Document ByYjJzamd1Lro6Vwq4QRd6wvL

Tented tube frum each engine blows air at very high pressure and forces gravel away from the engine intake. Other ojHTutinp problems indude temperatures that are 5oH to 60F lielow zero. fiO-mph winds, and total dark ness in December and January in the High Arctic. Engines on airstrip equip ment such as trucks and snmvplows an* not turned off from Dec. 1 to Mar. 25. Though the regional*, too. face fuel problems, all arc predicting revenue in creases this year. They sec their big gest growth potential in scheduled pas senger service, although no one is scoffing at the big bucks to be made in hauling drilling equipment--and beer-- to oil teams in the Arctic or to the offagain, on-again $6-billion James Bay hydroelectric project in northwestern PWA ships cattle to the Orient and oil-drilling equipment to the Arctic Quebec. Nordair tties there from Mon treal, and Quebccair operates cargo- only service. Cattle plane. In the eyes of many indus try observers. Pacific Western is the best run of the regional*. Its fleet con sists of seven Boeing 737s. with three more on order, plus two 727s, two long- range 707s, five Convair 640s. four Her cules jet-prop freighters, and a few fly ing boats. PUa's operations range from Us scheduled passenger services to shipping cattle to tne Orient and ex tensive relief work in such places as Ni geria and Bangladesh. Scheduled pas senger services account for roughly 65% of pwa's revenues, charters for about 10%, and cargo services for the remaining 25%. Its cattle plane is typical of pta's willingness to provide specialized ser vices to meet special needs. A conven tional Boeing 707-320C. the plane can be equipped with either 13 stalls- hold ing about 85 1.000-lb. cattle or double tiers of pens that will accommodate a great many more smaller animals. Donald N. Watson, twa president, says that the plane has carried as many as 70o cattle from Toronto to Athens. The real keys to profits for P\va and the other regional*, however, have been jets and charters. The jets boosted available scat-miles on routes with good load factors, and the char ters gave the carriers the capability to use their aircraft more economically. Keith Miller, executive vice-presi dent of Eastern Provincial Airways, estimates the scat-mile cost on a 10tK passenger 737 at 2.2c a mi., compared ilh 5.5c for each mile on th> 41-sc*at llandiey Page Heralds the 737s are re placing. The break-even ioad factor on the jets is 42r<. vs. a I xml S07 on the prop planes. "The stimulation of a 727 is very substantial,'* Miller says. technology Industry's latest cancer scare The deaths of five workers in ten years seem linked to working on (he plastic Federal officials met last week with plastics industry* executives in Cleve land and Washington to try to deter mine whether the industry has un knowingly been exposing some of its 6.500 blue-collar workers to fumes that can lead to a rare form of liver cancer known as angiosarcoma. The focus was on 2S of the 42 plants in the U. S. that make vinyl chloride or use it to produce polyvinyl chloride resin (PVC), one of the most common plastics. The hearings grew out of the deaths of four workers over the last six years at a B. F. Goodrich Chemical Co. plant in Louisville, Ky. They could ultimately bring costly new rules for the Pvc in dustry, whose resins arc used in such items as pipe, floor tile, phonograph records, and latex wall paints. "Im provements in work practices will probably require a 100% increase in the work force," says Walter B. Connolly, Jr., labor counsel for Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., which operates pvc plants in Pottstown. Pa., and Perryville, Md. In any case, the current pvc hulla baloo is certain to spark new demands by organized labor for closer exam ination of the possible long-range ef- feets on workers of other industrial chemicals. "The cancer took 15 to 20 years to develop," says one federal epidomiolngist. Other chemicals could have similar "latency" periods, he says, so there could be more eruptions in the years ahead. "1 hope were not seeing the beginning of a health collapse." The vinyl chloride case is not the chemical industry's first encounter with osha over carcinogenics. Last May the agency invoked emergency standards for 14 chemicals (B\v-- May 19, 1973). Final rules for these mate rials went into effect last week, though both industry and labor are suing