Document K6OdQw727dEZbprdqMNzZZR3Q

OSHn/ 'Jc vented tube from each engine blows aiy at very high pressure and forces grav<j away from the engine intake. Other operating problems include temperatures that are 50F to 60F Be low zero, 60-mph winds, and total dM-kness in December and January in/the High Arctic. Engines on airstrip e<*iipment such as trucks and snowplow1 are not turned off from Dec. 1 to Mar. i5. Though the regionals, too, facp fuel problems, all are predicting revenue in creases this year. They see thr big gest growth potential in scheduled pas senger service, although no/one is scoffing at the big bucks to beAnade in hauling drilling equipment-aftd beerto oil teams in the Arctic or yo the offagain, on-again $6-billion James Bay hydroelectric project in nuythwestern PWA ships cattle to the Orient and oil-drillini quipment to the Arctic Quebec. Nordair dies there from Mon treal, and Quebecair operates cargo- only service. Cattle plane. In the eyes/bf many indus try observers, Pacific Western is the best run of the regionals. Its fleet con sists of seven Boeing/737s, with three more on order, plus two 727s, two long- range 707s, five ConvAir 640s, four Her cules jet-prop freighters, and a few fly ing boats, pwa's operations range from its scheduled passenger services to shipping cattle tofthe Orient and ex tensive relief worlain such places as Ni geria and Bangl^esh, Scheduled pas senger services /account for roughly 65% of pwa's revenues, charters for about 10%, and Jeargo sendees for the remaining 25% Its cattle pline is typical of pwa's willingness to /provide specialized ser vices to meet Special needs. A conven tional Boeina 707-320C, the plane can be equipped Aith either 13 stalls hold ing about 83 1,000-lb. cattle or double tiers of peni that will accommodate a great mam' more smaller animals. Donald N. Watson, PWa president, says that the p/ane has carried as many as 700 cattlefrom Toronto to Athens. The real keys to profits for pwa and the other regionals, however, have been jets and charters. The jets boosted/available seat-miles on routes with gfod load factors, and the char ters gqwc the carriers the capability to use their aircraft more economically. Keith Miller, executive vice-presi dent Iof Eastern Provincial Airways, estimates the seat-mile cost on a ltiO- passfcnger 737 at 2.2c a mi., compared with 5.5c for each mile on the 11-seat lluhdiey Page Heralds the 737s arc re placing. The break-even livid factor on the jets is 42%, vs. about 80% on the prop planes. "The stimulation of a 737 is very substantial," Miller says. * TECHNOLOGY Industry's latest cancer scare The deaths of five workers in ten years seem linked to working on the plastic Federal officials met last week with plastics industry executives in Cleve land and Washington to try to deter mine whether the industry has un knowingly been exposing some of its 6,500 blue-collar workers to fumes that can lead to a rare form of liver cancer known as angiosarcoma. The focus was on 28 of the 42 plants in the U. S, that make vinyl chloride or use it to produce polyvinyl chloride resin (pvc), one of the most common plastics. The hearings grew out of the deaths of four workers over the last six years at a B. F. Goodrich Chemical Co. plant in Louisville, Ky. They could ultimately bring costly new rules for the pvc in dustry, whose resins are used in such items as pipe, floor tile, phonograph records, and latex wall paints. "Improvements in work practices will probably require a 100% increase in the work force," says Walter B. Connolly, Jr., labor counsel for Firestone Tire & Rubber Co., which operates PVC plants in Pottstown, Pa., and Perryville, Md. In any case, the current pvc hulla baloo is certain to spark new demands by organized labor for closer exam ination of the possible long-range ef fects on workers of other industrial chemicals. "The cancer took 15 to 20 years to develop," says one federal epi demiologist. Other chemicals could have similar "latency" periods, he says, so there could be more eruptions in the years ahead. "I hope we're not seeing the beginning of a health collapse." The vinyl chloride case is not the chemical industry's first encounter with OSHA over careinogenics. Last May the agency invoked emergency standards for 14 chemicals (bw- May 19, 1973). Finai rules for these mate rials went into effect last week, though both industry and labor are suing for judicial review. The