Document ExLONKOM5bkYkoz1R769N20NL

R&S 113058 BIO-MEDICAL RESEARCH DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION FORM 53 68 69 76 Duplicate in all cards: --$ iff* I 0000405 year as-1961- File number [Right justify [Numeric onlyj 77 78 t/CL Sub-Index Code Author(s), as Last Name FS (No Punctuation) and coden for journal as JAMA preceeded by one blank space 120 21 _______________ Bt/v/&.*</. f 7~ J Per Tint's, J 40 4160 /} Ft/cztrr.t1 (TS //rtss. >,y TZJ&# Ttksl tr*C _ A- 61 62 Title of Report; end with space-hyphen-hyphen-space. Follow with Index Terms, separated from each other with comma-space. Avoid other punctuation; do not abbreviate. 12 61 62 21 f/jF/PZ- 7~JF T/FZFAt? /SisjrsST*/ -------- 22 ZCAf',- Z/Pz?s/Z /Vn/rzrp , -/ / 7 / 23 24 Source (Journal, Vol., Number, Pages, Date ) 12 VM//r# i//s i wst/rcr tft? , ^ /~/Sstfjz/i-ff#) / fZ ' 61 62 31 32 Brief Summary 12 10 SUMMARY: 61 62 ___ ___ ____________________________________________________ 61 62 63 64 i pr^C*?<r,IX-7 rt i Jl- ft." !&*-W': kA,j-&A-^ >-sus. .,.* T/tr m "i^rr pTrrr'fV^ 7V VTT*iaj*\? *rtf t r1 ,>1: ':* ' ."' V"" ..:3^r ' ' '." i DO ft (/) w o cn CO t. ,1 . ^ -- r . 0'i v:^ * Ll__ y\-i^rUiL. -* A /-'<* 'V ,,,, A S' V V'"" ' --"--- \Liis uji& -\ %J&j \s'** SFELL&OUND---Hundred* of rubber worker! livte* etrnlt.elv at Peter lornmeritq, URW intc-rnedoeei proddenl, qive! th# keynote oddrett et tho URW Health and Safety Sympotiym April * t the Shorehem Hotel, Waih. Wig+Ofi, 0. C. A battery of fipertf Includitif phyticiint and educaton itrotted that ootoot mutt increase their involvement in occupational heelth program* in ordar to protect otobwt from work haterdt croatad by yoart and yaar* of neglect by industry. The high.powered program wa unique io Ihet latiioM kept the complete concentration of the targe eedtenc*. Major araat diiewu*4 included vnivtctiiy program! to Investigate health problem!, haiardt and death! io the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride (PVCI ratio, and lb< need for a national proqrem to study and control occupational caocar, fionunanto and Louit $. Beliciky, URW Industrial Hy* 9a diractor, modaratad and coordinatad the program. About 625 partool attandad the seminar. 0000405 ' t * \k A' m.* 'mm *.* *i-+S i /^p `"a *.. ** \ *- OFFICIAL ORGAN, UNI TED RUBBER, CORK. LINOLEUM & PLASTIC WORKERS OF AMERICA, AFL-CI0 t?3SE^ t^TZifTtiZJ-oS: Si wTM*. APRIL, 1974 -SS- VoL 40-No. 4 Health Hazards From Industry Neglect By John R. Oravec AFL-CIO New* SUIT Union* must step up their Involvement in occu pational health program* to protact member* from job hazard* caused by year* of neglect in indus try, the rubber workers wore told at a national safety seminar April 9. Disease such as leuke mia, stomach cancer, liver tumors and heart ailment* are now being1 linked directly to the worker's job environment. A battery of occupation al medical expert* advised the nearly 600 URW local and regional representa tive* that it's up to organ ized labor to lead the fight to.correct conditions in the workplace. While the a m I n a r focused largely on the seri ous health threat of the c a n e r-c*u*ing chemical, vinyl chloride, it also explored tabor's efforts to reduce worker exposure to other toxic chemical*, fumes, dust*, gases and heat and noise stress. URW President Peter Bonwnarito said that labor must take up [he shirk because Of the weak enforcement qf the federal Occupational Safety & Health Act. "The intent of the law wtis excellent," Bnmmarifo said, "hut the adminiMratlou of the art hay fallen far short of uur expecta tions. "If we wa.it the job ilone right, ia!fOr muMC again band fnrciM tn strengthen the law and eiuttuniUK Ccngrens to provide the proper financial appropriation*." Recent standards issued by the Occupational Safety A Health Administration an vinyl chloride and other carcinogen* leave the ugeney open to serious criti cism. he warned. "Influence peddlers seem to affect their judgment regarding the law. 'which was initially designed to protect people and not cor porate giants," he declared. Although only 1.300 UKW members are exposed directly to vinyl chloride, the scope of the hazard is extensive, the delegates were told. Throughout the country, 7.000 workers are directly involved in the production of vinyl chloride or it* polymerization. URW In dustrial Hygiene Director r \- 'v V Louis Beiiczky noted. Beliczky and Dr. Irving J. Seiikoff of t h e Mount Siuoi School of Mediwiis pointed out that many * thousands more worker* eome in contact with vinyl chloride products since 55 pet. of all plastics used in the country are made ot the chemical A serious health hazard could also be Uuked to the families of workers who bring home the dust of polyvinyl chloride on their work clothes, Seiikoff said. Meanwhile, the Environ mental Protection Agency and the Food & Drug Administration have taken step* to curb the use of vinyl chloride gas and plantics in consumer product*. Vinyl chloride gas is used In household pesticide sprays and as a propellant in hair spray*. The use of plutic HiiLu Uillle* uau last vc.-ir beam** studios found that vinyl chloride was leaching into the liquor. The widening vinyl chloride scare emerged with reports earlier this year that several workers died and others showed symptom* of angiosar>.-oma of the Uver caused by their tong exposure to vinyl chloride at a EL F. Goodrich plant in Louisville. Ky. Before the revelations, this rare form of live!* can cer was little known, although ooine industrial doctors hnJ been involved in research on the chemical for a number of years. i!r - \\ V> - N'V n 'Kz) -rly/' .4 in. !-.r X/'^p !/ _ Xi{- r<! ! : ^ URW WUCOMC--U.S. Sv-'. rienry M. Jackien felt At 'wl<*m* *i )2-nf *t URW/ ticvrud K*"n to tr*4k #t iuficheen dwrinq <n* April 1 Sfry Synlpoiiu-i, from l*it *r*t Murcld A, Titty, URW l!C*l 154 pritidio'' M, L, PluV.A. URW Oil* Ifiif $ dirs'ttqr; . jAm! PiAt.9 Jr., URW U^rnJtion*! Puntiarv, Inturaae* nd fir Rrc> licit tpccid rfprt4Atllf4' Robrl L. Hill. URW |nl<rMii!n*l Oi)**iiAticill dlrctr; Sen* JacVioh; Jalian 0. ^44!, URW Lee*! 00 pr4<dent: Mqb^ R Kr*p;>. URW Le^4i 774 pr*j. d*r*V Jehq J, Mqreiiqu!*, URW Local 131 pretideef: *ed Rck4rd 0. Wkit, URW Leel 43 prt(4flt. Bommarlto charged that reports of the cancer threat Here dooaly guard-^ m to ahieoi iile ctaiptinie fr?m nvrkmett's Uon cfainu. What little research was done on vinyl ehlorinn hos not published until recent ly. The daro broke with the testimony of an Italian researcher. Prof. Ccsare Maltoni. at Labor Dipt, hearings in March. Now studies are getting wider publication. But Bommarito expressed co.icem that many thousands of workers have been unnecessarily expCp&ed t o the chemical because of the loog-heM secrecy. He pointed out that joint occupational hemth orogroms tike tho*e the URW has with major tire and chemical companies wilt provide the needed infor mation to aid researchers in further studies. Dt Thomas Maacuso of the University of P i 11 *burgh, who serve!* with Dv. Seiikoff as a mcdieJ conmiltant to the AFI^riO Industrial Union l>cpu called for the wider devel opment a f Uhor-indiftitry health program* and workmen's compenyatian Uwx, Charles Levinson of thv International Chemical Workers Federation in Geneva. &&id the vinyl chloride threat Is roc ox'duslvely Amerirnr. Awl since it is an intr~natiwrvai /it, organized inho thrunghmit t,V* world mu,-* bring pressure on industry to reduce exposure to the c*-txinogvn to safest level for workers. \ ~ ' r' N PAGE 2 UNITED RUBBER WORKER APRIL, 1974 Dangerous Chemicals In Industry By Peter Itomnuirito try, lalior and the govern- there are industrial health President, ment e'er know, unit** problems? There arc tTKW International those industries are inves enough chemical sub. (The folkuring is Peter tigated and studied ? stance* already in use in Bommarlto* keynote We mutt a.tk too. juxt industry--just as certain speech at the April 0 what is being done about to cause disease, disability Health ami Safety Seminar (he l*tic *uh*tanee* that or death, and this is hnp- held in Washington. D.C.) industry and government polling every day in indus The focus and main thrust of our Health nnd Safety Seminar today ts on chemicals In industry--the exposure of workers to toxic dusts, fumes, mists and fuses from thousands' of chemicals that are used everyday. In some form or other, in virtually every work place in the country. have known about fora great many years? There are hundred* o f harmful chemical* and mineral* used in industry for which there exists now enough scientific information t o require protective control measure* enough toxicol ogical Information so that levels concentrations o f the dusts, fumes and gases tries everywhere. The question U asked again--where is the work er to go for help? The reli ance on industry for voluntary and even legal compliance, has not worked. The reliance on government to Implement the laws on occupational health and safety has not worked. There must be a better For years you have attended safety confer* ences and all the national attention has been ou acddents, .on what you can readily see happen*--the have been ^specified, in Standards, that should not be exceeded in the work place. Vet, for these harm* ful substances, some in way. We had hoped that when the federal legislation--the Federal Occupational Safe ty and Health Act--was loss of an arm. leg, eye and Kt <7 1ryCTjj the loss of life. The accidents are sud den. the effects are imme diate ind you can set and recognise the physical v> 'r*4 cause that was responsible. What we are concentrat ing on today is on what you cant see--tht chemi cal dusts, fumes and gases * I that the microscope mea sures and the laboratory analyses. The harmful effects of these chemicals can be /nit as disastrous, ju*t as disa bling, fstt as permanent and death jutt as certain. We are concerned because the workers trained primarily in safety do not know how danger vi chemical substances L vriM' -s are in the work place. existence since the begin The serious findings of ning of industry, the neces cancer and cirrhosis of the ttver among workers in the vinyl chloride operations, a comparatively new process. Illustrate the need for con tinuous industry studies. It confirms the impor tance of investigating the effects on health of chemi cal dusts, fumes and gases. These findings now pose a major international ques tion that affects all work sary protective control measures are not provided, and the necessary protec- ties of tbo workers Ignored. There it a trentmtdous need to correct those problems in every industri al plant No magical formu la need bo discovered to figure out how to control these common problems. They out be controlled. ers. How many other can What is being done cers, how many other about all of this? The health hazards oxist or workers have turned to the have gono on unrecognized companies and they threat during the past 30 to 40 en to dose the plants. They years. In sfi industries in tell them there is no prob the U-S* Canada and lem. The workers have throughout the world ? turned to the government This sudden identifica for help and they have got tion of vinyl chloride proe- nowhere for years. ess cancer has served a When a sudden disaster brutal purpose. It has occurs, such os occurred In uncovered what industry, the coal mines, and nation government and labor do al attention is focused on not know--the toxicologi the tragedy, then the cal and cancer potential of industry and the govern thousands of chemicals ment recognize that there used in industry. The point must have bren a problem. is, if the industry does not Must everything reach know, if the government such disastrous proportions does not know, if we. as before decent, rightful and labor tenders, do not know, corrective measures are how is the average worker taken by tho industry And going to know? These are hy the government? Must tremendous odds against a new cancer or disease lie the industrial workers discovered every year everywhere. Worse yet. licfore an investigation is how will these harmful undertaken hy tho govern effects be recognized and ment or industry--before identified; how will indus there U *a awareness that , m'i adopted, that we would see a great change for the bet ter--that the legal require ments, the standards adopted, would accomplish what for generations was not done. This has been the hop* of the worker sad even when these hopes now become a legal right, the magnitude of the Industrial health problems due to t o x i e dusts, fumes and gases, have not been touched. The problems are overwhelming--where is the professional staff of the government that has promised to do so much and has done so little? I should like to refer to a few sections of the law. The law requires that the employer furnish a place of employment free from "recognized hazards" that are esuxtng or likely to cum death or serious physical harm to their employee, and to comply with the Occupational Safety and Health Stand ard* promulgated by the Secretary of Libor. To maintain accurate records o f employe expo sures to potentially toxic material* or harmful phys ical agents which are required to he monitored or measured and t o provide employes and their repre sentatives with opportuni ty til observe such monitor ing or measuring and to have access to the record thereof. Further, the employe has th* right to bo informed promptly by his employer of exposure to any toxic materials or harmful physical agents In concentrations or at levels In excess of those pro* . scribed in the standards. These legal requirements are very important--they are essentia 1--but the URW questions their Implementation. How many times have you, or the members of your unions--the workers at the plant--seen actual measurements being made at the work place, in the past weeks, months or past year, or since the law was passed? And what about the yearn before the taw was passed? ' If the air sampling or measuring was done, was it done for one chemical or all the toxic substances-- dusts, fumes, gases--the air contaminants in the work place? Were the air measurements done st each workplace, st each departmeat or msmificturiag process, for each shift of workers, for each plant? If measurements were done, were you told of what was found? Did you see the records? Were themeasure ments evaluated and inter preted by qualified techni cal persons? If the air sampling and measurements have pot been made of the chemical dusts, fumes, gases, etc. in the air at the breathing ton* of tho worker--if the necessary number of mea surements have aot been carried out, hew does the company know that it ia complying with Urn law? How caa the company tell the worker whether or not there has been an excessive exposure to a particular chemical, or any of the materials in the toxic standards, oa sir con taminants, if tho measure ments were not doao ? How can the company maintain a record of mea surements of air contami nants to make available to the workers or their repre sentatives. or the govern ment. if the air sampling and measurements were not done ? How can tho company know whether it in proriding a place of employment "free from recognized haz ards'* if no measurements or dudin are done to rec ognize whether there is a hazard or not? If the company has not done or is not now carrying out a continuous sys tem of environmental mon itoring of the toxic sub stance* in the work place --if it has a lock of aware ness of the necessity of environmental surveillance --h o w can the hazards ever I* identified or recog nized? if the companies have not identified and measured the toxic suiMtnnecs in tho work place--and therefore have not identified for the worker--the chemieid* and their concentrations, and have not warned him of the harmful effects of the substances to which he Is exposed, then how dues the worker know-how does his doctor recognize when he has an occupational ill ness or disease? There are probably tens of thousands o f occupational illnesses and diseases that pass unrecognised during the year because of this. If the companies don't know and have not mea sured and evaluated and recorded the l*v*ls of toxic dusts, fumes, mists and gases, then how is the gov. (Continued on Page 3) GoodioilPs Goal Is Rehabilitation May 5-11 has been set aside as National Goodwill Week to encourage public support for the interna tional program of Goodwill Industries, The successful rehabili tation of handicapped and disabled Americans is a coal shared by many pri vote and public organiza tion* in the United States. Goodwill Industries loeated in 155 cities in the U-S., are actively engaged in assisting the handicapped to attain this goal. National Goodwill Week is observed each year to faring about greater public awareness of the many ways in which an individu al is helped through Good will and of the many ways in which individual citizens ean support the work of Goodwill Traditionally speaking, we think of a handicapped individual aa a person with a visible problem--one who is confined to a wheelchair, an aranutee, or someone who is mobile only with the aid of crutches. Goodwill industries has broadened this traditional concept and serves all people who are unable, for one reason or another, to compete in the labor market. These indi viduals include the soeiulty disadvantaged, the alcoholie, drug addict, mentally disabled, the paroled con vict, and those disadvan taged by age. to name only a few. Goodwill operates from fi nancial contribution*, busi ness contracts, and donated surplus items. AH donations have as their end productwage* for the handicapped. Donation* of useable item*, putrotuige at ilood* will store*, and financial contributions are three examples of how everyone in your community con hare In the acrompfinhmenu of making "(fondwill --A National Priority." R&S 113060 R&S 113061 n; APRIL, 1974 UNITED RUDDER WORKER PAGE S More Bommarito . . . Cancer's impact (Continued from Page 2) rnmeht ever goto* to know whether a company m in compliance (not at the time of the visit), hut any time during the pre vious months and years T If the government com pliance stair is so limited. if it* professional staff of Industrial hygienists are so few. how can proper evalu ation of toxic substance* in the work environment be made for the industries in tho TJ*S.T The federal gov ernment ha* simply not carried oat it* responsibili ties to protect the workers' health, t should now like to refer to the main part of our seminar--the URW Joint Occupational Health Pro gram with the large mas ter corporations* to provide you with some background for the presentations that wm follow. Our approach to the industrial health problems was based on the need to know just what was hap pening to the member* of the URW, We didn't know --the companies didn't know, or if they did know, they certainly didn't tall the URW and the workers. We decided not to wait for the federal government to develop a program, or wait for legislation (and that was a fortunate deci sion), We decided not only to (bid out, but made occu pational health a major objective in our collective bargaining negotiation*, and in 1970 an agreement was reached with the large Master Contract Corpora tions on a joint Occupation al Health Program. The agreement designated that investigative research be conducted by university dentists for the identifi cation and evaluation of potential and actual health It was the URW that requested and Insisted on the Occupational Health Research Program (n the negotiations. The compa nies at that time were reluctant partners. New 1 believe they have seen the light. The universities agreed upon were Harvard and North Carolina. The main focus of the investigative research was directed at the chemical dusts, fumes, mists and gases generated In the manufacturing proc esses throughout the industry. We worked with Dr, Thomas Mancuso. Research Professor of Occupational Health at the University o f Pittsburgh* In the design and develop ment of the long range program in Occupational Health and we are very grateful to the doctor for his contributions, to the URW. Whatever future sccoropUahments do materialize in the Joint Occupational Health Program by the university scientists I n terms o f advancement of scientific knowledge, the recognition and discovery o f occupational diseases, these future accomplish ments will not be looked upon by the URW with any sense of pride, but rather of sorrow--for each of these recognition* of occu pational diseases are only the reflection of a great many years of neglect in industry--years of pain, suffering and death for the anion members. It is from their death and work rec ords new traced and stud ied so carefully by the sci entists, that tell us why they did die. Our satisfaction in this' Joint Occupational Health Program conics from the hope and the expectation that the lessons of the past win not be ignored, that the diseases recognised will make possible the protec tion not only of the work er* that follow in the rubber industry, but to all other workers exposed to the same chemicals and prccr--rj in other induatrie* of the U.