Document K62K6ojErL5xYgXqMDmaO3K6x

/- RADIO TV REPORTS, INC. 41 EAST 42nd STREET. NEW YORK. NY. 10017,697-5100 FOR HILL & KN0WLT0N, INC. PROGRAM CBS REPORTS: "THE POLITICS OF CANCER" DATE JUNE 22, 1976 1 0 : OOPH STATION WCBS-TV AND THE CBS TELEVISION NETWORK C,TY NEW YORK BROADCAST EXCERPT LESLEY STAHL: Two years vinyl chloride industry, in a Of The Plastic Peril. It was cancer caused by working with ago, CBS News reported on the documentary called, The Case a story of people dying of cancer, vinyl chloride. HAN: Dr. Treat finally shook me, and says, Ray, I hate to tell you this, but you got angiosarcoma. STAHL: Two years ago the cleanup of the industry looked like a long, expensive project. Later, when the health standards were written, the plastic industry testified that the new regulations would put them out of business, and cause workers to lose their jobs. But three weeks after regulations, all the major companis were on their way to compliance. Today, government, Industry, and labor are cautiously certain that the danger from vinyl chloride gas has passed. At this new chemical plant In Houston, Texas, the system is completely closed in three hundred thousand feet of pipe. Automation has taken over. The process is remote-controlled, and the deadly gas that might have escaped is captured, and turned into more plastic. In the air outside the plant, there's only an occasional trace of vinyl chloride in the range of parts per billion. One of the things the plastic industry did was hire William Ruckelshaus, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency as its spokesman. That's a practice that sometimes raises eyebrows. But these days, Ruckelshaus gets good grades from both government and industry. WILLIAM RUCKELSHAUS: I think it's important to remember that there is a need for government to regulate, even if you assume the vast majority of industry is in good faith, because 22355001 OFFICES IN: NEW YORK* DETROIT* LOS ANGELES WASHINGTON, D. C. * CHICAGO* AND OTHER PRINCIPAL CITIES *.'a:e' ai s-:: si ry c2;.c Tma/ oe usee for '<-e and reference purposes only. Ii may not oe reproduced, sold or publicly demonstrated or exhicmec " BFG20289 [2] a ?1 it takes is one of, say, a twentythree member companies, who are competing with one another in the production of a product, to say: I'm not going to spend the money to reduce the emissions, to protect the air of the water, or the workers, and the rest of them are forced to follow that line, because he gets a tremendous competitive advantage. If he hasn't expended those costs. And therefore, the government's got to come in, and say: All of you are going to have to do it. As a citizen, I'm not going to be satisfied to permit the industry to decide whether or not they're going to be good citizens. I want the government to have the responsibility in the event the industry doesn't do it. BFG20290 Z00SSE2Z [2) all it takes is one of, say, a twenty-three member companies, who are competing with one another in the production of a product, to say: I'm not going to spend the money to reduce the emissions, to protect the air of the water, or the workers, and the rest of them are forced to follow that line, because he gets a tremendous competitive advantage. If he hasn't expended those costs. And therefore, the government's got to come in, and say: All of you are going to have to do it. As a citizen, I'm not going to besatisfied to permit the industry to decide whether or not they're going to be good citizens. I want the government to have the res ponsibi 1 ity in the event the industry doesn't do it. BFG20291 ~d\ .. .V *. rV tV Cancer: The Bureaucratic Malignancy By Frank Getiein Washington Star Stall Writer You may think a check and a check-up are all you can do about cancer, but CBS Reports, tonight at 10 on WTOP-9, points up that the malignancy can be politi cal as well as carcinogenic. "The Politics of Cancer" examines the work of three government .agencies concerned with the social and economic aspects of the disease, as distinct from the strictly medical aspects. The agencies are the [Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the Occu pational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). IN WHAT MAY be called pedestrian electronic jour nalism, correspondent Lesley Stahl trudges dutifully up the steps and down the corridors of the three agen cies to talk with officials responsible and with former Officials critical of the agencies' reluctance to meet -responsibility, exercise authority, fulfill their protec tive functions. > The reasons for the reluctance become clear as Stahl talks with representatives of affected industries, factory owners, union leaders and even workers. As the tobacco industry's sympathetic journalists have said so often, there's money in cancer and the govern ment should be chary of interfering with any citizen's chance to make a buck. Such, at least, is the conclu sion the viewer draws, more or less on his own. CBS refrains from explicit conclusions. The program does indeed strike that sought-for "balance" that people as disparate in motive and make-up as the non-contend ing Spiro Agnew and the highly contentious Eric Sevareid favor. THE COMPLEXITY ARISES from the obvious fact that there is a lot of money riding on what seem to be some of the causes of cancer. For one thing, spokes men for that cashbox never refer to the money, always to "jobs," something a little closer to sacrosanct status. For another, the cancerous connection for a lot of the chemicals simply is not fuliyy proved, 't here is reasonable suspicion, but not final proof. In short, there are open questions and CBS is scrupulous in acknowledging them, always doing so with no hint of deferring to economic motives. The factory chosen for inspection, for example, is that of a small-time free enterpriser in West Virginia who would certainly be driven out of business if forced into total compliance with existing regulations, let alone those being proposed. A particular feature of the enforcement of stand ards, regulations, whatever, is the delay involved. If the environmentalists are right, of course, each delay is respoonsible for a calculable number of deaths from cancer. On the other hand, if the money-job interests are right, it all amounts to is good old due process. AT ANY RATE, "The Politics of Cancer" is elec tronic journalism at its best -- nothing flashy, just a methodical laying out of many of the varied elements in a complex and extremely important area of knowl edge unknown to most of us. Stahl is a good interviewer, asking the right questions, making the right second questions after the first ones are parried. She illustrates nicely one of the great advantages of women in this line of work. She has no compulsion to take on her subject for two or three rounds or to show how tough she can be. She just keeps on com ing, quietly presenting facts that make a hash of the last answer, not distracting our attention from those facts and that evasion by pugilistic posturing. t & & o nr BFG20292 Ill'Ll, and KNOWLTON, Inc. THE WASHINGTON TOST .2 5 Tuesday, Jujie 22,1076 1 >r ?.? q ' rnrs T/ 1 tie Poll tics of Cancer, By Stuart Aueibfu h. It hardly seems like pood television, yet one o the strongest moments in tonight's CBS Reports on concur conics when three former government attorneys urn-oil a long chart showing all the steps it lakes to try to gel can cer-causing chemicals off the market. The three attorneys who had re cently resigned from the Environmental Protection Agency because they think it gives in too much to industry, used the chart to prove their point. A man .'ll one end of the table start ed to unroll it. He passed it on to the other two until finally the chart reach ed CBS correspondent Leslie Sfthl at the other end of the table. The chart, TV Preview they said, represents one to Hi years-- 'and those are just Die slops leading to hearings on the chemicals. \o wonder the cancer rale is going vi]). And no wonder Jimmy Carter's anti-Washington campaign to reform government is winning voles. For the fourth time in two yours CBS has done a prime lime special on cancer--10-11 p.m. This one focuses on its politics-- tile clashes belweon government and business with, it ap pears, the general public the loser. The program is solid. Judy Crichton, who produced it and wrote most of the script, is one of the journalistic experts on cancer in the environment and the workplace. The show zooms in on throe federal agencies sol up to nrolcrl the con sumer--the EPA, the lesser-known Occupational Safety and lloallu Ad ministration (OSsIfA) in the Oepm-lment of t.abor. and the Food and Drug Arlminislratiun which, in the words-of one jormor employee, liasswitched from an adversary relation ship " ith industry tn one of "working with industry to solve their mutual problems." Some of the strongest footage ]* ' material ordinarily not considered exciting enough lor television--just. people talking, either mak ing points or hanging them selves with their words. The chart unrolling by the three lawyers is one of those strong points. In another that just precedes It, an EPA official, Edwin John son, tries to explain why it hasn't pushed for bans on 300 pesticides suspected of causing cancer. The list, Johnson first said, is an EPA "internal working document that has been in the agency some time," as if that matters. When correspondent Stahl presses him to explain why action taken on those pesti- >" cides is nil--"delayed, henr- : ing pending, decision unde cided"--Johnson insists EPA is working. One-fourth, he said, are arsenic compounds "and a - decision will come out very ' shortly on those." Others are mercury products and '"these in fact have been in a hearing for a year and a half." So Stahl, by lotting EPA official Johnson talk, has proven the lawyers' point: It takes too lone to get cancercausing chemicals off the market Grover Wrcnn, an OSHA official, also has trouble ex plaining why it takes so long to control cancer-caus ing substances in the work place. A million-nnd-a-half workers are exposed to ar senic, which is still unregu lated, said Stahl. "Well of course we have proposed to do so." an swered Wrcnn. "We had a series of written comments, public hearing's, and are presently concluding the influlionnry impact state ment." What about Tri-chloroethylenc? Asbestos? Coke oven emissions? "Again the process continues,'' said Wrcnn. "OSHA has pursued the development of the coke oven emission standard as -anicUv as it has been possi ble to do so. within the conslraints nf the regulatory nroccss as we have come to know it." Interviews with industry representatives show that one man's sellout is another man's due process or bal anced procedure. One thing docs come across, though: The problem of cleaning up the work place is not as great as in dustry would like the public to believe. Industry, for ex ample, said it could not meet the stiff government regulations for the vinyl _ chloride. Yet companies did, and the cost of the plastic product has not gone up as industry predicted. More over, environmental regula tion has created an entirely new industry--a point big business doesn't usually mention--with 1 million new jobs. Still, there are small chemical businesses such as the one run by Elmer Fike in Nitro, W. Va.--"the messi est place we've ever seen." Stahl said--which may not be able to afford tn meet government standard's. Fike, who knows bis plant is sloppy but doesn't Uvnk it is dangerous, thinks it would cost millions of dollars to brine bis plant up to snuff. Which raises questions bnrclv hinted at in the CBS fienorts: With an estimated 100.000 pennle a vem* riving from work-related diseases, should a man such as Fike bo allowed to stay in business? Of 's It more im portant to preserve sninc ec onomic balance between smalt business and the eco nomic giant'? ('Jr should bo be the stalking horse for big business' anti-government complaints? BFG20293 Women in industry face 'health' threats r Vpl^ <A :I : Elicit Goodman About six months ago a woman . named Norma James was sterilized. It wasn't something she'd planned, you understand. She wasn't eager for it, but the 34-year-old mother of four was faced with the choice of keeping herjob or her fertility. The General Motors battery plant 1 In Oshawa, Ont., where she worked, i had new research that showed lead oxide emissions could harm unborn i- children. The company issued an ultimatum: a woman had to prove that she was unable to bear chil dren, or face a transfer. Mrs. James had been a widow, remarried and was now in the proc` ess of divorce. In any case, she was i a single working mother and the job in the battery plant paid $6.50 an hour for good steady nightwork. - -That can mean a lot when you want ) to be with the kids after school. So she thought about it some but, as she told a reporter in April, "I need that job more than anything else." What happened to Mrs. James isn't a fluke. It's a warning, an early alarm system for all women in industry: the growing concern over occupational health may be used to force thousands of women out of their jobs. And all in the name of protection of future generations. It's beginning all across the coun try. Last year, the giant Exxon Corp. began research on the effects of benzene. They may well recom mend that women of child-bearing age not be exposed until the re search is done. The lead industry's environmental 1*1. ___ . health committee already has recommended against employing "fertile, gravid or lactating fe males" until the verdict is in on the effects on the fetus. researchers discover some uniquely female side effect, industry can't be allowed to exclude all fertile women from the job, whether or not they plan to have children. As one union woman said, "When industry starts talking protective about women, watch out. They're about to protect them right out of their jobs." This week the Society for Occupa-. tional and Environmental Health is sponsoring the first major confer ence on "Women and the Work Place." Participants will include all the principal players from industry, unions and medical research. It comes at a pivotal time. We are in a situation where much of the research on the genetic side effects of work is being done on women alone. The research may be used, not to change the safety stand ards, but to exclude fertile women. Morton Corn, the Assistant Secre tary of HEW, was quoted recently as saying that "woman is a sensi tive creature and we have come late to a recognition of the health problem." Well, we are all sensitive crea tures and every time we discover a genetic side effect on women, pretty soon we find one on men. It was true with DES and it's true with polyvinylchloride. We've seen that the sperm is as sensitive as the ovum. Recently it was found that the wives of anesthesiologists have a higher rate of miscarriage than "It's outrageous," says Dorothy Haner of the United Auto Workers, "to deal with the concept by arbi trarily moving women out of jobs. You have to tell women the facts and let them decide for them selves." It's more than outrageous, she says. It's illegal. Pure, unadulterated sex discrimination. Mrs. James and five other women are trying to prove that now in ' Canada. When industry excludes fertile women, they avoid the larger issue of safety in the work place. It's cheaper to get rid of them, than to get rid of the danger. An industry spokesman recently put it this way: "We'd rather risk a sex discrimina tion suit than a deformed baby." But that isn't the choice. The issue is ultimately that of safety in the . work place. Dr. Jeanne Stellman, a health and safety specialist for the Oil, Chemi cal and Atomic Workers Union, has said that. "Selecting out a certain group in the labor force is the easv way. It's a cop-out to exclude just, women of child-bearing age from certain jobs while permitting older women or men to do those jobs." Dorothy Haner put it another way: "The decision shouldn't be made on the basis of which group you decide can endure the danger." the norm. So. let's hope that the heavies All the research should be carried _ assembled for this week's confer out with men and women. Even if ence remember Norma James. tm is s z z 1 THE SUNDAY PLAIN DEALER, JUNE 20, 1976 i BFG20294 S 11238 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE June 30, 1976 government in Puerto Rico this weekend, WC tiro undertaking to achieve meaningful in would like you to have the following ternational discussion of these crucial eco thoughts on our present economic ituatloii nomic Issues, You have onr hopes and best and our objectives for the future. Coordination of economic, policy among the major Industrial countries* Is or the ut most importance in sustaining a healthy recovery of the world economy, and wo com mend you for Initiating the upcoming con-sultatiom. However, we ore disturbed by the tone of come statements by Administration officials regarding tb problems to be dis cussed at this meeting. We arc also, dis turbed by some parts of the communique wishes for a highly successful meeting. Sincerely, Hubert H. Humphrey, Chairman; Richard Bolljnc, Vice Chairman; John Sparkman; Henry S. Reuss; William PRoxMinE; William S. 'Moor head; Abraham Rimcorr; Tee H. Hamilton; Edward , M. Kennedy; Gilljs W, Long; Lloyd M. Bentsen. --=J5r :^an-d----O--t--is----G--.--P--u--c--e-.---- ' issued on June 22 at the conclusion of thei OECD ministerial meeting. / TOXIC SUBSTANCES CONTROL ACT These statements leave the Impression thatl tho world economy Is on the brink of an ex cessively rapid expansion which v.