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:THn WALL STrXLT JOURNAL, Wednesday. Oct.1974 0\Kjr> 1) Health Hazards Wnyl*Chloride Bisk.s Were Known by Many Before First Deaths --------------- - l Hindsight Shows Weakness In Firms' Sysioms Aimed At Protecting Workers The Tip of a Large Iceberg By Bai:i;y Kii.wtns Staff Kejtnrtrr of Tuu Wam, Stiiuut .im-tissi, A few week1! before Christmas In 1948, Earl Parks, then Tti years old. signed on ns a helper-trainee at the large II. F. Goodrich Co. plastics factory in Louisville, Ky. The plant had been making polyvinyl-chloride plastic from vinyl-chloride Si's sinre before the war, using a process developed by Good-j rich in 1037. It was n. growing industry that Mr. Parks joined. Polyvinyl chloride--dubhed PVC for short--had found special, but limited, appli cations in the war years, especially as a fcrproof coating for electric wiring in ^BiU-r planes and ships. But in the late Wins, so-called vinyl consumer products, made from PVC, began .coming into vogue; | and by the time the 1030s were under way polyvinyl-chloride products such as contain ers, phonograph records and curtains were staples in American households. The basic Goodrich process, still in use today, pipes vinyl-chloride gas into large re This is the first of two stones con cerning implications of the discovery that vinyl chloride can cause cancer. actor vessels; there, the gas is agitated to gether with a liquid and catalysts. The process causes polymerisation, a linking to gether of the molecules of the gas (a mon omer) into the long chains that give PVC (a polymer) its strength and other desired characteristics. The First Years Jn his first years with Goodrich, it was Earl Park's job to erawl inside the reactors after each batch of PVC was drained off and to chip away that portion of the polymer that had congealed. During tho hour-long task, repeated several times in the course of an eight-hour shut, Mr, Parks and other workers who performed the same function would unavoidably inhale the heavy, sweet-1 smelling fumes of vinyl-chloride gns that had escaped polymerization. | Ik As the 1950s went by and tho lOCOs began, Pfcarl Parks was working his way up to thel .Job of foreman, a post that he had attained, by the time that ill health forced his early retirement in tho late 1900s. In the years that he had worked with Goodrich, the PVC industry flourished ns thousands of new uses were discovered for the jxjlymcr. On Mil, h 3. 13;.;. at the ..go of .in. Carl! Parks died of enelo-ariomu of the hvei, n tvj><* of cnnrr-r th.it Is m- .iilnhly ,1. Ur. drafli attracted real:! )ui,-l!e iiltmt'uii at !he time, but today the significance of Mr. Park's illne.'.-, is unqucstmti-iMi- mid shatter ing in Its Implications. I'or Hail Porks came to he one more Mntlriic In turning a hypothesis Jnto a reality; Vinyl chloride can enuso cancer. Ijcmlly Stalihtira | The link between angiosarcoma ami] vinyl chloride is further buttressed by other] deadly statistics. Seven of Mr. Park's fellow workers at the Goodrich plant also con tracted the disease, and five have died. In all, there have been 16 documented angio sarcoma eases in the U.S. in recent years, all of them linked to vinyl chloride. In addi tion, 10 other eases have been reported in'. Europe. | While the total number of eases is small, tho industry lias been shaken to its roots. The disease now is known to work insidi ously, slowly, during decades of exposure, the Implications being that the eases thus far are quite likely only the tip of an Ice berg. Nine companies, with H plants and 910 employes, currently produce vinyl chlor ide monomer from ethylene, a petrochemi cal. The monomer, in turn, is used by 21 companies operating 3G major plants and employing 5,000 workers, to make more than five billion pounds of PVC annually. (World-wide production is some IS billion pounds annually.) Even the five billion pounds of PVC an nually produced in this country isn't enough to meet the domestic demand for the plastic Into which PVC is formed. From 3,000 to 1,- 000 processors, employing an estimated 700.000 workers, fabricate the plastic into a wide variety of products ranging from vinyl floor tiles to shower curtains. According to