Document MJqqykV8g7z3eYQgE9eV9Z87a

',T*&4 A. |v _"e J'-1-*' ` ?-: -* 1 Ktl&l" M{-< ' i&- T1 V, vented tube from each engine blows air: '- TECHNOLOGY: at very high pressure and forces gravely " ~~.. . . Sj^s ':' Cwjs ..,, Other operating problems include - Industry's latest Cancer scare . temperatures that are 50? to 60F t, low zero, 60-mph winds, and total dark-a^p'-*- v M*>., 1 ness in Decemberan&Jannaiyjn the High Arctic Engines onairstrip equip ment such as trudmand snowplows are not turned off from Deer1 to Mar. IK" Though the regional too, face fuel The deaths of five workers in ten years seem linked * to working On the plastic '/ , --------------- - - -4- *' MfjiJJ, fecta-on - workers, of other industrial-: chemicals. "The cancer took 15 to 20 years to develop," says one federal epiy demiologist. Other chemicals could' problems, all are predicting revenue idf - - - have similar "latency" periods, he says; ' creases this year. They see their big-- so there could be more eruptions in the. gest growth potential in scheduled pas Federal officials met last week with years ahead. "I hope we're not seeing senger service, although no one is plastics industry executives in Cleve the beginning of a heatth co!lapse." ^5' `. scoffing at the big bucks to be made in land and Washington to try to deter The vinyl chloride case is not1- thd^ hauling drilling equipment--and been-, mine whether, the industry has un chemical industry's first eneounter-r to oil teams in the Arctic or to the og- knowingly beeir exposing some of its with OSHA over camnogenics. Last7 again, on-again $6-billion James Bay ; 6,500 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--1 on 28 of the 42 plants in the U. S. that rials 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' " chloride resin (pvc), one bf~ judidalreview: ^ the most common plastics, - - - 77' The prospect of new; petrochemical * Quebec Nordair flies there from Mon- - The hearings grew out of the deaths versions of such health time bomba ss^ treal, and Quebecair operates-eergerr bf four workers over Hie last six years "Hack lung" and-*mercury poisoning^, only service - at a B.F. Goodrich Chemical Co, plant Cattle plane. In the eyes of many hjdus-,,;_. in Louisville, Ky. They could ultimately try observers. Pacific Western.is.the--bring costly new rules for the pvc in best run of the regionals. Itsfleqt con*- dnstry, whose resins are used in such makes plastic industry leaders shudderi And indeed, new data presented at the.;standing-room-only OSHA hearing : byItalian researcher Cesare-Maltoni^bf-^ sists of seven Boeing 737s, with three items as pipe, floor tile, phonograph Bologna's Institute of* Cancer, leave;more on order, plus two 727s, twolong- records, and latex wall paints. "Im- little doubt that vinyl chloride is cat-; range 707s, five Convair 640s,-fpuc Herv ~%;provements in work practices willcules jet-prop freighters, and a^few fly probably require a 100% increase in the., ing boats, pwa s operations range irom worn force," says Waiter u. Connolly, its scheduled passenger services to Jr., labor counsel for Firestone Tire &. shipping cattle to the Orient and .ex Rubber Co., which operates PTC plants tensive relief work in such places as Ni in Pottstown, Pa., and Perryville, Md. geria and Bangladesh. Scheduled pas In any case, the current PVC hulla senger services account for roughly baloo is certain to spark new demands 65% of pwa's revenues, charters for by organized labor for closer exam about 10%, and cargo services for the ination of the possible long-range efremaining 25%. cinogenic--at least to-rats. He exposed^ 67 rats to air containing 250 parts per million at vinyl chionde ott ana on tor; 52 weeks. By the end of 127 weeks,7-- 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- Its cattle plane is typical of pwa's willingness to provide specialized ser A solvent that crippled chemical workers vices to meet special needs. A conven*; tional Boeing 707-320C, the plane can be equipped with either 13 stalls hold ing about 85 1,000-lb. cattle or double Last August, Thomas F: Meade, 22, zeroed in on an ink solvent, methyl was stricken with a nerve disease after butyl ketone, used in applying decora two years of work at Columbus Coated* tive patterns, as the most likely culprit. tiers of pens that will accommodate a great many more smaller animals, Donald N. Watsoir;pyT* presideint;a*y3 that the plane has i^ried as many as 700 cattle from Tbr8i!dAto Athens.'. " The real keys tdpro&trfor PwA and the other regiohalsfe however,.