Document J3DEr50deEoq14d1VR31zrqza

A H t 'Z On.A * R* /c -z.1*/ Iq. Liver cancer ruled industrial disease United Press Inlcrnalion:il LOUISVILLE. Ky. - An official of Ihc Kentucky Oc cupational Safety and Health Administration reports Unit the federal government has declared a rare liver cancer which has taken the lives of four Louisville B. F. Good rich Co. employes as a new occupational disease. "Right now, the only four known cases of this disease are right here in Louisville, but this thing has tremen dous implications nationally and internationally," said Dr. J. Bradford Block, medical consultant for the adminis tration. Rlock said the National Institute of Occupational Safely and Health made the decision to label angiosarco ma as an occupational dis ease during an all-day meet ing in Washington Friday. Block said two pathologists from the National Institutes of Health and the National Cancer institute confirmed that angiosarcoma, the liver cancer, took the lives of four employes who worked in the polyvinyl chloride process at the Goodrich plant here. He added that 13 plants across the nation manufacI ii r vinyl chloride a n d another 15 use it in such a way as to expose their em ployes lo it. lie said author ities estimate that as many as G.500 workers have l>ccn exposed to vinyl chloride throughout, the United Slates. Block said national health officials arc placing special emphasis on results expected next week of further testing of 55 workers in the Louis ville Goodrich plant, whose previous blood tests showed abnormalities. They were among 271 employes tested at the plant. The Louisville facility uses vinyl chloride in the process ing of a plastic for manufac ture of phonograph records and sonic food containers. Block said Goodrich records show at least 23 em ployes at its Louisville instal lation have died of cancer since tltc facility went into operation in the 1940s. Of that number, 22 worked with vinyl chloride, Block said. He said the four whose deaths have been attributed to angiosarcoma a i 1 died within Ihc last six years and all probably were exposed to high concentrations of vinyl chloride during clearing operations. TOOSS'.ZZ BFG22590