Document K6Bg6QYqOKgVNLj5aMO7B1gdQ

From: - John Lomartire To: St. Louis J. M. Qinmbcrlln V, W. Weiss C E. Hathaway Atlanta 0, J. (UmtttM II, B. English E, K. McIntosh W. F. Rhodes yu-.;TS 191A - June 14, 1974 Decatur D. L. Wood G. B. Hughey A. D. Cheraak J. B. Denmark F. Galil M. Rocha 0. It. Tyler Charlotte K. S. Pippin New York E. 0. Hussey R. A. Thompson Pensacola 0. A. Pickett J, H, Saunders Durham E. L. Ringwald R, B, Thompson WALL STREET JOURNAL - JUNE 14, 1974 Death of 2 Polyvinyl Chloride Workers From Rare Type of Cancer Is Verified !<> ------------------ - By Barry Kramer man declined to Identify the factory in Staff Reporter af The Wall Street Jourhal volved, and a Labor Department spokesman A second death from angiosarcoma of in Washington Identified it only as a Strat the liver, a rare form of cancer previously ford plant that makes polyvinyl-coated fab linked to vinyl chloride occupational expo rics. A further Investigation is being under sure, has been discovered In the polyvinyl taken to learn If the accountant ever worked chloride plastic fabricating Industry, the an the production line. Connecticut Health Department announced Although a definite relationship between In Hartford. occupational exposure and angiosarcoma In The two deaths Increase concern that the the two polyvinyl chloride workers cannot occupational danger of cancer from vinyl be made, the Labor Department spokesman chloride, a gas used to make polyvinyl said contact with all other chemicals, drugs chloride plastic, may be more widespread and diseases that can effect the liver had than had been thought. Since January, IS cues of liver angiosarcoma have been de tected among vinyl ohlortde workers from been ruled out In the two cases, leaving only polyvinyl chloride as a known possibility. plants that manufactured the gas or that po Connecticut's cancer registry, which un lymerized the gas Into the plastic. Six other covered the two oases and which is one of cases have been reported abroad. the oldest and most accurate In the nation, But the Connecticut cases are the first lists six confirmed cases of angiosarcoma of known in the polyvinyl chloride fabricating the liver since the registry was begun In industry, which turns the plastic into a myr 1936. The other four cases didn't have iad of finished products ranging from furni known exposure to either vinyl chloride or ture to coated fabric to eleotric cable cover polyvinyl chloride, according to Dr. Bar ing. German scientists recently reported bara Qirlstine, chief of the health depart finding "precursors" of angiosarcoma in the ment's chronic disease section. She said the livers of six workers In a plant that turned link between polyvinyl chloride and the two polyvinyl chloride plastic into floor Ules. angiosarcoma deaths "might just be But the Connecticut cases, confirmed as chance." angiosarcoma by the National Cancer Insti The link between vinyl chloride gas and tute bi Bethesda, Md., are the first actual liver angiosarcoma is strong, and scientists cases. In the U.S. an estimated 6.600 per believe that tf a link Is determined between sons work In the vinyl chloride Industry, exposure to polyvinyl chloride plastic and while the number working in the polyvinyl the rare cancer It will be because the plastic chloride industry numbers in the hundreds contains pockets of unpolymerized vinyl of thousands. chloride monomer that are liberated in The Connecticut Health Department an heating the plastic when it is fabricated into nounced the first case last week, and Gen different products. eral Electric Co. disclosed that K was a 60- Labor Department hearings designed to year-old employe who for 30 years had oper set permanent standards for vinyl chloride1 ated machines at a Bridgeport cable manu atmospheric concentrations in factories are facturing plant that processed various plas scheduled to begin June 26 in Washington. A tics, including polyvinyl chloride. The man temporary celling of 50 parts vinyl chloride died last July, GE said. per million parts of air is currently In effect The second case Involved a man who and the Labor Department has proposed a worked as an accountant In a polyvinyl limit at levels too small to be detected, a re chloride fabricating plant In the same part quirement the Industry has said would be of the state. A health department spokes- Impossible to meet. RSV 0006811