&, Canada and throughout the world. It Is a painful price to pay. The university studies are only in the first stages of investigation. It is a tre mendous undertaking to Study 20. 30 or <10 years of occupational and death recorda. No <*no study can investigate and evaluate the accumulated health proUem* for alt these years, for all of thc*o plants. We recognize that the investigative research m u * t be continuous, not only to study the effects of the chemicals of the past, but also because of the con tinuous introduction of new chemicals and changes in manufacturing processes and work exposures which occur each year. In summary* we have cited the problems of industrial health, the needs for investigation, and the difficulties of progress. As leaders of organized labor, all of us have tried in our own way, to bring about some measure of progress. I bdieve now Is the time that a fresh, strong stand on occupational health must be taken--that a new alliance of labor, of all worker*, joined in common cause on occupational health, must be forged-- that a better way must be found. We extend an invitation to off of industry sad gov ernment to join with us in * finding this better way. VINYL CHLORIDE 0ANGER--Or. Irrinq Sotikeff el the Mb Sirtfli School of MudicinO *fnphii|*s fhot "inyl chleridu U "* substrnco which ct unctr d I toe no rMiM for you breeth* It *n the future--wheteoer the oporotien,1* The eutipohon oipert told URW deleqotes, "If yew inholu It yo r* evpetinq yourself to risk vd I don't shmk tht (hhms brings in (m futuro should be ashed os port of thulr Job to inholo this cancer-producing motoric!.** His remurks wore qroeted with thunderous oppiouso. Dr. Jcwph Wagmier of the National Institute of Occupational Safely and Health iwldtvjtfc* the can cer problem in thin excerpt from his comments at tho Health and Safety Semi nar: Each year in the United States there are more than 665,000 coses of cancer and about 385,000 deaths caused by it. Now the World Health Organization estimates that aJxMit 7fl to SO pet. of these coses ore derived from environmental origin. In fact, more r o c n 11 y the director of The Nation al institute for Health stated industrial and agri cultural technologies are the major contributor* in the production of most known environmental car cinogens. The economic impact of cancer is massive. The direct costs of hospitaliza tion and medical care for atneer i n 1969 exceeded f500 million. The direct and indirect cost of cancer including loss of earnings during illness and during the balance of a normal life expectancy have been esti mated ns a total of $15 bil lion for 1971. Now in spits of these facts Httie attention has been directed toward the identification of carcino genic hazards in the Industrial setting. What's of more concern to mo is the fact that even less effort has been directed toward applying knowl edge that we already have on the basis of animal experimentation o r from epidemiological studies in other countries to eorrectire action here In the United State*. A* a result, I think it is fair to any that today peo ple ore developing cancers that could have and should have been prevented. Now the point that I am attempting to bring across la that historically what little effort there has been in the area of occupational carcinogenesis hoi come from the epidemiologic approach--that i s where we go out and count the bodies. And then we con firm it out ia the animals. Only recently on throe occasions has there been identified in the animal and in the experimental situa tion an agent-which b car cinogenic and we are now seeing the same mamfestat i o n s in human*. Those throe examples are dielhvl* stilbestrol, his-chloromcthyl ether* and vinyl chloride. Now wh.it I am going to recommend i a where we should be in the future. 1 think that ennMdeniMy more effort in needed in the field of cancer epidemiolo gy to monitor the effect* of our eclating chemical envl- romtienf on the inductfl of nweer in the iiMlu^lnal netllng. However, w munt not hoc right of the fact that the epidemiologic method m directed to and after the fact expoHur*. And l want to emphasize that when we arc under Congressional mandate to provide occupational safety and health to the United States working population and we are dealing with an insidious fatal disease such as cancer and we are in a society as progressive and lucrative as we are in the United States that man should no longer be the proper object of study and I think the time has come where there must be an aggressive attack--*n aggressive approach--on the part of the federal government and the researcher* 10 encourage legislative changes requir ing pre-testing of agents as part of the research and development costs of indus try and the preclusion of entry of new agents into the environment with oil their Inherent danger* in tho Industrial setting and in the community setting if in fact these agents are shown to be carcinogenic. I think 'only then w* insure a completely etiwrounteiL And I Tike to say that there are other regulations such as the Delaney Amendment to provide this to the general population and I see no reason why that type of protection should aot be provided to the working population. Bommarito On National Broadcast Peter Bommarito* URW International pres ident. will be featurod on the Mutual Radio Net work's "labor Press Conference'' on Tuesday* May 14. During the half-hour broadcast, Bommarito wiU discuss and answer questions on the boycott of R St G Stoane Co. plastic pipe and fitting*. URW local 621 has been on strike at . the Sloane plant in Sun Valley* CaliC for more than a year. Bommarito Is also expected to be questioned on occupa tional health and foreign trade matters. The pro gram wiil be broadcast at 9:05 p.m*. Eastern Daylight Time, May M. Check your local MutuaL * oJWinte for the exj^^^ time and itntion in y<^^V arcs- The program wuPw lie heard on i*ome Mutual stations across the nation. PAGE 4 UNITED R U It It E It WORKER A PRH* 11174 "Humans aren't guinea pigs "--Jackson Here. In part, Are Sen. Henry M. Jackson's remark* during1 the Health and Safety Symposium April 9 in Washington, D.C.: Your conference here today in the aren of health and safety I think points out to all of us that you operate on the basis of a high degree of profession* aiism--that you're not out Just to demagogue some issue. Rut you're out to get the facts and that you bring into that decision* making process the very best people that you can obtain. I want to just say a word about the problem on vinyl chloride. We have been working with Pete (Bommarito) and your officers to try to do some* thing about this problem. As you know we're in touch with the Labor Department Pm disap pointed with the regula tion. Pm disappointed because it does leave too much to chance. I can only observe that when there is a danger such as that presented in the area of vinyl chloride -- fid we know that the danger is then ...we're arguing over how much can we tolerate. I say we ought to stay on the side of safe ty to make sure that not a single human life should be used as an experiment Why should wo wait? We know that there is a real problem here as U pertains to potential cancer of the liver and what other organ* might be affected --wo don't know. All sdenco Is a matter of trial and error* Science is net net To define it 1 guess you woold say that you would attempt t o predict that cut of so many cases a certain thing might hap* pen. It's the element of prediction that scientists are trying to deal with con stantly. And all I want to make sore is that we're not oaing human beings as guinea pig* i n trying to come lo a conduction.... As I told the legislative group lust week I ulwnys fed at home in bilking to working men and women. My father was.in Uie labor movement for some GO year*. 1 worked as a youngster being a member of the hnihiing laliorrrs union handling a wheelbar row full of concrete. And I children than what you hath Isn't that what it's all attout? We want to lie sure that our children run grow up having the beat possible education that we cun give them, so that they cun go out iu the world und have employment and earn the best possible wage or sala ry-- Am! may I add. the over. SEN. HENRY M. JACKSON can assure those that have not had that experience that 1 tried to avoid it It Is all mechanized now and it is not half u bod as it used to be. But I do fed at home bemuse I think I under stand fully and deeply the goals, the aspirations of working men and women. My father and mother who were immigrants from Norway had the same goal that your parents, that you have for your children and that is to make it possible In this great country to haw a better life for your riding objective most be-- and it can be done" we have the leadership and the wilt--to achieve full employment for every able-bodied American at a good wage and a good sala ry. With all that we have to do in America there is no excuse for idle hands. There is too much unfinished buti* ness. And as I look down the road wv can do that job with the right leader ship and the right direc tion. We have witnessed In the last Ave years one phase after another: Phase 1, Phase 2. Phase 3. Phase 4. The only one that vu getting somewhere--and they immediately got rid of U--was Phase 1 when we were bringing about some price-wage stability. Every phase has been a greater economic disaster and t hope y o u *11 Join me in Phase A and that is to help elect some good liberals this Fall so that we can get this country buck on the truck again. Inflation is the biggest problem we face. And make no mistake about it I saw the statistics even with all of the escalation, provisions tied to the cost of living and the* workers last year lost a net of 4 to 7 pet. Actual erosion of their buying power and inflation is starting off this year at better than 10 pet,---doable what it was in the recession of 1970 and 71, And so I think we all must recognize the need here to bring about the kind of price-wage stability that will provide for the productivity, that will pro vide for the buying power that we need and so that we can end this continuous erosion of the life-savings of our people and the hard earned money of our work* Ing people. You know the way the ecoupmy la staggering President Nixon may be the first president to get his picture on a postage due stamp. Well* Pete* has mentioned the energy prob lem* This goes to the heart of our industrial society. Energy impacts in every area of our gross national product, our whole econo my. I would point out to you that In this area we are dealing with one ef the tar goat cost factors ta industrial production, Our goal mast be to never again end some ef os have been warning about this for several years--- that we must never again allow the United States to be in a position where we s re dependent for 35 pet. of our petroleum supply from abroad. The United S 1 u t e a of America doe* have the rnogmtt to be Independent I n then area, including petroleum that U yet to be discovered. We have enormous anwanU in Alaska and the outer conti nental ahelf. But we have paused in the Senate and the House Is going to act in the next few days on a S30 billion research slid development bill in which we can con vert our coal--in which we have over half of the world's reserves. We can convert o u r oil shale of which we have an amount in petroleum equal to the total petroleum reserves of the world and we have great geothermal deposits in the United States all of which can make this coun try self sufficient. And looking on down the road with this program we can harness the energy of the sun, .solar energy, fusion in the atomic area, hydrogen which may well become the substitute for gasoline as we look farther down that rood. And I want to simply say to you that America must proceed with this effort as directed in the legislation. With the urgency of the Apollo moon program, when people laughed, when President Kennedy said in 1961 we'fl have a man on the moon by the end of the decade. We not only had one. but we had twelve in six different voyages. I have great faith In the genius of America, the talent that we have, our great human resources --that we can do whatever we need to do to achieve this objective of setf-suffW eieney so that w will never be in a position where we are going to knuckle under or going to be blackmailed by any pe* tantate anywhere in the world. Finally we want to tee a world of peace. I want my country to use its resources wisely in this (Continued on Page 5) UNITED RUBBER WORKER] pwply 1 *4*7 t Wi^lupw M, Indiuiftih, ImUuu 4SS4I, Sr tfto {tailed RuMiar, Gwk, UmImw mU ptullt Waitm f AwriM, AfVOO, fU*fc*r Wattm BuiUlit*, A*f, OfcW 44MS. PETER BOMMAlUTO--,,,,_,,,,.__Prtri4ent and Editor KE COLD..*____.....Sec'y.-Troix, and Awt Editor J. CURTIS BROWN_____Managing Editor , MW k (JalW b4, mmb. ' V ~~ Nonets r cim.vok or Anosoe xiu s* wet u muihc Pwiro i lit. Uni1*4 Kul>w W*rhrr, at S, lllcli Mfc, AW*, OSt* Owt. 1pbIm4* mkilUc U*--4 *r Mtdrn, u4 tip r^r. OOUaroroOTIKNer, W wMrwS la rAlUt. I>iw4 lUMirf W*fc*r. si x. Ilfh Ot* Ah ran, Ohla 44144, Yei, 40--No. 4 April, 1974 `Don't he silly--the sky isn't failing*' nmi R&S 113062 1 APRIL. ID71 UNITED RUIHIBR WORKER PACE S R&S 113063 Jackson... {Continued from Page 4) gum# called detente. I am willing to provide economic assistance to the Soviet Union provided that they do at least two thing*: (1) That they show some movement toward* letting people out of their country who want to leave. Wo're not telling them how to nm (heir internal affair*, but we are saying that we're looking for some evidence here that you do respect that right of a per son to leave which the United Nations I n 1948 voted unanimously under Article 13 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights that s person In s country should have the right to leave freely and return freely. Oh, they say I'm messing in the affairs of other countries business and so on. 1 don't care what they say about me. I am proud that f have been able to get thousands of people out that wouldn't have been able to come out had it not been for the Jackson Amendment to the Trade Bill in which the Russian* ore asking special oeonomlc help and assist ance from the United States of America. We oak nothing for ourselves. We're asking only that they do something In the name of humonity^-that they do something to make it possible for people to live, to leave the Soviet Union. And I want to tee, and I will feel better--and I know wo art moving towards a real detente when we see thousands of jtaiiian students coming to the United States and thousands of American students going to the Sovi et Union. I looked at` the figures a couple of years ago and Luxembourg sent more stu dents to the United States -- the smallest country -- than the Soviet Union. And the average age of the Soviet students is around 40 years. They ore stu dents. You know what I mean. I want to see a freer How of ideas and people through that iron curtain barrier. And the other area that f wont to see some movement Is real diaarmoment. The Russians ore asking for billions of dol lars in credits from the United States. They want us to build a huge energy complex 1 n Siberia. My Lord, what about starting one here at homo in this energy crunch. As t say l am willing to provide some economic assistance, but I my U*tk if you're going to ask fur this help let's get something in return that will give some assurance not just to our people hut to mankind that the worid will lie a more peaceful place In which to live. I propose that the Rus sians cut hock thi'ir stra tegic forces, Lind Itnscd which they out numlwr us sulMtuntiuUy and the sixe of those missiles down to 800, We cut uunt--they have IttOO--ctit ours down to 800. Neither side needs to have as much as they have. Cut hack the subma rines strategic to 30 from their and our 41. then well save billions and they'll save billions.... Finally, we are living In a troubled time. l*ve never lived personally myself at a Ume when there is greater uncertainty. 