a study done for the Society of the Plastics In dustry by Arthur D. Little Inc., as many as 2.2 million jobs depend on polyvinyl-chloride; plastic. If PVC were banneu. the study says, 1 the annual loss to industry In sales and pro duction would be some $55 billion to $90 bil lion. (Ta.v Manufacturing Chemists Associa tion estimates the wholesale annual value of: all PVC products is $3 billion.) ' Emergency Decree At the moment, no one believes the in dustry will suddenly come to a screeching halt. However, after the first human eases of vinyl chloride-induced angiosarcoma were disclosed, the Labor Department's Oc cupational Safety and Health Adminis,."ation Imposed a temporary emergency stan-| dard for PVC factories; thenceforth, OSHAI decreed, the permissible level of vinyl chlor ide in the air of such factories would he 50 parts per million. That level was far below the Industry standard, m effect for years, of 500 parts per million. OSllA's emergency decree was made lusf May. Since then, animal research found that tumors develop at 50 parts per million. Yesterday, OSHA issued a new permanent standard requiring employers after Jan. 1, 1975, to reduce exposure to one part per mil lion in factory air. averaged over eight hours, and five parts per million averaged' over any period no longer than 15 minutes. (See story on page 22.) While considcroti'v more stringent than the emergency decree, the new permanent standard--particularly with its fivc-parts-pcr-million provision and its nllott-anw* of nv r i '-g-nevert'ie!--. fi.lb. r.'.'-'-t of the "b'l >1. i ' ' Hi'I 1 y ui'.lons, m !'. i'.i" c'l e-ji'T'- nr! Mini gtoup.'; as the !!< H ' a ` I'V.t' ,-.r ("'* '1 cupatioiial Safety arid Her 'h, md V'" Amcrlcnn Chemical Sodi'ty. T. la no-iietei-;. able limit would have car :.t, mi over i ndheranee to onc-part-i-rmi'!:'"! FieS. Th'-reforc. It seems cei'.'in that ;he nt'g'i- iTU-r.l won t nbate. As the controversy ray.itrwa, it is reveal ing to examine how the ) nk between vlryl chloride, and cancer v. is established. If nothing else, such an examination points out the grave weaknesses of the present system --or lack thercof-of proVetmg workers arid others from industrial hazards. The Judgment Is made in hindsight, but, the history of vinyl rhloridc shows Hint cvi-; deuce of Its toxirity was often ignored, j What's more, the chemical companies i knew, but kept secret for at least sl,^ months, the fact that Italian researchers, had shown that rats develop tumors, Includ-, ing angiosarcoma, when exposed to low levels of vinyl chloride monomer. European companies, which paid for the animal re search, knew of these research findings for moro than ft year before Hie first human cases were reported hut didn't rcduco tho exposure o their workers to vinyl chloride. But Dr, Irving J. Sellkoff, an expc". on. environmental carcinogens, or cancer-caus ing agents, claims that blame shouldn't be placed at industry's door alone. "We're all a bit responsible." he says. "Xone of us did our homework." Culpability, he says, should be shared by scientists, government r.ger.-' clcs and labor unions. The case of Earl p-rk is Illustrative. M.. Parks first came to the attention cf Goodrich medical people in 196-1, when the company, concerned about the known liver toxicity of ethylene dirhloridc fa chemical from which vinyl chloride is made) tested the liver function of workers In the Louis ville plant. Mr, Parks's readings were abnormal. Nevertheless, he continued to work at the same job. In October 19C1, however, lie was hospitalized with what was Initially dir.gnosed as a bleeding ulcer. Doctors treated the "ulcer" without surgery, and Mr. Parks was released. He was readmitted to the hospital the fol lowing May, and the decision was made to operate. But when the operation was begun, surgeons, instead of finding an ulcer, found Instead that Mr. Parks's problem resulted from severe liver damage, which had caused blood to back up in the portal vein lending into the liver. The surgeons cor rected the vein problem with a shunt and took a sample of liver tissue for analysis. The nnaiysis showed that the liver had been damaged by exposure to ''chemicals." Can cer wasn't mentioned. (According to testimony at OSHA's hear ings on vinyl chloride, held last June and July, Mr, Parks received a total of almost S6.000 In workman's compensation from Goodrich beforo he died, but only after Goodrich protested that his Illness couldn't hnvo resulted from exposure to the chemi cal.) BOR 002960 hni vln'-i rld'-uide. Hr. Jehu 1,, C'lrrih, w.i .'or Mi trend'll wort 01rent to him, liy c;oiulr(r!i on a U c j.cr-p.iti.