^Have been jets and charters^The^ jet; boosted available seat-miles on routes with good load factors, and the char-* ters gave the carriers the capability to use their aircraft more economically. Keith Miller, executive vice-presi 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 leaser symptoms include weakness and loss of coordination. When the symptoms became wide spread hist summer, state health offi 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 hmch 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 stid out with the dis ease, that eight of them are severely dent of Eastern Provincial Airways, estimates the seat-mile cost on a 109passenger 737 at 2.2C a mi, compared with 5.5* for each mile on the 41-seat cials tested the nerve responses of the plant's 1,124 employees and told 200 of them to stay home for two months. Many others stayed home, too, out of crippled; and that three workers whose condition improved are now sick again. On Feb. 9, the local struck the plant as negotiations collapsed on a new con Handley Page Heralds the 737s are re placing. The break-even load factor on the jets is 42%, V3. about 80% on the prop planes. "The stimulation of a 737 is very substantial," Miller says. fear. By. December, most employees had returned, and many who had showed neuropathic symptoms ap peared well again. -- -- Meanwhile, Ohio health officials had 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." 100 BUSINESSWEEK. Fay-aryM. 1974 GENC 000246 'fCHNOLOGY 11 ", y**C*J' - , v*t ^v>;-.4-' V- - 1 43* give, on the order to 5,000 to 30,000 ppm limit recommended since 1972 by nors, Jr, general manager of the Plas ppm. the American Conference of Govern- tics Div. of Diamond Shamrock Chem The bombshell. The cancer crisis hit the ment Industrial Hygienists. In 1970, ical Co., which also observes that limit* vinyl industry just a month ago.,Not- . Italian researcher Dr. P.Li Viola re-' "there are hot enough fumes in the air ing an unusual number of liver ail- ported that rats exposed to heavy doses to smell." Where concentrations are ments among the Louisville plant of vinyl chloride developed malignant workers, B. F. Goodrich physicians, ran' ' tumors. Several European chemical blood tests last fall on the 271 workers companies banded together to support in the plant's Pvc facility and found 55 research by Maltoni, and in the U. S., with apparent liver abnormalities. The the Manufacturing Chemists Assn, be company reviewed medical and insur gan to discuss an industry-wide re ance records and by Jan. 16 had discov search program. A year ago, the MCA ered three deaths since 1971 that were set up an animal test program that will attributable to angiosarcoma. Federal not be completed until late 1975. The health officials estimate the annual association also contracted with Taberdeath toll in the U. S. from this rare shaw-Cooper Associates, of Berkeley, form of cancer at only 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 pvc fabrication and even consumer use of pvc about 20. On Jan. 29 fur ther review by Goodrich products. Since safe limits for vi turned up a 1968 death. (two more cases, includ ing a 1964 death, were identified this week). The company's top management had already decided on public disclo sure. It reported the situ ation to the National In stitute for Occupational nyl chloride are unknown, NIOSH is emphasizing safe work practices rather than arbitrary concentra tion limits. Its recommen dations for the Louisville ~ plant, for example, in clude such things as over: head cleaning, daily show ers and clothing changes. Safety & Health and to the Kentucky Labor Dept. for workers,, and efc^ ii" panded air monitoring. It also began notifying employees in all of its vi nn"h>9 * down. Goodrich's -Louisville plant uses nyl chloride and pvc oper ations, and it sent a re lease to the press. "We Afo nitr UtlS2St ' tC express our real and serious concern," says about 50 different chem icals, and there is no proof of a direct link between r-i+t--I J - ,,_4 Lt - - * mj a wiWt me eoiti uic liver cancer cases. But KI06H officials are certain John J. Bell, the com pany's public affairs direc tor, "and yet prevent any A B. F. Goodrich safety inspector uses a chemical "sniffer" to check whether vinyl chloride fumes are leaking from a polymerizing reactor. that the-link exists, and 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." - r Both1 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 Washingtonfor the i shows that our approach to the prob-- to Goodrich's Louisville plant. Says OSHA hearing. The federaLsgem^vHB; " determine whether th^a4lifiiiMti&i&' NIOSH hopes thdt th6 rants either an emergi cause is a combination of 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, makingprocess., factors at only one plant three things acting ^together inthe manufacturing process." . ...The attitude of oi m'wasrshaUl say, leisurely." Seli- The' Louisville playt is Goodrich's major concern. Anthony: Mszzocchir? ff) director of environmental medi oidest.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 has 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 hie 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."'-; __ rf., . Belatedly oxnot, 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 vi- came as a shock, to the industry, vinyl ations. Goodrich, for example, says it nylidene chloride as a oopolymerizing chloride has been suspect for a long had already done, or was doing, most of agent Rudolph Jaeger, a physiologist time. Some 15 years ago Dow Chemical the things NIOSH 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, as for its, workers--well below the 200- limit. "At 50 ppm," says, Harry Con a carcinogen. sm ' V* c *' . -^4 TECHNOLOGY :('M B1SWS8S WEEK Firtxmjy Z3,,1974 101 2: ; GENIC 00024?