1 think there Is only one any I know of to overcome the ugliness of the past and for us to Insure that. Watergate and all th* rest will become nothing more than distant memories and that In for as together to reach out for a future that is waiting to be born--'Business and labor, parents and children, north and south, block and white, farm and city. Dem ocrat, Republican and Inde pendent. That's what most Americans wont to do and what they expect of their government is to lead them in that effort not to demean, degrade this coun try's noble purposes. We've got s tot of work to do afl of us together. But it's a kind of work--41 '* the work f think millions of us are eager to start on. It's tho work of decent and concerned citizen* mH acroos this tmt land. Oth ers may seek to make America great again. I seek to make America good again for that in our best daim to greatness. Thank you. Carcinogens This word came up freq u e n t) y at the recent Health and Safety Semi nar. Carcinogens ore chem icals that produce cancer. Epidemiology This word also will appear frequently (n this edition along with "epide miological," Epidemiology is the study of occurrence and distribution of disease. In the ease of the Health and Safety Seminar, it must often refers to the study of illness and death records of workers. Oops! January's USITED RUU* UER WORKER neglected to mention that Ktigenia , McKelvy j a secretary tn Kenneth Oldham, IJ It W international vice pres Ident. Mm. McKelvy recent ly celebrated her 30th anni versary ott the jnh at URW International headquarter* in Akron. North Carolina Program Dr. lhwld Knuer spoke on the Universi ty of North t'uroUuu** health program during the April 9 Keulth and Safety Seminar. Highlight* of his presentation follow: The basic agreement* that were mode between the URW and the participating companies which have liven so ably sum marized by Dr. rotor* and Mr. Itomnmrito are indeed rrnuirkalde and one day wilt lie recognized a* a most imjx>rtant milestone in labor-management relations. Certainly the wisdom and creativity of those who conceived these agreements have made possible the scientific studies that you will be hearing about. Rut if these studies are important to both labor and management---and 1 submit to you in the light of recent discoveries of the health consequences of certain industrial materials that they ore most important-- they may be even more important to sci entists in the field of public health. For here is the opportunity to conduct cooperative studies never before possible, to carry out prospective studies, to design systems for the continuous surveillance of the health status of working populations and to apply preventive measures to pro tect health and prevent Injury rather than rushing to the scene of the accident and trying to repair the damage or to mini mize the tragedy. You may be sure that no scientist or professional from a University or say other institution would undertake such a comprehensive obligation with anything other than great humility and gratitude for a unique opportunity. At the University of North Carolina a working group of approximately 40 people (25 of these being full time) known as tho Occupational Health Studies Group and comprised o f physidan-epidemiologifftc. -industrial hygienists, statisticians, chem ists, a toxicologist and other specialists has been assembled to undertake these studies. We have identified four longrange goals, W# want to be able to present to the Occupational Health Committees of each of the companies' recommendations for establishing a system which will provide continuous monitoring of the health sta tus of their worker populations. Second, we went to make recommendations for the surveillance of the work environment in order that chemical and physical expoaures con be identified end measured. In > tho event that any disease patterns become evident, those environmental expo sure* that may have contributed to them will be recognised nrul corrected by sppro- printe contnit tcchniqui**. Finally we want to Is able to puiut out those arm* where our knowledge is inadequate and further research i* needed. Related to the ability to design a health monitoring system m the question; Is the present working population in the rubber Industry healthy or are specific complaints or symptoms evident? Three separate studies are lieing under taken to answer this question. Koch of these studies involve jv rather extensive questionnaire sent to oil union members at each of the plants selected. These ques tionnaires are mailed with a cover letter from hlr. Dommarito requesting the coop eration of the union member*. Their response has been most encouraging. In addition physical examination includ ing X-rays, blood testa, pulmonary func tion, other specific testa are performed on a selected sample of the employes. From 12 to 1.500 workers are being asked to undergo physical examinations. Any abnormalities found In these tests are reported only to the worker or to his pri vate physician. Individual results will not be communicated to either the company or to the union. There are also number* of well recog nized substances which produce a known physiologic response but where the mechan ism of this response is not clearly understood. One of these is toluene-dilsoeyanate (TDD which is used in the pro duction of polyurethane foams. While th* difficulty of breathing encountered by a few employes is usually ascribed to a senritizition reaction, this response does not seem to explain all of the eases that ire seen. We have recently demonstrated the heretofore unexpected direct resmnse of smooth muscle to TD1 -at low concentrations that may be experi enced in the work environment. This is not related to sensitization and will be reported next month at the annual meet ing of the American Industrial Hygiene Association in We are also investi gating tiie development of sensitivity to TDI tn tho hope of developing a test that eoukl be used to determine whether an individual has become sensitive to this material but before any permanent injury has occurred. These studies represent fairly basic research which will provide the under standing and the toots that are necessary to detect potentially harmful sxposures and adverse reactions before injury to the worker occur*. LABOR-SENATE CHAT--U.S. S*n. M, J#ekt IriqhH tlk wilK P#t#r BoM<nrito, URW #d Lovit fifssdtsql. URW |<iter*tiortJ tmiuifri*! Hyqi*o# director. ik*t#d (K URW lor lit preioittooolltf* in th# ft#ld of health **d if#ty who* ho i#tr tpoko to ofticort *m4 mvmbon. /* R&S 113064 PAGE < UNITED KUHHEIt WOKKEIt APRIL, 1U7I In-depth Look At Vinyl Chloride "If vinyl chlorido is ' present where you are a human being* says Dr. Irving Selikoff of ML Sinai School of Medicine, "it should not be there and yoa shouldn't be there." This U just one of many observations during Tanel n of the April 9 Health and Safety Seminar eon* ducted by the URW in Washington, D.C, Panel U dealt with health hazards and deaths In the manufac ture of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) resin. Louis S. BeUczky, URW International Industrial Hygiene director, moderat ed the panel. Participants were Dr. Selikotf; Charles Levinson, ICF, Geneva; Dr. Thomas Mancuso, the Uni versity of Pittsburgh; and sure it can become & liq uid? Hut there is no oilier form other than the liquid or gaseous state of rinyl chloride. There are some related compounds one called vinylidcne chloride but it is not the same and you don't use it nt your local. Uaier: But by definition it is a gat. Dr, Setikoff: Ed lloirt is absolutely right vinyl chloride to a gas, but be careful because it is also dissolved in the flubbed rinyl--that i a polyvinyl chloride. There are moleCults of the gaa just Hke the babbles in a soft drink. They are in the water. It's a gas the drbon dioxide Is a gas, bat It comes oat. And there b very often in proems docs contain vinyl chloride <tnd n lot of it gets on the floors and a tot of it gets outside nnd runs into some of our streams. Question from URW Local 101: Mr, Uaier. you refer to the lunch area. When OSIIA (Occupational Safety and Health Admin istration) .came out with this standard they said that the place would be enclosed--the lunch room --and since then you said . just a sanitary place. How since we run into this protv lent, will this be changed to on enclosed place sway from these toxic chemi cals? Baler: Well. I have no idea what the Anal stand ard that the Labor Departm e n t promulgates--the larger mmdwrs of animals question to Lou Bclirzky.. at each of tho concentra Is vinyl chloride or polyvi tions. nyl chloride used In the To get back to your spe manufacture o f bulk and cific question you can argue plastic pellets for injection that atnee it Is a go* you molding and If it is could won't curTy any gns over. you run into proidenis with If you rend the carcinogen* a gas coming off the plua- standards that the Labor tisixor when you heat it to Department has promulgat mold it? ed those things which are - UeUczky: I'll answer the gaseous, tike bis-chlorom- first question. Polyvinyl ethyl ether you don't chloride resin is used in need wa*h stand nearby . mold injection operations because the gas won't stay and ft will release vinyl on your hoods. Out, on Dr, chloride.' Concentrations Selikolf points out, Uio really haven't been mea original shape of polyvinyl sured but it depends on the chloride as w were told by kind of vinyl chloride resin ILF. Goodrich and somo of you buy. the manufacturer* wus a If it's the Italian resin sphere, a ball, like a mar* Dr. Selikoff spoke about, b I e. The new polyvinyl the resin that's mode by chloride l shaped like--( what they call the French process, relatively high con centrations of free vinyl ehloride are usually found In mold injection opera tions, You will And some concentrations of vinyl chloride which will depend on the pressure and the heat Involved. iDaa6iAC1.ElIRfesELV~l.'^l,-V-, . f y AU-U-V-.--' *5.." SiA'TAind PANELISTS ED BAIER, ANGELO CEfALO, DR, THOMAS MANCUSO AND LOUIS BELICZKT Question from URW Dis trict 6 Director William Punnett: We have two local unions that are using this vinyl chloride in the making of arm rests for automobiles. What protec tion could we take to mea sure tho amount of substance in the air, or is there anyway that we can do this? We have in Local 96 in WaterviHe, Quebec. One chap there now has cancer of the liver.... Ed Baior, the National many vinyl products--poly Institute of Occupational vinyl chloride products Health and Safety one, two. three pet vinyl (NIOSH). chloride. The gas Is la the Hers in part is a tran , finished plastic or In the script of the polyvinyl 'liquid In which polyvinyl chloride question and ehloride often comes or in answer period; the powder in which it Question from URW often comes. And it will be Local 644: Does vinyl slowly released into the chloride come in any other environment and you can from other then a gaseous state? then breathe it. Baler: Does vinyl ehloride come in any other form besides a gas? Vinyl chloride is a gas. I have some information--t don't know that you need it or that you should even want it--but vinyl choride is a gaa and it boils at -13 degrees centigrade. And ifa got a vapor pressure of 2,660 milimeters of mercu It's heavier than air so it doesn't go up to the ceiling and it doesn't go out into the atmosphere very easily --it tends to hug the ground where you are. And therefore if you are in some circumstances in which yon have powdered resin around you, i f you will test that air you will And molecules of the gas in that air. And therefore ry at 25 degrees centigrade which doesn't mean too much in those terms. But what this means is that it's always a gas--in working conditions, normal condi tions. This is why it always comes in frozen condition where it can be handled as a liquid. It's like L.P. gas from that standpoinL Also don't be comfortable know ing that you are dealing with a powdered resin and tho vinyl chloride is a gas. That gas is being released from the resin with which you might be working. We know very little about this at the moment. This is one of the urgent arcus of research that has to he that the latter number means that it becomes a fas very easily. Beiioky: Ed, could you pressurise that aad make it a liquid ? done, but be careful. Belitsky: There is one 01 h e r comment in that vinyl chloride is also slight ly soluble in wut**r and a lot of the process water Baler: Yes. that did contain vinyl BeUcakyt Bo under pres- chloride was used in the permanent standard--what it Is going to. look like. NIOSH had mode recom mendations os to the way it saw iL Fm glad you brought this up because this a point that I wanted to make before lunch and at the present that 50 (parts per million) limit really has no certainty. We don't know how safe that 50 is. We had gotten together a group of experts who are toxicologists who are familiar with cancer-pro ducing substances and can cer in general and we asked them specifically how good !s this Maltoni data at around 50. Incidentally, Maltoni hod 60 some antmats that ho tested 50 parts per million and found no angiosarcoma. We asked if 5 0 animals were sufficient They did a sta tistical analysis of this and they said that in order to find a cose of angiosarcoma at 50 you would need rough ly 500 animals to expose them a t 50 before youM start seeing cases of angiosarcoma if you ore. in fact going to sec any. And they intimated that in all probatiriity you would see some cases i n animals if you hod an unlimited num ber of animals and. as a result of that, Maltoai is redoing the study with think they described is a popcorn--and therefore it has all that open space that gases can trap and this is tho point that wc wort talking about so that yon would wash off the materi al which may have some of the gas entrained in iL What the final standards look like though, we can't earBeHczky: I have an idea that there has been some direct input into the Department of Labor and I've hod some too regard ing the locker rooms, wash rooms and cafeterias. I n most of the polyvinyl chloride resin plants every thing Is contiguous. It's in one kind of building, the locker rooms and the wash rooms and the control areas are all in the same process area* but they are walled off. And, one of the recom mendations that will be mode in all protahilily is that all such rooms will be under punitive pressure-- that means fresh air com ing in--so that even if you open up the door there would be* a very slight pos sibility that the contami nated uir could grt into that tires. Otherwise you would end up wearing a reap!rotor everywhere in the plant* Quention from delegate; I want to direct a two-part Bellczky: TO try it and then maybe somebody else can pick up from that. First thing is to And out what the air concentration Is, and that's not an easy thing to do because proba bly in Canods there hasn't been ss much emphasis on the vinyl chloride and the resin ss we have had in this country. The majority of the instruments that were used In the post were sort of combustible gas Indicators and about the best they could do was about 500 to 1,000 ports per million and s lot of them only went up to about 6,000 parts per mil lion. There are four or five pieces of different equip ment. I think one is the Morand, the Century flame (Continued on Page 7) COPE gift J Even while prices ] soar, a URW retiree still , found an extra $5 to do- .j note to COPE. -John Hammond Mishuwako. Ind,, sent hi* contribution to tho UHW on Dm. 7. V/e thank John for his thoughtfulness during i lhe* trying times. attttfeSSMIlHI R&S 113065 (\ o c APRIL, 1974 UNITED RUBBER WORKER PACE 7 i i More Vinyl Chloride.. (Continued front 6) toniznlion chambers and you eKn collect the samples on the certain kinds of charcoal and it can bo an alysed by gas chromotography. Samples may also be collected by using a simple vacutolner tube into which you push a needle to get a 10 ta or a 15 cc, sample and have it analyzed by gas chromatography. Generally available there (a Tory little equipment that can really do you much good from the stand point of sampling unless you hare some of the more sophisticated pieces of equipment. What doe can you do? Initiate os quickly .as possible some kind of 'medical surveillance pro* gram so that we can And out whetheror not there has been any minimal damage to the liver or other organs where vinyl chloride can affect people. And the NIOSH recommendations that you have in yoor packet are probably pretty Baler: If 1 could add just one thing to this what Lou rays is absolutely correct. . But If you can drive out this vinyl chloride where they make the polyvinyl chloride--in other words it's another drying stage where this time yon literal ly dry out the vinyl chlo ride or you get It out, there fore you are not carrying the vinyl ehloride Into the other steps. Where you get the poly vinyl chloride in which you have got some of the vinyl chloride absorbed when you open the bag there Is an exposure. When you heat the material- there is a potential for exposure. When you put it into the injection molds there Is a potential for exposure. So if we can eliminate the gas at the plant so that when you buy a bag of it you can be assured that there isn't vinyl chloride in there; then you should not have a problem in your plant. Beltczky: Well, I tried in public testimony to recom mend a number to the Department of Labor and it was that polyvinyl chl^ ride resin shall contain less than 100 parts per million and this didn't sit too well with the Manufacturing Chemists Association who felt it should be a 1,000 rather than 100. But the other thing to do just to be on the safe side is to make sore wher ever you use the resin in any kind of a heat or pres sure operation that you have good local exhaust ventilation to get the vapors away from the worker. And this now becomes a problem In this country because the Envi ronmental Protection Agency (EPA) as far as emitting stuff into the out side. Vinyl chloride may be a problem here legally. Haler: Well vinyl chlo ride in sunlight only lasts for about two to three hours. The sun has some thing to do with it. On a day like today if you dis charge it you would protv ably have an EPA problem. But on a sunny day, the vinyl chloride, I don't know, 1 don't know what the chemistry of it is--if it just forms PVC or just simply bums up or disinte grates. But. it's got about a two to three hour life out side in the sunlight. Dr, Selikoff: I would like to come to Canada's defense. Scientifically, the first two coses of death with vinyl chloride were ` reported in 1960 by Canada. by Dr. Mastramateo. He reported two acute deaths and so we were first alerted to the extraordi nary hazards of vinyl chloride by the Canadians. Punnett: I'm concerned about this that this opera tion is that they fiQ a mold with this liquid which con tains polyvinyl chloride. It passes through some heat ers aod the htet U set so that it makes the thick ness of the skin they want and then the operator has to dump this hot liquid out into a pail and it is used again. Now back in 1955, BJ. Goodrich had a plant thqy made plastic shoes for women for overshoes and both the president and the treasurer of that unioiv--it dosed in 1958--hare died, the president of cancer. I have asked the Depart ment of Health to go back now and go through the death, certificates and check up to see whether they both had cancer and if that's what caused their death and if it conJd be at tributed to polyvinyl chlo ride. Question from URW Lo ral 66 President John HoL tingworlh: We use mar* v i n o I nnd l amirroliiitd of vinyl chloride in the vinyl chloride it* pre there is polyvinyl chloride future. Here is a substance then prcmulioo* have to be in marvinol and wc use it which can cause ameer and taken mo (hat you do not rather extensively i n the- 1 nee no reason for you to Inhale U. banbury nod mixing, f want to know If there is breathe it in the future whatever the operation. Haier: Could f add one point, and l concur with any additional danger used The answer is going to he D r. Selikoff. In essence, i n this ittarvinol us com the same. I don't think it b we've been saying the pared to other powders and any safer to Inhale while same thing back and forth compounds? polymerizing o r injection where the only true way of Haier: About the only molding or carrying the knowing if you have expo answer that 1 could give is buckets of ihe mnteriaL If sure is to take a tncasure- the one thatLouBeli- you inhale It you are expos ment, because you can't czky guv earlier and that ing yourself to a risk and I smell it at the concentra is to have it evaluated. don't think that human tions that we are concerned Incidentally, the sampling beings In the future with and as Lou points out data sheet that we sent to should be asked os part*of you're talking somewhere OSHA for detection is sim their job to inhale this can between 200 and 400 ports ply a glass tube which cer-producing chemical. before you smell it. holds about--what would Question from URW But one request that I that be about a pint or Local President Ronald have for NIOSH is that if half-pint 250 cc`s.