-m h.i'la. had followed rnik.s'.s. com* f>r some tlinr,! eve.. (hough ho wrii'l tnu,t::i;r Mr. I'.iiks. I Hr. Orccii says l.c l-'d born concerned ^^about an abnormally high t.uhit.cr of Good-, workers who hail liver disease. When heard that Mr. Parks hail died, he re- calls, hr m,krd to see the autopsy repent. It was In August 1973 that Dr. Creech learned that Mr. Parks hail dud tho prc-i vious March of angiosarcoma of tho liver. The doctor says he then realised that .some thing was scrii \ 1y wrong, since another Goodrich PVC worker, a private patient of Dr. Creech, had succumbed to the same, typo of caneer In 3971. Dr. Creech says he knew that liver angiosarcoma Is exceedingly | rare and that two eases among such a small plant population was abnormal, (In fact, medical men estimate that fewer than 30 eases occur each year in tho U.K., striking only one in 900,000 persons.) Dr. Creech met with Goodrich's occupa tional health director, Dr, Maurice N. John-1 son, who subsequently decided to ask Tatacr- shaw-Coopet- Associates Inc., a Berkeley, Calif., epidemiological-studios concern, to do a survey of Goodrich death records. But the study was hardly needed; on Dee, 19, a third PVC worker at the Louisville plant j died at the age of 5S; ho had been at the plant for 93 years. On Jan. 22 of this year, Coodrich officials i met in Washington with officials of the Na tional Institute for Occupational Safely and Health and informed them of the three an giosarcoma deaths. The following day, Ken tucky occupational-health officials also were Informed and Goodrich made 11s first public nounccmcnt. Almost since Its first commercial lntroction, there have been reports that vinyl chlorido is toxic above certain levels. In deed, during World War II, vinyl chloride was rejected as a surgical anesthetic be cause animals developed heart irritation when exposed to it. In 19-19, P.ussian scien tists reported "hepaUtis-hke changes'' in the liveis of 15% 0i tlse workers m a small PVC plant. Then, in the late 1950s, research toxocolo- gists at Dow Chemical Co. showed that ani mals exposed to as few as 109 parts per mil lion of vinyl chloride (or 100 molecules of vinyl chloride in every one million mole cules of air) developed slight liver damage. Based on its research, Dow began a pro gram in the 1000s to reduce the level of vinyl chlorido monomer in tho air of its plants to below 50 parts per million. Dow published its results In 3961. But the rest cf the industry chose to rely on a Yale University study that recommended 500 parts per million a.s a safe level. This same level had been recommended by the Manu facturing Chemists Association since 3951, wa3 affirmed In 3062 hy the American Con ference of Governmental Industrial Hygien ists and was given the force of 1 iw by OSHA in 3971. However, evidence at tnc OSIIA hearings indicates that this level was regu larly exceeded until this year in many plants. (The hygienists' group didn't rccom- ^mend lowering the level to 200 parts per ^^Wllion until 3972, four years after Dow eon- ^^idcd from further tests that repeated ex posure by workers to vinyl-chloride mon omer at on average of 300 parts per million or above for a working lifetime could cause changes In the liver.) During the 1900s, there were reports of a disease called aeroosteolysls nmong vinyl- (l\tiiij 2Z - CtinLinucii from pacjc L) chloride work era. Tho dlseasn consists of skin lesions and changes in tho blood ves sels, leading to degeneration of the bones at the tips of the fingers and toes in those ex posed to high levels of tho monomer, (Kinis- siona of vinyl chloride are generally lower at plants where tho monomer, or gas, Is made, sinco the process Is less complex, and there 13 less chance for leaks than at the polymerization plants; none of the re ported angiosarcoma cases in this country