Document 9XLVXer9RmN838D77var66Zq

cnv-nrvnrRAT. RADL'CAIf, KY. TTtrsnAY. FEBRUARY 13. W* <VAT `""P1 NlO > Y 'NL^CX^ii,'L/s_/il H 'OctLeJO At Goodrich Plant LOUISVILLE. Ky.- (AP) -- their work, and thousands more The sixth victim of a rare kind in Europe are believed affect of liver cancer has been dis ed. covered amor." workers at the The liver only cases disease to of the rare be directly B. K. Goodrich plant hire. linked to working conditions The worker is still livirg and are the six in Louisville. has not been identifed. Hut I)r. Meanwhile, several workers J. Bradford I:!or';, head of the at the Louisville plant say they state Occupational Safely and suspected their work might be Health Administration's medi harmful to their health long be cal program, confirmed the fore the company announced a sixth case Monday, after possible link between the can Goodrich officials declined to cer deaths and vinyl chloride confirm that the man has the operations. disease. The number of plant workers who have died from the rare cancer Is five. The disease, lcieavlrlzeeodd: byanmgeiodsiacrac,lo:em"xap;,err,ts;is,tno Vbe. A worker who recently under went an operation for removal of his spleen said there have al ways been rumors among em- plovcs. ,,an.d. t hhat they sseoemmeebdodtov cauised by piobnged to vinyl chloride-a exposure chemical died. 5 a:ier someDoay used in the manufacture of Goodrich beean investigating plastics at the Goodrich plant I ^e possible link between em- on Louisville's Bolls Lane. |PIo-ve ^a-hs a|1-d vinyl chloride An international research ef-!ia:,L month. Dr. Block said fort has been launched by tliei-'"`nday that most workers who National Cancer Institute ard^^Ped the cancer had other occupational disease|'vorked with the chemical about agencies to trace the use andj^ years. He said he thinks in-i effects of the chemical on vestigtition will show that it is workers. More than G.CfT Amer- only workers who were exposed ican employes are believed to many years ago--before there be exposed to vinyl chloride in were any safeguards--who may develop the disease. It has been learned by the Louisville Courier-Journal that the polyvinyl manufacturin process caused health problems of a less serious nature in the past. In the late 1950s and 1960s some workers who cleaned the large vessels in which the plas tic is made experienced severe damage to bones in their fin gertips. Blood circulation into the fin gers was significantly reduced for some employes, and the fin gers became shorter and began dubbing. During the worst stages of the disease. X-rays of the fingertips showed little evi dence of bone. Some- workers also ex perienced thickened skin.'par ticularly on their arms. Alto gether. 31 employes who cleaned the vessels reported some damage to their hands, according to a company report which appeared in the Journal of the American Medical Asso ciation in 1967. 3) i 0) iooJa. > A IO i 1 '1 .{ . * ;<k* ? i ,* iJ; V S s 4 f, i b i