-ould bring With it serious inflationary consequences and that policy must be directed toward slowing the progress of recovery. Tho OECD com Mr. TUNNEY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to have printed in the Recoiid an outstanding scries of ar ticles done by the Los Angeles Times on occupational health hazards. The articles munique suggests 5 percent "or somewhat more" as an appropriate target for the av erage annual growth of real output in the OECD area from 197G through 1080, explicit ly recognizing that this Implies a continua tion of high levels of unemployment throughout this period. We recognise that this target is not neces sarily Intended to apply to the perform ance of individual countries within the OECD. Nonetheless, the Impression may have arisen that this is regarded by Administra tion officials as an appropriate growth target tor the United Slates. Hence, wo would like to call your attention projections by the Congressional Budget Office Indicating that a 5- percent growth are the result of an intensive 3-month examination by the Los Angeles Times Washington staff of the Nation's occu pational health crisis. I commend the Los Angelos Times for devoting such a significant amouul of space to such an important but little dis cussed subject. As the author of the Toxic Substances Control Act which passed the Senate in March of this year, I am pleased to see the attention given to the daily dangers faced by workers on the job. These ar ticles all too clearly illustrate the need for rapid passage of the Toxic Substances path In the United States from 1970 through 1980 would imply an unemployment rate of about 0.8 percent in 1980. Certainly there Is no political consensus in this country that such a performance would be satisfactory. Indeed, we believe the overwhelming ma jority of people in this country would agree with us that such a prospect is highly un Control Act by the House so we can be gin to protect workers and the public from a major health hazard--toxic sub stances. There being no objection, the articles were ordered to be printed in the Record, as follows: satisfactory. We remind you that your own budget, submitted to the Congress last Jan uary, assumed for planning purposes an average real GNP growth rate of C.2 percent through 1980. [Prom the Los Angeles Times, June 27, I97<5| Occupational Health Hazards--A National Crisis (By Richard T. Cooper and Paul E. Steiger) In contrast to most other countries, eco Washington.--In bygone days, coal miners nomic policy-making fn the United States took enged canaries underground with la the Joint responsibility of the Congress them because the tiny birds were far more and the Executive Branch. To date there has been no agreement between these separate branches of our government as to appropri ate growth targets through 1080. It would be most untovtunat if leaders of other countries were to obtain the Impression that a consensus exists in this country to the effect that high unemployment through 12S0 Js a necessary price for controlling In flation. Any such contention is highly con troversial. and we trust you will do your beet to make thjs clear to those with whom you will be meeting next week. We do Jiot quesUon the Importance of further reducing inflation. Nor do we ques tion that this urgent problem must be attacked In coordination with other major countries. We do dispute the apparent con viction that prolonged acceptance of high levels of unemployment Js the only available method of dealing with Inflation. In fact, we question whether it is even likely to be an effective method. We tcspectfully suggest that one of ihc most useful tuples that could bo discussed nl your upcoming meeting would be alternative approaches to dealing with Inflation--approaches which do not In-' volvo lass of Jobs and output. We have In mind such things as Incomes polhics. pol icies to overcome frictions and ineilielencies in labor markets, and policies designed to Insure steady and adequate supplies of food stuffs, raw materials, nml finished goods, sensitive than men to the deadly, invisible "white damp," carbon monoxide gas. By col lapsing--and sometimes dying--the canaries warned of & danger that would otherwise httve crept up undetected. Today, in factories ancl mills, and even in beauty parlors, dentists' offices and auto re pair shops, hundreds of thousands of Ameri can workers have themselves become canar ies--for their fellow-workers and for society ns a whole. By falling sick and oflen dying, they are signaling the fact that a major crisis has struck the nation as stealthily as poison gas in a coal mine. The source of the danger is a little under stood but rapidly growing array of occupa tional health hazards, many of them toxic chemicals routinely used by industry, that kill an estimated 100.000 workers every year, cause at least 390,000 new cases of Job-related Ml.seas annually and pose an increasing threat to the enure spectrum of U.S. society and the environment, As documented In n llirec-monlh inves tigation by ft lenm of Times, npoxiejs. i be occupational health crisis nml its Implica tions for the larger society are only dimly perceived by the public, yet specialists rerun! them ns perhaps the most scrums medical challenge facing the United Stairs in the remainder of this century. And the battle to deal with the problem is In Jropnnly because Surely such j>olieiea offer better hope lor of bureaucratic red tape, public apathy, po the futuro than docs a passive acceptance litical sniping and claims that reform would of continued high unemployment. be too costly. Again, wo commend you for the efforts you At the Occupational Safety and Health Ad ministration and the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health, the two fed eral agencies most directly responsible for dealing with the problem, officials are strug gling with inadequate budgets, scattered and lll-cqulppea staffs and lack of expertise. Labor leaders have lobbied for a larger com mitment, and there hns been significant re sponse among some business executives. But overnll the problem Is growing faster than are thd efforts to contain It. Occupational health hazards have existed from earliest times, of course. One of tho cruel Ironies of the present situation Is that toxic substances Identified more than 100 years ago stll Inflict widespread disability and death. What has caused the problem to mushroom In the last three decades, however, is the technological explosion of new chemi cals. new Industrial processes and new products. This flowering or technology, responsible for much that is good and desirable In mod ern life, unfortunately hns sent a deluge of carcinogens, systemic poisons, lung-destroy ing dusts, brain-damaging metals and other hazardous substances cascading down upon the nation's workers in unprecedented vol ume and variety. Clearly, one reason for the apparent public indifference to Job-related health problems Is that many of the worst ones, lung cancer and heart disease, for example, normally take 15 to 20 years to develop and often have not been associated with the work place. More Immediate problems tend to be per ceive-' ns isolated Incidents--50 or so workers afflicted by Keponc pesticide poisoning in Hopewell, Va., a dozen or so poisoned by leRd at a Visalia auto battery plant. The problem Is pervasive, not scattered, however. And. If workers, like the miners' canaries, are the first to exhibit Its symp toms because they are exposed to the haz ards first and most intensively, the toxic sub stances originating In the nation's mills and factories are showing insidious capacity to seep out Into the community at large. Says Joseph K. Wagoner, director of field studies and clinical investigations for the in stitute, "The tendency to separate health hazards found In the work place from gen eral environmental problems is a deadly di vision. This Is a continuum, not isolated events." And. Wagoner says of the govern ments effort to cope, "Tho problem is so vast that we have been reacting In a crisis environment for the past two or three years." For a glimpse of the problem's scope, con sider the following: As many as 90% of all cancer cases are believed to be environmentally Induced, ac cording to an analysis by the National Cancer Institute. Of these, scientists estimate, at least 10% resulted In about 30,000 deaths a year, stemming chiefly from occupational carcinogens. In fully half of all cancer deaths, occupational factors are believed to have con tributed to the disease. Heart disease is the greatest single killer of Americans. II Is conservatively estimated that 5% of such deaths, or 37.000 a year, result from occupational causes. In a general health study of 008 persons performed by tho University of Washington, 3J M of all the diseases and other "medical conditions" found were Judged to be occu pational in origin. In an additional )0'; of the problems, Job-related factors ap peared to have played some role. Significantly, however, only 