has occurred among workers making vinyl- chloride monomer, and only one of the 10 deaths in Europe was in a monomer plant.) In early 3967, the Manufacturing Chem ists Association arranged with the Univer sity of Michigan to study aeroosteolysls among vinyl-chloride workers, particularly those who cleaned the reactor vessels and others who were exposed to large concentra tions of vinyl chloride in the air. The Michi gan scientists reported in 1970 that although they couldn't pinpoint vinyl chloride ns the cause of tho disease, worker exposure to the1 monomer should be cut to 50 parts per mil-, lion or below. Other than Dow, which had already Insti tuted reductions in nir levels of tho mon omer, the rest of the industry in tho U.S. ig nored the recommendation. Nor was there any significant reaction to findings by Euro pean industry that animals developed ad verse effects from vinyl chloride. This was at least partly because the Europeans down graded the importance of some of their find ings. For example, Prof. Pier Luigi Viola, a medical director employed in Italy by Sol- vay & Cie., the Belgian chemicals company, found bone changes In rats exposed to air levels of 30,000 parts per million of vinyl chloride; even more Important, he found that vinyl chloride at that level caused ma lignant tumors In the ear canals, lungs and bones of rats. -. Prof. Viola reported his findings before an international cancer congress In Houston in 1970. It was the first reported link be tween cancer nnd vinyl chloride. But the professor expressed doubt about the purity of the vinyl-chloride gas he had used and stated that the rat caneer findings, because they occurred at such high levels of the monomer, had no human Implications. 1 (Prof. Viola subsequently found tumors! in rats exposed to 500 parts per million; but this fact wasn't revealed until well after the first human angiosarcoma eases were re vealed.) Based on Prof. Viola's early cancer find ings in rats, Montedison S.p.A., the huge Italian chemicals company, in 3970 naked Cesaro Maltoni, a respected researcher at the Institute of Oncology in Bologna, Italy, to do more extensive animal studes. By Oc tober 3972, Prof. Maltoni says, he had found that 230 parts per million of vinyl chloride produced tumors in rats in three parts of the body: the ear canals, kidneys and the liver, Tho liver tumors included angiosar coma, The professor immediately Informed his sponsors. The Europeans offered their Information to the Manufacturing ('hem! `.a /.'.'eolation In the U.S., hut only if the Amermans guar anteed confidentiality. With great rclue-| tanec, tin; association says, It finally agreed! to the secrecy condition "hrenure of the vital importance of learning of any indlca-J lions from the European re .earrli . . . with out the delays which could havo resulted' .from duplication of effort." On Jan. 30, 3973, a year before the first human angiosarcoma cases were reported by B. K. Goodrich, U10 MCA finally got the Maltoni data. For five months, the secrecy restrictions were such that government agencies, PVC workers exposed to vinyl chloride and even company doctors were; kept in the dark. Then, in the late spring.I the Europeans agreed that the chemists' ns.| socialion rould pass the Information on to1 the U.S. National Institute for Occupational ! Safely and Health, the Dahor Department agency that monitors worker safety. On July 17. 3973, representatives of the associa tion nnd the agency met. There is some dispute' as to what tran spired at the meeting. The Labor Depart-; ment agency claims it wasn't given the full] story; tho chemists' association claims that the agency misunderstood tho findings. Eut ,ono thing Is certain: Tho agency, and OSHA, made no move to change the stan dard of 5!'J parts per million and didn't do so until after the human angiosarcoma cases were announced. In Europe, by con trast, Great Britain hakl lowered the maxi mum level to 200 parts per million following the cases of aeroosteolysls In the '60s: and West Germany had set a level of 100 parts per million in 1970, based on Dow's 1961 re sults with animals. According to New Scien tist, the British science journal, "No other section of the U.S. or European industry fol lowed Dow's lead. The reasons for this in ternational confusion arc obscure." This all changed quickly, of course, once the first human eases of angiosarcoma were| reported by Goodrich. Indeed, the swiftness1 with which new research has been carried out since Jan, 23 is perhaps without prece dent In the world of medicine and science. 