for judicial review. The prospect of new, petrochemical versions of such health time bombs as "black lung" and mercury poisoning, makes plastic industry leaders shudder. And indeed, new data presented at the standing-room-onlv osha hearing by Italian researcher Ccsare Maltoni, of Bologna's Institute of Cancer, leave little doubt that vinyl chloride is carcinogenic-at least to rats. He exposed 67 rats to air containing 250 parts per million of vinyl chloride off and on for 52 weeks. By the end of 127 weeks, Maltoni reported, two had contracted angiosarcoma and nine contracted other forms of cancer. Many chemical industry executives had downgraded the importance of earlier animal test results because the dosages were mas- A solvent that crippled chemical workers Last August, Thomas F. Meade, 22. was stricken with a nerve disease after two years of work at Columbus Coated Fabrics Co., a subsidiary of Borden. Inc., in Columbus. Ohio, that makes vi nyl-coated fabrics for luggage and wall coverings. The disease, diagnosed as peripheral neuropathy, loft Meade crippled, and today he wears leg bract*s. He is the most severely af fected of some 130 workers at the plant who have suffered symptoms of the dis ease. The lesser symptoms include weakness and loss of coordination. When the symptoms liecame wide spread last summer, state health offi cials tested the nerve responses of the plant's 1.124 employees and told 2U0 of them to stay home for two months. Many others slaved homo. too. out of fear, By December, most employees had returned, and many who had showed neuropathic symptoms ap peared well again. Meanwhile, Ohio health officials had zeroed in on an ink solvent, methyl butyl ketone, used in applying decora tive patterns, as the most likely culprit. While continuing to monitor the plant's air, they banned the use of MBK. The plant's managers have switched to a substitute, improved ventilation, is sued respirators to print shop workers, anti moved lunch areas away from work areas. But Corwin Smith, president of Lo cal 4S7 of the Textile Workers Union of America, which represents the plant's workers, is not satisfied. He says that 26 members are still out with the dis ease. that eight of them are severely crippled, and that three workers whose condition improved are now sick again. On Feb. 9. the local struck the plant as negotiations collapsed on a new con tract: one of the union demands was a "proper work environment." Says Smith: "People here don't know whether they will be crippled in the fu ture nr not." * ; 1 I 1 I ; i 1 BtVNESSweCK 1S74 RSV 0006752 TECHNOLOGY ive,*on the order to 5,000 to 30,000 ppm. 'The bombshell, The rawer crisis hit the vinyl industry' Just a month ago. Ntp an unusual mimlvr of liver ail.ents among the Louisville plant ppm limit recommended since 1972 hy the American Confervnoe of Govern ment Industrial Hygienists. In 1970. Italian researcher Dr. P. L. Viola re ported that ruts exposed to heavy doses of vinyl chloride devcln|ed malignant nors. Jr., general manager of the Plas tics DiV. of Diamond Shamrock Chem ical Co., which also observes that limit, "there are hot enough fumes in the air to smell." Where concentrations are higher; he says, "we have ordered our workers. B. F. Goodrich physicians ran blood tests last fall on the 271 workers in the plant's I've facility and found :V tumors. Several European chemical companies banded together to support research hy Multoni. and in the U. S.. men to wear gas masks."Vinyl fumes arise {tartly from leaks in pipes and valves. But another likely with apparent liver abnormalities. The company reviewed medical aiul insur ance records and hv .fan. Id had tliscovered three deaths since iy?l that wore attributable to angiosarcoma. Federal health officials estimate the annual death toll in the U-S. from this rare form of cancer at only about 20. On Jan. 2!) fur ther review by Goodrich the Manufacturing Chemists Assn, be gan to discuss an industry-wide re search program. A year ago, the MCA set up an animal test program that will not be completed until late 1975. The association also contracted with Taber- shaw-Cooper Associates, of Berkeley, source is the polymerization vessels, when they are opened for cleaning and maintenance, niosh officials are con centrating now on the polymerization process, hut they, plan to extend their studies eventually to monomer produc tion, as well as pvc fabrication and even consumer use of