2r: or of all the medical conditions had been reported by employers, a fact suggesting that avail able data vastly understate the extent of Jobrelated health problems. Evidence from a number of fields Indicates that wlilic-collnr. professional and service workers are often In as much danger ns em ployes In steel mills, chemical pants and other forms of heavy industry. Dentists* chronic exposure to X rays, mer- BFG20295 2235700|_ / une . J, 1976 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE S1123D ary and anesthetics contributes to tbelr ^normally high rates of leukemia, Hodgkin's iw&se and suicide. Female operating room OTBOimcl, with similar exposures, have xmv large numbers ol miscarriages and with congenital birth defects. Beauti- U. , *ro extraordinarily susceptible to car- lac problems, lung cancer and respiratory tsenr.es generally. Chemicals and other substances and equip ment used In the work place are not the only angers. The uulque stresses, life-styles and atterns associated with particular occupaI0113 also caa be factors. For Instance, statisIcs reveal that office administrators are more ikely to snfler coronary heart disease than ,iany other types of white-collar workers, uch as scientists and engineers, As with ther hazards, the causes and cures for these ccupatlonal health problems a$c imperfecty Understood. --Au estimated 200.000 living workers have <een significantly exposed to asbestos, of liese, 100,000 are expected to die from lung anecr. 35,000 more from a rare cancer of the mljig of the lungs and stomach called mtolht-liomn, and another 35,000 will die from .sbcstosls, also an aflllctlon of the lungs. Recently, evidence has been found In a tudy for tho Environmental Protection igcncy that employes In olflee buildings contructed before the 1073 ban on use of ashesos as a structural fire ri.'';uii;ni[ ere l-mTur ;! 11> r 1 if mineral. Apparently the _:t`iJTa-i"rn;xUne un :.Ui i girders In such buildings .us begun-iu i"u" illVfiy, and microscopic nbers aro being carried to unsuspecting workers through the ventilation systems, it, .s hot yet known how serious this threat inny DC. Health hazards are particularly actue in some Industries and Job classifications. Rub ber workers are 1.7 times as likely to die of tomach cancer as members of the general population, i.c times as likely to succumb to jymphalje mnllgnnncles, according to a joint 'V by tho rubber workers' union and iy. Workers in steel mill coke ovens are . -tmes as likely to die of kidney cancer as workers assigned elsewhere In the same mills and 10 times as likely to die of lung cancer. In three Ohio towns where the carcinogen ims mmnl Lie il. iili.' Omo ^TiTpTqienv >,r ha-; rep.n :-il -imiu:-- 1 ua 11 v h i-ii _inr)riem-es <'f Dn'iu detects. jjarilcnl.nlv nfl>i-t m- the centra) nervous xvstem. amor.e neivboi'2iJi3_biejL_aati an imoxpci-'iJdly high level of tumors of the central nervous system In adult men. Studies of two Montana towns. Butte and Anaconda, where copper is mined and smelted, found unusually high rales of lung cancer In both men and women. Experts agree that no accurate measure ments Of the overall problem exist. The U.S. Public Health Service usc3 indirect statisti cal techniques to form Its estimates of the annual toll of Job-rclnlcd deaths and dis eases. Owing to Insufficient knowledge of the biochemistry Involved, inadequate monitor ing or workers, and the often years-long delay between exposure to a carcinogen and the onset of the disease, there numbers may be Just the tip of the iceberg. The catalogue of hazardous substances, with their sometimes equally dangerous per mutations, combinations and Interactions, seems endless: benzones, phenols, cadmium, nickel, gold, lead,' asbestos, vlnvl chloride, coke oven gases, creosote. textile lint, A-raj.s, silica, carbon tetrachloride, tar, beryllium, blschloromethyl ether, chloromethyl methyl ether, polychlorinated biphenols, pesticides, paraiiln, beta naplhyhuulue. . . . Tho government has thus far established links between about 12,000 substance;; and particularly serious health problems--a huge mber hut probably Just a small fraction the hazards still undetected among the ..yores of natural elements ami the 500,000 chemical compounds now In use by American Industry, which synthesizes about 3.000 new chemicals each year. WJLh virtually no out- *iiUo control and scant Knowledge of what the full consequences may ultimately be. this cornucopia of mntcrlnls Is mixed, modified, boiled, baked, burned, sprayed and vaporized lu a rush of technical ingenuity that never .stands still, On an April morning this year, at an hour when the sun was bright but the air retained a sharp edge, half a dozen employes of a small plastics plant near Slatcrsvlllc, R.L, crowded into rm aging Tontine and drove to the seacoast town of Groton, Conn. A team of occu pational health specialists from New York was to examine almost 1,000 workers there, and the Rhode Islanders were to be tested as well. Somehow, they arrived several hours be fore the spcctal clinic, set up tn the gymna sium of Groton's trim new civic center, was to open. As they waited, the six grumbled about the delay, Joked sardonically about the general malevolence of things and discussed their Jobs. It seemed clear there had been ample reason to Invite them. funwic* Cnin- me.. where they worked. Is a small plant that - pounds, cooks them up with pigments, flame retardants, and fillers, then p'-n-eit the re sulting material to nicrncriir-fi that arc sold tn fabricators of r.-il.-^rrrt n'nstlc .orodiiris. Turning out about l million pounds a inoiitn. Service Color's IB employes han dled compounds of lead oxide, lead chro mate, mercury-cadmium, lead-cadmium, and toxic, organic dyes. Medical nrnblew. hod rronm-^ up and several had been hospitalized. There was apprehension mixed with the bravado and dark humor in the six who had come to Gro ton. "Everything . . . wo handle kills you." one of them laughed. "It says so right on the cartons." As they were unloaded and mixed, the powdery chemicals would fill the nlr, silting over everything and sometimes turning their skin bright colors, the men said. A photo graph taken about that time by a safety ad ministration Inspector showed a worker who had Just crawled out of an enormous vat be had cleaned with an air hose. An Occupa tional Safety nnd Health Administration in spector pointed out that a face mask issued by the company was 60 oversized that Its bottom hung several Inches below the work er's chin, nullifying Its effectiveness even if it had not been the wrong type. The man's hair showed white, but his face and arms were a violent orange. Ventilation?" one of the workers at Gro ton said. "One place we got ventilation--. four windows. And If yon breath real hard, you can blow the dust out." During their examinations, tho workers were checked for lead poisoning by a ma chine called a iicmatofluorometer, which subjects a tiny sample of blood to a powerful quartz light and Instantly flashes a lead exposure value on a display screen. Readings up to 50 arc considered acceptable, but at CO nnd 70 there Is concern. The Service Color workers registered such values as 101, 107 and 370, according to technicians. Depending on extent of exposure, lead pol.voiiltig ran produce brain damage, res piratory failure, anemia, tremors, paralysis, kidney problems, toss of tcotli, depression, leclliists of hostility nnd chronic unhappi ness. The clangers and conditions in tho plant led workers and iliclr unltm the United Rubber Workers, to protest. A team of safely administration Inspectors swooped down. Today, uccording to plant manager John Busco. some new duct work, dust collectors, nml other ventilating equipment are being installed nt Service Color. Abo, workers arc being Instructed to wash themselves before ealhig or smoking and to take other prerim lions of that sort. "Not much 11 involved," iiusco said. What has the safety administration done? Butico lias heard nothing, ho says. Soma cita tions are said tu ho wandering somewhere In the dogged arteries of this administration bureaucracy, but two months after the In spection nothing lias been done. "Tlio Joke is," one Service Color employe had said In Groton, "They give you a good pension but you don't live to collect It." There Is a quandary workers often face, and Morton Corn, tho industrial hygienist who now heads the occupational safety agency, sees It clearly: where health is con cerned, what seems a glows hazard may be harmless, and what looks lovely may be lethal. lie recalls a clean, alr-condilloncd factory In the South; "people thought it was Uko working1 ip a hotel,'' yet a chemical unde tectable by human senses poisoned 73 of tho 300 employes At tho same time, In certain kinds of dehydrating plants. Corn says, "I'vo walked through dust that I IcTt footprints in. but it