prospect of new, petrochemical versions of such health time bombs as "black lung" and mercury poisoning, makes plastic industry leaders shudder. And indeed, new data presented at the standing-room-only osha hearing by Italian researcher Cesare Maltoni, of Bologna's Institute of Cancer, leave little doubt that vinyl chloride is carcinogenic-at least to rats. He exposed 67 rats to air containing 250 parts per million of vinyl chloride off and on for 52 weeks. By the end of 127 weeks, Maltoni reported, two had contracted angiosarcoma and nine contracted other forms of cancer. Many chemical industry executives had downgraded the importance of earlier animal test results because the dosages were mas- A solvent that crippled chemical workers Last August, Thomas F. Meade, 22, was stricken with a nerve disease after two years of work at Columhus Coated Fabrics Co., a subsidiary of Borden. Inc., in Columbus, Ohio, that makes vi nyl-coated fabrics for luggage and wall coverings. The disease, diagnosed as peripheral neuropathy, left Meade crippled, and today he wears leg braces. He is the most severely af fected of some 130 workers at the plant who have suffered symptoms of the dis ease. The lesser symptoms include weakness and loss of coordination. When the symptoms became wide spread last summer, state health offi cials tested the nerve responses of the plant's 1.124 employees and told 200 of them to stay home lor two months. Many others stayed home, too, out of fear. By December, most employees had returned, and many who had showed neuropathic symptoms ap peared well again. Meanwhile, Ohio health officials had zeroed in on an ink solvent, methyl butyl ketone, used in applying decora tive patterns, as the most likely culprit. While continuing to monitor the plant's air, they banned the use of mbk. The plant's managers have switched to a substitute, improved ventilation, is sued respirators to print shop workers, and moved lunch areas away from work areas. But Corwin Smith, president of Lo cal 487 of the Textile Workers Union of America, which represents the plant's workers, is not satisfied. He says that 26 members are still out with the dis ease, that eight of them are severely crippled, and that three workers whose condition improved are now sick again. On Fob. 9, the local struck the plant as negotiations collapsed on a new con tract; one of the union demands was a ''proper work environment." Says Smith; "People here don't know whether they will be crippled in the fu ture or not." P, I'i'i*.? >.% .vrry >;phriin<y?* *y/4 BOR 007244 TECHNOl og :4 :A } sive, on the order to 5,000 to 30,000 ppm. The bombehell. The cancer crisis hit the vinyl industry just a month ago. Not ing an unusual number of liver ail ments among the Louisville plant workers, B. F. Goodrich physicians ran blood tests last fall on the 271 workers in the plant's PVC facility and found 55 with apparent liver abnormalities. The company reviewed medical and insur ance records and by Jan. 16 had discov ered three deaths since 1971 that were attributable to angiosarcoma. Federal health officials estimate the annual death toll in the U. S. from this rare ppm limit recommended since 1972 by the American Conference of Govern ment Industrial Hygienists. In 1970, Italian researcher Dr. P. L. Viola re ported that rats exposed to heavy doses of vinyl chioride developed malignant tumors. Several European chemical companies banded together to support research by Maltoni, and in the U. S., the Manufacturing Chemists Assn, be gan to discuss an industry-wide re search program. A year ago, the MCA set up an animal test program that will not be completed until late 1975. The association also contracted with Tabershaw-Cooper Associates, of Berkeley, nors, Jr., general manager of the Plas tics Div. of Diamond Shamrock Chem ical Co., which also observes that limit, "there are not enough fumes in the air to smell." Where concentrations are higher, he says, "we have ordered our men to wear gas masks." Vinyl fumes arise partly from leaks in pipes and valves. But another likely source is the polymerization vessels, when they are opened for cleaning and maintenance. NIOSH officials are con centrating now on the polymerization process, but they plan to extend their studies eventually to monomer produc tion, as well as PV'c fabrication and form of cancer at only about 20. On Jan. 29 fur ther review by Goodrich p-- ~r even consumer use