--rough Darling: Management has you get any such data--in ly one*quarter of a liter. A been a bit disturbed over other words, if y o u find liter is roughly a quart to the investigations that you vinyl chloride and you have - it would be one-quarter of a quart of air. , And it is a sample thing just a regular glass tube with two valves on it. You open it up and you draw air through it at the'right people have made. W are a conversion plant rather than a producer or a man ufacturer--And we use about 80,000 pounds of PVC a day and they seem to be harping on the fact that conversion plants some idea of concentration --please let us know what it is. We've got some teams out, meat wrappers, you are familiar with that, where they use a hot wire to cut the plastic--that's time when you think might not be affected to sheet vinyl PVC--and we you've exchanged the air In the degree that manufac know that there are a lot there you close both of turing plants are. My ques of chemicola with names these, send it to a labora tion is to anyone on the this long which we're find tory and they analyte i t panel is would you recom ing in' the smoke that for vinyl chloride. That's mend insisting on all the comes off of these. about all we can say, because you have to really evaluate exposure levels and I mean to be sure to answer yon properly and it would have to be looked at. Belioky: I've seen them dump into a banbury and when you dump Into that thing you know darn well it gets to be about 360 to 400 degrees and when they drop It into the mill. I could actually smell the vinyl chloride so that means that it could be between 235 or 400 parts per minion. monitoring and precaution We're also starting next ary measures to be taken week to look la earnest to under the Federal Regis ter? , see if we can find any vinyl, chloride. So far Dr, Selikoff: I think there is a standard answer now. Measurements should1 hasn't been sticking! Uke a sole thumb tn tliev__ analysis but if we do find it be made and we have mag nificent scientific instru w* art going to look specif ically for It now. But 1 ask ments that ran see whether or not vinyl chloride is you if you get an7 data --if you monitor any of present in your particular plant under the conditions of your particular work. If these operations PVC oper ations, cutting of plastic, molding of plastic, injec vinyl chloride is present tion, and if you do monitor where you are as a human and get some results being--it should not be that show vinyl chloride there or you shouldn't be please let us know about it. Dr. Selikoff: There arc a lot of questions such as the ones that we've just heard there. One or the other and the company may be right. The process may be such ms That contributes to the store of knowledge that we are trying to put about this condition of that not to Include exposure to together on vinyl chloride. condition--what do We do ' Wnyl ehloride--In that case and what is the hazard? I wonderful No precautions think there Is one answer are needed according to our to this. I don't think any of current knowledge. We you people should be know nothing about polyvi Question from Distillery Workers Local 72: A fellow worker with about 20 years* service time who did not exposed to the inhalation nyl chloride itself. But if (Continued on Page 8) PETER lOMMARtTO. CHARLES IEVINSOH AND OR, IRVING SEUKOFP t t u n J i i , .' f v. -J* 4t- *<# ' -V * R&S 113066 PACE S UNITED^ RUBBER WORKER APRIL, 1974 (Continued from race 7) Arsenic will do this and oiid Dr. Tctera and others Bommarito* Well (hat'd ence felt In to make certain work in a PVC <lepnrtRU*ut therefore arsenic smelters have already predicted that iio( too dimcidt to answer (hut these administrating following a biopt/ wju told ore now l>cittg looked aL we are to Ikj by no means damn it, we've just got to agencies don't have enough by the company doctor that he hnd a Uvcr disease -no cancer--but a liver disease and that it wo* caused by vinyl chloride. Now he wonts to know should he stay In the plant at all* change deportments or get out of the plant T The vineyard sprayers in Germany who have used arsenic compound* to spray the vine* in growing these vines have been found to have angiosarcoma. There are a number of chemicals which in animals which have already been sure that cancer of the liv er--hncnmhgiusurvonia o f the liver is going to be the only cancer found ns a result of vinyl chloride exposure. Levinsoni I would like to go buck to what Dr. Sellkotf sold this morning-- that we must not stop only raise some hell, Thnt'a what we liuvr to do in order (o g e t away from some of the problems that we're having that nobody is paying that much atten tion to. If you have a situa tion that Is dangereun and a 11 sometiody is doing is skipping somebody on the means to curry out tho application of the law. Therefore i t s application and implementation are way lichind realities. The agencies are never staffed enough. They never seem to have enough. If t understand it cor Dr. SeKkoff: We hare a shown to produce angiosar at the angiosarcoma aspect *wrist then it's of no value* rectly they don't have perfect answer for that. If coma. For example, nitre* of it. It is now confirmed It's no different in one of enough budgeted. And so staying In the plant is saminet have been shown that exposure to vinyl the Industrie* that hod an the laws are great but you going to include hie further to do It such as dimethyt- chloride carries with it a acute problem. That hap know it's like passing laws. inhalation of vinyl chloride he should get out of the * plant even If his liver dis ease (a not now very serteus. In any case he should not inhale any more of this cancer-producing chemical Delegate: I don't see how he could keep from it anywhere in the plant real* ly. Dr. Sdikoff; l have the greatest confidence in. American industry and being able to totally enclose this system. If vinyl chlo ride were expensive It wouldn't be in the air of the plant. The engineers are able to totally enclose this system. nitrosamine. Hydrazine compound has been shown to do it In other words what we are saying is that the liver can respond only in a limited number of ways. It can b damaged. It can be scarred or It.con produce cancer and many things can stimulate these reactions in the Uver. W ore not at all sore, in fact at this time that vinyl chloride is going to turn out to be the meet Impor tant cause of angiosar coma. We may be in for some surprise In the next year, two, five or ten. For example, one of my strongos t recommendations t o you at this time <s that whole scries of ailments prior to cancer Initiation and promotion. The whole Raynaud's syndrome--we have so many cases now on record --70 people were studied in a plant in Yugoslavia. The Jr; pened i n 1962 and while the companies were saying that nothing developed-- that there were no chemi cals in that plant that were affecting the lungs of the people. A number of people almost up to 300 or 400 '"1 \V Lawyers are very rich today by people who get around laws. We're in the same thing in regard to health. Other countries fight like hQ to keep decent laws from being passed but when they are passed they tend to be applied. I think there to a con trast here that' the quesHas is power and how we now as a trade union movement As Pete said to raise enough hell to get the public aware that these things have got to be looked at and that it's just not enough that they b e placed on the books. There are circumstances through the program that Bommarito; Not only where it will not be possi you've set up through your that, but I think that after ble in that case adequate respiratory protection can be given to the workmen who has to do something Such ss maintenance, repair, repair leaks and so forth under those dream* excellent leadershipthrough the vigorous work of Mr. Bommarito, Lou Belicxky, and yourselves that you see to it that every monomer is now looked at in the-next sever -'Sv #-hi ** J i the law was passed we attempted to' give NTOSH all the cooperation sad sup port. As you recall It was passed several years ago and we had a heck-of-aUme just getting the duns, But no one should al years, as soon as possi money to help NIOSH do sale another human being to Inhale something which can cause cancer. Lmrtnconi We have'a ble. What right have you got to think that vinyl chloride Is going to be the s - ' \ s' :k . >r- . "i the job. I^hink we've got co got a little bit more polit ically motivated in order to solve these kinds of prob number o f proven situa only monomer that you lems. And in the meeting tions In Certain countries should bo worried about. that I am calling of the where traceable liver Everything is now suspect DR. THOMAS MANCIISO, UNIVERSITY Of NTTSIURGH people that are involved in diseases--not cancer--re and industry should be the international unions lated to vinyl chloride have been detected and In every such case the immediate therapy Is removal from that work site and we have found that returning has rosoited'ln reoecurrenee of the malady. There are three cases in Belgium, there are four esses i n Germany where they have been token out fer a certain period of time* in a regressive thing, when they went back to work in ths work ares, the some aliments have taken place and seems now that once it happens the total removal Is obviously the only thera py that is going to work. Question from URW Local $: I just turned a death certificate and an autopsy report over to the Harvard School, the man died of angiosarcoma.-His work history showed that he has never worked with polyvinyl chloride. Are there any other suspect chemicals o r compounds that would cause angiosarcoma that wn might or should bo aware of? asked and government should be asked to look at all of the things to which you people are currently being exposed. Beliczky: Td like to make one more comment regarding polyvinyl ehlorride. I have a literature reference here, entitled Pneumoconiosis Caused By Inhalation of PVC Dust. Maybe Dr. Sctikoff would like to respond to that one. Dr. Seiikuff; l can respend to that, Lou. Yes we have examined now more than 450 vinyl chlo ride workers--practically 10 pet. of the entire U.5. workforce--in this field and [ can tell you that our respiratory physiologists ,,. have discovered definite evidence o f lung disfunc tion in the workers that we have examined. There are two reports in the literature already of this lung disease among vinyl chloride workers and our studies in the United States have confirmed this. I might add that this dis covery in the lung which results are conclusive that 19 came down with a series of ailments directly tracea ble to vinyl chloride--bone destruction, finger tip sen sitization, degeneration generally speaking and then hospitalization before the cancer point which means that there Is a toxic ity to this which begins st point one tnd that we must not just wait until you get point "X" sufficient to induce carcinoma before we consider this to be a very serious haxard because we have any number of cases in several countries now confirming the realities of this particular haxard, Quwrtton from Local 686 Member Jerry Parker: As I've seen with the Federal Register inspections made In plants, violations are noted and/or fines levied. Through court appeals fines are eventually watered down, violations go a very long period of time in a tot of cases before they arc corrected. What 1 would like to know is what is gumg to act these stand people were affected. But right today the same per son that eras hired by that company, a doctor, has not mode any kind of a report. And these are the secret things that we take offense to. But I think the job that has to be done Is to mobi lize those problems--mobi lize those international unions in order to do some thing on this kind of a trend. Get inspectors in there. Get people that are qualified In some of the programs, Now I know the problem that you're having. We've had some meetings on it and I think we're going to get somebody to make a complete analysis of every body in that plant. And. I think that it will be in the works, Levinson; May f just make this comment I think there is a contrast between certain practices in regard to the implemen tation o f regulations in these matters. If I under stand you correctly in the United States you have a this will be one of the main subjects of just what we should do. I know when we wm tackling the law, we had 700 representatives when I colled a meeting and we went down to the halls of Congress and talked to the senators and the congressmen about this problem and we had some good support And If you heard Senator Jackson say that he will help us legislotivelylf necessary, that's the area that we ought to go to in order to correct some of the condi tions that the brother talked about Question from URW Local 107: We have an oiler who died two weeks ago of lung cancer. This oiler was working fit and out of the ovens, where our materia! Is dried out, and like i say he was m the ovens and with those gases. And I'm just won dering how much did these ovens contribute to his death? Dr, Srilkoff: U's a very Dr. Sellkotf: The answer goes along with the di*cu.4 ards--what's going to be country which posses lawn, simple answer, we don`t Is yes. If the man worked in the skin and the tmnex, the difference? How ore we because you have enough know. We don't know l n s polyvinyl chloride, blood vessels indicates that going to enforce these? Is political elout in the legislo^ because we haven't looked. vinyl chloride plant ho had we ore dealing with a very there anything 'in these lure. We didn't even begin look exposure to vinyl chloride, active substance. Indeed standards that ore going to But where Industry and ing at this proldcni until but If he was never near it capable scientists like Dr. make them immediately certain of the bests of nine weeks ago. Now why there are other causes. Mancuso and Dr. Wagoner enforceable? Interest make their Influ (Continued on Page 9) 7 H APR1I. 1974 UNITED UlMIKEIt WORKER PACE 9 More Vinyl Chloride Panel (Continued from Page 8) didn't we? Because of exactly whnt Mr* Bomnuuito mid. There has been very UUle or no research on criticnl problems over the yean. The Occupational Safety and Health Aet said that NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) the profes sional* in the held was to do the research that would tell the Department of Labor what to control When NIOSH wonted to study the plastic the petrev chemical industry, there were no funds--them were no funds for this and the studies haven't been done. And the answer to your question molly lies in the fact that we didn't see to it, two, three, four, five, six years ago that NTOSH would have the funds to do the necessary research to tell us what to do. URW Local 107 President John Alphonse: We have approximately $50 employes in our plant. We are in the floor covering industry. We use* PVC almost exclusively and as a matter of fact in our opera tions we calendar, extrude, plus mix and what not from the basic raw materi als to the finished product. Now as he said we had one death recently In the past two weeks. We've hod three deaths from cancer --two from lung cancer nod one from stomach can cer. We have one man right now that has severe buns of the hands and face. Hie buns are so deep they go through five or six layers of skin he U presently off the job. But, in the mean time we have asked the company for medical check-up* in 1371, The company has come up with the answer there has never been any reason for a med ical ehcck-up--you have hospitalization--go take a check-up of your own. Now, we know for a fact, I personally have worked on these particular opera tions with the mixing of dust One particular opera, tion uses five parts PVC and two parts talc. That's the entire operation. It is basically 100 pet unsafe. This was in 1072 that 1 Insisted for medical check ups. They have what you call a dust recovery system and exhaust fan basically bx the front Open air. the bags are cut on a little platform, powder is all over the room. The company says this testing service--the Manu facturers Testing Service -->iy it is all right the ports are not bad enough that there is no contamina tion In the air. They agreed to last year to give X-rays to every member In the plant. Not one X-ray has been given out a* yet. Now wo had nothing to go by on this, we had the state man in, he has given them a cicnr bill of health. Now what he gave them I don't know. All 1 say la we've had three deaths. We've got two men suf fering--the company calls It shortness of breath--we call It emphysema and we say they are job-connected --six coses possibly right here and now that are in very had shape and it could get worse because we've used exclusively PVC. Wc have what you call a Uviuol, if you are familiar with it, made by Dow Chemical Company. This causes a very severe bum. We have stuff that is irri tant to the eyes. We have our lunch rooms and what not with no doors or what not to It Our eating places are exposed constantly to the powder. You have powder stored within 100 feet of the "rec" room from the lunch room. The safety men have come up with something like this, yet when I hear what is going on here today, I know something is wrong some where. Dr. Selikoff: I think that this gentleman from Local 107 has hit upon a very important point. One of the reasons why.it's impossible to set a lower threshold limit for cancer-producing substances and that is, we expose animals to one sub* stance, but human beings don't live in vacuums or in cages, not yet And, they are exposed to many things which add together. For example, in Local 107 your people are exposed to talc, which likely contains large amounts of asbestos and vinyl chloride. And, what ever we don't know about vinyl chloride we can mul tiply in spades aboot not knowing what the combina tion of two cancer-produc ing substances will do. Therefore, it'* impossible to state what might be safe with one chemical because that's not the way it is in industry. Dr. Jorttph Wagoner: I don't have any more gems of wisdom'on that other than what Dr. Selikoff had, but I will go on record here In this meeting os indicat ing anybody in this room today who feels that they have problems 1 am here at this meeting and 1 would welcome the name of the plant, the name of the local union and who to contact. Alphonse; I was wonder ing, we wrote the company a letter about a month ago. We asked them for a report on what their proce dure is when they intro duce a new material into our plant What ea/cguanis do they toko or what do they do with it? We h a v n't gotten any reply from them. What can we do to make them give ua a report on it?" Delink/: On the kinds of chemicals that they use in the plant ? Alphonse: The chemicals that might bo harmful. Deiiczky: That might bo harmful At present time ( don't know of any legal requirement unless Ed Baier can correct me on that that makes the company tell you about the ehemieal and how harmful It is. Something that we would like to refer to as a safety data sheet. There is going to be a new Department of Labor Ad visory Committee that is going to talk about labeling, and port of the labeling sit uation will refer to safety data sheets and providing information. How do some of the other tocols handle it? They get it in their contract language and we haven't had.a chance to talk about that It's something that is negotiated and a lot of locals here have done it It's been a usual thing under master contract language. Levinson: I think that there is a point here too that merits a little empha sis. We are entered in an age where your industry along with, the- chemical processing I n d u * t r.y is going to be what steel and heavy industry was to our whole economic system in the past There is a whole structural transformation that's taking place. We're going into an age of science. It's sciencebased industry today which is going to be the dominant factor which many, many . workers - the majority o f worker* are. going to be involved. At the present time there is something like 700, 800 new man made ehemieal compounds being introduced into industry all the time. There are any number of hundreds if not thousands of compounds that have not yet been tested We are in industry working with an infinite number of these chemicals getting behind every year because the testing is not keeping up to date. And this is not only an American problem, it's a worldwide problem and I think the time has come when we've got to ehmnge emphasis from reacting when problems arise to accepting the fact that there Is a new quantity of difficulty i n industry in view of the amount ot new chemicals being introduced particularly i n the petro chemical industry where the polymers and every thing deriving from them may lie toxic to the human organism, where the emphasis has got to lie. on protesting before the chemical Is introduced in i n d u s t r y vnther than awaiting negative effects to introduce it because we are getting farther and farther behind ns the num ber of chemicals every year I a increased in industry. And, I believe that this is a principal problem around which most of the health Considerations ore going to evolve. Question freer URW Local 885: We manufac ture carpet underlay from polyurethane under which a vinyl is bent sealed. Do you think that this is a dangerous process? Beltczky; IH try to answer that I have a con cern about the use of any kind of vinyl that is heated and I think Dr. Selikoff referred initially in his talk to the meat cutters who are concerned about expo sure to vinyl chloride from materials such as Sargn wrap and maybe Dr. Seiikoff would