Document 8V70a8KD9azxberdJJO8awYYy

vcnled tube from each engine b at very high pressure and forces C 'mm Lhe engine intake. temperature* that are 50 F to 60 K helow zero. 60-mph winds, and total dark ness in December and January in the High Arctic. Knginrsnn airstrip equip* meut such as trucks ami snowplows arc not lurnrd off from Dee. 1 to Mar. 15. Though the regional*. too, face fuel problems, all are predicting revenue in creases diis year. They sec their big gest growth poienlial in scheduled pn.sseiiger 'crvice, alllmugh nr> one is seolliiig at the big bucks U> he made in hauling drilliug equipment--and Iwjor-- to oil teams in (lie Arctic nr to the olTagam. on-again $6-l>illion James Bay hydroelectric project in northwestern PWA ships cattle to the Orient and oil-drilling equipment to the Arctic Quebec. Nordair (lies there from Mon treal, and Queliccair operates cargo- indy service. Cattle plane. In the eyes nf many indus- l ry observers. Pacific Western is the best run of the regional*. Its Meet con sists of seven Boeing 737s, with three more on order, plus two 727s, two long- range 707s. five Convair 640s. four Her cules jet-prop freighters, and a few fly ing boats. I'Wa's operations range from it? scheduled passenger services to shipping cattle to the Orient and ex tensive relief work in such places as Ni geria and Bangladesh. Scheduled pas senger services account for roughly Go'-- of i'wa's revenues, charters for alniut 10%, and cargo services for the remaining 25%. Its cattle plane is typical of pwa's willingness to provide specialized ser vices to meet special needs. A conven tional Boeing 707-320C, the plane can be equipped with either 13 stalls hold ing about 85 1,000-lb. cattle or double tiers of pens that will accommodate a great many more smaller animals. Donald N. Watson, PWA president, says that the plane has carried as many as 700 cattle from Toronto to Athens. The real keys to profits for PWA and the other regionals, however, have been jets and charters. The jets boosted available seat-miles on routes with good load factors, and the char ters gave the carriers the capability to use their aircraft more economically. Keith Miller, executive vice-presi dent of Eastern Provincial Airways, estimates the seat-mile cost on a 109- passenger 737 at 2.2 a mi., compared with 5.5* for each mile on the 41-seat Handley Page Heralds the 737s are re placing. The hreak-cvcn load factor on the jot* is 42%, vs. about 80% on the prop planes. 'The stimulation of a^737 is very substantial," Miller says. * TECHNOLOGY ^V Industry's latest cancer scare The deaths of five workers In ten years seem linked to working on the plastic Federal officials met Inst week with plastic* industry executives in Cleve land and Washington to try in deter mine whether the industry has un knowingly l>ecn 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 (rvc), one of the most common plastics. The hearings grew out of the deaths of four workers over the last six years .it a r y .p'Y'i'rif.iii ri,"mt?i f" pianl m Nmi.svillc, ky. They could ultimately bring costly new rules for the i*vr in dustry. whose resins arc 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 operaTT^^^^JTJH?? in Pottstown, Pa., and Perryville, Md. In any case, the current pvc hulla baloo is certain to spark new demands by organized lalx>r for closer exam ination of the possible long-range ef- feels on workers of other industrial chemicals. "The cancer look 15 to 20 yours 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. "1 hnf>c wc'rn not seeing the beginning of a health collapse." The vinyl chloride cast* is not the chemical industry's iirsl encounter with osHA over carcinogenic*. 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 now. petrochemical versions of such health time bombs as "black lung" and mercury poisoning, makes plastic industry leaders shudder. Ami indeed, new data presented at the standing-room-only osiia hearing by Italian researcher Ccsare Malloni, of 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 oil 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 he 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 iocal.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." 