Document EZ0xOoDMwpYn9MnM13X8J4Rn

Monsanto Monsanto Company BOO N. Lindbergh Boulevard St. Louis, Missouri 63166 Phone: (3)4) 694-1000 September 28, 1976 ftfBiflruriff OF MEDl&NC A NV>RONMCNTAL HtAlTH Dr. Robert Spirtas Chief, Illness Effects Section Division of Surveillance, Hazard Evaluations & Field Studies Dept, of Health Education & Welfare Public Health Service National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health U. S. Post Office & Courthouse Cincinnati, Ohio 45202 4 Dear Dr. Spirtas: I am replying to your letter of September 24 in which you tell me that you and Ms. Stanislawczyk would like to visit the Springfield Plant. I am sure that I can arrange for this visit but in order to do so I will need to know specifically what "raw data" you will want to look at. All such requests have to be cleared with the management, the Legal Department, and the Plant Manager. I will endeavor to cooperate in every way pos sible to get your job done but I am sure that you can recognize that we must spell out such requests in detail. For instance, the data on pensions will have to be cleared, in addition, with our Personnel Department in St. Louis. Please let me know as soon as possible so that we can get this clearance established and please allow me sufficient time to clear through the bureaucracy of our company. In another portion of your letter you discuss the mortality study done by Tabershaw-Cooper Associates on vinyl chloride, which in cluded a study of the Springfield Plant and was done for the Manufacturing Chemists Association and not SPI. This study has been completed and the report has been written, and I am certain that NIOSH has a copy of it. The other study which is underway by Dr. Philip Cole on the Springfield Plant is a mortality study, and I have not asked him for a study design. I simply asked him to look at the mortality experience at Springfield to determine whether it is "normal" or not. His study is not completed. As a matter of fact, he recently told me it will not be completed for three to five months. You certainly are free to contact him and RSV 0020129 Dr* Robert Spirtas -2- September 28, 1976 discuss the study with him. I look forward to helping you complete this study that Dr. Finklea and Dr. Decoufle wanted done at Springfield. If you will give me those specifics on what "raw data" is required, I will do all I can to get on with the study. Sincerely GR/ln cc: Dr. Philip Cole D. RSV 0020130 ANNOUNCEMENT Monsanto has received a report of a mortality study among Springfield plant workers who had been exposed to vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride. This study was conducted by graduate students at the University of Massachusetts under the direction of Dr. Kenneth Rosenman. The study purports to find excess deaths from several cancers, most particularly digestive cancer. These results are not confirmed by the University of Pittsburgh study which was the subject of our October 29 bulletin. The University of Pittsburgh study shows that those who died of digestive cancer were less likely to have worked for long periods in areas where vinyl chloride or polyvinyl chloride was present. Monsanto was not consulted regarding any of the data used in the University of Massachusetts study and is not aware of the details of the analysis. However, the detailed report from the University of Pittsburgh study has been made available to the Union and will be sent to the appropriate govern ment authorities. 10-30-81 /SBN William R. Gaffey Manager, Epidemiology Department of Medicine and Environmental Health RSV 0020160