Document 9LO2gDyG1VEpLp74GRz8BXBae

{ August 2,1974 BUL LET I N A records review by the Rational Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (fttOSH) in cooperation with B.F.Goodrlch Chemical revealed yesterday that a wan who worked at the Louisville plant fro* 1950 to 1954 died of angiosarcoma of the liver In 1969. He was 41-years old. fto information is presently available about the ami's employment record before he joined Goodrich or fbr the 15 years after he left the company. Although R105H is prepared to answer press inquiries about the case* the agency intends to withhold formal announcement until the cause of death Is confirmed and a wore complete work history Is obtained. Working with HIOSH* 8F will follow the same procedure. The case Is the eighth involving the Louisville plant. In another important development* it has been learned that Dr, Rarcus H. Key, director of RIOSH and assistant surgeon general of the U.S., has resigned, ho public announcement has been made as yet. 1 M 4082001 Copies to: A. Vittone R. D. Scott J. L. Nelson E. W. Harrington H. Waltemate B. M. G. Zwicker G. Pow W. J. Wilcox >/ P. J. Weaver R. B. Downey E. B. Osborne R. P. Kenney - A L. Hatfield - C k. g. R. Flynn TELECOPY Avgust 6, 1974 To: A. Vittone From: John J. Sell Subject: VINYL CHLORIDE SITUATION 1. The Hall Street Journal learned about the latest angles sarcoma case In Kentucky and asked KIQSH for further information, we are told. The Agency handled the inquiry as they told us they would. NIG5H reports no other press inquiries about the matter through August 5. 2. Hill and Knowlton's Washington office reports that EPA's vinyl chloride task force expects to issue its air* water and solid waste report about August 15. cc: V. C. Becker M. N. Johnson C. Lane R. H. Strassburg 24082002 y r y ryy t wor mnwmi Eighth liver-cancer victim r- from local plant discovered By TCVXtS POUTE of former Goodrich ^ntpJoyea^WSkweOer studies art under way to see if lbs vinyl j said the death certificate of the man chloride ia polyvinyl chloride peso any > The cause of death of a former worker *1 lb* B. F. Goodrich Chesakal Co- plant btrt has been anriboted to angiosarcoma, a rare cacrer of the liver. The man. who d.tff'Ja 19 at Ireland Army Hospital at r Kao*. K>,, worked at the Goodrich iy from )K>0 to 1854. , o* Goodrich plant produce* vinyl chloride. Exposure to vinyl chloride i* thought to caute angiosarcoma. Soto workers at the Bella Lane plant bare bees diagnosed at haring the cancer; tn<*pf the me* were discovered after the au died. Two men with the cancer are TSUI alive. __ ,. who died is 19$9 lists the cause of death danger to the public- Also, air stodrt* as angiosarcoma. and says the cancer had around the plants, have been made, . j spread to the lungs. Vinyl chloride is used to produce i Be tmd the Communicable Disease Center would investigate the death fur ther. including all autopsy records. polyvinyl chloride, a major saeredieoi in i many plastics. . i A spokesman at the TCasidegtoa office | of the Jobxafcty institute said the latest ! Both spokesmen for the jobaafety In discovery "is what 2 asUcfcated wa* stitute and Goodrich said it was not going to happen." known at this time where the man He said that although other plants that worked before or after his employment at produce vinyl chloride have no*, yet Goodrich. He died nt age 42. found as many cases as has the leuisrilla Although the other workers bad. worked at the plant for between 13 and 29 yean, the dead man's length of service works. `It u too early in that ooe plant is going morn than the other." tbe game to say to predate any i j of only four years, may Had to new { i i- l I* other ease* toro ap Since Goodrich announced la January of this year that it suspected exposure to the Ibcmie*! was causing the cancer, a worldwide aearth has turned up U other ctve< including some among workers