Document 91NY5vmVNoz2YEj3bzGmYGKmR

1803 Building 4 March 1983 RECEIVPn MAR ^ 7 1983 DOW CHEMICAL U.S.A. midland, Michigan asmo Dr. John Stafford Imperial Chemical Ind. Ltd. Welwyn Garden City Hertfordshire AL7 1 HD ENGLAND . Dear John, Again, I have failed to answer a lot of your letters. You seem to have more activity across the Atlantic. It is not that we are not doing anything in the U.S.A., we are making progress on the up-date of the old Tabershaw-Cooper (Equitable) epidemi ology study. I was with Carol Stack on another matter Monday and we agreed that as soon as Environmental Health Associates (the current contractor) has something to talk about we will schedule a meeting. We will try to give you as much lead time as possible so that Dr. Bennett can consider coming. If that meeting isn't convenient, I suspect there will have to be a subsequent meeting to approve the protocol and proceed with the second phase. We certainly look forward to Dr. Bennett's visit. I appreciate the literature you have been providing. There appears to be little regulatory action in the U.S., primarily because the agencies look on VCM as a problem that has been solved. I certainly agree, there is little to be gained by tightening standards. My biggest concern is the legal activity and law suits for cancer other than angiosarcoma. I think all the larger studies as well as Theriault's data from Shawinigan indicate no increase even in populations where angiosarcomas are increased, but we have the data from Waxweiler, Infante, etc., suggesting increases in certain other locations. If the increases are real, my opinion is they are due to other factors in those locations. These men were in, many cases, rubber workers and who knows what else was present in their workplace. The information on hamsters will be useful. I am sorry to hear of the Italian case and the English scrap merchant. There appears to be little reason to suspect any relationship to VCM in the scrap merchants case, but you can be sure it will be used by plaintiff's attorneys. If there is any suspect material, I would suggest arsenic from some source. AN OPERATING UNIT OF THE DOW CHEMICAL COMPANY CMA 100838 Dr. John Stafford 4 March 1983 Page 2 I am glad to hear Mr. J. Hodgson is persistent and will get a chance to up-date the British study. Toegether with the CMA study, they should provide good information. I will keep you posted on when CMA will meet. Thanks for everything you have sent. Sincerely yours, T. R. Torkelson, Sc.D. Health and Environmental Sciences 517/636-5197 9 cc: Dr. C. M. Stack Enclosure CMA 100839