Document N29dXMpNaw2R2Xb6Jk0z2q3eb

HILL and KNOWLTOK, Inc. Ol'.Tf.'SBORO, KY. MESSEI.'GER-IKnuiRER B. 27,000 s. 26.500 OCT 2 1974 _ Government moves to nduce worker exposure New safety standards on vinyl chloride announced : CUU'AQl The gov- errimcnt .umouncetl on Tuesday new safety M.md.irds to reduce worker exposure to the cancer- r.uiMn*; gas vinyl chloride' John II, Slender, assistant Secretary of Libor. said the (Jew (Vrupalional Safely and Health Administration lOStkV standards' won't can.se any in dustry shutdowns. Hut the in dustry reacted quickly, de nouncing the regulations and Cling lawsuits seeking judicial review. The current allowohli level will remain in effect mil .lan 1.. I97.r,. Stcnder said |t*scnt regulations allow worker han dling polymer vinyl cldoilc to be exposed to up (o 50 pas per million in eight hours The new standards slat (hat in 1975 (he level must dtp to an average of one (o fiveparts per million over right tours and can't exceed 25 part per million unless workers have special respiratory cquipnent. By Jan. 1. 1976. Slendcrsaid. anv worker exposed to more than live parts per million of the chemical must.he provided a respirator. Until then, res pirators arc optional, he said, for workers excised from five to 25 parts per million, but any one wanting such an air-purify ing device must have it pro vided. Todd C. Walker, president of the Firestone Plastics Co., a di vision of the Firestone Tire 4 Rubber Co., called the stand ards "economically unrealistic. kvhnirally unfeasible. j>olitiialIv motivated and medically ri diculous. comparable to a law aimed at stopping automobile deaths by lowering the speed limit to one mile per hour." Stnider said some of the 7.500 polvmer and fahurating plants in the United Stales employing about 350.000 wmkns will have trouble meeting the lightened standards. However, he said there would he piovisions to al low a company that can t meet the standards to reduce the out put to te ImctM (nuiliral l<-\el. pioi-hfl woiki-is are giwn respiious "Tilt! will not cause [hr in dustry o shut down." blender added. But talker charged that *'ibe OSIIA tandard lor vinyl chlo ride oosure puts the vinyl plaslicjindustry on a collision course with economic disaster. More mpnrtantly. it throws two nllion jobs down the drain. .-cordinR to an econom ic imp:t study made earlier this year by Arthur l.ittlc 4 Co.," an industrial consulting firm. Ik* said his company plans to challenge the standards. Polyvinyl chloride substances arc used in a host of plastics products. In April. OSIIA ordered an emergency lowering from the Ihen-picvailing limit of 500 parts per million, after several deaths from a rare liver^anccr were thought to bo related to handling the chemical. Preliminary tests conducted in Northbrook. Ill . later that month showed that test mice developed liver cancer when exposed to concentrations of 50 parts per million of vinyl chlo ride. Criminal provisions of the standards include a maximum 110.000 fine and six months' im- prixonment. The Society of the Plastics Industry Inc. iSPli, whih rep resents more than 90 per rent of vinyl eloridc and polyvinyl chloride products, filed suit in New York asking the US. Court of Appeals for judicial re view. A separate suit was filed by the Hooker Chemical Co. of Stamford, Conn.________________ In a statement. SPI President Ralph I.. Harding said the gov ernment "may believe it has adopted a compromise position between organized labor on the one hand and industry on the other, but the result is the standard that does not take into account in a practical way the known medical and lech-, nological facts '* -/ 23527131