Document Emd4RnVQxq4jw539vRjYwG0wb

The Chemical World Thie Week CANCER DEATHS AMONG PVC Long-existing concern over possible health hazards to workers in firms making polyvinyl chloride and vinyl chloride intensified dramati cally last week with a disclosure that indicates there may well be a serious occupational disease prob lem--one involving cancer. B. F. Goodrich Co. voluntarily revealed to federal and state offi cials that since 1971 three blue-col lar workers at its PVC resins plant at Louisville, Ky., have died from a very rare form of liver cancer, two in 1973 and one in 1971. The can cer--angiosarcoma--is so rare that federal authorities estimate that deaths throughout the U.S. from this cause total only 21 per year. Alerted to the deaths, federal ex perts and safety inspectors rushed within 48 hours to the plant. Dr. Marcus M. Key, director of the Na tional Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, says that his agency will step up its effort to de termine the extent of the disease in the U.S. and in foreign countries with similar manufacturing pro cesses. NIOSH plans to develop, on a crash basis, criteria for stringent work practices for use in the polyvi nyl chloride process. An agency spokesman tells C&EN the criteria might be ready in several weeks. The deaths were among BFG employees who worked in some phase of the PVC polymerization operation, but not in drying, fin ishing, or other areas. They had worked for BFG for 15 to 28 years. Dr. Maurice N. Johnson, BFG's director of environmental health, stresses that the causes of death are subject to verification and that the company is probing to see whether they are occupationally linked. Neither company officials nor federal experts are certain now what the suspect carcinogen may be, if the deaths are due to job ex posure. And apparently there is no violation of the federal standard for exposure to vinyl chloride vapors of 500 p.p.m. of vinyl chloride on a time-weighted-average basis. BFG says maximum exposures in its plants have ranged from 50 to 100 p.p.m., with possibly higher expo sures but not for long periods. Dow Chemical, a major vinyl chloride maker, urged use of a 50p.p.m. exposure level in the litera ture in 1961 and adopted it as a company standard some 15 years ago. Regular physical examinations for Dow workers support the safety of this level, says Dr. Etcyl H. Blair, health and environmental re search director. But last summer Dow warned all of its U.S. vinyl workers of a "potential problem," based upon results of an Italian re search study that found tumors in rats administered 30,000 p.p.m. of vinyl chloride. To its credit, BFG's voluntary alert is the first such notice ever made to NIOSH by a firm for a se rious health problem. But the ensu ing probe seems likely to shake op erators of the 36 existing PVC resin plants in the U.S. as well as anoth er 14 vinyl chloride plants. Lift price curbs on plastics, SPI urges Citing high overseas prices luring plastic resin supplies from the U.S. market, the Society of the Plastics Industry has petitioned the Cost of Living Council to exempt petro chemical feedstocks, plastic resins, and fabricated plastic products from Phase IV price controls. The move is a result, according to SPI president Ralph L. Harding, Jr., of "raw material shortages caused by the world energy crisis and artificial domestic shortages attributable to Phase IV price regu lations." Mr. Harding says domes tic price limits have held resin and Harding: to end artificial shortages feedstock prices at "abnormally low levels," leading producers to in crease exports of these products to more lucrative foreign markets. The SPI position lines up with that taken by fertilizer makers in their successful bid to have fertiliz er industry wage and price controls lifted to ensure adequate supplies for the U.S. market (C&EN, Nov. 5, 1973, page 2). The fertilizer in dustry victory, however, may be in trouble. The Cost of Living Council is considering placing some new form of price control on the indus try in response to what it believes to be excessive price hikes on cer tain fertilizer products. In arguing its case to CLC, SPI claims that polyethylene sells for up to 45 cents a pound abroad, compared with a domestic price of about 18 cents a pound, and poly styrene that lists for about 16 cents a pound in the U.S. sells in foreign markets for up to 80 cents a pound. The petition also says that petro chemical feedstocks such as ethyl ene and benzene sell on foreign markets for as much as four times their domestic price. Thus, SPI claims, "It is not difficult to see how economic conditions have dic tated significant sales of plastics resins and petrochemical feedstocks abroad." However, two large petro chemical and resin makers, Dow Chemical and Union Carbide, pre viously contacted by C&EN, deny that their exports of these products increased significantly in 1973. To add ammunition to its argu ment, SPI surveyed plastics proces sors in the U.S. to assess the effect of resin shortages on production and employment. According to the poll, 73 of the 159 respondents have cut back their operations by an av erage of 23%, and 52 have laid off an average of 25 employees each. Water quality laws need fleshing out "Believe it or not, industry wants Public Law 92-500 to work," Dr. Monte C. Throdahl, Monsanto's vice president for technology, told government and industry represen tatives at a conference on industry and clean water, sponsored by Mid west Research Institute last week in Kansas City, Mo. As it stands, he added, the 1972 Water Quality Act appears to be a skeleton, not an en forceable system. 6 C&EN Jan. 28. 1974 DTH 000017785