Document KzKVKon4xwNZMYwr2dqq5pDM0

p. Ymtd tube frum nrb engine Mow* air technology tl ry high pn-**urc and fnm* grovel away from the engine intake. Industry's latest cancer scare' Other inriwk temperature* that are 3nK In raK ! Ibv un. wimk and total dark* ACM in Dccemiicr and January in the High ArvtW. Engine* nn airatnp rtprip* meat Midi an truck* and unnwnlmr* are The deaths ol live workers not tamed elf fr*m Dee. 1 to Mar. I V in ten years seem linked fects on worker* of other industrial chemical*. "The cancer took 15 to 20, year* to develop." aay* one federal epl* Though the regivnato, loo. lace fuel to working on the plastic proMems. all are predicting revenue in dcminlngint. Other chemicals could have similar "latency** periods, he says, creases this year. They nee their big so there could he more eruptions in the gest growth potential in scheduled pas* Federal officials met last week with years ahead. "1 hope we're not seeing enjrer urvin, although no one is plastics industry executives in Cleve the beginning of a health collapse." scoffing at the big bucks to lie made in land and Washington to try to deter The vinyl chloride case is not the hauling drilling cquipment-and beer- mine whether the industry has un chemical industry's Ar*t` encounters to oQ teams In the Arctic or to the off- knowingly been exposing seme of its with osha over carcinogenic*. Last agala, on-again $6>bi1linn James Bar 6/*00 blue-collar workers to fumes that May the agency invoked emergency hydroelectric project in northwestern can lead to a rare form of liver cancer standards for 14 chemicals (BW- May PWA ships cattle to the known as angiosarcoma. The focus was 19. 1973). Final rules for these mate on 2S of the 42 plants in the U. S. that rial* went into effect last week, though Orient and oil-drilling make vinyl chloride or use it to produce both industry and labor are suing for equipment to the Arctic polyvinyl chloride resin (pvc), one of judicial review. the most common plastics. The prospect of new, petrochemical Quebec. Nordair flies there from Mon The hearings grew out of the deaths versions of such health time bombs as treal. and Qoebecair operates eargo- of four worker* over the last six yean "black lung" and mercury poisoning, oalyaerviea. at a B. F. Goodrich Chemical Co. plant makes plastic industry leaders shudder. Canto atone. In the eyes of many indus in Louisville. Ky.Thev could ultimately And indeed, new data presented at the try observers. Pacific Western is the bring costly new rules for the pvc in standing-room-only osiia hearing by,- ; belt run of tbs regional*. Its fleet eon- dustry, whose resins are used in such Italian researcher Cesare Maltoni, of ^ ' slats of seven Boeing 747*. with three item* a; pipe. flrjr tile, phonograph Bologna's institute of Cancer, leave ' ` more on order, plum two 7:17s. two long* records, and late.: wall paints. "Im little doubt that vinyl chloride is car- ; . tangs 707a, ftre Convair 640s. four H cr provements in work practices will rinogenic-at least to rata. He exposed eates Jet-prep freighters, and a few fly probably require a 10(fi increase in the 7 rats to air containing 230 parts per r ing boats. fWA'i operations range from work force." says Walter B. Connolly. million of vinyl chloride off and on for '> Ha scheduled passenger services to Jr.. labor counsel for Firestone Tire & 52 week*. By the end cf 127 weeks, U shipping cattle to tr.e Orient and Rubber Co,, which operates pvc plants Maltoni reported, two had contracted * Uttrire rsUcf work in such places as Ni in Pottstown. Pa_ and Perryville, lid. angiosarcoma and nine contracted geria aad Bangladesh. Scheduled pas In any case, the current pvc hulla other forms of cancer. Many chemical senger serriccs aeeount for roughly baloo is certain to spark new demands industry executives had downgraded 68% of fWA's revenues, charters for by organized labor for closer exam the importance of earlier animal test 4 about 10%. and cargo services for the ination of the possible long-range ef results because the dotages were maa- remaining 25%. ; Its cattle plane is typical ef fwa's sriBingnesa to provide specialised ser- A solvent that crippled chemical workers .vices to meet-special need*. A eunven- tional Boeing 7P7-320C, the plane can Lost August. Thomas F, Meade, 22. zeroed in on an Ink solvent, methyl! . be equipped with either 13 stalk hold was stricken with a nerve disease after butyl ketone, used in applying decora-' ing about 85 UXXMU. cattle or double two years of work at Columbus Coated tire patterns, as the most likely culprit. * iters of pens that will accommodate a float many more smaller animals. Donald N. Wataon. nca president, aars that the plane has carried as many as 7ft) cattle from Temnto to Athena. The real keys to proAti for rwA and the ether regional*, however, hare !