Document 8ReD8YvwZvZZG46oOg9MNY80m

I f/ ELYRIA, OHIO CHRONICLE-TELEGRAM D. 34,669--S. 35.764 LORAIN-ELYRIA METROPOLITAN AREA AUG 2 1 1974 Won Lake_birth.defect rate mystifies medic Ey MONICA WILLIAMS Avon Lake and two other northern Ohio communities have higher than average rates of birth defects, according to a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Health. But it has not yet been determined what causes the defects. Dr. Peter Infante, of the department's ' division cf chronic siseascs. id no link has been established, for the present, between the her than average defect rates in Avon -ie. Painesville and Ashtabula and the fact that all three communities have plants which use vinyl chloride. PRELIMINARY FIGURES researched at the request several weeks ago of the AFL-CIO showed that in Avon Lake, there were 22 malformationsoutof every 1.000 live births. In Painesville. the figure was 20 per 1,000 and in Ashtabula it 18 per 1.000. The state-wide aver age was 11.4. were available locally. The figure was 15.4 in Cuyahoga County that year.. The percentage of stillbirths and infant mortality was no higher in the communities with vinyl chloride manufacture than in other communities. Infante noted. THE CHEMICAL has been under attack hy the union as a passible cause cf liver cancer. The industrial union department of the AFLCIO recently told a congressional committee excessive birth defects might be related to plant use of vinyl chloride. - B.F. Goodrich which uses vinyl chloride as a raw material in the manufacture of po lyvinyl chloride at its Avon Lake plant, is "checking out" the preliminary reports, a spokesman said. Vinyl chloride is also used at Robintech Inc. and Uniroyal Inc., in Paine sville. and General Tire & Rubber in Ashtabu- In Lorain County, the rate was 11.6 during ' The health department has not contacted IS72. the most recent year for which figures any industries in the three communities be cause there is no evidence that they may be involved. Infante said. THE DEPARTMENT is planning a com plete investigation to determine what kind of malformations are involved, who the parents are. and the rates of malformations in other industrial cities. Infante jaid. "It's a very complex issue," he said. "There are a myriad of factors related tc mal formations. Those three cities aren't the only ones in Ohio with malformations." A STATEMENT released this morning by B.F. Goodrich said, "There is no medical or scientific evidence establishing a relationship between vinyl chloride and birth defects. " Government medical officials are "highly skeptical of the scientific validity" of the AFL-CIO charges, the statement said. B.F. Goodrich will continue to cooperate" in studies of possible dangers'of vinyl chloride exposure, the statement said. "We just don't know what they (the de fects) are related to." said Infante. "It will take a long and complex investigation and a lot of time before we might know. CP u? o a o T AFL-QO would accept Toxic Substances Act By DENNIS POLITE Louisville Times Slaff Writer heated wire used to cut the plastic mate rial. The passage of the proposed Toxic Sub stances Act is so urgent, the AFL-CIO says, that it is willing to accept a version of the bill about which it has many reser vations. A spokesman for Goodyear said the firm was "prepared to vigorously defend suits of this type." A Borden spokesman declined comment. (Vinyl chloride is a chemical gas used as a major ingredient for plastics and The union makes its position known in also as a propellant. Since the B. F. Good a letter to U.S. Rep. Harley 0. Staggers, rich Chemical Co. announced in January D-W. Va.. chairman of the House Com that it suspected exposure of some of its mittee on Interstate and Foreign Com workers to the chemical was the cause for merce and of a joint House-Senate con their development of a rare liver cancer, ference committee that is holding closed more deaths have been found due to the hearings anihejicopased act. .xaneer, -angiosarcoma. "We have many reservations about (About 26 deaths have been uncovered both versions of the (proposed act)," the worldwide. At the Louisville' Goodrich letter says. "But we will come to you with plant on Bells Lane there have been six suggested amendments in the next Con deaths of workers linked to the cancer. gress rather than delay further.the pas Two other workers, both still living, also sage of this vital legislation." have been diagnosed as having the can Basically, the act would set up screen cer. ing procedures through which substances (In addition, the company has fur or chemical agents must go before being loughed other workers with liver ail allowed into the environment. ments to keep them away from the chem Sheldon Samuels, health director for the AFL-CIO's Industrial Union Depart ical until the full range of its effects are known.) ment, says the bill was passed in differ The letter to Staggers says more infor ent versions by the House and Senate mation of the effects of vinyl chloride are about a year ago. The conference com being developed. It cited these instances: mittee began meeting Monday, Samuels said. t-' Earlier this month. Dr. Irving Seli- The letter was sent last Friday and koff, of the Mount Sinai School of Mcdi- signed by Peter-Bommarito, chairman of 'Cinc, reported data that may suggest a the Industrial Union Department's com higher-than-normal rate of stillbirths and, mittee on the health and safety of work miscarriages among the wives of workers ers. He also is president of the United exposed to vinyl chloride. 1 Rubber, Cork, Linoleum and Plastic Workers of America. A copy of the letter t*" The National Institute for Environ- | was sent to The Times. mental Sciences will soon publish data The proposed act also would set up that "conclusively establishes vinyl chlo screening procedures for substances that ride as a mutagen (that is, capable of 1 have not been screened. Samuels said the causing change in genetic structure). bill is the keystone to the whole range of environmental legislation that has been The most detailed example quoted in passed by Congress. He said everything is the letter deals with some raw data from covered except screening of substances. a study requested by the AFL-CIO from Samuels said one of the main concerns the Ohio Department of Health. ' of the AFL-CIO is that the bill provides too much responsibility to the Environ mental Protection Agency and not enough to those in the Health, Education and Welfare Department. The letter to Staggers cites vinyl chlo The union asked the Ohio department to determine the rates of fetal mortality and of malformations at birth in cities with substantial numbers of workers in volved in vinvl-chloride or polyvinyl-chlo ride production. , ride as an example of why the bill is There was no strong evidence of fetal i needed, and wliat can happen when a mortality in the three cities where plants . chemical is allowed into the environment are located, the study shows. untested for effect on humans. The letter says Dr. Peter Infante, an "The vinyl chloride episode is not epidemiologist with the Ohio department, unique . . . this tragedy serves as a good reported the results. < illustration of the roots of our deep- He reportedly found that on the state seated anxieties." the letter says. wide average, about 11.4 of every 1,000 Meanwhile, in Cleveland, a former su live births in Ohio were malformed, be permarket meat wrapper has filed a suit tween 1970 and 1973. against Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. and But in Avon Lake, where Goodrich has Borden, Inc., charging that workers have a facility producing vinyl chlnridc. the sustained respiratory, skeletal and car rate for the same years was nearly 22 per diac injuries as a result of being exposed 1.000 live births. Two other cities -- Ash to vinyl-chloride fumes while packaging tabula and Paincsville -- had rates of 18 meat in polyvinyl chloride ipiastic) wrap and 20. the letter says. Both have vinyl pers. chloride plants. The suit, on behalf of at least 284 meat Dr. Infante said by phone from Colum wrappers at 71 Clcveland-area Pick-n-Pay bus. Ohio, yesterday that his data is supermarkets, asks S281 million in dam drawn only from three cities he studied. ages. The suit contends that the wrappers He said there is no indication of a link were exposed to danccrotis fumes as tiie between thp malformed births and the polyvinyl chloride broke down under a vinyl chloride. LOUISVILLE, KY. TIMES -u. 171.175 -- LOUISVILLE METROHOLl TAN APE.A AuG Lt Tr