Document 8RoB0yKmpz9Gv9RGQkJGYN2V5

. 'XU 12902 Trnnol .on from Dor Spiegel No 50/1975 MEDICINE Dangerous Plastic * * S, ' ' f. A now and deadly occupational disease has boon discovered by Medical Specialists in Bonn: workers engaged in the production of FVQ. risk incurable diseases of the liver. , I Pipes and vonetian blinds, curtains and films and whole host of articles in common use are made from PVC, a hard, durable plastic which can be mouldod into almost any product. Gorman producers alone have distributed almost a million tonnes of polyvinyl chloride over the country in the last year. PVC has so far been responsible for the death Of as yet unknown numbers of chemical workers. For tho production of this much desired material, which can be combined in so many different ways with plasticisers, fillers and pigments that it has become one of tho leading products of the plastics age within the last twenty years, is apparently very much more dangerous than had previously been assumed. . ' ` I Medical specialists of the Bonn University Clinics have this year diagnosed n "vinyl chloride disease" in at least 40-of the 120 PVC workers in a neighbouring chemical factory. However, the number of cases is probably considerably higher 1 than thi6. According to preliminary comments made by tho doctors this newly disewera "occupational illness" is characterised by a "serious prognosis and a relatively i high mortality rate in men of predominantly younger nge groups". According to Prof. Glinther Veltman writing in the "Deutsche Medizinische Wochenschrift" : "Certainly more than 1096 as revealed by our enquiries". i ` t :. ' Tills occupational disease first came to the notice of dermatologist Veltman and Ills team in the form of characteristic changes to the skin, particulnrly in the fingers. However, they wero soon forced to the conclusion that still worso was to bo revealed by this already well-known PVC symptom : vinyl chloride harms blood and blood vessels, bones, nerves, liver and lungs. As summed up by Veltman i. "A diecaso of the system". Tliio plaotics material apparently places at risk only those individuals actually present whon the colourless vinyl chloride gas, obtained from mineral oils, is liquefied under pressure and compressed to form powder in the large reactors iuiuwn as "mitoolaves". This "polymerisation process" is necessary to produce tho PVC which is then sold as "Hostallt" (Farbworkc Hoechst) or "Vinoflex" (BASF): Products which aro not toxic as far ns the end consumer is concerned, unless, in tho words of plastics experts, "Plasticisers migrate from them". Ho cases in which thoso toxic substances huve been liborated from such materials hnvo indeed been reported for a considerable period of time. s ' On tho other hand, the "closed system" of tho autoclaves gives rise to dangerous leakages. The Bonn Medical Specialists have been investigating "possibilities .. of gua leakages and associated inhalation risks" at numerous points in the production process. VC-gas escapes whon the reactors nre discharged and opened aii well as through "leaks in tho autoclaves". For many years doctor : have been - aware of the toxic nature of the gas and ita narcotic effect. Almos : without exception personnel engaged on the cleaning of autoclaves complain of feeling "dopey", giddiness and headaches. For tliie reason the "maximum allowable concentration" ("MAK") of the VC gas has been repeatedly reduced. Acrording to Veltman, however, "we have so far no*, been awaro of regular gas cone ;ntrnlion ' measurements being carried out on production sites." . j i | j ( i ! 'i Ji : i Poroonnel rooponoiblo for cleaning the autoclaves - such ns the majority of the diseased chemical workers - apparently inhale many timer, the quantity of the acceptable tolerable dose of the toxic substances. Industrial doctors in America have repeatedly measured gas concentrations of 1,000 ppm * in the neighbourhood of PVC autoclave walls, i/hich is tea Limes the MAK value# The symptoms suffered by the dinonaed Bonn workers show that the nir in German chemical factories is not very much bettor. The following changes in bodily organs has frequently been observed after only il8 months employment : Enlargement of liver and spleen witli lasting destruction to the structure and function of their cells - collective tissues proliferate in the organs. Reduced circulation in the hands due to diseased narrowing of the arterial vessels. * Finger bones gradually deteriorate, andwero almost completely destroyed in cases oi advanced disease. ' Blood formation and coagulation were affected and breathing was found to become increasingly difficult. The majority of these illness-induced changes are considered non-curablc by reason of the fact that the increase in connective tissues in all vital organs is "irreversible". Specialists in internal diseases accordingly hope at the most for a "defective healing" in diseased livers. The chemical workers rire left with a thick-skinned and deformed organ such as that found in chronic alcoholics after many years over-indulgence in alcohol. According to Prof. Veltmnn, the necessary "consequence" is "compensation for all diseased workers" and the recognition of the illness as an occupational disease. Neither he nor his colleagues have so far ventured to estimate the numbers of the victims of the PVC disease. Basic research into the medical problems of VC is also badly lagging. In the 100 year after the ability of vinyl chloride to polymerise was fif'st discovered in 1878 - the doctors in Bonn are now demanding "experimental investigations in animals on the effects of the vinyl chloride with particular reference to skin, bone, lungs, liver nnd spleen". Pill : abbreviation for parts per million = parts (by volume) per million : a measurement unit used to indicate the quantity of trace substances eg in a gas mixture.