1 Much of this recent research is con cerned with studies of the Incidence of dis ease of all types among vinyl-chloride work ers. Thus far. some studies show that work ers exposed to high levels of vinyl chloride show greater than expected Incidences not only of angiosarcoma but certain other can cers as well. The ramifications of these find ings for the future of the industry er.d its workers remain to be seen. However, for the veteran PVC workers, whatever changes the findings produce will be useless In counteracting the insidious effects of I working day after day. year after year, in what now is generally viewed as a contain I* |nated atmosphere. BOR 002961 Thi' W.I L i Strcrl .Jour n.tL W< ilncr.rlov October 2, 17`1 Sharp Drop in Vinyl Chloride Exposure Orderedby Labor Agency for Workers (Payc 22) i !]/ II \Vt j. i-rru.r.r Jnrrs'Ai. XlaV l:r?nrlfr WASHINGTON The Labor Department 'ordered ; r-h. ip irritation In worker.-,' expoMire to vinyl t blonde, a widely used Indus-, trial ,,aa tint has liern linked to liver c,ni cer. The ruling, which comes after nine months of controversy, brought a lawsuit from tin' plastics industry, whirh contends the standard can't he met. And criticism ifrom organized labor, winch contends the' jrulc contains loopholes. Vinyl chloride is a basic ingredient in making many every- 'day plastic products. The new standard, issued by the Labor Department's Occupational Safely and Health Administration, requires that, start ing Jan. 1, vinyl chloride levels In the air that workers breathe he held to one part | vinyl chloride per million parts of air, averringed over an eight-hour period. Actual | levels may exceed one part per million for short periods, but they must average out to no more than five parts per million for any 15-mintilc period within the eight-hour tune span. j The standard also calls for regular monl'toring of plant air, regular medical exams |for workers and establishment of "regulated (areas" where vinyl chloride exposure is ^Btgh. It prohibits direct worker contact with ^^Kicfied vinyl chloride and requires posting ^of signs warning the chemical is a "cancersuspect agent." j Since last April, companies handling vinyl chloride have been under an emer gency restriction of 50 parts per million, without any time period. The emergency standard was issued after tire discovery, beginning last January, of cases of a rare and fatal liver cancer, an giosarcoma. among workers exposed to vinyl chloride. Nineteen deaths among such workers in the U.S. And other countries have been attributed to liver cancer caused by long exposure to the chemical. Vinyl chloride is a gas that in processed, to form a powdery substance known as poly vinyl chloride. Pol> vinyl chloride, in resin or pellet form, is then fabricated into a wide variety of finished plastic products. Though only about G.POQ workers arc em ployed in plants that make vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride, a bunt 1150,000 others, who v.ork in facilities that create finished' .products from the polyvinyl chloride, will also be covered by the new ruling. Workers who handle only finished products, and don't have any chance of contact with "raw" vinyl chloride or polyvinyl chloride, are the only ones exempted. The Labor Department initially proposed that exposure bo limited to "no detectable level," without any averaging over time. > This proposal pleased organized labor and some key researchers in the field of occupa tional health. But tile Society of the Plastics Industry, a trade group, and many compa nies using Lho chemicals, denounced It ns I technologically impossible and warned It I would drive tho Industry out of business. I In selecting as its final standard one part| per million over eight hour.; and five parts, per million over lj minutes, the department apparently was trying to rcaeh a compro-, mi.se between its original idea