again comment on that Dr. Selikoff: We don't know the level of vinyl chloride from Saraa wrap or any of the other plastic PVC wraps for meat. This is a subject witich is caus ing a great deal of concern but about which very little is now known and in the absence of knowledge I don't think* we should gay anything at this point Question from URW Local 224: I wont to know what is the percentage of monomer that is left Sn a bag---a $0 pound bag of PVC--and also where you store this material--If it's stored on the third floor you get heat is it any real dan ger of being contacted with. this material? And also we get it in bulk in tiles and sometimes our men have got to go down into the silos. Would there be a great danger in this or not? Bctttzky: I would assume that it Is a General Tire plant and you use General Tire resin or you use the resin that is going to be manufactured by Ponasote. There is a real concern and I' think we've dis cussed it before. It is possi ble that the resin can con tain between 100 to 8,000 parts per million of the vinyl chloride. But I think the latter figure relates only to the French process, I have a feeling that when you open up a bag you could hit between 100 and 1,000 parts per million of vinyl chloride depending on how fresh it Is. Now the bags arc porous and they are porous purposely so the vinyl chloride will loach out of them. Now what was your other question 7 Local 224: For storing In the areas like in heat? fklkzky; (*m concerned *--I haven't seen any data on it yet but 1 do have a feeling that in warehouses where they store a lot of bags or where you are han dling bulk polymer the may be a problem and the way to renily And out is to get some information from the General Tire Co. They have a piece of equipment available now, the Century flame ionization chamber which they can use to eval uate the air concentration (n those areas. Question from URW Local t9G President Ken neth Finley: I've got a two-part question. WouM an oily residue which comes off of an extruder-- the fumes it collects say cu the celling then drips down, or if a person comes in contact with this once it's been changed from the fumes into an oily thing and gets on him with con tinuous contact, would this be harmful? Bdiczky: I think this is very analogous or similar to the curing fames that the people from the univer sity talked about today. I don't think there is any good information defining the break-down, degrada tion, thermal or heat breakdown products thst you get from an extruder. I think that this is an arts that has to be investigated. I don't know the answer to that one. Dr. Selikoff: When you talk about polyvinyl chlo ride remember you are talking about poiyviny^^B chloride. You are talkin^^^ about polyvinyl chloride with any number of chemi cals In it, ptastidzers, sta bilizers, residuals of cata lysts. a whole host of other chemicals that exist Some of them are what ore called phthalates. These are plas ticizers and vy often the phthalates will give an oily residual from the PVC. Dr. Rubin at Johns Hopkins has done a good deal of work mi those phthalates with regard to health effects. We st01 doa't know very much. But remember that when you are exposed to materials coming from polyvinyl chloride you are also exposed to many other things many of which have not yet been studied. Question from URW Local 885:1 work in a poly urethane plant in Bremen, Ind,, and wonder if vinyl chloride is used with TDI to make this and how about the dust. We have au enormous amount of dust that we work in. We have a lot of people that ore com plaining that they are ill and not feeling well? Dr. SclikofT: We have one of the world's great experts with us today on TDI, Dr. John Peters, John would you like to respond *--you're one of the world's real experts. Dr* Peters: U the du from the polyurethane? Delegate: Yes. Dr, Peters: Is it foam dust? (Continued Page 10) \ PACK 10 U NITKJ) HU HII llK_WO ItKKR APRIL, 1074 (Cvn((ni from Page 9) Delegate: We have hr enormous Amount of foam dust. yes. Dr. Petcmt Well, whnt I know about polyurethane dust to that at least some preliminary studies in ani mal* Indicate that freshly fanned polyurethane dust will produce lung tumor* in the animals. Again, we could well be dealing with a situation similar to vinyl chloride in that there aren't very many worker* who have been around for 20 year* who have been inhaling polyurethane dust. And we are I think in the midst of another human experiment to determine whether poly urethane dust la a car cinogen as well Dr. SeUkoff: John, this TD1 (toluene diisocyanate) also. She mentioned the TDL Dr. Peter*t TDI itself will effect the lung in eevend different ways. One is It will n an acute asth ma like reaction and In these worker* they win undoubtedly have te termi nate their exposure to this particular material, be* canoe they can't tolerate . any ef UU* kind of exposun and the studies that we have doae.eoggeat that continuous low level expo* sun to spoiled safe levels ef TDI result in chronic impairment ef pulmonary, function.. Question from CRW Local 397 president P*t*r Kleet We an having sever al problems at pur plant and I would like to ask you a question o f titanium dioxide (TiO,). We have a lot of dust problem* with this. Betfczfcy: I can respond but 1 think Dr. SeUkoff is or ha* boon Involved in sona research studies related TIOf ordinarily used as pigment. I ordinary fly don't associate a high degree of risk In something like that but anything like that that is inhaled can create a problem. B 0 t, I think Dr. Selikoff can eluci date on that ope. Dr, SeUkoff: When titan ium dioxide was widely introduced after World War. Q to largely replace lead in house paint and exterior paints, we all assumed, again assumed without proper testing, that this was a totally Inert material and was like* ly to do no harm. Last year three cases of acute tung disease were reported from a titanium dioxide factory in Finland and two titanium com pounds--not pure titanium dioxide--but two titanium compounds were reported by the National Cancer Institute to produce Oncer in animals. Now we do not know whether any such risk exists in humans, but we certainly ought to take a good hard took. Question frem URW Local 397: In compounding and mixing operations we often use PVC and n com mon said that under the of things and unfortunate- t try to develop tins type bination o f it rhluriimtcd rays of the sun it is riis-' , ly wo know very little of n program? polyethylene which when persed more quickly. Now about combination* of Dr. Peter*: Wed Uk heated releases an extreme irritant to t h t eyes and nasal passages. Are the vapors toxic anti are ordi nary respirators sufficient to protect employes from the haxnrds of either or hoth of the substances 7 ReUcskyi As you any. U ordinary respiratory pro tection enough? Well first of all. I wouldn't rely on respiratory protection at all. I would make sure that the company had the prop er kiod of ventilation. A respirator is the last resort or It's the kind of, thing that 1s used before or during the time that you initiate corrective mea sures. It's only a tempo rary remedial thing. As far a* what could be emitted. If it I* irritating, it could be a chloride or could even be HCL, maybe Ed would like to comment on that Baler: Well, we've done several studies In the meat wrappers, you know where they cut it and a* I said the smokes are irritating. does that menu if it is stored in u damp area that it is more tUngvnui* t This 1* the powder form, we tvccive it in pellets as well. Baler: No. I was talking about the gas inside the plant versus outside the plant. In other words If you exhaust ventilate air con taining--in other words take air out--out of the plant that has vinyl chlo* ride In it, and it is a sunny day, the vinyl chloride you con measure vinyl chloride for about three hours, something Uke that. How you store the PVC--the plastic is immaterial.. Delegate: Well, we stock it maybe three or four skids high in an area that is quite damp and a lot of it is damaged from receiv ing it off of the trailers, so there is quite a bit of resi due on the floor and this to what I was concerned about Could that be car ried into other depart ments to the individual himself? thing*. Hut. you mentioned about manufacturers and you* mentioned different companies. I've been to tlio R.F. Goodrich plant in Krederkktown, N. J.. it's u clean plant. I n terms of expo sures there I don't think that the time weighted average exposure over eight hours could even approach Id parts per mil lion right now. When any workman goes into the tank to clean It out, as was discussed earlier, he la in an air suit. He's got a full airline, lie could almost go to the moon in that suit. You know it Is that kind of an operation. So even with- _ - in the same manufacturer you have certain amounts of contamination In the air and that varies within the same company, different plants. The- Fredericktown, N- J. plant la probably oho of the newest Question frem URW Local 797: I'd Uke to direct this question to Dr. Seli you to do that. Question from William Orottx. URW Pension and Insurance Department: Directing my question to Mr. Buier. We're talking about NIOSH being called In to make certain studies. However, what to XIOSU doing about requiring the chemical industry to do the same thing for the as* of chemicals 1 n industry os the drug industry does for the medical profession i n comparison to the physi cians desk reference before a chemical is introduced Into Industry and being used h.v human being* ? Baler: There to the Toxic Substance* Act. We would Uke to see that amended to show that all chemicals used in industry, at least get the same kind of test that to required for say consumer protection other than you as a consumer of governmental services. We would Uke to see that act amended. We have been We've been looking at pul monary function test* and w e haven't been, able to. And too much ... how wU you bresthfe. We haven't been able to see too much difference from people who have exposure as a meat wrapper, controls, cashier*, check-out counter*, that, kind of thing in some of the supermarkets, Hds 1* something that we ore .looking at and as I men- ' tiooed earlier we're going to look for vinyl chloride in addition to some of these others. There are several, as I said, long chemical name thing* that .we don't Baler; In aQ probability, ' if the spiffed material has had a chance to get the vinyl ehloride out of it--I mean 1 don't know if that matter*--again we have to test this. As 1 pointed out earlier, if you can drive the vinyl.chloride out of the PVC or out of the plastic material, then you don't carry the vinyl chloride hazard beyond the maker of it, Defegate: Then we would expect to have-more from the injection mold machine where the vapor is preheat ed? koff. Since this has come up In January, w have had something like-21 blood tests, cheat X-rays, hand X-rays and liver profiles run at our plant on all per sonnel Is this suffident or do you recommend some thing more then this? Dr. Selikoff: I think, at this point it's the bast we know how to do on a sur vey level Wo are working to see what additional tests ---more complicated, more refined might be -useful But I think what you have described i a certainly a very useful step at this time, I think the very fact dealing with this for almost two year* now trying to submit the paper work through * o that it would come into Congress and include that specific thing, Bellezky: EiU Onuz, there to action to the hop' per right now sad I think Sheldon Samuels from the IUD Is actively Involved in that. Question from URW Local 423: In our plant we have quite a few heart attacks and blood diseases. And we have two chemicals that are vaporized off of really have too much idea Baler: Ye*, where It Is that a doctor is going to hot liquid solutions and as to what the toxicology la heated now you have look at you is itself import these ehemieals are styr and we're looking for it changed the temperature tant One of the meat ene and toluene. Now do BeHczfcy: Vinyl chloride when excused to heat can degrade and form HCL. So a free vinyl ehloride exposed to heat can form hydrochloric acid. Delegate: The other question is we have period ic burn jobs and they release chlorine gas in the air and It goes to the point that our people become instantly *ick and they vomit right where they do the job. Beliczfcy: I think your situation certainly Indi cate* that the Stauffer Chemical Co, acta in very poor faith. In fact, it to one Of the only companies in this country that has not permitted me sevens on their premiae*. And I think we are handling that situa tion now. Dommarlto: Wo arc going to file a complaint against them. D o every thing we con.. Question from UKW Lo and you probably drive some more out and that's why I asked earlier if you have data or if you 1st us know and you want some of these tests made, NTOSH does have a right of entry so If you let us know about it we can get into any plant. Defegate: Td like to for the simple reason that the plant does a great deal of business in these various forms of plastics with this PVC And the reason I ask this Is because the employ es axe sometimes run from one department into the plastic, back and forth. Now, I don't know about this question here, but what if people with bron chitis subjected to this more so or leas ? Baler: Well, a* was pointed out earlier if you breaLhe the dust of PVC you can get pneumoconio sis. Coal worker* pneumo coniosis is black lung. Any dust in the lung is pneumo- Important things la to have a doctor in front of you to be able to tell him how you feel otherwise they have no idea whatsoever to going on, ' Question from' URWLocal 5: I would like to direct this question to Dr. Peter* from Harvard. My name to Carl Whitten. Pm from Local S, B.F. Good rich Company. We were talking earlier about input into this program and I think it to important that we put os much into It as we can. So that 1 don't duplicate a service, doetor, would it be wise for'me in my local union, we have an approximate death rate of about 13 a month. This Is retirees, different people from different eauses. Would it he appropriate or would it be not a duplica tion of service if I would develop a program to where I con receive from each of these deaths a death certificate and then you know right now wheth er or not these vapors are harmful to the blood and cause heart attack* and so forth? Bellezky; Pvt been to your local about a month * ago and we tried to initiate some action with your assistant plant manager. Delegate: They ate beginning to do some things about it but so far they haven't. It takes a long drawn out program, Pd like to know now. Beticzky: Pd like to re spond to that. In my travels around the country I see. quite a few of the styrene, butadiene polymers and the use of styrene monomer in a lot of operations. I've come across one ease of tumor of the throat in one of our plants in Wisconsin. The worker hud surgery and he is okay, (n your local on in dividual exposed to styrene had a real proMcrn with his larynx and has difficulty talking. cal 557: We received quite a bit of this PVC from Firestone and Goodyear; now is any one of these factories that manufac ture this stuff worse than the other product as to conioftia if you have asthma to start with. If you are sensitized like with TDI and you get superimposed on this dust exposure, yes. ' these things a 11 add up. The question that came up. submit to Harvard Univer sity the death certificate outlining the cause of' death ;uid then a work his tory, date of hire, deport ments worked in, and so on. Would this be a dupli The incidence of cardio vascular disease in your particular plant concerns me very greatly. And that's why w felt very strongly shout initiating immediate what--I believe ooggeaQe- earlier is do combinations cation of service or should (Continued on Page 11) ' 3J CO CO o O) 00 r &S 113069 B APRIL, 197*1 UNITED RUBBER WORKER PAGE 11 Panel (Continued from Page 10) action and medical surveilUnco of the people working in those arena. Toluene bnoically U narcotic. TLV (threshold limit value) U 100 parts |n*r million. We really don't know too much about exactly what it does, but NIOSH has recently developed a criteria docu* tnent on toluene. 1 think it haa many effects. and information indicates that IPs easily absorbable through the skin and possi bly may create damage to the blood fanning mecha nism. Question from URW Local 831: Potyvinyt chloride--does It have a partic ular odor and if it does, what does it smell UkeT Baler: If you smelt it, get out Dr. Selikoff; It has a sweet smetl and. just as has been said, if you smell it. It U much too high. You can't generally smell it until it is around 400 or 800 parts per million. Ahd even then if you're in it for about five minutes you lose the smell. One of the reatons it was put In hair spray is that first of all it was cheap and secondly it had 'a nice odor. It has a sweet smell Bommaxito: Let me ask Dr. Maneuso a question. Do you fed that the epidemio logical study not from NIOSH .can provide the adequate mortality data that is required to define the problem! Dr. Maneuso: Well I'm glad that you mentioned NIOSH rather than the In dustry. I think NIOSH will undertake and do whatever epidemiological studies are necessary to uncover the problem. At the present time I do not have that confidence relative to the industry study. The prelim inary information that was presented by the industry representatives gave all of the indications that It would probably come up with false negative results. I do not believe that the Manufacturing Chemists Association group have the necessary keen perception relative to all the difficul ties and limitations relative to studying this particular problem. I also do not believe that they are apply ing or have applied a brood enough approach to the evaluation of this particu lar prohlem. In other worda, they ini tially began determining whether there wan any angiosarcoma an listed nn the death certificate?