pvc products. Since safe limits for vi turned up a 1968 death nyl chloride are unknown. (two more cases, includ NIOSH is emphasizing safe ing a 1964 death, were identified this week). --i V--- work practices rather than arbitrary concentra The company's top tion limits. Its recommen management had already- dations for the Louisville decided on public disclo plant, for example; in sure. It reported the situ ation to the National In dude such things as over b head cleaning, daily show- stitute for Occupational era and clothing changes Safety & Health and to for workers, and ex the Kentucky Lal>or Dept. It also began notifying s panded air monitoring. Pinning it down. Goodrich's employees in all of its vi Louisville plant uses nyl chloride and pvc oper about 50 different chem ations. and it sent a re- icals, and there is no proof ^ase to the press. "We of a direct link between ) doing our utmost to vinyl chloride and the express our real and liver cancer cases. But serious concern," says NI05H officials are certain John J. Bell, the com that the link exists, and pany's public affairs direc A B. F. Goodricn safety insoector uses a cnenucai "sniffer" to check tor, "and yet prevent any whetrter vinyl chloride fumes are leaking from a polymerizing reactor the MCA*s Johnson con cedes that "vinyl chloride undue panic." is the material of primary HlOSH, which had immediately- sent Calif., to check the. available death suspicion." Only two other carcinogens, experts to Louisville, held a briefing records of workers at other vinyl arsenic and thorium-232, are proven early last week in Cleveland to tell plants. "So far." says Kenneth John causes of angiosarcoma, and medical management and labor leaders in the son, MCA technical director, "the results records on the four Goodrich workers industry' what it knew about the car haven't been subjected to statistical showed no exposure to either. cinogenic elFects of vinyl chloride. And analysis." Both NIOSH and industry officials on Friday, many of the same execu To Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, the history hope, though, that the link is peculiar tives showed up in Washington for the shows that "our npnrnach to the nroli- to Goodrich's Louisville plant. Says OSHA hearing. The federal agency will determine whether the situation war rants either an emergency standard or NIOSH hopes that the cause is a combination N'to.sH Director Marcus M. Key: "We still hold to the possibility that the cause could be a combination of two or at least a start on the regular rule- making process. The attitude of organized labor was a major concern. Anthony MazzrxT-hi, legislative director of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers, who attended the NIOSH briefing, says: "It's apparent we're dealing with a carvinogen. We Of factors at only one plant lem was. shall [ say, leisurely." Selikotf. director of environmental medi cine at New York City's Mount Sinai School of Medicine, has been a frequent critic of industrial health practices, and one chemical executive calls his re three things acting together in the manufacturing process." The Louisville plant is Goodrich's oldest pvc plant and, unlike most newer plants, is enclosed. It also has a numlwr of older workers on the line. Some workers may have been affected by an epidemic of hepatitis that swept want to reduce rxjiosure to zero. But we have a wait-and-see attitude right now." While the fatalities at Louisville Mmc as a shuck lo the industrv, vinyl rule has been suspect lor a long *.me. Some lo years ago lJo\v Chemical Co., Itased on its own studies, adopted an average exposure limit of *>() ppm for its workers--well below the 2U0- mark. made at the OSHA meeting, "hindsight." Belatedly or not. some pvc producers have liven tightening up their oper ations. Goodrich, for example, says it had already doin', or was doing, most of the things mush recommended after visiting the Louisville plant, ineludiug sticking to a bo-ppm avenge exposure limit. "At 50 ppm." says Harry Con the city a few years ago. A number of other rublwr and chemical plants, and their fumes, are located nearby. And the plant is one of the few that uses vi- nylidcnc chloride as a copolymerizing agent. Kudniph Jaeger, a physiologist at the Harvard School of Public Health, told the usua meeting that test data appear to point to that chemical, too, as a carcinogen. rtCHNOLOGv RSV 0006753 U9NESSWCCK Fawv23. *174 101