and the j toughest proposal offered by the industry, which would have left exposures as high ns JO parts per million in some plants and 25 I parts per million in others. I The department sought to smooth further j the adjustment for Industry by delaying, until next January the drop from the presjent 50 parts per million. Also, it gave its cn-j forccmcnt staff discretion to determine how, Uhe companies must meet the standard. Wlille the goal Is toTeaeh the new levrlsl through "engineering and work practice controls," such controls must bo deemed "feasible," and companies can deal with any exposures produced by inadequate con trols by giving workers respirators. A date wasn't set tn the ruling for Im proving plant engineering and practices to the point where respirators won't be needed. What's more, until January 1976 workers may refuse to wear the respirators when ex posures don't exceed 23 parts per million, even if they exceed the one part per million ,-cr eight hours specified in the regulation. ' Despite this attempt at compromise, I however, tho Society of the Plastics Indus try and some producers sued the Labor De- jartment to overturn the ruling only mo ments after it was Issued yesterday. And' Firestone Plastic Co., a unit of Firestone I ! Tire & Rubber Co,, said It will ask a court tol stay enforcement of the standard while the suits are being tried. Ralph Harding, president of the Industry group, said tho standard is "unrealistic, probably will be Impossible for most, if not all, of the industry to meet and appears to have been developed on some basis ineonsistent with recorded facts." The job-safety agency "may believe that it lias adopted a compromise position," but the result is un acceptable to the industry, he added. Industry sources also indicated displea sure at the inclusion of plants making fabri cated products from polyvinyl chloride. The industry had proposed excluding these plants, contending they didn't, present any hazard. Rut the department said it decided to In clude them because polyvi: yl ckcridc resin and pellets can give off vinyl chloride gas :r. small amounts during procc: ring. It said, however. It the plants weren't exposing workers to more than half a part rcr milker, of vinyl chloride gis, they needn't under'take any control rr.casurrs. In Midland, Mich., Dow Chemical Co said the standard:, were "unr.ccevsari..' stringent" and unsupported by the data rn Dow workers that war, presented at public hearings. Organized labor expressed some immedi ate reservations of its own. In Akron, Ohio, Peter Rommarito, presi dent of the United Rubber Workers union, which represents many vinyl chloride work ers, said "It would appear this thing has a number of loopholes in it." Mr. Uomr.ianto reserved final judgment until he has seen a full text of the regain!tor.:,, but he was quick to take Issue with the deci.-ion to let workers decline tho use of a respirator until lr,7C. "We can't make a guy put on a respirator, and while he's not wearing one, he may he endangering himself." What is more, he added, "The respirator situation Is gcir.g to be even worse in nonunion plants." The department defended its re'dar.'"* m the use of respirators, saying defm.hc dates couldn't bo set for dealing wi'.h the problem solely through engineering and work rile., because "we arc presently un.i'ole to deter mine when U will bo feasible." It ad md "We would agree that ret; irt-.ttrs . r many drawbacks" but said, in the nib-re. of complete engineering control, t.iey ate needed. The official explanation of the regula tions also said that although a deadline wasn't set for completing engineering nr.u i\vork-rule changes, a continuing flan, avai lable for government inspection, must be pursued by each company at a puce agree i on by safety Inspectors, until respirators are needed only occasionally. BOR 002962 Tin*: Washington post w;i .k \ New Rules Set Ho Reduce Vinyl Chloride Risk Fiom News I)i>Dfltches Administration (OSHA) came The Labor Department yes- after ^several months of grow i lerday announced new rules to draslieally etil the amount ing evidence that workers ex of rrtnocr-causing vinyl ehlo- posed to the widely used plas- ride "ns to whieh factory I ties industry gas