theories on the amount of exposure that drum the cancer, Waxweilec Mid. He said the then period of work time at Goodrich makes the cate "eery inter esting at this stage." Gtimamt take* action Dutch goof in Java: wrong freerplanted for getting quinine I who acre exposed to by-products of vinyl chloride. ' TV discovery of the cancercatwing UMA. Peru -- For VTerg time, riu-1 Goodrich official* said today the record oa the eirbtb case is sketchy. They said i tfcrv don**. know what dcoarimeet the i man worked in white he wta at the faeii. US*, The case was uncovered by federal in* vetiigator* working on a study of all lormet Goodrich employes. "Biehsrd VTaxacileT. principal teveetL galdr oa the project, said 5.200 persons who -hart worked at the plant bare to be checked out. properties f she chemeaL a gas, and it* wide presence is various consumer prodnets have ted to aeveral recent governmenu] actions. The government standard os the allowable amount of exposure to wortere was amended from 500 parts per million parts of air to 50 parts. A recommendation from the fobaafety institute to the L\ S. Laior Department to reduce the alKrwtbie tryomre ievei to aero is under study. daowa was widely used, sharply disputed5 and little understood.': f This tree, from whose bark was i extracted,*?* not srieniifrcaSy identified ! until the l&lh century, and the principal 1 chemical consditucnta were not frontedj ratn the 19th. i Eves then, drug dealers did not dfr.) tfeguish .between efficacious cinchona species and those of little or no medical) value. 1 When toe Dutch established great cin* { ebosa planutions on Java in lb. most i The Katioosl Institute of Occapationil Some Dfrowl products using the chem of the million trees planted proved to be I Safely fanfdijHieualthUis rcMon.Hd-ucting the study ical have+be*enAta~kernr~ofrf t<heWma\rket and of th/euwrrio^n-gUvaMrietzy. Jj?f p | iilt i t o o o w C 13THE COWMEB-JOMWAL THVRSDAV, AIGVST *. 197< Rare cancer blamed in death of sixth worker at Goodrich A rare cancer. jigiorcom of the livcf, has bco blamed for the death of * sixth tx-rsm hn worked Ior the B. F. Goodrich Chemical Co. f)*ct is lx>ai>- viifc. The plant protores polyvinyl chloride from vinyl chloride, explore to which believed to cause the canter. Ar.ficssr* com* has beta dijtocncd in seven other persons who worked Goodrich'* plant on Bells Lane, icciudjoj five who have died The hirst ewe, * min who worked t the plant from 1530 to !&5-t r.d who died of ieiojirWB in 1989 si Ireland Army Hosoitfl <n Ft. Knox. vr uncovered by federal inveaugatora mskir.g $ study of *11 forme? Goodrich eropiuyui. Cnodrieh official* vesterday declined t a identify the scan. The firm announced in issuary i; suspected exposure to vinyl chloride, * ps, w (inked lo the r*re cancer. Sinew men. * woridwide March has nnwvtftd IS oilier cases, some of them among per sons exposed to vinyl chloride toy-prod- ucis. The Particular survey th*t uncovered <hr latest srglwarcom* death it brine contorted by the National Institute Of Occyp*tioasi Safety and Health, and it is rimed at 5-20C persona who have worked at Che Goodrich Plant RI c h r d Waxweilor. principal invenipaior pa the study, noted that ihc latest victim worked at the plant only four years, while the other cases detected so far involved work histone* of at least 12 year*. Neither TVweiter nor the Goodrich spokesman were able to say where the lau-st victim worked before and after his employment cj` Goodrich. Copies to: A. Vittone R. D. Scott J. L. Nelson E. W. Harrington H. Waltemate B. M. G. Zwicker G. Pow / W. J. Wilcox V P. J. Weaver R. B. Downey E. B. Osborne R. P. Kenney - A. L. Hatfield - C. R. Flynn K. Greene Copies to: A. Vittone R. D. Scott J. L. Nelson E. W. Harrington H. ^alternate B. M. G. Zwicker G. Paw , W. J. Wilcox ^-- P. J. Weaver R. B. Downey E. B. Osborne R. P. Kenney - A. L. Hatfield - C. R. Flynn V% i