* jets and charters. The jets booatsd availshie seat-miles on routes with good load factors, and the char ters giro the carriers the capability to uae their aircraft nuee economically. Keith Milter, executive ttee-presi- dcni of Eastern Provincial Airways, estimates the seal-mile cost- on a lb**- passenger 737 at 2.2c a mu compared with fr- each mile on the 41-nrat Handley Pag* Heralds the 7J7* .ire rt- |daring. The break-wen load factor on the jets la 4T*. rs. about WV on the Crop plane*. "The stimulation of a 737 vary substantial," M ilbrf says. Fabrics Co., a subsidiary of Borden. Ine^ in Columlnts. Ohio, that makes vi nyl-coaled fabrics for luggage and wall coverings. The disease, diairnosed as peripheral neuropathy, left Meade eripoled, and today he wear* teg brarrx. He is the most severely afftried of tome 130 worker* at the plant who have suffered symptoms of the dis ease. The lesser srmptoms include weakness and loss nf coordination. When the symptom* became wide spread test summer, state health offi cials tested the nerve responses of the Plant's 1.124 employees and told 200 of them lu stay home for two months. Many other* stayed home. too. out of fear. Rv hctvmlwr, m-st employee* had returned, and many who had showed neuropathic symptoms ap peared well again. Meanwhile, Ohio health officials had While continuing to monitor the* plant's sir. they banned the use of MBK.. The plant's managers have switched to a substitute, improved ventilation^ is sued respirator* to print shop workers, end moved lunch areas away fram. work areas. 'L But Corwin Smith, president of L-!; cal 4$7 of the Textile Workers Union of ' America, which represents the plant's* workers, is not satisfied. He says that' 26 mcmlwrs are still out with tfte dis- es<\ that eight of them are severely , crippled, and that three worker* whose condition improved are now sick again*; On Fch. 9. the local struck the plant at: negotiation* ndlapwd on a new eon*! tract: one of the union demands was a "proper work environment." Says Smith: "People here don't know whether they m*ill he crippled in the fa-' lure or not." n. TfCWOLOOr RSV 0006655 g*v . * 'on tin order U 5,000 to JOJOOO > inwipatisn. The ranrcr crisis hit the ppm limit recommended since 1972 by the American CnnfitvniT nf Govern ment Industrial Hygienists. In 1970. nor*. Jr,, general manager of DwTto tics Div. of Diamond Shamrock* Chem ical Ce., which also il*serves that limit, Huy! Industry just a month agin Nut* Italian researcher i>r. 1`. L. Viola ro- "there are nnt cnougii fumes in the air unusual numkr f hver ail* ported that rau export to heavy iluws to smell." When.' concentrations are its among the Isiuisville plant nf vinyl chlorulc dovclo|*ctl malignant higher; he says, "tve have ordered our B. P. (J*nlrich physicians nn tumors. Several Eumpean chemical men to wear gas masks."- jiMnod teat* last fall on the ini writer* companies handed together to support Vinyl fumes arise partly from leaks the plant** PVt* facility and fmwd >Vi research by Maltnni. and in the U.S.. in pipes and valves. But another likely apparent liver atmormaliiic*. The the Manufacturing Chemists Assn, be soure* is the polymerization vessels, K--ipnnr nrriewed medical and insur- gan tn discuss an industry-wide ro- when they are opened for cleaning and |aaea record* ami hr Jan. irihad iImw* search program. A rear ago. the MCA maintenance, mush officials are con three dealhi nine* 1971 that were set up an animal test program that will centrating now on the polymerization attributable to angHMurvofna. Federal Hot be completed until late 1975. The process, hut they plan to extend their `health officials ostimulu the annual association also contracted with Taber- studies eventually to monomer produc toll in the U.