9USINGSS week Bservary 23. '9N RSV 0006431 sivi\ on till' order to o.OOO lo oO,(k.m ppm limit recommended since 1972 by nors, Jr., genera! manager of [>,< Pl-m. . The bombshell. Tin- cancer crisis hit the the American Conference of Govern ment Industrial Hygienists. In 15)70, tics Div. of Diamond Sliampxik fjhrmicai Go.. whMiral:-i'i,].>,/; Ibai"Iwnii vinvl imliifdry just a month ago. Not Italian researcher Dr. i\ L. Viola ro- "there arc nut enough fume-* in Lhc air ing an iinnsnal nmnlx-r of liver nil- pnrlod (hat ratsox|>oscd to heavy doses to smell." When: concenlral ions arc mrnls among 1 ho Louisville plant of vinyl chloride developed malignant higher, ho says, "wo have ordered mir workers, H. K Ibxxlrich physicians ran tumors. Several Kuro|x'an chemical men to wear gas masks." Idood tesls last fall nu the 271 workers companies banded together Lo support Vinyl fumes arise partly from leaks in Liu* plant's eve facility and found oo research by Maltoni, and in the U. S.t in pijxjH ami valves, lim another likely with apparent liver abnormalities. The the Manufacturing Chemists Assn. Ixj- source is the polymerization vessels, company reviewed medical and insur gan to discuss an industry-wide re 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 arc 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 pian to extend their health officials estimate '-the annual association also contracted with Taber- studies eventually to monomer produc death toil in the U. S. from this rare shaw-Cooper Associates, of Berkeley, tion, as well as pvc fabrication and form of cancer at only even consumer use of pvc alxnit 20. On Jan. 29 fur products. ther review by Goodrich Since safe limits for vi turned up a 1968 death nyl chloride are unknown, ltwo more cases, includ- NIOSH is emphasizing safe ng 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 reiwrtcd the situ clude such things as over ation lo the National In head cleaning, daily show stitute for Occupational ers and clothing changes Safety & Health ami to for workers, and ex I he Kenliieky bailor Dept. panded air monitoring: It also Ix-gan notifying Pinning It down, Goodrich'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 arc certain -John .1. Bell, the com that the link exists, and pany's public affairs direc tor. "and yet prevent any undue panic," A 0. F. Goodrich safety inspector uses a chemical "sniffer" to check whether vinyl chloride fumes are leaking from a polymerizing reactor. the MCa's Johnson con cedes that "vinyl chloride is the material of primary Nti'sii. 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-2112, 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 know about the car haven't been subjected to statistical showed no exposure to cither. cinogenic effects of vinyl chloride. And analysis." on Friday, many of the same execu To Dr. Irving J. Selikoflf, the history Both niosh and industry officials hope, though, that the link is peculiar tives showed up in Washington for the shows that "our approach to the prob- to Goodrich's Louisville plant. Says OSHA hearing. The federal agency will determine whether the situation war rants either an emergency standard 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, r hall 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 exjiosure to zero. But mark. made at the OSHA meeting, the city a few years ago. A number of we have a wait-and-see attitude right "hindsight." other ruhber and chemical plants, and now." Belatedly or not, some pvc producers their fumes, are located nearby. And While the fatalities at Louisville came as a shock to the industry, vinyl chloride has been suspect for a long Lime. Some l ft years agj^ki^^hrmjcal Co., IxI on its own studies, jumpu-iT have been tightening up their oper ations. Gooc'rich, for example, says it had already done, or was doing, most of the things niosh recommended after vixiting the Louisville plant, including the plant is one of the few that usos^^ nvliricnc chloride as a copolymcrizing "agent. !OTpT.Jacgcr. a physiologist 7at t.hr Harvard School of Public llcallh told the iisua mooting Dial i.exiTTaln an average exposure limit of fjfl ppm sticking to a 50-ppm average exposure appear Lo potnl Lo Uial idHnniml. TTxij as for its workers--well below the 200- limit. "At 50 ppm," says Harry Con a carcinogen. TECHNOLOGY RSV 0006432 BUSMGSSAEEK F*Wu*rr 23. 1971