Document 996JaDBNexnv2zqvdRwQvKwVL

|g. i J n. l'rMf 1- fiSt.V-i J.'.jy '.-. : --;to' vg-dtf- `...,: v - TH= lOlMSVILtc TIMES, WEDNESDAY, MAY 3, 1974 ` '- i" ' L; ^:-v : V- V.-'/. :;;;:->:^lS?| '/- ; A 17 IhliMfe J'*T"C*Pl* I? htr mV- i r`% ; ' '- 5J-..SS Safety agency wants zero level \V P- Industry pessimistic on vinyl-chloride proposal lit- nnv.u.l) M. HOUGHTON anil MISSIS fOUlT. ditional safeguards would also be impos Goodrich p! ant. At least one of the deaths sible because of the huge expense in occurred as early as lBtl-L Two of the Itj.ivnit 1,mt> Hill WnlfTl volved. seven Goodrich workers arc still alive Chemical industry officials say it would Adoption of the OSi-A recommenda and arc being treated for the disease. be impO'siHc to comply with a proposed tion "would blow the industry out of the new federal regulation that would ban ball park. It's that simple." said a spokes- the cxpusuie of workers to any delectable, man for the Goodyear Tire 1 Rubber Co., Icvd of vinyl Hii-uide. a suspected car.** a major com), 'itnr in the industry. "It ter pio-liicmg ;:.n. will be impossible to comply." he said. The OSIIA recommendation that "no detectable level" of the gas be permitted in work places would mean the industry ivniild have to adopt a wide-ranging list of strineent safety rules to bu*h tenure The [i.-i""i>m ivguhitbui, disc!used yes Other cheiiiie.il-iml'.istry officials have the existing exposure levels and to moni terday in Washington by the Occupation said the same thing in interviews over the tor the working levels and health condi al Safely ami health Administration past month, but they (save declined to tions of their employes. tOS!!.\) of the L'S. Labor Department, is scheduled to be implemented ns soon as July, jctordtr.g to an OS]IA spokesman, make their comments publicly. Concern about the dangers of vinyl chloride has cscalu'ed sharply since the "No (letenable level" of vinyl chloride is generally considered to he a level of less than one p n of the gas pec million Nev.s of '.he OS!!A decision to press for the ban, previously recommended tv severa! agcneiis of the U.S. Department of Health, Ihlucaliun and Welfare, has thrown the industry into turmoil because, vm..t chior.de is a basic raw material of much of the plasties industry. first of the year, when the ti F. Goodrich Co. admitted that severed workers at its llelis Lane plant in Louisville died of angiosarcoma, a rare cancer o; the liver. Previously, concern about the chemical wjs primarily limited to a variety of re ports in trade am! medical journals, rc- parts cf air. According to industry offi cial-, developing the necessary equipment to approach, sha: level and to provide contir.ecus mouiteiing e: so minute a quan tity could take more nancy than the in dustry can provide. They say the tradi tional selling point of most plastics has Industry officials' claim that Ihe tech poris that the industry has repeatedly been their generally low co;:. and that nology dues no; exist that would permit said have not been conclusive, easterners and consumers would have to exposure love's to be reduced to less than Since then'1-1 confirmed angiosarcoma bear the brunt of any tm.jar new safety detectable lei els in a manufacturing sua- eases among chemical workers have been 'cxpendituies. a;io:i. They say that providing major ad reported, half of thun at the Louisville Currently, the industry is working \ under a recently a denied 'emergency" standard that reduce:! the maximum al-' '' lewablc exposure limit from '5C0 parts of the gas per million parts of air to 50 parts. Industry officials privately admit that even v.iier. their plants are in compliance wit it the .10 pert-per-;::: llu'n stand: rl. levels frequently exceed that level during "surgos." cr leaks, within their chemical production .systems. The levels ace especially hard to o trol at cider plants, which arc less effi cient and mere susceptible to equipment failures, the industry people report .Some (J.efO workers- are emmeyed in the virty 1anu polyvinyl-chloride industry- at el plants. Polyvinyl chloride, a white .ponder made from vinyl chloride gas. is a basic building block cf many plastics used in suck diverse products as phonograph records ana floor iiics. Tl.o gov-err.meal recently acted under j Sec lSDUcTHY ! Hack page. col. 2. t!"