won't harm anyone. "When the worker takes a Job he thinks, `Gee, somebody must have thought about this thing. It must be safe. I'm being asked to work here.' He's seen a lot of dust In his life. How Is he to know whether this is tire dust that will kill him?" When people nre sick, most turn without question to their family doctors, yet the typical family physician knows little about a worker--ax employes of Life Science Prod ucts Co. In TIopewcll, V:i,, discovered last year. After only a few. weeks of working Jn the plant, set up two years ago in a converted gas station, many began to suffer dizzy spells, poor vision, tremors. One man later recalled that when he stopped off for a beer after work, friends had to help him hold the glass. Inevitably, workers went to their doctors. Could it be something at the plant, some asked? Probably not, the physicians eald. More likely It was overwork or nervousness. Or perhaps too many of those beers on the way homo. So, worrying about mortgage pay ments and child support payments and Just getting by- they returned to work. One matt who could not stop trembling eventually went to see a young specialist In cardiology and Internal medicine, a recent emigre from Tawlan named Yl-nan Chou. Chou asked what H was they made in that converted gas station. "Kepone," the man said. Kepone. Chou looked R up in a hand book of poisons. A chlorinated hydrocarbon related to DDT, combining hexachlorocyclopentadiene and sulfur trloxldc, potent ill controlling ants; roaches and banana pests. Chou took sam ples of the man's blood and urine and sent them to the federal Center for Disease Con trol In Atlanta for analysis. Some days later Virginia health authorities arrived Jn Hopewell and began unraveling a major industrial scandal. Tho result: Life Science Co. was shut down, 13 workers were hospitalized and about 40 others were fouiul U> have high levels of the pesticide in their blood. Federal Indictments were returned against the company. Jts own ers and Allied Chemical Co., which had been involved tu the creation of Life Science, but no way found lo cleanse workers' blood of the Kepone. which lias boon linked to blocd cancer hi laboratory animals. "Tile guys who have no voices," Sheldon Samuels of the AFL-CIO calls them, and there Is a special horror to their anonymous plljht. In Isolated shops anti buslne.ses too m;vU for company doctors and union hygien ists, seldom visited even by safety adminis tration Inspectors, they arc .sometimes vic tim.! only or Ignorance, but sometimes they mo also undone by the tricks of ihelr as sorted trades. Commercial fishermen mending their tar- *nakcd nets sometimes hold the darning needle momentarily in their mouths to free BFG20296 200 l$Z f l f; jI s 11240 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE June JO, 1070 both hands; they contract Up cancer In ex traordinary numbers. Auto mechanics often dean of! brake (truing wli.fi n deft blast from on air hose, thereby sending asbestos fibers winging toward their own lungs. House painters and shoe repairmen work with bcu- wne solvents, unaware of the bladder and banc marrow malignancies those chemicals Inflict on their trades. "Who is telling them?" Samuels asks. "Who is doing something for Diem?'' Even safely behind his desk in his oifice, there is something gingerly about the way Robert L. Harris sits in a chair, an appre hensive sil/Tncss as If the last egg of a rare and dying bird has been cnl.vxisi.cd to his lap. HaTrls' unease is understandable. An In dustrial hygienist at the University of North Carolina In Chapel HllJ, he is the director of an unusual occupational health research program sponsored Jointly by the United Rubber Workers and the seven giants of the U.S. rubber industry. Established during ne gotiations on the industry's 1970 master labor contract, Harris' group and a similar unit at Harvard together receive more than (1 million a year In corporate funds to probe the industry's operations and study the health of its workers. The North Carolina group Js a promising model of what could be done In other basic Industries. Like similar units hi government end other private institutions, it Is working to protect workers now and also to over come the critical shortage of basic research data. The problem Is that almost all these units are extremely fragile, lacking perma nent foundations. In Harris* case, the ujilt js precariously balanced between two sponsors whose In terests often conflict. The researchers cannct function without cooperation from the companies,' yet their findings often support the union's conten tion that more needs to be done to protect workers. The situation is especially touchy now: health hazards have become an Issue In the rubber industry's long and bitter strike. Thus far, Harris and his Associates say, there has been no lack of cooperation, no re stricting of their plans, no attempts to alter or suppress research findings. Still, an ad ministrator Is understandably nervous. As a long-range goal with enormous po tential, the unit Is trying to devise a com prehensive. computer-based system for con tinual recording and analysis of the mate rials and processes used in each rubber plant, as well as the work and health histories of all employes. Since chemicals, processes, and employe work assignments change con stantly, a system such as this would vastly simplify the necdle-in-n-hftystuek task of pinpointing occupational health problems and their specific causes. The system might even detect Incipient problems, raising warning flags long before workers begin to sicken and die. Such a capability and its fruils are years away. Meanwhile, the team has proved its worth In more immediate ways: It has done pioneering work In identifying job classifica tions where death and serious disease are high. And lit one case. It quietly hendeo ofT what might years later have become a well- publicized disaster. A major rubber company had begun using a manufacturing process previously aban doned by another company because of pul monary damage lo workers involved: the .company believed It had eliminated the prob lem. Tests by the North Carolina group showed "reversible" pulmonary changes In workers after Initial exposure to the new process, with the likelihood that the dam age would prove permanent with continued exposure. The process was abandoned for the second time. What is to be done? Experts argue over details, blit there fs A large, cheerful man with white hair. widespread agreement that progress must in Scllkoif turned to watch tho men again. volve these elements: "Look at them." lie said. "They arc the solid More money for scientific and technical rlUxcns of our country. Electricians, cariten- research to pinpoint problems and dcvLse ters--trained, capable pcoplo of the sort who sol UtlOllS. built our country. We have to help them, Development of government health and and others like them." .. -- safety regulations that place the burden of protecting workers squarely, and equally, on How One Rig Firm Fought Heai.im Pr.nn.s all employers. (By Richard T. Cooper and Paul E. Steiger) Designing an enforcement Hlratcg-y that Increases voluntary compliance and gives the safety agcncy'6 limited Inspection force a deterrent impact comparable to that of the Midland. Mich.--For tho 36.000 citizens of litis flat, faceless, miles-fron* -anywhere town lost In a sea of scrub trees and plowed fields, life begins and ends with one master, Internal Revenue Service. The budding alliance between labor and environmentalists should be nurtured to as sure integrated government policies: unions a giant corporation with an alchemist's pas sion for turning base materials to gold. Earth, air. water, the dally bread on the table, all lie under the corporate hand. must maintain, or in some cases Increase, Winter and summer, clouds of slcam rise their Insistence that workers' health is not to be traded off for additional pennies An hour, corporations that are trying to improve should be encouraged while those that now profit by avoiding health-related expendi tures must be brought to heel. pjf you can't afford to provide a safe, healthy working place, then you shouldn't be from five square miles of pipes, tanks and kettles ht whleh p^hfiiiiU--produces chlorine, caustic soda, carbolic acid, bug and weed killers, industrial solvents--a witch's brew of toxic substances that makes the radioactive fuel In most nuclear planus seem tamo as lemonade. Almost every paycheck comes directly or In business. You don't have that right." ft veteran safety administration health special ist declared recently. "A businessman rents A worker's time, not his safety and health." * It is important to remember, however, that requiring companies to meet unnecessarily! stringent health standards will raise costs! and prices, possibly eliminating some Jobs.! /ilso, forcing employers