*. Well, an you heard this morning that there are only shout 20 or 21 or no recorded death certificates in the whole United States of a population of about 200 on that banin it would he very difficult indeed to rely sole ly on death urtittalw. Continued . Further the Industry approach related to the fact that they were operat ing on just those death cer tificates th:l were provided to the consultants to undertake the study. Well * there are marked limita tions to that approach and it's, very easy not to get all the information that you need to make a proper eval uation of the problem. I have great confidence * that NIOSH itself will lie able to study the problem and will supplement the information relative to mortallty^that mortality alone will not be-used. Unfortunately, and fortu nately in a certain wny a cluster of cases did occur of a group of workers working In the same place and the same department coming down with the same rare disease and this is proof enough that the phenomenon had occurred. But It is the medieai hos pital records that need to be supplemented and the difficulty relative to all this is that when you are deal1 n g with a histologically determined type of tumor you must depend upon the number of eases that have been biopsied or autopsied. Well them it only a certain percentage of the popula tion that gets autopsied or biopsied when they die. And consequently you sre diminishing the poten tial of the actual iraraber of cases, so I would say that regardless of what is found It will only be a fraction of what has actually oecurrtd. Because Individuals will die of heart diaease, probably had cirrhosis of the liver and may even had changes In the liver which wero Indicative of cancer of the liver and this will never be determined. And so this is a bigproblem. So, whatever is uncov ered relative to the NIOSH . Investigation you can rest assured that they will be thoroughly done but you can rest assured that it is a conservative estimate because of the-factors beyond their control The factors beyond anyone's control Because there may or may not have been ade quate medical records, ade quate hospital records, and instead inadequate medical surveillance of the whole problem. Bommarito: Mr. Cefalo, what is the expressed atti tude of the workers in your plant? Cefalo: I have the answer in writing. To answer your question and to bock up what Dr, Mancumo just stated, the Ma chinists represent about 800 employes at the Union Carbide plant in Charles ton. W. Va., which manu factures vinyl chloride. And we talked with our people and asked them to obtain as much informa tion ns they possibly could on the causes of deaths of (wople working in the plant expuM'd t o vinyl chloride since UHSft, Thin Kom (o the heart of an ofiitwer (bat Dr. Selikoff gave to a number of people who asked quest ions. And here m a break-down of the deaths from all causes among employes exposed to vinyl chloride at the Union Carbide plant in South Charleston, W. Va, from the period 1988 through Feb. it, 1974. Four people died from lung emeer. Two died from leu kemia. One died from a renal condition. One died from mebnonta. One la re corded as having died from angiosarcoma. One from primary A B D. One from vertebral body. One from gall bladder. One from pan creatitis. One from diabetes. One from aorta aneurysm One from corpulmonate. One from cirrhosis and another from congestive heart failure. I d o a *t know whether these gentlemen to whom well pass this information on to will`find this helpful bat up to this point we don't know how far this area of vinyl chloride will strike. This la the Ught of a dis organised OSHA which Is still organising themselves. They are disorganized by heir own rintracterfaatfon. I think both OSHA and NIOSH have the dedication and the expertise..I believe they will do the job. 1 believe that we have to be on oar toes. The meeting that Presi dent Bommarito referred to--that he will bo calling of the heads of the affili ates of the IUD--may throw some light on this whole situation and I hope part of that light wiD be in the area of taking whatev er legal steps are necessary once a standard is promul gated and we're hopeful that the permanent stand ard on vinyl chloride will be what NIOSH recom mended which was zero level But, John Slender the Assistant Secretary of Labor for OSHA decided to go in the area of manage ment and set it at 80 parts per million. Dr. Manemui: I would like to add to his comments. Whsi he has done is illus trate Several basic very Im portant points. And it hits to the heart of the matter and applies to each of you. Actually each of you as local union presidents and representative* should make sure that you keep artamatc records. Now in this particular case, and this is the first time that l have seen this, i t would seem to me that there are mme possibilities here that there may be otlvr causes of cancer that may have occurred within this group. Now, you hhM recognise that Ihk cmUd be due to chunc*. A it d. it muat be recognised I hat there nuiy be other raunes. One turn tu determine whether all of these workers were work ing in flit* particular area for a certain period of time relative to exposure and whether It may not have been due to some other cause. But, nnsuming for the moment that these were actually worker* I n this particular plant ex pired te this particular chemical--he says In effect we have four cancers ef the lungs, two leukemia. Now, if then were 800 individuals working, there , was only a percentage of those individuals that died and out of the percentage of the total number of deaths you don't get Uko two cases of leukemia. You don't get one case of kid ney cancer. And he had renal cancer---and mela noma is rare. And he had the cause of death as hepa toma which then became angiosarcoma and then what struck me was the cancer of gall bladder. Now you don't get cancer of the gall bladder Uke that at all. Cancer of the gall bladder is extremely rare and there is a considerable debate about how often it occurs even among a tremendous number of autopsies, let alone an ordinary number of cancer eases. So; what I'm saying In effect la that each interna tional onion and each local union has a responsibility to recognize the fact that they can make a substan tial contribution--scientific contribution by collecting and properly recording all the basic information nec essary so that this infor mation in turn can be made available to those scientists that an cooperating with the international unions and to facilitate the work that is being done.' I've already heard about a num ber of cases that have been Identified--thia is very shocking and very impor tant. It is undoubtedly any question at all that if each of the local unions would record--record each month their observations--and then send these in; that I think that you can develop a system of what we call a n epidemiological field team, epidemiological know- t how. ' An epidemiological sys tem of observations out in the field, to the plants, in which you can feed hock inportant information which you yourself at that time may not recognize as important but others may find that it is important. So I would any that you have the opimrtunity and that you can make an extremely valuable conlrilwtion b y doing just what you are doing now, nut please re cord it, don't just say it once out loud and kt it go. Record sit your observa #tions no motter what the; are and keep them and then transmit them to your international union. Itommarito; I want to ask Ur. Selikoff a question. Do you have a feeling regarding workers expo sure to viitylidenc chloride and possible exposure to ehlarobutndine? Dr. Selikoff: We know as little as we know about vinyl chloride we know that much Ice* about vinyii- dcnc. Dr. Jaeger at Harvard School of Public Health has begun some animal atu- dies with vinylfdene. We don't yet have any results with them and the some I thing would go for the butodine. So that this is simply added to the tong Uat of our ignorant sub jects. Bommarito: Would you be cautious about handling vinylidene ehloride or could you? Do you feet that it could be in the some class as vinyl chloride. Dr. Seli koff? Dr. SeUkoff: I don't think we should jump to any conclusions. I don't thbk we should say that It is or could be In the same class as vinyl chloride. Once we soy It could be somebody might misinter pret what we say and say, well look this Is exactly the same thing. It's not, don't know. Rellcxky; Shall we concerned? Dr. Selikoff: Yea. I think w e should be -concerned now with every active plav tlc chemical and studies are urgently necessary. Dr. Maltoni has taught as something. D r. Maltoni began to think about his research at the end of 1970, before we had any hint that chemical workers were going to die of angio sarcoma. Ilia first experi ments began in July of 1971. By the beginning of 1972 the animals showed cancer. Incidentally, not only angiosarcoma, they also showed cancer of the kid ney, which was particularly Interesting in view of what Mr. Cefalo just told us that one of the people down at Union Carbide died of can cer of the kidney. So that Dr. Maltoni knew by the middle of 1972 and the industry in Europe and elsewhere knew by the end of 72 that this material could produce cancer. Now, If this experiment had been done in 1910 l doubt whether we would be ^titling here thi* afternoon with thin bad newx My concern In that we not Kit here in the year 2900 to dtatusH the cheniicnU that we are introducing in the yenr 1971. - Bommarito: Mr. Bnfefl when the Manufncturi^J C h e m i a t a AxsociaUmfl approached your office I n June or July of 1973 did you tense the urgency of (Concluded on Fax* 12) "I PACK 13 UNIT Kit ItUUIlKR WORKKR APRIL, 1974 (Continued from l*ge ] 1) the problem which is cur* rcutly confronting u* ? Ruler: Net really. Net at tliat point in time. A* l mentioned earlier w had looked at the design ami thought it was a well designed atudy. We're eon* fronted with methyl hutyl ketone and peripheral neuropathy. We have a toxic substance list that hoa about 25,000 entries hi It, So putting the things into perspective I would have to say we didn't feel the urgency, if I could say one thing however, that we have reprogrammed as you can imagine In order to dowhat we are doing in the vinyl chloride problem. By eo doing, we give this a very high priority and then drop off tome of the things at the bottom. Right now, we're trying to find out J u s t to what extent we have dropped#off other important programs in order to do something in this vinyl chloride area. Bomtnarito: Let me ask Lou Beliczky a question. You've been working dose* ly with--our health pro gram. What is the atti tude of the companies that we deal with and art they cooperating? Betictky: You're talking about vinyl chloride. Gen erally the attitude of the company is the same as that of the people, they are concerned. And. thou local presidents who I have vis ited and discussed the prob lems that they had. not only among ourselves but also with the management peo ple. We have to make a statement that's a pretty difficult one to make. If you are diagnosed aa having angiosarcoma of the liver you're dead. A very difficult statement to swal low. " In general, the attitude k one of concern. But, also In general, nothing ta being done with the exception of maybe one plant that h beginning to Initiate action. What are they ail waiting for? They are waUtog for the govern ment to tell them what to do, because that's the faw. They arc waiting for some one to advise them prop* eriy. But, all they art doing is waiting. So our response and the attitude of the fo cal presidents is--we don't want to wait, if you realty don't know what to do, at least Initiate something and get something going-- tighten up the ship--de crease the exposure--get some medical surveillance --chock out our livers, that's what we should do. At one or two of the plants I've ju&t found out in the last couple of days, they are initiating studies. The Uniroyal Corporation, (our plant In I'awoiville) w 111 be Involved probably with a study hy the Uni versity of North Carolina in a special evaluation of vinyl chloride. This has not been Amdiicd yet. Uommarito: Mr. Levin son, this is a world wide problem on this polyvinyl chloride. Uow do you envi sion the international ICF's approach in informing the world membership about the problem that we are discussing and do you feel that adequate information can be provided to thooe unions involved in the man ufacture of vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride train? Levinson: Well I think first when you come to par ticipate in o u r executive board next week iu Geneva as a result of your activities we've put tliis item on the agenda to develop into a world wide action program. And so by tliat wc will immediately take off where you have arrived and make this a world campaign. Because as I said earner the problems confront all chemical workers. The problems are identical around the world given that the same companies pro duce the same materials and create the same haz ard*. Information-wise, we have already circularized our affiliated organizations in over 65 countries as. to the developments in the various countries and par* ticulariy In the United States in what you have done. I said this morning that all of us are alerted now to the emergency standards and I'm sure that our affiliates are Immediately now being asked to do investigations in their own plants amongst workers working with vinyl chloride to come up with the infor mation and we win then have a world conference... And in conclusion l would say that the emphasis I would hope would be on the need for an aggressive, dynamic approach--not a static one because to a very large extent even the medi cal fraternity even our pro fessors in the universities will be able to work to the extent that our initiative makes it feasible for them to operate effectively with in industry. And I would believe too 'that one of the new arcus which well probably pursue would he through getting trade union repre sentation within the cor porations on the decision making bodies, the hoard of directors, joint committees, in order that wc partici pate directively and active ly in the policy making on these problems and not have to light it eternally from the outside and do it placemen! and step-bystep. which in problems tike this are loo grave and too slow. National Job Cancer Program Is Needed Here, Dr. John Gold smith of the National Can cer Institute addresses the need for a national occiqin- tioiud cancer control pro gram.* The list of chemicals tested for carcinogenicity in animals needs to be far more thoroughly scrutin ized in order to And out which of these materials is used in sufficient amounts and for which a population of workmen are at risk of cancer because they are exposed. I personalty am not as enthusiastic about looking at mortality data, although that is the-place to start. I'd rather look at earlier findingsBut, there are two dues that I think are very important. The first thing is whether cancer which may be a common cancer, such as lung cancer or prostate cancer or cancer of the stomach, is occurring among workmen who are exposed at a younger age group. If thU is true then the possibility that work ing conditions are making an Important contribution is much more substantial and we should be looking for cancer among particu larly young people and . we would have if wo had used this rule perhaps earlier found the angiosarcoma of the liver and the cancer of the lung that ts occurring among workers exposed to bis-chloromethyl ether. The second point is that while the present system is feared to individual agents, carcinogens and much work in experimental animal* that has to I* done with them* this is tlio way the normal occupational exposure occurs. There are multiple exposures and there are going to lie to some substances of which we have some knowledge --often Inadequate--and other substance* to which we have very little knowl edge. The syatematie bwr- ` ration of irritation and discomfort, eye Irritation, respiratory Irritation, skin irritation --all of tUs-- should be heeded because by being responsive to |{ie<c signals we may not have to have the disaster . of occupational cancer. The third point I wont to make has already been made. For individual carcinogenic agents there Is no numer ical threshold. The only ac ceptable practice from a sci entific point of view b not to expose workmen to things which con cause cancer. Already there Is a scien tific consensus about this with respect to radiation in general, although its appli cation to the workplace isn't ns vigorous os per* , haps we would Uke. The fourth point is--and this has been alluded to also that In the area that involves something ai vital * the woiker's health, 'particularly such devastot-' 'lag illnesses as we are speaking of today, secrecy has noplace. Secrecy about vinyl chkH ride has delayed our recog nition In our reaction for months or years. Secrecy in the case of occupational health ho* apparently been usmething, ban appeared to be good biviflew. Am far ax t am concerned we've got to adopt regula tion* and program* so that secrecy ho* to be made too (oMl/ to lie conxidcred in IndtMtry where lhe worker* health is Involved. The fifth point I want to make is that we've heard reports this morning about excess leukemia. One of the commonly used solvents. Benzene, is an agent which for yean has been known to have an added risk of leukemia. Benzene Is a car cinogen in this sense. The list of 14 carcinogen* that has been much discussed does not include this and it does not include many other things. The final point I want to make is that at all levels and at all levels of educa tion as weU, we need more input of workmen in the occupational health area. We need their study of death certificates. We need their knowledge about lung function tests, we need them to know whom to call for what kind of problems. We need, In my opin ion a national occupational CAucor control program. This has to iovelvt not only the government*! arcades at tho federal level and at the state levU--not omy the Labor Deportments, not only univenrftic* and medical schools, hot It has and it should haw properly the leadership of unions such as the URW, volun tary and sdentifie agencies and professional organize- NIOSH's Baier Gd Baier of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health was a featured panelist at the Health and Safe ty Seminar. In port, here are his com ments on toxic substances: It was pointed out that there are about 25,000 entries in the toxic substance list, of which about half of them are in other ways, other names for some of the oth ers, so that In essence we have some where between 10 and 12 thousand sub stances--different substances--and the rest of them other names for these sub stances. Now of that group, it's pretty hard to define what is a carcinogen. We can say that certain things cause tumora which could lead to cancer. Cer tain thing* cause say rapid growth of certain cells which in itself is not defined medically as a cancer but could certainly become cancerous. But, there are many other*. In other words if we subtract the 000 carcinogens from these other toxic substances--sili cosis Is a very serious occupational dis ease--if* still with us. We've got a lot of it. (.cad poisoning is a very serious dis ease, Now. wc within NIOSII have recog nized in the funds and resources, alloca tions that we have that we are putting a tremendous import to carcinogen or say cnrriiiogensity to certain of the chemi cals. The Labor Denartment has been branded u being safety oriented and NIOSH being branded as being health oriented, neither of which is true. We're both health and safety. They ore the enforcement. We're the research part of it With some of the occupational diseases which are not carcinogenic you can live longer, but suffer longer. We must look and prevent those also. So we have to put the whole thing in perspective by saying yes. let's emphasize this carcinogen and as you know we ate doing this* but let's not lose sight of the whole big picture of all the things, the multitude of things that people are exposed to at the job. We're trying to do something in NIOSII with what we have. We're trying to set up registries---cancer registries. We're trying to set up better field studies and procedures. We're trying to get a better base. We're talking to motor vehicle admin istration* to try to find out how people migrate. Our problem incidentally in the carcinogens Is not people who are work ing. but people who arc retired. If you go to the company and you enn pc* the medical record*, and everybody xnyn, took, everybody here !* healthy, bctftuxe here ore the medical record*. Util you start looking at the retiree* and that** where the bladder tumor* are and that's where the concern are. And no this In the kind of thing, we're trying. Give mi help. R&S 113070 1 R&s 113071 I L More on workers ' health: Dr. Borzelleca,APIUU 1974 "UN ITKI> It UUIIKIt \VOKK KIt PACK 13 Or. John Itorzellccn of time will tell whether 11 It's our job, to minimize and for this you must be tion aijotit non-fatnl kind the Medical College of Vir was the best approach. I the risk or to inukc it os congratulated. Your efforts of ill laviith and t urgently^ ginia speak* in these excerpts on the cancer problem: Peter Bommarito; This la panel 111* 1 want to ask have some concern utout it but we thought we would look into It Secondly, t thought l should get Involved because l hove a small a risk os possible to eliminate it if this were at all possible. Therefore, we recommended in our report that there be no acceptable certainly are benchmarked in the history of occupa tional health and safety, but there is an urgent need for much better informa entrant you to bromlen y o ii r sitpisirt to include basic research that is ger mane to workers* health problems. Or* Botzellccit would you please discuss your impres sion and feeling* regarding personal feeling that each of us must be concerned with each other's welfare. level of a carcinogen mix Dr. Peters' Commentsture. And those of you who read our report will note the Deportment of Labor's carcinogen standards? The government has an absolute right to protect that we did not accept the Here in part are comments of Dr. John Peters of Harvard concept of a t pet. level University given at the recent Health and Safety Seminar. Bonelleca: Let me set the the health of all peoples. being safe. The idea that Is important to us l think is that the solu record straight before 1 le- With these kinds of views In the new standards. 