were develop- workers may' bo exposed. One ling a rare but fatal-form of tlpiioolannsttwiehosrerkacetoermsnpsoaldntoyotfshatrhiodewirth2jeombasic.lii lwivoerrldcatrnacceer.d Deaths around to workplace the cx- The new rules from the Oc| posure now number more than cupational Safely and Health 120. . I The Society of the Plasties i Industry, Inc., filed a suit in Second U.S Circuit Court of 1 Appeals in New York asking | for the judicial review of the OSHA standard. It said th standard an- , j nounccd yesterday is unrealis- - tic and it will be impossible j for most if not all of the in- j dustrv to meet it. I Last April 5, OSHA an- 1 nounced that workers could be > exposed to no more than 50 : parts per million of vinyl chlo ride gas in the air and pro posed eventually reducing the exposure level to zero. 1 During lengthy hearings on i the matter the industry ! claimed it would be impossible to meet a detectable level of the gas inside the factories. Under the new regulations,! effective Friday, the present. 50-part-per-million exposure1 level will be allowed until Dec. 31. After next Jan, 1| workers may be exposed to no more than 1 part per million I average over eight hours of i exposure and no concentration higher than 5 parts per mil- lion over any 15-mimite pe riod. I After Jan. 1 of 197C, the same exposure levels will be required except that workers exposed to anything stronger will have to wear respirators. Firestone Plastics Co. said the new rules put the industry "on a collision' course with* economic disaster." An official of the firm said the restric-- tions would "throw 2 millioq jobs down the drain." BOR 0029*3 THE NEW YORK TIMES Wednesday, October 2 , 1974 Vinyl Choride Rules Seek To Guard Workers' Health (' SncrMI to The New York* Times | WASHINGTON. Oct. 1--Thai The final rules, to become e'f- Departmentof Laboraminuncedlfcctivp Friday, will continue today final industrial health;the 50 parts per million level rules designed to reduce work-Through Dec. 31 and require a er exposure to vinyl chloride.'reduction, thereafter, to only a cancer-causing chemical '.vide-(one part per million averaged ly used as a basic material in over any eight-hour period and the manufacture of plastics, -five parts per million averaged John H. Stendcr, head of over any 15-minutc period, the department's Occupational^ These limits on the periiiis- Safcty and Health Administra-|Sible concentrations of the tion, said the rules would pro-1 chemical in the air of industrial tect workers by significantly, work placer, would be tightened reducing the amount of vinyl | fl!rther on Jan. 1, 1976. In tha* chloride to which they weie ex-j third phase oi the new rules, posed. nvorkers would be required to The chemical has been shown. wear respirators if they were to induce incurable cancers of exposed to air containing more the liver in some workers cx-j vinyl chloride thdn. the one posed to it over Substantial; part per million and five parts periods of time. [per million limits. The dangerous effects of the; During 1975, respirator use chemical became a public is-(would be discretionary at air sue last January when the B.,levels below 25 parts per F. Goodrich Cmpany, reported j million. that several of its employes j The industry objected imme- had died of relatively rare can-1 diately after the new rules ccrs of the liver called angio-Wvere announced here and at a sarcomas. The employes had National Safety Congress Mr. been exposed to the chemical Tender is attending in Chicago. over long periods* of time dur Firestone Plastics Company ing their work. said it was planning a legal Because of these and other challenee and declared that the deathers reported later, the i new ruling "puts the vinyl plas Labor Department safety and I tics industry on a collision health unit issued an emergen-j course with economic disaster." cy rule on April 5 lowering the] The Society of the Plastics permissible exposure levels I Industry, Inc., said the occupa from 500 parts per million to tional health standard was un- 50 parts per million. The emer realistic and that it would gency standard would have cx- probably be impossible for most pired this Saturday.______ ____ of the industry, to meet it. BOR 002964