of pvc 1! products. Since safe limits for vi turned up a 1968 death (two more cases, includ * ing a 1964 death, were nyl chloride are unknown, V NIOSH is emphasizing safe work practices rather identified this week). The company's top rr than arbitrary concentra tion limits. Its recommen management had already f / dations fbr the Louisville decided on public disclo plant, for example, in sure. It reported the situ clude such things as over ation to the National In head cleaning, daily show stitute for Occupational ers and clothing changes Safety & Health and to for workers, and ex the Kentucky Labor Dept. panded air monitoring. It also began notifying Pinning If down. Goodrich's employees in all of its vi Louisville plant uses nyl chloride and PVC oper about 50 different chem ations, and it sent a re icals, and there is no proof lease to the press. "We of a direct link between are doing our utmost to vinyl chloride and the express our real and liver cancer eases. But serious concern," says NIOSH officials are certain John J. Bell, the com that the link exists, and pany's public affairs direc A B. F Goodrich safety inspector uses a chemical ' sniffer'' to check tor, "and yet prevent any whether vinyl chloride fumes are leaking from a polymerizing reactor. the mca's Johnson con cedes that "vinyl chloride undue panic." is the material of primary NIOSH, which had immediately sent Calif., to check the available death suspicion." Only two other carcinogens, experts to Louisville, held a briefing records of workers at other vinyl arsenic and thorium-232, are proven eariy last week in Cleveland to tell plants. "So far," says Kenneth John causes of angiosarcoma, and medical management and labor leaders in the son, MCA technical director, "the results records on the four Goodrich workers industry what it knew about the car haven't been subjected to statistical showed no exposure to either. cinogenic effects of vinyl chloride. And analysis." Both NIOSH and industry officials on Friday, many of the same execu To Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, the history hope, though, that the link is peculiar tives showed up in Washington for the shows that "our approach to the prolv to Goodrich's Louisville plant. Says osita hearing. The federal agency will determine whether the situation war rants either an emergency standard or NIOSH hopes that the cause is a combination NIOSH Director Marcus M, Key; "We still hold to the possibility that the cause could be a combination of two or at least a start on the regular ruie- of factors at only one plant maki ng process. three things acting together in the manufacturing process." The attitude of organized labor was lem was, shall I say, leisurely." Seli The Louisville plant is Goodrich's a major concern. Anthony Mazzoechi, koff, director of environmental medi oldest pvc plant and, unlike most legislative director of the Oil, Chemical cine at New York City's Mount Sinai newer plants, is enclosed. It also ha., a & Atomic Workers, who attended the School of .Medicine, has been a frequent number of older workers on the line. NIOSH briefing, says; "It's apparent critic of industrial health practices, and Some workers may have been affected we're dealing with a carcinogen. We one chemical executive calls his re by an epidemic of hepatitis that swept want to reduce exposure to zero. But mark, made at the osha meeting, the city a few years ago. A number of we have a wait-and-see attitude right "hindsight." other rubber and chemical plants, and now.'' Belatedly or not, some PVC producers their fumes, are located nearby. And While the fatalities at Louisville have been tightening up their oper the plant is one of the few that uses \ i- came as a shock to the industry, vinyl ations. Goodrich, for example, says it nvlidcnc chloride as a copolymorizir.g chloride has been suspect for a long had already done, or was doing, most of agent. Rudolph Jaeger, a phvsioiog',1 time. Some 15 years ago Dow Chemical the things Niosii recommended after at the Harvard School of Public Health, Co., based on its own studies, adopted visiting the Louisville plant, including told the osha meeting that test data an average exposure limit of 50 ppm sticking to a 50-ppm average exposure appear to point to that chemical, too, a.-, for its workers-vveli below the 200- limit. "At 50 ppm," says Harry Con a carcinogen. , TSChMjLOGV BUSINESS iVK teotuaty BOR 00724S 101 it =