* sectum lai - vv| I,, i 69Z0 S9U IwI^fU' ` r^-it v lA. ? . T;- '' ,;>i i*- ' iTry !S pSSSSiri3T3< on' vinyi-i dstr*s V- 9 propi osed Continued Trom I'agr One mounting pressures to l>;n vinyl chloride is a propellant in ii'-rovnl sprays, maiiv Of which arc used by consumers in such products as hair sprays and insecticides. Today, a spokesman fur fioodiich said its exposure level at the Itells Ham- plant is currently averaging between 15 and 1R parts per million parts of air. However, he roncedcd there may he higher concentrations friuu lime to tins** because of equipment failures. Workers in the plant have repot ted tlint they have had to wear respiratois. a relatively new safely precaution adopted by Goodrich whenever the exposure levels rise above SO parts per million. The Goodyear spokesman said ho did not know what the company's response would he to the OKI (A proposal disclosed yesterday, because the firm lias not seen the OSHA recommendation He also said he could not speculate whether the firm rniild comply with a standard of "no de tectable level." Spokesmen for other firms, however, were less reserved in their reactions. Hr. T. It. Torkcison of the How Chem ical Co., head of an investigative primp working on the vinyl-chloride problem for toe Manufacturing Chemists Association, a trade group, said it would he ` very, very difficult" to comply with the OSHA recommendation, especially at older chemical plants. While lie stressed that he is a biologist and not a production expert, lie said it is his understanding that "in time" a nondetectable level could he reached, "hut whether it could he done on an economic ally justified basis is another question." A spokesman for another firm, who asked not to he identified, said first that a nondctcetalile level is "unattainable," adding "or if it is, nobody could afford to buy what we're making." Vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride are both large-volume, generally iow-cu?. products, despite recent wholesale price increases. Various grades of polyvinyl chloride recently have been selling for Hi to 30 cents a pound. Certain to be a key point of dispute when the (>S'n.\ recommendation mines up for an expected public hearing in Hie latter half of June is a controversial pro vision in a report that Hi" exhaust air from the chemical plants "shall not he discharged , . . unless decontaminated." The report, prepared by the U.S. Public Health Keiviie. the Center tor Ijisease Control and the N'atiunnl Institute for Oc cupational Safety and Health apt, recom mended that there he no detect able levels of expo-urc and .said all exhaust lie decon taminated whether exhausted inside or outside the chemical plants. No effective method, officials say This point hecomes critical because most of tin- plants that in recant months have shaiphy cut their concentrations of vinyl chlor.uo have done so by exhaust ing the air out or Hie plant and. according to industry officials, there currently is no effective, economically feasible method of decontaminating that modi air. One i::dti>uy expert claimed that a rough calculation showed lhat burning off the vinyl chloride residue from the exhaust air at all the plants in the country would take more natural gas tn fuel the process than exists in the nation. A second method, carbon-scrubbing, or passing the air through charcoal, has not been Imind fully effective as yet, ac cording to the industry spokesman. At the present, there arc no companies known to he decontaminating the air that passes from the wnyl chloride and poly vinyl chloiidc plants, they said. A Goodrich spokesman lias declined to say what the levels of exposure have been outside Hie plant. The plant in re cent months has greatly improved its ven tilation system, sucking the air ouL of the plant, cunnmic.usN (mm the areas where inch concentrations of vinyl chiotidc arc apt to buiid up. R&S 023370 v*; 11 Vi i -,= I! I'.T.-'f ys.-r-: s V - <;;* - 4 ^>-'4*-'"? l' ' ` ' W '_W 'V.-1 ">'i -Jtv 1