Document 8V9Bo7QEVQNe0rw5vEJ55pp4B

M i'!-t If)'. 1C MAICRIALS NEWS LOW. SIP 1 5 1976 [dacokeJ / J< j O SLANTS & TRENDS AGREEMENT ON POLYCHLORINATED BIPHFNyic l ,, Nw York State (saa atory page 150) bv "ached btween General Electric Co. and cloae. Monaan^ Co , 8ole u.S. producer the battle over PCBa to a Corp. Buggeation that occupational exposure to Pen H responded t0 a Mobil Oil . cancer (TMN, Sept. 1, 1976, p. 141) reporting worker, at the Monaanto PCS manufacturing^ CaU8eS melanoma and pancreatic aaong ^ jp/'rz) ^MONSANTO DOUBTS CONCLUSIONS OF MOBIL OIL PCB STUDY Monsanto Co. study of workers employed at the company's PCB manufacturing facility in Sauget, 111. has turned up no cases of melanoma or pancreatic cancers ~ ' diseases which Mobil Oil Corp. recently said may be caused by PCB exposure (TMN, Sept. 1, 1976, p. 141). George Roush, director of Monsanto's medical and environmental health department, said that if either disease were related to PCB exposure as Mobil suggested, the malig nancies would also be seen in Monsanto's exposed workforce, which la about four times larger than the population studied by Mobil. "In my opinion," Roush said, "the fact that we found no cases of either of these cancers casts strong doubt that the find ings of the Mobil study were in fact related to PCB." The Monsanto information was based on a review of records of more than 300 currene and former employes identified as having worked in the Sauget PCB production unit since 1936. An examination of 50 death certificates, however, showed seven cases of lung "cancer. That compares with 2.7 cases that would have been expected. Rouah said that this finding may be significant and may well not be. What Is needed now is a con trolled study of the lung cancer cases. Roush said Monaanto would try to determine smoking habits of the seven workers, and also try to characterize the work experience and exposure before and after working for Monsanto. The company also intends to com pare the 7 of 50 rate with the lung cancer mortality rate for the area surrounding the Sauget plant. Roush noted that three of the seven worked in Monsanto's PCB for less than three months. "There are a lot of things we still don't know and the answers could be extremely significant, especially with a sample this small/' he said. HONS 037*17