to buy needlesslyl elaborate control systems for one hazard willl indirectly from Dow. Even tho lawns ha*. c corporate roots: when herblcldal vapors got looso a lew years ago and killed much of the grass in Midland, Dow paid for reseeding. Voiceless and vulnerable as other com pany towns. Midland enjoys a critical differ ence: while many companies scorned obli vions to the dangers Inherent in their opera tions. Dow pioneered in occupational health mean less money available to deal with otherf dangerous substances, [ Can government, labor, and management ever have enough solid Information to make all the necessary decisions with perfect wis dom? No. Decisions cannot be avoided--Ig noring them amounts to a decision to let disease and premature death continue--but they will have to be made with Imperfect knowledge, experts ngree. The safety administration, for example, established worker exposure limits for 14 major carcinogens even though It docs not research and reform here and elsewhere Ion;: before labor unions, government leaders or the public seemed to care much about such things. As a result, federal officials and even sonu competitors agree, Dow today points the wa; that all corporations must follow If workerand the larger society are to live safely with the golden goose of technology. In Its efforts to protect Its workers amt its environmental neighbors against both In stant health hazards and the carcinogenic time bombs that explode with Increasing reg ularity across the nation, Dow has developed know precisely where the dangerous exposure level begins; to get that information would a large assortment of weapons: Proposed new products and mnnufaciiu- have required the rounding up of 3 million lng processes must undergo progressive^ laboratory animals for testing--an Impossibly costly and protracted experiment that might more rigorous testing In Dow's sophisticated toxicological labs; workers are olfered roc have been useless anyway because of the dif ular medical examinations; individual ox ficulties In assembling "megamousc" popula posurcs to chemicals are monitored and re tion that are genetically comparable enough corded; detailed files are kept to enable u to yield valid results. searchers to correlate health data and work Tire struggle against occupational disease, those involved agree, will be controversial, messy and long. ers' exposure histories, and Dow trains hum to-get industrial hygienists In Its plants. At the same time, Dow researchers con It was afternoon now, and the sun had warmed the air. Irving J. SelikoIT, founder of the pioneering occupational health research center at New York's Mt. Sinai Hospital, duct epidemiological and mortality studO of workers to monitor tho effectiveness < health programs and to search for ui suspected problems. Manufacturing oper. watched outside the entrance to Groton's lions are modified to meet health standard town hall as scores of shipyard workers filed And Dow, a major supplier of tndustrl In to be tested by his mobile team of phy chemicals, has even begun intervening iu sicians and technicians for asbestos cancer lively In (ho way customers use Its product and other damage, What all. this has meant, simply enough, .Scllkotl know in Advance that some of lives saved and crippling Illnesses avoided theso men, exposed for years to lead and In the early lu&os, for example. Dow m asbestos dust in the holds of submarines enlists spotted potential health hazards they were working on, would exhibit the a compound called chloromcthyl mcih telltale signs of disease--abnormal blood, di ether, nit Important ingredient in the dnv. minished lung capacity traced out by a sty ing age or plasties; they Insisted that pi lus as they hulled and pulled inlo an auto ducllon facilities' be designed to limit wm mated spirometer, grainy patches Jike wisps era' oqxwure to one part per million. of cloud on the chest X rays developed In a Some other producers, first unaware trailer behind the building. and then apparently mclliiercnt to the *(-. "We can help these people." lie nul gcr, let exposures lo chloromcthyl met, quietly. "If they have nsbcstosb?, we can't ether and related chemicals soar. Dozen.' change that, but if wo know they have It we workers lu those plants now are known can do things to allow them to live a nor have died from exposure-related lung cum mally full Jifo span. If they have lung can Similarly, Dow toxicologists vetoed pi- cers and wo find them early enough, some to produce an unusually cJlccilvc a: can be saved. Of course, if they have mc- barnacle coating for xhlpn because Aolhelloma . . . There Is no treatment for amcnic-bascd compound, highly polsoin mesothelioma now," could contaminate harbors. And Dow BFG20297 22357003 / >xne 30.1076 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD --SENATE S11241 renily withheld caustic soda from a New -upland customer until huge shields and .-nor safety equipment had been installed protect the customer's workers. To be sure, other companies have made .mporinnt occupational health cirorts, And z.o one. including Dow. suggests tliat the company has always done everything neces sary or desirable as soon as possible. Work ers at Dow plants have dlod ami been In jured in fires, accidents and explosions, ltc-.ontly a group of workers was exposed to the rarclnogen vinyl chloride when 2,000 gallons the substance were accidentally spilled, .-nrther. some or Dow's operating executives ^e more resistant than others to rccomniendationfl for steps that would increase Employe protection. Also, Dow has been among the most outsoDke-n opponents of the proposed Toxic Sub.-.tances Act. which would require premarket -.fisting of chemicals. The company denounces ..oe bill as costly, wasteful and unnecessary interference with business. Nonetheless, there Is widespread agree ment--even among some who still cannot ;orgtve Dow for its role in napalm production miring the Vietnam war--that the company zzan done more than others to promote its vrorkers' occupational health and clone it Sooner than other major industrial corporairons, and thus has avoided many of the problems afflicting U.S. workers generally. Equally Important to the growing debate ;,ver the economic feasibility of occupational wealth reform, Dow's record indicates that .arge firms, at least, should be able to make . uostantlal improvements without reducing -profits or lessening tieir competitive pom pon. as long as top management Insists that : oncern be built into operations from the .round up. Consider vinyl chloride, perhaps the best .anown of recent occupational health night mares. For many producers, It Is a costly and .palling monument to heedlessness. For k>w. it Illustrates the economic and social enefits of what the company has tried to do. Discovered In Germany In the 1930s and neveloped by U.S. firms in the 1950s. vinyl mlorlde today is the world's second most . ommon plastic compound, produced in the .mted States alone at the rate of 5 billion u minds a year. The ubiquitous substance is . ound in phonograph records, meat-wrapping m, auto interiors, water pipe, floor tile. Electrical insulation and hundreds of other roducts. Vinyl chloride, a gas until it Js converted . J a solid through a process known as polyni- nzation, has also been used as an aerosol r ropellant for cosmetics, paints and pesti- .d es. In producing this bonanza, thousands of vorkers were exposed lo vinyl chloride gas, lien in concentrations of hundreds or thou.mds of parts per million and often for l erlods of several years. Some employes were -egularly sent down Into processing kettles .or maintenance work, and occasionally In..iiled so much vinyl chloride tiiat they ex perienced euphoric highs or were nnesthe- :zed. Scattered hints and warnings of medical .rouble cropped up, including evidence that :nyl chloride caused workers' bones to dis solve inside their fingers, but most producers ..'visited uhcad with little regard for all that might be happening to their employes. Until :'74. In January of that year. E. F. Goodrich . u. made the Jolting announcement that iiiyl chloride had been linked to a rare and .aval form of cancer, angiosarcoma of the .ver, among exjxascd workers. Almost ovor- ,.;ght a classic battlo developed among manufacturers, labor unions, health profos- ..vonals and tho federal government. Unions demanded total protection for workers. Producers argued that such reforms would be rimlously expensive, force plant .closings and cost thousands of Jobs. Occupa tional health specialists saw vinyl chloride os the tip of uii iceberg. Finally, the Occu pational Safety and Health Administration imposed a one parl-per-million exposure limit for workers. Thai standard, if strictly enforced, will probably protect future workers, but ns Dr. Irving J. Sclikolf. a prominent environmental health specialist at New York's Mt. Sinai