Document 99b7OV6EwyEkaR9Yj10oeLGx6

*'22 S. WALL STREET JOURNAL, Wdi ?*y, Oct. 2, 1974 ' Health Hazards: Vinyl-Chloride Risk Was Known* By Many People Even Before the First Deaths---- <*- Coanu<Jci From Page One disease called acroosteolysis among vlnyl- coma. The professor immediately informed its allowance .. . , . ,,gu)g --nc ,eiLhclcss rhlorlde workers. The disease consists of his sponsors. (alls short o( the "no detectable'' limit advo skin lesions and changes in the blood ves The Europeans offered their Information cated by unions, many medical experts and sels, leading to degeneration of the bones at to the Manufacturing Chemists Association such groups as the National Institute lor Oc the tips of the fingers and toes in those ex in the U.S., but only If the Americans guar cupational Safety and Health, and the posed to high levels of the monomer. (Emis anteed confidentiality. With great reluc . American Chemical Society. This no-detect- sions of vinyl chloride are generally lower tance, the association says, it finally agreed able limit would have constant, not average, at plants where the monomer, or gas, is to the secrecy condition "because of the adherence to one-part-per-million levels. made, since the. process Is less complex, vital Importance of learning of any Indica Therefore, it seems certain that the argu and there Is less chance for leaks than at tions from the European research . . . with ment won't abate. the polymerizatlbn plants; none of the re out the delays which could have resulted As the controversy continues, it Is reveal ing to examine how the link between vinyl chloride and cancer was established. If nothing else, such an examination points out the grave weaknesses of the present system --or lack thereof--of protecting workers and others from industrial hazards. ' The judgment is made in hindsight, but the history of vinyl chloride shows that evi dence of its toxicity was often Ignored. What's more, the chemical companies knew, but kept - secret for at least six months, the fact that Italian researchers had shown that rats develop tumors, Includ ing angiosarcoma, when exposed to low levels of vinyl chloride monomer, European companies, which paid for the animal re ported angiosarcoma cases in this country has occurred among workers making vinyl- chloride monomer, and only one of the 10 deaths In Europe was in a monomer plant.) In early 1967,1 the Manufacturing Chem ists Association arranged with the Univer sity of Michigan to study acroosteolysis among vinyl-chloride workers, particularly those who cleaned the reactor vessels and others who were exposed to large concentra tlOns of vinyl chloride in the air. The Michi gan scientists reported in 1970 that although they couldn't pinpoint vinyl chloride as the cause of the disease, worker exposure to the monomer should be cut to 50 parts per mil lion or below. Other than Dow, which had already lnstltuted reductions In air levels of the mon from duplication of effort." On Jan. 30, 1973, a year before the first human angiosarcoma cases were reported by B. F. Goodrich, the MCA finally got thb Maltoni data. For five months, the secrecy restrictions were such that government agencies, PVC workers exposed to vinyl chloride and even company doctors were kept in the dark- Then, in the late spring, the Europeans agreed that the chemists' sociation could pass the Information on to the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Labor Department agency that monitors worker aafety. On July 17. 1973, representatives of the assoch tion and the agency met. One Certainty search, knew of this research for more than omer, the rest of the industry In the U.S. Ig There Is some dispute as to what tran a year before the first human cases were re nored the recommendation. Nor was there spired at the meeting. The Labor Depart ported but didn't reduce the exposure of any significant reaction to findings by Euro ment agency claims It wasn't given the full their i iworkers to vinyl chloride. But Dr. Irving J. Sellkoff, an expert on pean Industry that animals developed ad verse effects from vinyl chloride. This was story; the chemists' association claims that the agency misunderstood the findings. But environmental carcinogens, or cancer-caus at least partly bedause.the Europeans down one .thing Is certain: The agency, and ing agents, claims that blame shouldn't; be graded the importance of^some of their find OSHA,,lmade no move to change