Document 8V3OjxVOdRgL3kkKB8EK9ONVK

*_____ _ MCA denies cover-up The Manufacturing Chemists Assn, de nied charges that U.S. chemical com panies covered up information on dan gers of-vinyl chloride exposure. It issued a chronology showing when its member companies became aware of occupational health data. The chronology indicates that govern ment regulatory agencies and standard setting groups, such as the National Insti tute of Occupational Safety and Health and the American Conference of Gov ernment Industrial Hygienists (ACGIH), were reluctant to enact new exposure standards despite accumulating evidence. But MCA contends that it acted to verify the angiosarcoma hazard by initiating its own exposure studies and industry-wide epidemiological investigation as soon as the results of Italian researcher Cesare Maltoni's work, which had been spon sored by five European chemical produc ers, was made available in Jan. 73. MCA says that U.S. firms had to sign secrecy agreements in order to gain access to Maltoni's work, but obtained release of the data in summer 73 when the infor mation was made available to govern ment agencies. It also points out that as early as '61, Dow Chemical, a major VCM producer, had recommended re ducing exposure limits to SO ppm. based on its own animal testing but that tests at Yale University in '62 prompted ACGIH to adopt 500 ppm. as the standard. 1 JUtt 5 197* Chemical Week - June 5, 1974 F.Y.I. Alan Baker H. Blalecki R. J. Delargey Dr. M. R. Gasque J. Hanrahan Dr. R. Henderson D. Palm J. R. Ryan J. R. Wilkinson * OU 766