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Goodrich's warning could save lives MEDICAL EXPERTS at the Na tional Institute for Occupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) are running computer checks of medical records and autopsy re ports from a number of vinyl chloride plants across the U. S. Spurring the investigations . was a report in January that since 1971 three employees of B. F. Goodrich Co.'s polyvinyl chloride plant in Louisville have died of angiosarcoma of the liver. Angiosarcoma, Goodrich doc tors explain, is a fairly rare form of cancer. And a determination that the Goodrich illnesses were indeed caused by the work en vironment would no doubt lead to a revision of federal stand ards for working with vinyl chlorides. Who told?--Although the last employee died in December, Goodrich did not receive an au topsy report until mid-January. And although all five of the firm's vinyl chloride plants were operating well below levels pre scribed by the government--the Louisville plant at only 10% of those levels--Dr. Maurice N. Johnson, Goodrich's director of environmental health, said February 4. 1974 Industry Week awareness that this was the third death of its kind "war ranted a thorough investiga tion. ..." Goodrich, under the law, was duty-bound to notify Kentucky health officials. But the firm was not required to notify NIOSH or to release notice of the deaths to the press. And the fact that they did is somewhat unusual. NIOSH in formation officer Dick Wilson says the voluntary report was "unique. "In our experience--and this dates back to June 1971, when the institute was first set up-- this is the first voluntary alert we've received." Because the petrochemical in dustry has been with us for about 20 years--and the three who died worked around vinyl chloride an average of 20 years --Mr. Wilson is concerned that the industry might soon see more such cases. The Goodrich report "gives us a head start on finding if there is work-relatedness in these deaths, and in finding suitable' standards if there is." Operation candor--"We were required by law to notify Ken tucky officials," says John Bell, Goodrich's director of external communications and public af fairs. "But those reports are privileged. Not a matter of pub lic record. "So our decision to notify NIOSH and to make a public an nouncement was based not on legal considerations but on prac tical matters. "The evidence was complex, fragmentary, and inconclusive. Nonetheless, we wanted to tell our employees what is going on and not make them rely on hear ing everything second-hand, or getting fragmentary information from unreliable sources," he says. 2275100 BFG22582