the stan placed at Industry's door alone. "We're all a ings. For example, Prof, Pier Luigi Viola, a dard of 600 parts per million and didn't , bit responsible," he says. "None of us did medical director, employed in. Italy by Sol- so until' after the human . angiosarcoma * our homework." Culpability, he says, should vay Sc Cie., the Belgian chemicals company, cases were announced- .In Europe, by con be shared by scientists, government agen found bone changes In rats exposed to air trast, Great Britain had lowered the maxi cies and labor unions. levels of 30,000 parts per million ofr vinyl mum level to 200 parts per million following The case of'Earl Parks is Illustrative. chloride; even more Important, he found the cases ot,acroosteolysis in the,-'60s; and Mr. Parks first , came to .the attention of that vinyl chloride, at.that level caused ma West Germany ha^. set a level of 100 parts k;;.. '-VfT* Goodrich medical people In 1964,, when the lignant tumors In the ear canals, lungs and per million In 1970,i based on Dow's 1961 re company, concerned about the known liver bones of ra(s. sults with animals. According to New Scien .toxicity of ethylene dichloride (a chemical Prof, Viola reported his findings before tist, the British science journal, "No other from which vinyl chloride is made) tested an international cancer.congress in-Houston section of the U.S. or European industry fol the liver function of workers In the Louis In 1970. It was the first reported link be lowed Dow's lead. The reasons for this in ville plant. tween cancer and vinyl chloride. But the ternational confusion are obscure.'' ' | Mr, Parks's readings were abnormal. professor expressed doubt about the purity This all changed quickly, of course, once Nevertheless, he continued to work at the of the vinyl-chloride-gfcs he had'used and the flfst human cases of angiosarcoma were same job. In October 1964, however, he was stated that the rat cancer findings, because reported by Goodrich. Indeed, the swiftness hospitalized with what was initially diag they occurred at such high levels of the with which new research has been nosed as a bleeding ulcer. Doctors treated mbnomer, had no human implications. out since Jan. 23 is perhaps without the "ulcer" without surgery, and Mr. Parks (Prof. Viola subsequently found tumors dent In the world of medicine and scl- , was released. In rata exposed to 500 parts per million: but Much of this recent research ' He was readmitted to the hospital the fol- this fact wasn't revealed until well after the cemed with studies of the incidence lowingfUJay.f^natthe^leclslnnsgaaamaderto fjrsl o^r^*But>wfiwthe'opeilSfm:ws&&egimi vealedr)' easqsrf aUAypcebpunongM ers, Tfius far/so(nwstUdlfs ,__. -surgeons, tetea^-bfffladiS^fh-'-ulcel&oiJtfd Thb Rta^prcb Goes On.I-y, , - r . .. .. ers exposed hi high levels "Or'vlnyl chloride -instead that MtWParks'si^^blemfr^itea i'^aseijBn" Prof.lVlola'sT'tsatljt cafiWr fin'd? show greater than expected incidences not from - severe ,'jtvert*damafe^,whlch4*'ha'a Ings"Yu rats, Montedison S.p.A., the huge only of angiosarcoma but certain other can caused blood to back up in the portal vein Italian chemicals company, In 1970 asked cers as well. The ratifications of these find leading into the liver. The surgeons cor Cesare Maltoni, a respected researcher at ings for tlie future of the Industry and its rected the vein problem with a shunt and the Institute of Oncology in Bologna, Italy, workers remain to be seen. However, for .took a sample of liver tissue for analysis. to do more extensivo animal etudes. By Oc the veteran PVC workers, whatever ;The analysis showed that the liver had been tober 1972, Prof. Maltoni says, he had found changes the findings produce will be useless ; damaged by exposure to "chemicals.'' that 250 parts per million of vinyl chloride in counteracting the. insidious' effects of (According to testimony at OSHA's hear produced tumors.jln rats In three parts of working day after day, year after year, in I'-j ings on vinyl chloride, held last June and the body: the ear canals, kidneys and the what now is generally vlewod as a contami July, Mr. Parks received a total of almost liver. The liver tumors Included anglosar- nated atmosphere. 56,000 In workman's compensation from Goodrich before he died, but only after Goodrich protested that his Illness couldn't Sharp Drop in Vinyl Chloride;E%RQ$Uteihave resulted from exposure to the chemi r cal.) ILSBSJOJ SL 092847