1 tion of the problems requires.* teamapproach. gfn. l have heard a lot of or thoughts or feelings, we pet level set for eight of It can't be done by one discipline. It can't be done by two talk about commitments and then looked at the emer the carcinogens and 10 pet. often. U takes engineers, chemists, physicians, epidemiolo agreements made between gency temporary standard for the other six, 1 believe gists, toxicologists-and so oil Part of the effort involved In various groups. The only and the 14 carcinogens. was recommended. We also these problems is In identifying the exposure and frequently commitment that I made to And. it was my feeling and came to grips with ways of this is a significant problem os you might guess from the Mr. Bommarito and to I^ou Beliczky U that 1 would peak very honestly with you this afternoon and just tall you the truth* Second* ly, I am not speaking In any official capacity as that of the President's Sci entific Advisory Committee Incidentally, that it would be utterly impossible In the short time that we had to prepare a document that would satisfactorily or ade insuring that some of the suggestions that we offered were being implemented, could bo guaranteed. We suggested certain proce dures with respect to pns tective clothing and closed many chemicals that are used in the rubber industry. There are the possibilities of multiple exposures. Exactly which one is a problem and which one might be producing disease is difficult. So our efforts contain at least half the effort toward identifying what the exposures to various chemicals are. The other half of the effort idmed at finding out what the health effects are. It should bo pointed out very President of the Society of' quately cover these 14 system technology. dearly that the ultimate goal of all of these studies is to pro chemicals. , There should be some tect the worker and the usual outcome is that once the prob They were very diverse way, if you pardon the lem is identified solutions are available. chemicals, they had differ ent chemical and physical properties and we saw no way that we could come up with a document that * would cover all of them. We expressed these feel ings to the Secretary's office and we were told that we were to come up with a single document, that sepa rate regulations or sepa Toxicology nor *x a world rate standards for each of renowned expert in cancer the 14 would not be found which 1 am not By train acceptable; W e discussed ing and by present activity ` -this at length and our Z happen to be a toxicolo charge was go bade and gist and also a professor of prepare a document. pharmacology* A toxicolo It was our feeling at the gist is an individual time that if this Is our amongst other things who charge the best that we attempts to assess the can come up with would be effects of chemicals on Uv- general housekeeping ing systems. Usually 1 guidelines, general recom study the effects of chemi mend a t i o n e concerning cals in animals. I don't deal these chemicals that we with patients. Pm not a would not become, couldn't physician. My interests in get specific because we worker problems are very didn't have enough time personal--as Mr. BeUcxky And so we submitted a knows my father died of report to the Secretary the sflicosis contracted in a . latter part of August that steel plant In a blast fur Included the recommenda nace, seven yean back and tions of the committee-- this has caused me a bit on general guidelines. The concern and Fv* done some committee also felt--at reading and I have a per least Mr. Beliczky and I sonal interest of course in felt--very strongly about a this problem. But let's get couple of issues, one being back to the carcinogen the education of the work standard. Last Summer I er. was invited to serve on this ft is my feeling as an particular committee b y academician, os a universi members of OSHA, by the ty professor, that educa Secretary of Labor, t point tion is important and l was ed out to him I was not an appalled when t found out expert in cancer nor did i from representatives of the wish to pose as one. Never labor unions that workers theless l was asked to were not indoctrinated or serve on the committee and informed concerning the when I arrived at the com hazards of the operations mittee meeting I wan cold I in which they found them was going to be chairman, selves. t couldn't conceive which was somewhat of a that In this country surprise. I hod a private and in this day and ago meeting with members of that workers are dealing the group and I was a Jittle with hazardous materials bit concerned about several and not being told about Items. For example, l was this. This in fact is a way expression, of checking up Let me classify the way we have approached the research on companies to be sure effort and this essentially Is divided into two. that they are complying. The first area attempts to uncover new problem* or as yet I must admit that I learned quite a bit about ' the problems affecting workers, especially in the rubber industry. I was hocked by some of the sit uations that were present ed to ua* most especially, of course, in the smaller shops. And I was some what taken aback by many of the things that I heard unrecognized problems. And the second area of focus is on problems that we know about but that we need to know more about In order to control. Going back to the first effort look ing for new problems, tbe major thrust in this area is to look at the death experience of about 50,000 past and present rubber workers, going back to about 1025, which requires A tremendous amount of effort to Accumulate the occueatiir hlstoriei and the death certificate this afternoon. 1 gaeas from these kinds of numbers. those of us in some uni .But from this information death versities. Harvard and the rates havn been computed for about University of North Caroli 8,000 deceased workers. Our data or na being exceptions, really information allow both internal and aren't aware of what is* external comparison. External comparison consists of com going on In the outside paring the experience of the robber workers deaths with the world experience of UJS. deaths in general Mr* Bommarito and bis Internal comparisons allow looking at death experience by union apparently bad tbe different departments In the factory. For example* Is one virion and foresight to do part of the plant more hazardous than another in Unas of just this some years back the disease that might be expected? Now a detailed walk --to bring certainty top through survey of all plants covered by our agreements with dentists and two very fine universities together with management, with indus try with the tabor union serving as a catalyst to bring these three elements together and from their inner actions apparently attempt to resolve the problems that confront workers. I think the first step that should have been taken was, and this is, retrospective epidemiologic studies. These kinds of studies as you know will help to define tbe problem or at (east tell us in fact a problem exists, and this la the first step that has beta taken* Thomas Jefferson, one of our more prominent states men, was reported to have said, in the maintenance of our principles l believe the happiness o f our country depends. I'd like to modify that to read that in the maintenance o f principles of good scientific investiga* the two companies was conducted during 1971 and 1972 to gain familiarity with the materials and the processes involved--the manufacture of robber produets. And to gain experience on what might be the potential occupational health hazards presented to the employes. An early meeting with the union permitted qs to view the specific problems during our plant tour. These meetings were extremely valuable in giving us useful leads to follow. A detailed preliminary industrial hygiene survey of the plant was conducted with both management and union representa tives. The company representative was usually the staff person who had the responsibility for safety and the union member was either the local president or (he chairman of the union safety committee. AH production areas'were visited. Detailed information was mode available on materials, processes and environmental controls and It Lv interesting to note that our acc to plant areas and specific information was complete, A major research problem understudy is the exposure of curing press operators to the various gases and fumes from this process. We have initiated a detailed study of this expo sure consisting of both a follow-up study of the effects of exposure and on environmental study to identify the signifi cant components of the contaminant from the tire presses. The initial phase is a lataratory review of the heat break down product* to be expected from the curing fume raw materials and the sampling and analysis of the air contami nants in the curing rooms of selected plants. This complex analytical problem will be resolved by sophisticated labora tory technique*. not sure that the way to o f life, according to fiOU tion I believe the health of We believe w have made wm productive first steps tq control occupational cancer Beliczky and our recom our country depends. Mr. ascertaining *wme of the occupational health problems of I ^ was by way of promulgat mendation concerning Bommarito, you have token rubber Industry. The pursuit of these problems, we believeT* ing standards. This is an worker education appeared the initiative in the area of will yield results that will greatly benefit the health of tho approach I guess and only in-our final report worker health and safety robber worker--our gout PAGE 14 UNITED RUBBER WORKER APRIL. 1374 R&S 113072 The challenge to universities Or. At Tyrolcr speak* on hon 1th, the union nnd industry: You hove given us a most compelling challenge; we ara charged with moldUsing the resources of two of the lending universities to study the health of members of one of the leading unions in relation to their work environment. This is fcn important responsibility, one which we welcome, and one which wo do not take lightly. 1 speak to you today for doz ens of university investiga* tors, committed to your well-being. Wo have initiated our studies by collecting rec ords of deaths occurring to URW members in the past In looking back at the death rates, that Is the probability of dying, and analysing the causes of death of rubber workers over the past several dec ades, we wish to answer questions of the following types; Do URW members have the same, greater, or less likelihood of dying than otherwise comparable Indi viduals employed In Other industries? Are there differences in the probability of dying among workers in different plants within the industry? Finally, are (here differ ences in the likelihood of dying among workers engaged in different activi ties within individual plants? This series of questions starts with the most gener al and proceeds to very specific work exposures. win 'The general questions, when answered* permit us to speak to the over-alt death experience of the URW membership. The more specific questions wiQ allow us to understand health hazards related to direct, immediate. loeaL work environmental expo sures. It Is* still possible that spedAc causes of death could occur with greater frequency and that individ uals could be at greater risk of selected, specific causes of death. Several other specific catmes of death, however* did appear with greaterthao-cxpccted frequences, ning the U.S. male popula tions death rales as the expected. Among these were several types of malignancies, including teu* hernia and malignancies of the digestive system, par ticularly the stomach. It should he pointed out that the deatha in one plant studied occurred among some 7.00b workers employed for a t least 10 years and followed over a period of 10 more ymi. In tho other plant, records of Um mortality experience of nliout 50,000 past and pres ent employes going Imrk to 1025 have been collected. For that muon we have begun to analyze the death experience of workers of other plants covered by the contract. A t the time of this report, the causes of death, among 10 such plants have`been analyzed and tlie pooled experience Is consistent in showing more than expected leuke mia deaths, tn our prelimi nary analyses, the consist ency across the plants studied to date regarding leukemia and stomach can cer has not generally been present for other causes of death. In some instances. In some plants, there are more than expected in stances of particular malig nancies; in other plants this Is not true. The data at this time Indicate approximately 20 pet. more deaths attributed to leukemia among workers studied than would be expected in an otherwise comparable U-S. popula tion. This will be further studied to confirm or refute our strong suspicions. In addition, detailed investigations have been Initiated of the specific work histories of individu als who died of these caus es. It is Important to point >*!.!M.I DR. AL TYROLCR out that there may be a latent period, between exposure and the appear ance of leukemia if there is an environmental agent causing the leukemia; there could be many years between exposure and the appearance of symptoms of the disease and its final fatal outcome. It is possible that an environmental agent dis continued in production 20 to 30 yar$ ago could be responsible for increased numbers of cases appear ing now. It will, therefore, be necessary for us to study the total work histo ry of such individuals and to compare them with the work history o l workers who did not die of leuke mia. in an effort to identify possible occupational envi ronmental hazards. Similar reasoning will apply to other malignancies, if more than expected deaths are found. Our long term goal is the creation of a contin uous monitoring system designed to provide early dues if there is any evb deuce of health threatening agents ir* the work environ ment. long before the appearance o f serious ill ness or death. I am'pleased to report that wt have hod excellent working cooperation among all inletvsted iknrties In our collaborative research t o date. The union leader ship, their scientific person nel and members; and the company management, medical personnel and industrial hygienists have all cooperated with our studies. This Is, I believe, nn indication of the recog nition by all, that each has an equal interest in the investigation:* underway. Mr. Bommarito and the members of the union are to 1* congratulated for convening this symposium and providing us the oppor tunity to share our findings with you, 1 thank you for the opportunity to present our progress report ami genuinely look forward to tike occasion when our pre liminary results are trans lated into health promoting action. Questions, answers Bommarito: Dr. Wagon er, do you feel NTOSH has provided you with adequate personnel and support to handle your current in volvement with vinyl chloride and future situa tions which will undoubted ly crop np tn the next few yean? Dr.' Wagoner: That's a difficult question to answer. Let me Indicate why I think it Is difficult First of si! It goes back to a very basic point thst Mr. Baler raised. When we are studying carcinogenesis i am under no elusion that we're studying carinogeneals in a vacuum. I've yet to see sn agent that we have undertaken in-depth study of* where Indeed we' are not seeiog non-maiignaat respiratory or nonmalignant effects also. With regard to that I think one of the problems we're facing on how we as an institute are handling the investigations vinyL chloride Is we're stealing from Peter to pay Paul. Now I can pull my staff off and go full blast on vinyl chloride, but we haven't solved the peripheral ocu lopathy question yet that recently came up in Colum bus Coated Fabrics, We have many other sit* uationa of that nature. So I think there is a basic prob lem internally. Do we have -enough positions and mon ies and expertise and modi* cal officers to undertake this study, and my answer to that' is obviously we do not But I think it comes that not only do we not but the whole institute does not have enough people to property run the nation's program for occupational health and I was just trying to put things Into their proper perspective with the large impact health-wise, economic wise of cancer in this country that less than 31 million Is the total bill affair that the National Institute for Occupational Safety it Health is addressing to occupational carcinogenesis. And I would like to throw the challenge up to you people and to the other governmental agencies t o nee the matching funds available in the other gov* ernmental agencies because V think we could exceed no more than $2 million and the total national effort for occupa tional carcinogenesis. The answer Is, no i do not have enough people. I do not have eoough physicians. We do not have enough engineers. We're strapped to the hilt We're working 15 hours a day. We're bleeding, we're honing and the anxiety level--level of anxiety and the adrenalin Is getting awfully tired. Bommarito: We're going to try to find some adrena lin in our discussions with the labor movement Dr. Peters, in the expert-, ence that you have gained in the last three years with our Joint occupational health program, could you . enumerate by class the * hazards which you feel should be studied more pos itively, by your research team? Dr. Peters; Let me first start by enumerating the major hazard! that we have seen in the rubber industry so far in our expe rience they happen to be noise, heat, chemical expo sure, dust and certain sol vents. Now, at this point, largely related to what we were talking about this morning, about certain leads that we have come up with in terms of possible excess tumors In certain areas, this Is one area that we intend to pursue vigor ously--not only from the epidemiological point of view but from the labora tory chemical point of view. With dust, we are pursuing this In great detail at this point--in par ticular, the dust in the processing and the dust and fumes I n the curing area. Talc and clay, carbon block being three of these that we're particularly interested in. Professor Burgess and the engineer ing portion of our team has been looking very carefully and will be doing more extensive work in the areas of heat--related to the question you just asked on heat standards--ami in ventilation. The idea being that more standard ventila tion practice* would be eventually adopted because in some plants there is good ventilation, other plant* there is poor ventila tion. We believe that by studying Chi* problem we can come up with recom mendations that will con* trol environments more uniformly and more effec tively. Bommarito: I might say that there are many physi cal and chemical hazards which do confront our membership. The physical hazards are often more easily understood and usually easier to control, but we still have serious accidents and deaths resulting from unsafe equipment and operations. We had high hopes that when OSHA came along in December of 1970 that the teeth of the law would compel companies into vol untary compliance. I feel that, the intent of the law w*s ercrilcnt bn: the administration of the set has fallen far short of. our expectations. As it looks today, if