Document GEdmK8XLd8wdjMd5QRpOMQV7

Statement by Anton Vittone Division President B.F.Goodrich Chemical Company* 6100 Oak Tree Boulevard Cleveland, Ohio 44131 February 19,1974 at a meeting of The Standards Board Kentucky Department of Labor Frankfort, Kentucky a division of The B.F.Goodrich Company BFG32413 24563001 1 i My name is Anton Vittone. I am president of B.F.Goodrich Chemical Company, a division of The B.F.Goodrich Company of Akron. Ohio. With me today are Mr. Philip H. Lawrence, manager of our Louisville plant: Or. John L. Creech, our plant physician at Louisville, and Dr. Richard A. Guyton, who is representing our corporate medical department. Our statement today will address itself specifically to the question of whether the State of Kentucky should adopt a standard which would limit the amount of vinyl chloride vapor to a timeweighted average of 50 parts per million in the work areas of vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride production facilities. Our comments will summarize information that we have already provided in our continuing reports to Dr. J. Bradford Block and to appropriate Federal agencies. We also have available and will file for the record of this meeting a copy of the statement we presented on Friday. February 15 at a fact-finding hearing in Washington. D.C.. under the jurisdic tion of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration of the U. S. Department of Labor. In that statement, we reviewed the technologies involved in our use of vinyl chloride at our Louisville and other PVC manufacturing operations. We also discussed our knowledge of the toxicity of vinyl chloride and we reviewed in detail the events leading up to our initial meeting with the Ken tucky Department of Labor on this matter. Our recent discovery of five deaths from a rare type of liver cancer among former employes of our Louisville plant was. to our knowledge, the first evidence indicating a possible relationship be tween human angiosarcoma and chlorinated hydrocarbons used in the production of polyvinyl chloride resins. In addition, we discussed the epidemiological studies that we are pursuing independently and also our support and cooperation in research sponsored by the Manufacturing Chemists Association's Vinyl Chloride Task Group. We established on June 21. 1973. an interim goal of 50 ppm TWA and. as a result of improve ments in monitoring and precautionary safety activities, we have essentially achieved this goal at Louisville. Calvert City and at our other PVC production facilities. Our efforts to achieve this or lower levels of exposure began after the Manufacturing Chemists Association learned of animal research which had been initiated by some European PVC manufacturers. Since our discovery of a grouping of deaths from angiosarcoma of the liver among employes, we have adopted the 50 ppm TWA and other measures that amount to self-imposed emergency work standards. These include our efforts to implement the interim work practices recommended on January 31 by the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health. An up-to-date presentation of the previously mentioned European research was made by Pro fessor Cesare Maltoni. of the Instituto Di Oncologia. Bologna, Italy, at the OSHA hearing in Washing ton on February 15. While Dr. Maltoni said that additional research is indicated, his studies showed no tumors among laboratory animals at vinyl chloride exposure of 50 ppm. In addition, the Dow Chemical Company, and a producer of vinyl chloride, at the OSHA hear ing held in Washington on February 15. made the following statement: "Based upon the medical and toxicological data available to us at this time. Dow believes that an eight-hour TWA of 50 ppm is a satisfactory environmental stan dard for vinyl chloride." From our viewpoint, the adoption of a 50 ppm TWA for vinyl chloride as a standard is consistent with available information. BFG32414 ZQU9Sz