Medical School, said a few months after the Goodrich announcement: "For vinyl chlo ride. in a large sense, we are already too late." Thus far. 49 workers around the world are known to .have died from angiosarcoma. Given the average 20-year time lag between first exposure and death in this type of can cer, the loll among workers already exposed is expected to keep rising for years to come, no matter what is done now. As had others. Dow steadily Increased Its involvement with vinyl chloride in the 1940s" and 1950s, becoming a manufacturer of polymers and also a leading supplier of vinyl chloride gas to other processors. nut In keeping with general company policy of minimizing employe exposure to all chemicals. Dow's operations seem to have been tighter than most. More important, Dow's toxicological lab began a series of In halation studies with rats, rabbits aud guinea pigs in the late 1930s. By today's standards, the tests were rela tively unsophisticated, but they were soon to make a critical difference. Groups of animals were exposed to various concentrations of vinyl chloride gas seven hours a day, five days a week for periods of Six months--a rough approximation of a worker's potential exposure. Then the animalS'Were killed, along with unexposed con trol animals, so that pathologists could make tissue comparisons. What researchers found was evidence of liver cell changes in the vinyl chloride-ex posed tissue that were so subtle they would have gone unnoticed except in direct com parison with cells from unexposed animals. Dow toxicologist Theodore R. Torkelson, who was in charge of the studies, said there were "reversible fatty changes, evidence of stress, about the lowest level of injury you can have.'' What Torkelson and his colleagues did not know then was that they were at the thresh old of discovering the angiosarcoma link to vinyl chloride almost 15 years before the B. F. Goodrich announcement. If Dow scientists had kept some of the ex posed animals alive a little longer--now standard practice in vsuch studies--instead of sacrificing them immediately after expo sure stopped, Torkelson is convinced the tumors would have been found. "I've kicked myself many times that I did not take 20 of those rats and let them sit for six months," Torkelson said recently, Be that as it may. Dow published its re sults in 19G0, including data indicating liver cell damage was detectable at 100 parts per mllion exposure levels but not at 60 ppm. The- company urged the entire plastics In dustry to adopt a 50-ppm exposure limit voluntarily. Other .scientists dismissed the cell changes Dow had found as insignificant. Other com panies rejected the proposal for cutting ex posures. .sonic even criticizing Dow ns alarm ist. Dow, however, set In motion an internal program that cut exposures below 50 ppm for most of its own workers within a few months, then worked on the handful of dif ficult and more costly situations over a peri od of years. The result: Dow's cleanup cost it less than S3 million, company oiiiclals say, spread com fortably over an extended period. And when the Occupational Safety and Health Admin istration imposed its 1-ppm limit last year Dow met It without the expensive upheaval that Its competitors had to endure. Most important, thus fur no cases of angiosarcoma have been reported among Dow's vinyl chloride workers. Just wiiy Dow in particular developed the system that .so far lias kept it out of the worst of the occupational health minefields is not fully clear, hurt of the answer may he that Dow began ns a family firm concentrated in Midland so that top executives had a strong sense of personal identification with Dow's activities and were not isolated from lower-level subordinates or production work ers. Regardless of precisely why it developed, one thing seems clear about Dow's system: instead of being spawned in crisis and im posed on reluctant production managers by remote corporate officials, it haa been woven gradually into the fabric of the company's op erations over many years--and the evolu tionary process has contributed substantially lo the system's present effectiveness. By including the occupational and environ mental health experts in decisions on design, marketing and production at early stages, Dow officials say they minimize friction, avoid errors, reduce the need for costly retrofitting of equipment and raise efficiency--All con crete business benefits that Increase the en thusiasm of operating executives for coop erating with the occupational health special ists. Most company officials trace the beginnings of this system, and of Dow's exceptional con cern for workers' health, to a set of puzzling accidents in tho early 1030s. Within a period of a few weeks, two men were found dead at the Midland plant. Tlie first death was initially attributed to heart failure, but, when the second'worker died, officials began looking for another explana tion. They found one. Tlie second worker--and, it is now believed, the first man as well-- had cleaned his skin In a company locker room with a colorless liquid he mistook for alcohol. The liquid was phenol, a chemical used In making hospital antiseptics, explo sives. plastics and some dyes. "If you spill enough phenol on you to make a patch about like so," said top Dow scientist V. K. Rowe, describing a 12-inch circle on his thigh, "you cau wash it right off. and all you'll have is a little skin burn. Or you can leave it on there for 20 minutes and you'll be dead." Dow officials had known all along that phenol wits dangerous, but they bad not known how dangerous. Nor had they trained workers to recognize the compound and deal with it e/Tcctively if they had contact with It. The phenol incident struck a worrisome chord In the mind of Willard Dow, then tho company's president. HLs scientists were conjuring up new com pounds every day. How many more might turn out to be sudden killers? Dow, son of the company's founder, did not much like the idea ol' finding out only after his workers hud died or been disabled. He put a young, freshly hired biochemist Lo work testing for potential hazards. From that impromptu beginning tlie com pany has developed a program thaL ivsptres to prolcctmot only Dow workers and Dow customers but also the customers' workers and the customers' customers irom tlie risks Inherent tn the mure than 0.000 separate chemical combinations me company sells or uses. Whut slui'tfrt with one man ut one lab bench now involves hundreds of people and oa much as $20 million h year. Willi nil tin .illciuion lo toxic substances Mid the health of Its workers, Dow Chemical Co. has scarcely Millercd financially. Over tho last 20 years Us Mutual sales have Increased BFG20298 22357004 i S11242 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD --SENATE June 30, 1070 more than tenfold, to *4.0 billion, while conflicting requirements exist notwithstand- proilla have Increased by nearly 1C times, to 1 n| the primary biological tlllTcrencc between $G10 million, Jymtw and women, that difference known as Woman's Work: Biology vs. Civil Bigots (By Marlene Clmons) .W..ashington.--Thirty-seven women .In on Idaho lead smelter recently were told they could no longer work In lead operations be cause of the potential adverse effects of lead on their future offspring. The women, ail of childbearing age, were transferred by the company to other, safer Jobs--at less pay. A mother of four, employed in a lead stor age battery plant, was told she would have to prove she was no longer fertile to continue working. She hud herself sterilized to keep her Job. A woman at a California flberbonrd plant, two months pregnant, stopped working after her physician warned her that association with formaldehyde might harm the fetus. She applied for a transfer or for disability benefits. The company resisted. All she re ceived was unemployment pay, *85 a week leas than her working salary. A female research technician In a thyroid laboratory of a health care facility learned sho was two months pregnant. Her work ex posed her to limits of radiation considered safe by the then-Atomic Energy Commission and the Occupational Safety and Health Ad ministration. But her employer could not guarantee the exposure would not harm her unborn child. The employer told her to take maternity leave--without pay--or quit. She chose to resign, in order to collect unem ployment benefits, and on returning was treated as a "new hire." These stories, taken from the handbook, "Working for Your Life: A Woman's Guide to Job Health Hazards" by Andrea Hricko, health coordinator of the Labor Occupational Health Program at TJC Berkeley, illustrate a particular dilemma faced by women os they gain equity In the Job market: bow can they be protected without suffering economic loss? This problem, along with the occupational health and safety questions faced by all