& from this rare shaw-Cooper Associates, of Betkcley, tion, as well as rvc fabrication and 'form of cancer at only _ _____ even consumer use of fvc .about 20. On Jan. 29 fursther review by Goodrich 7 products. Since safe limits for vi tamed op a I960 death nyl chloride sre unknown. rttwa mot nun, indud- _ K108H is emphasizing safe if a 19ft death, wen i ' this week). I * jTM ' work practices rather than arbitrary concentra The company** top tion limits. Its recommen 'nagsmsnf had already ; i dations for the Louisville [decided eo public dueio- plant, for example*, in It reported the dto* Km to the National In* tatitute for Occupational fety k. Health and to f\ \ dude such things as overt head cleaning, daily show ) ers and dothing changes for workers, and ex Jthn Kentucky Labor Dept tit1 also began notifying a panded air monitoring, PkwUwg it down. Goodrich*# Imnplopaas in all of lu ri- Louisville plant uses [yfchloride and nx per- about 50 different chem ttlons. and It cent a re* to the prm. **We I icals, and there is no proof of a direct link between A doing our utmost to ^express our real and leua concern.** eaya ?John J. Bell, the com J; o{ l' r vinyl chloride and the liver eancer eases. But KtOSB officials are certain that the link exists, and pany** public aflairs diree* A & P. Goodncn sate* n*oector uses a enemies! `'snifter* to cheek tot "and yet prevent aiqr *fOW wnp cMOnOe lumes are btkmg from a po)ymonz>np resetor the mca's Johnson con cedes that "vinyl chloride ^dae panic." is the material of primary VtOSa, which had immediately sent Califs to check the. available death expert* to Louisville. beki a briefing records of workers at other vinyl unity last week in Cleveland to tell plants. **So far." says Kenneth John suspicion.* Only two other carei nogens. arsenie and thorium-232, are proven causes of angiosarcoma, and medical management and labor leaden in the son. MCA technical director, "the results ` taduetry what it knew about the ear- haven't been subjected to statistical doaganlc effect* of vinyl chloride. And analysis." records on the four Goodrich workers showed no exposure to either. Both mosk and industry ' officials V,: on Friday, many of the tame exeru- To Dr. Irving J. Selikoff. the history hope, though, that the link is peculiar Sa' tire* showed op in Washington for the shows that "our approach to the nroK to Goodrich's Louisville plant. Says - OHA bearing. The federal agency will determine whether the titustion war- NIOSH hopss that the cause fonts eitbeeon emergency standard or is a combination vjfSH Director Mareus M. Key: "We still hold to the possibility that the cause could be a combination of two or yr-A at least a start on the regular rule* of factors at only one plant making process . three things acting together in the manufacturing process." The attitude of organized labor was $> a major concern. Anthony Mazzruvhi. legialatire director of the Oil, ChcmkaJ . 1 A Atomic Workers, who attended the '/ moatt briefing, says "It's apparent lem was, shall I say, leisurely." Seli* Voff. director of environmental medi cine at New Vork City's Mount jiinai School of Medicine, haw l*vn a fretjuent critic of inriirsinal health practice*. and The Louisville plant is Goodrich's oldest pvc plant and, unlike most newer plants, is enclosed. It aim has a numlicr of older workers on the line. Some workers may have l*cun affected we*rt dealing with a rarrinogen. We Ss want to reduce *xpwure to zero. But -,'4 We have a wmit-Bd-*u attitude right ;^.10w" While the fatalitwa at f-nutsvill* an n shvk to the industry, vinyl * chloride has l*wn mmpcvi for a long K. Some LI years ago !>ow Chvinical a, baaed on its own studies. adopted '^aa average expixuir limit of .lo jt>m .'-/-far wurkcr-wvtl Mow the `Juo- one chemical executive calls his re mark. made at the usha meeting, "hindsight." Belatedly or not. some pvr producers have Iwn lightening up their oper ations. G"lrH-h. for cxampli-, wivs it had already rlimr. or was d**ing. mint of the things Mitsh rvrummvnded after visiting the lamisvilie plant, induiling sticking to a 50-ppm average e\ttsun! limit. "At 50 ppm." says llarr>' Con by an epidemic of hepatitis that swept the city a few years ago. A number of other nihlicr and chemical plants, and their fumes, arc located nearby. And the jlanl i- nc of the few that use* vk nylnlvne chloride as a enprdymerizinff agent. UtMl>ii|*h Ja*--er. a physinbtgta at the Harvard Schsl of Public Health, told the usiia meeting that test data appear to pmnt to that chcmirai, too, as a carcinogen. a# m r-.tj . y:jd -JWi .t* *f] ^ Tr> | /-it I 'f*csv. %if ' ?.<!&: y y<?- -Pt; ^* HM ff tmi ^^us.1 RSV 0006656 Urns iat