Document D2q6no5mYr3mxJDXkrReKa2n

MEETING REPORT CMA Vinyl Chloride Research Coordinators September 20, 1979 - Washington,. D.C. Present: Ted Benya - Ethyl Maurie Johnson - Goodrich Nick Wheeler - Carbide Kent Hatfield - Diamond SHamrock V. L. Kirkland - Shell Zeb Bell - PPB W. D. Harris - Uniroyal Ted Torkelson - Dow Joe Seawell - CMA A German article on metabolism of vinyl chloride supports work by Gehring and Watanabe (Dow) which shows that cancer incidence from workers should be much lower than that predicted from animal studies. FDA and EPA have agreed that FDA is responsible for chemicals in food, drugs and beverages but EPA is responsible for chemicals in public water supply. Maltoni would like industry* s support to computerize his extensive animal data on vinyl compounds so that he can study it from every conceivable angle. It was felt that even his data were probably not worth the cost. Although Maltoni has been very cautious about releasing data Zeb Bell indicates that he is willing to have a detailed outside audit of his data if the same group is allowed to audit NCI data in the same way. We have a University of Louisville report. It is understood that CMA will not support this work further. Legal counsel has asked IBT for the money back on the animal study which was never completed as well as payment for 1000 man hours spent by member companies to audit the study and the cost to have someone else redo the study. The point was made that early on in the study IBT did give a paper and testified at hearings so we can't say we got nothing from it. Brain Tumors (Glioblastoma) N10SH and OSHA have now extended the study to encompass the whole area around Texas City - not just the Carbide plant. This study is under Waxweiler who seems much less biased than Wagoner. This study will take "at least a year" (my guess is 3 or 4 years). There are 16 reported cases of people who were supposed to have worked at Carbide for some period. Incidence does not seem to relate to VC exposure. Nick Wheeler doubts that they will find a cause at either Carbide or Monsanto. NIOSH has started a study of 40,000 present and former workers at Carbide's Smith Charleston plant. URL 16169 a t 2- - Just before the meeting a call was received from John Stafford at ICI. The government and union health people are all aware of a study made on 818 ICI workers exposed to PVC dust. Past exposure is unknown but present exposure is in range of 0.15 2.8 micrograms/M3. ICI accepts that there was a small effect on ventilatory capacity equivalent to smoking 20 cigarettes/day. Concern about PVC dust exposure keeps cropping up in England so when we extend the VC epidemiological study (5 year update below) we will attempt to define for each worker whether there was a likelihood of substantial PVC dust exposure. Some follow up radiological studies are being conducted and there will be a report shortly. It is entirely possible that PVC will no longer be termed a nuisance dust. Thus far there is no indication of cancer so OSHA would most likely lower permissible exposure to a level which we could probably achieve in fabrication without great expense. Since only respirable dust is of concern only emulsion type 10 microns) is likely to be involved. VC Epidemiological Update During the heat of the 1974 hearings someone promised for CMA that we would conduct a 5 year update. This is certainly sound from a scientific standpoint since VC presents us with the best case of exposure of people to all levels of a known carcinogen. Because of the concern above about PVC dust exposure we discussed how best to build this into the study. Respirable dust is only likely to be a problem where emulsion process resin (small particle size) in the dry state will get into the lungs. Our present data identifies the worker, dates of employment, rough level of exposure to VC and whether the plant made VC, PVC or both. In addition we will need to determine whether the plant made suspension or emulsion resin. Only Carbide made solution resin. We will ask for a high or low classification of exposure to emulsion type PVC dust in those plants where it is made. VCM plant personnel will be separated since some plants make a variety of ethylene derived chemicals which could result in other exposures. Thus PPG also makes dichloroethylene, vinylidene chloride, trichloroethylene, perchloroethylene and 1,1,1-trichloroethane. For the first phase our consultant will review the state of the records stored by NIOSH and will develop a protocol which can be used by all firms for bid purpose. This will cost about URL 16170 -3 $7,500-$lG ,000 total. Mr. Seawell will review whether we have enough money left for this. I have a recent update on all angiosarcoma cases of VC exposed workers worldwide if anyone wants to study it. A summary is attached. WDH/df Attachment ccs J. D. Forbes, M.D. B. R. Leach E. J. Sowinski n/iM? W. D. Harris URL 16171 9/24/79