cinogenic-at least to rats. He exposed 67 rats to air containing 250 parts per million of vinyl chloride off and on for 52 weeks. By the end of 127 weeks, Maltoni reported, two had contracted angiosarcoma and nine contracted other forms of cancer. Many chemical industry executives had downgraded the importance of earlier animal test results because the dosages were mas- A solvent that crippled chemical workers Last August, Thomas F. Meade, 22, was stricken with a nerve disease after two years of work at Columbus Coated Fabrics Co., a subsidiary of Borden, Inc., in Columbus, Ohio, that makes vi nyl-coated fabrics for luggage and wall coverings. The disease, diagnosed as peripheral neuropathy, left Meade crippled, and today he wears leg braces. He is the most severely af fected of some 130 workers at the plant who have suffered symptoms of the dis ease. The lesser symptoms include weakness and loss of coordination. When the symptoms became wide spread last summer, state health offi cials tested the nerve responses of the plant's 1,124 employees and told 200 of them to stay home for two months. Many others stayed home, too, out of fear. By December, most employees had returned, and many who had showed neuropathic symptoms ap peared well again. Meanwhile, Ohio health officials had zeroed in on an ink solvent, methyl butyl ketone, used in applying decora tive patterns, as the most likely culprit. While continuing to monitor the plant's air, they banned the use of MBK. The plant's managers have switched to a substitute, improved ventilation, is sued respirators to print shop workers, and moved lunch areas away from work areas. But Corwin Smith, president of Lo cal 487 of the Textile Workers Union of America, which represents the plant's workers, is not satisfied. He says that 26 members are still out with the dis ease, that eight of them are severely crippled, and that three workers whose condition improved are now sick again. On Feb. 9, the local struck the plant as negotiations collapsed on a new con tract; one of the union demands was a "proper work environment." Says Smith; "People here don't know whether they will be crippled in the fu ture or not." BOR 007239 ;CHNOLOOT I ------- sive, on the order to 5,000 to 30,000 ppm. TM bombshell. The cancer crisis hit the ppm limit recommended since 1972 by the American Conference of Govern ment Industrial Hygienists. In 1970, nors, Jr., general manager of the Plas tics Div. of Diamond Shamrock Chem ical Co., which also observes that limit, vinyl industry just a month .ago. Not ing an unusual number jjj^ieer ail ments among the Louqrale plant workers, B. F. Goodrich pnpi&ans ran blood tests last fall on thrift workers Italian researcher Dr. P. L. Viola re ported that rats exposed to heavy doses of vinyl chloride developed malignant tumors. Several European chemical companies banded together to support "there are not enough fumes in the air to smell." Where concentrations are higher, he says, "we have ordered our men to wear gas masks." Vinyl fumes arise partly from leaks in the plant's pvc facility and found 55 with apparent liver abnormalities. The company reviewed medical and insur research by Maltoni, and in the U. S,, the Manufacturing Chemists Assn, be gan to discuss an industry-wide re in pipes and valves. But another likely source is the polymerization vessels, when they are opened for cleaning and ance records and by Jan. 16 had discov search program. A year ago, the MCA maintenance. NIOSH officials are con ered three deaths since 1971 that were set up an animal test program that will centrating now on the polymerization attributable to angiosarcoma. Federal not be completed until late 1975. The process, but they plan to extend their health officials estimate the annual association also contracted with Taber- studies eventually to monomer produc death toll in the U. S. from this rare shaw-Cooper Associates, of Berkeley, tion, as well as pvc fabrication and form of cancer at only about 20. On Jan. 29 fur even consumer use of PVC products. ther review by Goodrich Since safe limits for vi turned up a 1968 death nyl chloride are unknown, (two more cases, includ NIOSH is emphasizing safe ing a 1964 death, were work practices rather identified this week). than arbitrary concentra The company's top tion limits. Its recommen management had already dations for the Louisville decided on public disclo plant, for example, in sure. It reported the situ clude such things as over ation to the National In head cleaning, daily show stitute for Occupational ers and clothing changes Safety & Health and to for workers, andilex- the Kentucky Labor Dept. panded air monitoring: - It also began notifying Pinning It down. Goodrfch's employees in all of its vi Louisville plant uses nyl chloride and PVC oper about 50 different chem ations, and it sent a re icals, and there is no proof lease to the press. "We of a direct link between are doing our utmost to vinyl chloride and the express our real and liver cancer cases. But serious concern," says NIOSH officials are certain John J. Bell, the com that the link exists, and pany's public affairs direc A. B. F Goodrich safety inspector uses a chemical "sniffer" to check tor, "and yet prevent any whether vinyl chloride fumes are leaking from a polymerizing reactor. the MCA's Johnson con cedes that "vinyl chloride undue panic." is the material of primary niosh, which had immediately sent Calif., to check the available death suspicion." Only two other carcinogens, experts to Louisville, held a briefing records of workers at other vinyl arsenic and thorium-232, are proven early last week in Cleveland to tell plants. "So far," says Kenneth John causes of angiosarcoma, and medical management and labor leaders in the son, MCA technical director, "the results records on the four Goodrich workers industry what it knew about the car haven't been subjected to statistical showed no exposure to either. cinogenic effects of vinyl chloride. And analysis." Both NIOSH and industry officials on Friday, many of the same execu To Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, the history hope, though, that the link is peculiar tives showed up in Washington for the shows that "our approach to the prolv to Goodrich's Louisville plant. Says OSHA hearing. The federal agency will determine whether the situation war rants either an emergencyztandard or NIOSH hopes that the cause is a combination NIOSH Director Marcus M. Key: "We still hold to the possibility that the cause could be a combination of two or at least a start on the regular rule- of factors at only one plant making process. three things acting together in the manufacturing process." The attitude of organized labor was lem was, shall I say, leisurely." Seli The Louisville plant is Goodrich's a major concern. Anthony Mazzocchi, koff, director of environmental medi oldest pvc plant and, unlike most legislative director of the Oil, Chemical cine at New York City's Mount Sinai newer plants, is enclosed. It also has a & Atomic Workers, who attended the School of Medicine, has been a frequent number of older workers on the line. niosh briefing, says: "It's apparent critic of industrial health practices, and Some workers may have been affected we're dealing with a carcinogen. We one chemical executive calls his re by an epidemic of hepatitis that swept want to reduce exposure to zero. But we have a wait-and-see attitude right now." While the fatalities at Louisville came as a shock to the industry, vinyl mark, made at the OSHA meeting, "hindsight." Belatedly or not, some pvc producers have been tightening up their oper ations. Goodrich, for example, says it the city a few years ago. A number of other rubber and chemical plants, and their fumes, are located nearby. And the plant is one of the few that uses vinylidene chloride as a copolymerizing chloride has been suspect for a long time. Some 15 years ago Dow Chemical Co., based on its own studies, adopted had already done, or was doing, most of the things niosh recommended after visiting the Louisville plant, including agent. Rudolph Jaeger, a physiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, told the OSHA meeting that test data an average exposure limit of 50 ppm sticking to a 50-ppm average exposure appear to point to that chemical, too, as for its workers--well below the 200- limit. "At 50 ppm," says Harry Con a carcinogen. TECHNOLOGY BOR 007240 rBUSINESSWEEK Febtuai, 23 101