workers, became the focus of a three-day conference here recently on "Women in the Workplace." sponsored by the Society for Occupational and Environmental Health. Labor unions, health specialists and others have long argued that no Worker, male or lemale, should be forced to choose between health and safety on one hand, good wages or a Job on the other. Such choices amount to economic blackmail, union leaders say, charging that the Occupational Health and Safety Administration should make a safe workplace a matter of legal right--not some thing to be bartered for with lower pay or other sacrifices by the employe. Where women are concerned, however, a troubling new aspect of this issue has emerged: some chemicals and other work place hazards appear to pose dangers unique to women or their unborn children. Federal regulations are designed to dictate what an employer must do to protect workers gen erally, but so far there Is little provision for the special risks faced by women. Thus, business firms may bo free to establish their 'own rules, sometimes forcing women to choose between greater safety and better pay. Tills, many women's leaders believe, is a form of sex discrimination. The Occupational Safety and Health Act mandates that employers provide safe and healthful workplaces for employes, while the the female's reproductive capacity. But also not to be ignored are the possible hazards presented by industry to the genetic systems oefffebcotitvlielmy endeaanl dwWitohmetnh,isHodwilecmamn aIn, dwushtirlyo' simultaneously complying with the man dates of both OSHA and the EEOC?" Andrea Hricko thinks the answer Is quite simple, although Industry might not readily comply. "Until occupational health standards arc stringent enough to protect the developing fetus, tiie woman worker--at the very least--should be Informed by her employer about the potential effects of hazardous chemicals on the fetus." she said. "And sho should be given the opportunity to transfer to another Job during the pregnancy with out loss of pay, renlorlty or other benefits. If the worker must temporarily leave work, she should be able to return to her former Job after childbirth with seniority and all her other benefits." Anne Trebllcock, assistant general counsel with the United Auto Workers, agrees. "We have come to a sad state In this country when a woman must choose between her child-bearing capacity and her Job," she said. How does one company respond? "If there is valid and conclusive scientific evidence that a hazard to pregnant women existed and that the employo barred from a Jo). In the hazardous area was, In fact, preg nant or had child-bearing capacity, the alleged discrimination would appear to be defensible," said Portia Hamlar, the Chrysler Corp. lawyer. "If such was established, two ancillary Issues would surface. First, was the employe temporarily transferred to a nonhazardous Job location rather than tempo rarily suspended? Secondly, if a transfer was aflectcd. did it Involve loss of pay or se niority?'' As for transfer versus suspension, she said, many court decisions have supported a preg nant employe's right continue to work as long as her physician considers It safe. "Therefore, a transfer to a non-hazardous Job Becni3 to be the more proper alternative," she said. "Of course . . . (this) depends upon whether . . . the employer has vacancies In any jobs In non-hazardous areas. It Is con ceivable that In certain types of businesses, jobs nonliazardous to pregnant women or women of childbearing capacity simply do not exist." As to seniority and equal pay? `'While retention of seniority is subject to union bargaining, equal pay pursuant to a temporary transfer presents a totally differ ent problem," she said. "Such an adjustment would raise the issue of wage discrimination against permanent employes in the location to which the temporary transfer was made, as well as nullify the employer's pre-estab lished Job-wago classifications. Such a result docs not appear to be reasonable or legal." She compared it to employment of the handicapped. "Although the employer is ex pected to make Job modifications In order to employ the handicapped, those modifications do not Include pay for a Job the employe Is tumble to perform due to a physical limita tion." sho said. "For th same reason, a pregnant employe should not receive pay which Is higher than that allocated to the assigned Job." Equal Employment Opportunity Act and Just what ore some of these hazards that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prohibit women face, cither by virtue of their child- discrimination against women in the work bearing capacity, or simply by their large place. Sometimes, the two legislative areas concentrations In certain Job classifications? appear to clash. How can they ba reconciled? Also, do some of these toxic substances pose No one yet has a definitive answer. a threat to male workers ns well? In some "These anti-sex discrimination law's re coses, the answer appears to be yes. quire that women are to be treated the anmo Tlio toxicity of lead has been known for as men," said Portia Hnmlar, an attorney approximately 3,000 years; a Roman senator with the Chrysler Corp, In Detroit. These warned against It In the first century A.D. It Is capable or damaging the central nervous system, tho kidneys and blood-forming ele ments, with a high probability of pcnnniiencc. If exposure Is great. It can result In coma, convulsions and death. A common manifestation of load poisoning In workers Is severe abdominal pain, a condition known ns ' lead colic." "Persons who arc exposed to lead, on the Job are In double Jeopardy since the lead exposure while working most be added to the lead entering their bodies from general en vironmental exposure, which in certain in-, stances mny already b excessive.'* said Dr. Kenneth Brldbord, a medical olficer with the National institute for Occupational Safety and Health. '"In this regard, women workers of child bearing age must be considered to be of triple risk," he said. EFFECTS OF LEAD Peter F. Infante, an epidemiologist with NIOSH and Joseph K. Wagoner, NIClll's chief of the bureau of Industry-wide studies, in a paper on the effects of lead on reproduction presented to conference participants, wrote: "Observations among human populations Indicate that lead Is associated with sterility, spontaneous abortions, stillbirths, birth de fects, Increased Infant mortality, increased prematurity and an increase in chromosomal anomalies." The two also cited studies linking lead ex posure to reproductive problems in men, the most recent being a 1975 report examining 150 male workers exposed to lead in a stor age battery facility. The study showed a sig nificant decrease In fertility, including a toxic effect on gonads and changes in sperm production, sperm strength and the likeli hood of transmitting potential birth defects. In addition, they wrote, animal tests have shown respiratory and kldrey cancers fol lowing exposure to lead. "Cancer mortality experience In Shoshone County, Idaho, where primary lead and zinc smelters are located Is also of interest," they wrote. "During the period 1908-73, the respiratory cancer mor tality rate for Shoshone County was the highest recorded in the state." The dangers of mercury can affect an esti mated 125,000 employes, the majority of them women, who work as chairsitle dental assistants. Mercury, a heavy silver metal used to fill teeth. Is liquid at room temperature, but quickly vaporizes Into the air--where It can easily be Inhaled. Signs of chronic mercury vapor poisoning Include inflammation of the gums and mouth, excessive salivation, metallic taste, emotional instability and tremor. It can pro duce kidney damage and acute respiratory problems. A study sponsored by tho California De partment of Health's occupational health section and the department of health science at California State University, NorthrJdge. examined 19 dental offices employing 303 dental workers, 177 of them women. It found mercury contamination In every office. Operating room personnel who are Con tinually exposed to anesthetic gases face a potentially increased risk of cancer, miscar riages and birth defects. A study undertaken by tho American Society of Anesthesiologists and NIOSH examined 50,000 operating room professionals, with 24,000 unexposed medical and nursing professionals serving as controls. The figures were presented by Dr. Thomas H. Corbett, associate professor of anesthesiology at tho University of Michigan Medical Center. HIGHEST JUSIC CASES The study found 1.3 to 2 times the inci dence of spontaneous abortion in exposed women, compared with unexposed female personnel. Women physIclan-nnesUictlRtB were at tho highest risk, followed by nurse anesthetists. Tho Incidence of congenital ab normalities among live-born offspring of ex- 22357005 BFG20299 )