we want the job done right, labor must again bon forces to strengthen the law and encourage Congress to pro vide the proper financial appropriations Unless NIOSH gets adequate sup port, recognition, and pro fessional upgrading, OSHA will become another politi cal lost cause. OSHA by itself does not have the professional capa bility to writ* laws, to pro tect the workers from the many chemical hazards which face them, nor do they have the gut profes sional staff to Implement them. Their action on the carcinogen standard and the vinyl chloride has left them open to serious criti cism. The influence peddlers seemed to affect their judgmint regarding the law which' was initially designed to protect the people and not the corpo rate giants who fight us. some time, every inch of the road and I hat coutd lead to that safe and healthful environment t o which oil worker* are unfi lled. Perhaps thin meeting ha* made mm awnre of the problem* that we face and t hope this meeting Una also planted the seed* to begin the fight that will extend to preserve (he liven of the working men and women end produce a bet ter and anfer work environ ment for our children. i R&S 113073 n -VI- -- ( I APRIU 1974 UNITED RUBHKR WORKER PACK IS Cancer in a spray can By Barbara Newman National Public Radio RitriiiM *T >nmw urn f *+t**+f, Oftllgm *K TlW fV* IUyM Iw. lit late January th* B.F. Goodrich Company Informed the National Institute of Occupation* a! Safety and Health (NIOSH) that four of its employes engaged in the manufacture of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), one of the most common plastics, hod died within the last six yearn of an extremely rate liver cancer, angiosarcoma. The workers had average exposures of 10 year* to vinyl chloride, the gas that Is used to produce the pow dery chemical, PVC, which is the basis of the plastie industry. Then three more cases were found at Good rich. While angiosarcoma is so rare that a check of death certificates at the American Cancer Society revealed that only one of 78.000 deatha result from it, estimates are that one out of 20 deaths among vinyl chloride workers will be caused by this rare liver oncer. On the heels of the Goodrich news, several other companies searched their death records, and after a superficial investi gation found 13 angiosar coma cases, including fatal ities at a Goodyear Tire and Rubber facility in Niagara Falla, at Union Carbide in South Charles ton, W, Ya. and Firestone Tire and Rubber in Pottstown. Pa. The figures are misleading because indus try does not routinely study employes* deaths to determine If contact with Industrial chemicals may have been involved. More over, diseases like angio sarcoma are so rare that they are often misdi agnosed. As Dr. John Creech, the physician at &F. Goodrich in Louisville, says, "Most doctors * . . attribute the cause of death as something else." Dr. Marcus Key, the direc tor of NIOSH, admits that without Dr. Creech's volun tary disclosure, "it is entirety possible that the significance of the tumors would not have been real ised for several years." Because 10.000 new and uutcstcrl chemicals are each year put on the work place, additional occupa tional cancers may yet be identified. Every year i n the United States, there are more than 665,000 new eases of cancer and about 386.000 cancer deaths. The World Health Organiza tion in 1074 estimated that 73 pet. or 83 pet. of all human cancer* result from environmental caunos. More recently, Ute director of the National institute of Jlrnlth stated that there U no doubt that industrial and agricultural technolo gies are the major contrib utors to most known envi ronmental carcinogens. The direct and indirect cost of cancer, including loss of earnings during illness and during the balance of nor mal life expectancy, have been estimated at Slf> bil lion for 1071. yet serious attention has not been given to identifying carcin ogenic hazards in industry. .Dr. Irving Sclikotf of . New York's Mt, Sinai Hos pital has done much land mark research linking the inhalation of asbestos fibers with cancer and now says that the vinyl chloride illnesses *111 proliferate because the cancer victims that we am now seeing began work 20 years ago. According to Selikoff. "It takes 20 years or so for this cancer to become evi dent. There weren't that many people working with VC (two decades ago). Many new workers joined the industry in the 1950s and 1960s and the cases of cancer and other disease that will be found among them will become evident in the 1080s and 1090s unless, of eourae, we find ways by research to pre vent the cancers that are being incubated now within these people. Unfortunate ly such research Is not being done." A month ago Selikoff took his staff up to the Goodyear facility at Niaga ra Falls and set up an improvised hospital in the local union halL Working 12-15 hours a day, 401 workers participated i n perhaps the most massive medical examination in the h I s t o r.y of occupational health. Selikoff is now studying his findings but has already concluded that there is evidence of other PVC related Uver disease, lung disease, and diseases of the skin, boues, hands and feet, PVC not only affects the Uver to produce cancer but injures other tissues that it might touch. Government research of occupational health has been very limited. The total budget for the National Institute of Occu pational Safety and Health, the federal agency charged with research to protect worker safety, is under $30 million. The NIOSH xta/F has only a few epidemiolo gists. For yearn scientists and industry have known that vinyl chloride was a poten tial health hazard. Despite the warnings of liver dam age from exposure to VC levels us high as 500 parts per million parts of air (ppm), th* UA govern ment regulated VC at pre cisely this unsafe limit, 10 times higher thnii that which many companies vol untarily set for themselves. In 1961. for example. Dow Chemical voluntarily tow ered the average exposure to 50 ppm for its workers. Fifty ppm is too high because there is no certain, safe exposure level for a carcinogen. Rut 6A is the level at which the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Admin istration (OSIIA) set an emergency standard for vinyl chloride in early April The OSHA action disregarded the petition of the Industrial Union Department (1UD) of the AFL-CIO and the recom mendation of NIOSH that an emergency standard for VC be set at zero exposure. It also disrvgutded the advice of many cancer experts who In 1970 report ed to the surgeon general that "no level of exposure to a chemical carcinogen should be considered toxo- logically insignificant for man. For carcinogenic agents a safe level for man cannot be established by application of 'our present knowledge." Some of those who accept that advice view the Labor Department's action as a sellout to industry. One who holds this view is Sheldon Samuels, the heed of the 1UD: "... 4t's just cheaper to let workers die than to spend millions of dollars to control toxicity. The worker subsidizes the cost of production with his life." The cost to industry of complying with a zero standard would be in the millions of dollars, mostly for engineering costs, but also for new equipment such ss safety suits with respirators. Business Wtsk recently quoted Waiter 8. Connolly, Jr,, labor counsel of Firestone Tire and Rub ber Company, which oper ates two PVC plants, a s saying, "Improvements in work practices will proba bly require a 100 per cent increase In the work force." Lower productivity erodes profits. The rationale the Labor Department uses to justify its emergency VC standard of 50 ppm is that the only conclusive experiments done correlating vinyl chloride and enneer (by Kalian scientist Cesare Maltoni) showed tumors at 500 and 250 ppm but not at 50 ppm. Associate As sistant Secretary of La bor, Alexander Reis, who is in charge of standards for OSHA, says that the department could have been sued if it had promuk gated a zero standard without conduHive scientif ic justification. Hut occoidi n g to Vernon (tone, the director of the Office of StojuUinU of NIOSH, bio- statialicui extrapolations of M a 11 o n i *s experiments show that angiosarcoma would be expected to devel op at an exposure level of 50 ppm. In the letter of transmittal to OSHA in which NIOSH recommend ed zero exposure ns a VC standard, the agency noted that while Maltoni found no liver tumors at 50 ppm, "There is the possibility that tumors might have been produced If a larger number of animals had licen exposed at that con centration." Late last week the Manufacturing Chem ists Association (MCA), the trade group for the chemical industry, ann o u n c e d preliminary re sults of tests of animal exposure to VC. The MCA found angiosarcomas In mice exposed to 50 ppm. The Labor Department promised it will promul gate a permanent standard at zero ppra by June. Even if a permanent standard is promulgated at zero expo sure, it could be as ineffec tive as the standards ragut a 11 n g 14 occupational csrdnogcns set earlier this year--if* that is, its stand ards lack any monitoring provisions or allowance for medical surveillance of the workers. In addition to the 6500 worker* involved In VC or PVC production, there are also thousands of workers engaged in the fabrication of products with PVC resin. One of the Rubber Workers locals is conduct ing tests on levels in fabri cating plants and has come up with extremely high readings; levels ranging between 200 and 1000 ppm. There is no evidence yet on the extent of danger vinyl chloride poses to millions of Americans who have come to use plastic pnx^r nets as a way of life--from phonograph records to auto scats, coamctira and baby bottles and pacifiers. Dr. Selikoff believes consumers may bo endangered as well' ns VC workers. Viivyl chloride has for years been used as a propellant Iti aerosol consumer prod ucts--p a i n t, hairaprays, pesticides. Ralph Nader** Health Research Group has petitioned the Environ mental Protection Agency, die Food and Drug Admin istration and the Consumer Product Safety Commis sion to bon the use of ail vinyl chloride in aerosol products. To date, the peti tions have been met with do action. The Food and Drug Ad- ministration says It needs new authority to require manufacturers to list Ingredients. FDA doe* not normally do any prod uct testing. It has to depend on industry data and honesty. Honesty isn't always corporate policy: Iq response to the Health Research Group petition, the FDA stated that it informally polled cosmetic manufacturers to learn how much vinyl chloride was'used frfbaZrapray and me answer ws none. cosmetic ecmpasr Cla^^H admitted that it manuft^^r tured "Miss Qairol'* and "Summer Blonde" for four yean with a propellant ' that was 25 per eent vinyl chloride, but the company said It stopped the manu facture in mid-1973 and "reformulated" the prod ucts. (According to Clairol, after one minute of spray from these products, the air level in the broaching zone of the user could roach 200 ppm). But in a letter to the Health Research Group in late March, Clairoi said it did (Continued on Page 20) *. * PACK 10 UNITED KUUBKH WOUKHU APUIL, 1974 `Safe" Level Still Too High?, AIW14 Hwi fcnUi New scientific data show that laboratory animals ciut develop liver cancer nt the some level of exposure to vinyl chloride currently permitted in the f e d e r n I emergency standard cover ing the carcinogen. The findings prompted the AFL-CIO Industrial Union Department to call on the Deportment of Labor to reopen the record on the vinyl chloride stand ard so organised labor could continue to press for a new emergency standard. Unions want "no measura ble concentration" of the cancer-causing chemical In the workplace. The emergency standard issued by the Occupational Safety it Health Adminis tration (OSHA) reduced the exposure level from 500 parts vinyl chloride per 1 million parts of air to 50 parts per million. But even at the 50 parts exposure level there was a high mortality rate among laboratory animals In tests conducted by Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories for the Manufacturing Chem ists Aswiftliont A report o n the study was made available by the rubber workers to a special meeting of the lUD Occu pational Safety Committee. la one phase of the ex periment, the animals were exposed to vinyl chloride at levels of NO parts, 20o parts and 2J*00 parts per million. At each level. 100 rats, hamsters and mice were exposed for seven hours a day, five days a week over a period of several months. Forty of the 100 rats exposed to the 50 ports concentration died: so did 40 of the hamsters. The study, however, d i d not pinpoint the cause of death. Six of the 100 mice died (of tumors). Four deaths were traced to neoplasm and two to angiosarcoma of the live h e once-rare form of cancer that has been diagnosed in the deaths of a growing num ber of workers at vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chlo ride plants across the country* While the study i n d 1cates no definite trend in deaths nt higher exposure levels among rats and hamster*, there was pro portionate rise in deaths among mice linked to neo plasm And Angiosarcoma as the concentration of vinyl chloride was increased. On the liasis of the RiuTeat findings, the 1UD Safety Committee m c mbera agreed that there is no safe level of exposure to vinyl chloride, U also urged OSIIA to take immediate action to control the'measure of the vinyl chloride levels st all plants covered by the exist ing standard. Peter BommaritO, URW International president, pointed out most modern vinyl ehloride plants could easily reduce the concen trations of the carcinogen with little difficulty. Committee members expressed concern that the curreot emergency stand- art) provide no protection for workers involved in the secondary use of polymer ised vinyl chloride. An estimated 6.500 workers art involved in the production of vinyl chloride u n d polyvinyl chloride. However, hundreds of thousands of worker* are employed in the secondary use of the rhemienl. which is the basis of most modern plastics, where exposure levels at times exceed con centrations at vinyl chlo ride plants. The secondary use of the chemical la found is such diverse occu pations os painting* book binding, meat cutting and electronics. Meanwhile, a federal court directed OS HA to conduct periodic monitor ing of workplaces involved in the production and use of asbestos materials. The U.S, Court of Ap peals in Washington found that employers who once meet a f e d e r a 1 standard on the control of asbes tos dust are not automati cally excused from further monitoring by compliance officers. Attorney George H. Cohea told the committee that the court also remand ed to the Secretary of Labor a review of the standard which delay* until duly 1976 a two-fiber exposure limit on asbestos dust, Cohen represented the IUD in legal action Against the Dcpnrtmcut of Ljtlior i n urging an immediate reduction from the current asbestos exposure limit of five fillers per i million parts of air. The court conceded that all industries could not immediately meet the twofiber standard* but It suggested titat a blanket dispensation for all employera is contrary to the intent of Congress. The Environmental Pro tection Agency also banned the sile of pesticide aerosol products which UNO vinyl chloride gas as a propellant. EPA mtid recent tests show that a 30-a * c o n d burst from such aenmol products could produce concent ra tions of the gas similar to levels used en laboratory animals that have devel oped angiosarcoma of the Kvcr* EPA listed S3 pesticide sprays made or distributed by 24 firm* that were ordered off the consumer market R&S 113074 ATTEKTlVC--0(9<bt to the HaaHb end Safety Seminar Uten a* penefiftt (not thaw*) dhcuit problem* end progress In rubber worker*' health, Some 435 petto** attended the ell* dey program held April 9 at the Shorohem Americana, Washington, D. C. (Continued from Page 19) not "consider there to be grounds for recalling the small amount of product that is now in the field." Then two weeks ago the FDA telegraphed Clairol asking for voluntary recall of these sprays from retail shelves, and Clairol readily agreed. AU the cans of these products, on store shelves contained vinyl ehloride In the propellant because Clairol had not had a production run since last Summer. While the compa ny said it had reformulated the product since then and' left the dear impression that only a small number of the cans left on retail shelves contained VC. the FDA was at first taken in. Furthermore, while Clairol originally maintained that only these two products still contained VC. the FDA announced that VC was also used in four addi tional Clairol products, all professional hair product*. Tiie FDA also announced that another company producing aerosol h a i rpray, Bonat was also vol untarily withdrawing 1$ products containing vinyl chloride from retail stores. That agency said that on information received from "industry" sources, an aer0 s o 1 drug may contain vinyl chloride, but the FDA refused to release any information until the manufacturer "informs the FDA that this is so." It did turn out to be so and the FDA announced that Quick Aide medicated room vaporizer wai being recalled. AU of a sudden the FDA "discovered" 30 other aerosol products manufactured b y Shield Chemical Company, inciud1 n g deodorants and first aid sprays that contain vinyl chloride. Now the FDA says all the products i t regulate* that contain vinyl chloride are being recalled. The FDA has throughout assured the public that only a few products con tain VC and at levels that are harmless. D r, Joseph Wagoner, head of lick! studies for NiQSll, says that he doesn't buy the FDA statement that levels in hairspray at this time are free of any potential of inducing cancer. Wagoner will shortly announce a sizable research contract to investigate the possible carcinogenic effect on cos metologists from products they have liecn usine that contain vinyl chloride. The action of the EPA, which regulates aerosol pesticides, has been even more dismal. Three weeks ago, the EPA .finally responded to the Health Research Croup petition, but in an unsatisfactory manner, instead of recall ing the 41 pesticide* pro duced by 23 companies that contain vinyl chloride, the EPA merely asked the manufacturers' permission to release tho brand names. Among the 4t product* using vinyl chloride that are currently registered are spray* for restaurants, for dogs and cats, and for the household, (Five more were produced until recent ly, Iml the manufacturer* voluntarily stopped using A QUICK "HELLO"--K*nn.th Oldham, URW |fit,rntiqn.l vi< praidnt, ihabas hand* with U.S. San. Howry M. Jack(M after the senator'* tlk to robber worker* at the April 9 Health and Safety Symposium. vinyl chloride). Glenn ESchweitzer, the director of the EPA's office of toxic substance* and chairman of its study group on vinyl chloride, said that them currently i* not sufficient evidence to warrant recall ing these products. Yet Schweitzer said that one EPA study of vinyl chlo ride exposure resulting from the use of a house hold disinfectant spray indicated that i f sprayed for 30 seconds in a typical iuithroom, level* o f vinyl chloride in the air would roach 400 ppm, Schweitzer insist* that the usual expo sure of human* to pesti cides is too small to consti tute an imminent health hazard. On April IT the EPA released a list of brand name* of 20 aerosol pesti cides that manufacturers or distributors had agreed to reveal. Despite this "sweeping regulatory ac tion" the agency still re fuses to force a recall. Man ufacturers and distributors of 21 other product* had various reason* for refus ing to divulge hrand names ^including protection 0 f "trade secrets." The EPA accepts *uch excuses because it says the agency currently finds no evidence of an imminent health haz ard. S o consumers continue to use acnwuJ products containing this c t n c e r- cauaing agent -If \