Document NGNjrrGRkgEwrmaDR6zBy1rbg

from; P. ^ ) tim V0L.119.no. 7 SPRINGFIELD, MASSACHUSETTS. MONDAY. JANUARY II, 1*82 42 PAGES . 20 CENTS Cancer link hunted at Monsanto Dy A. DAVID GRAM worked there longer, who had a Union Staff AMHERST - A new study of can cer deaths among former employees of the Monsanto Co. chemical plant in Springfield has found the fatalities may be linked to exposure to materi longer latency period, had higher risks of dying of al^malignant neo plasms (abnormal tissue growths)." The study was the fifth conducted at the company since union officials began demanding an investigation Into cancer deaths of former employ als used In making plastics. ees in 1977. A team from the University of . Monsanto's epidemiology man Massachusetts investigating the ager, William Gaffey of St. Louis, deaths of 110 men who worked at the said of Hie new sludy, "I think well Monsanto plant in Springfield's know within a couple of weeks Indian Orchard section found 34 whether ihere really is any connec were caused by cancer and may have tion between these excesses and any aeen work-related. past exposures in the planl."- Dr. Kenneth Roscnman, who The study was of former employ ! leaded the study, said, "People who ees who worked at the plant while the chemicals vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride were used between 1948 and 1975. Tbe research team found one death due to a liver cancer asso ciated with exposure to vinyl chlo ride and said several other former workers had month, digestive, lym phatic and lung cancers. Older workers were found to have a greater risk of contracting cancer, even with a short exposure to the plastics studied. Monsanto is also reviewing a simi lar study the company contracted with University of Pittsburgh pro fessor Dr. Gary Marsh, who fin ished that study last spring. He said cancer deaths were excessive but could not be explained because "it was virtually impossible to Isolate exposure to Individual chemicals." Rosenman criticized the companysponsored studies, however, saying they "always looked at the total work force, not at individual work sites ... diluting" Hie studies' results, he said. Hosenman said his study, con ducted with the aid of a group of Uni versity of Massachusetts toxicology graduate students, looked at two spe cific work sites in the Monsanto plant. ' The research team went' through employees' medical records looking for types of cancer linked In past studies with exposure io vinyl chlo ride and polyvinyl chloride, he said. Another portion of the study to be released shortly will look at a possi ble link between exposure to the chemical formaldehyde and an extremely rare form of lung cancer which already lias been found in one former Monsanto employee who worked with that substance, Roscnman said. Huger Soucy, president of the local chapter of Ihe Internalioal Union of Electrical Wordcrs said. "The thing f See MONSANTO Page 4 X) i/i < ooo -J O 1 I J II MONSANTO Continued frpni Page 1 find perturbing Is that everything we run Into by doctors or anybody else doing research is that it may be this or may be that, it could be lhat or it could be this ... nobody ever comes out with anything definite." But Rosenman said, "It is very dif ficult in anything like tills io speak in terms of absolutes. And you have io remember that many of these work ers worked with up to 200 other chemicals," which makes pinpointing cause-and-effeel relalionshlps between specific chcmlcaAand can cer difficult, he said. Monsanto, Ihe nation's fourth lar gest chemical company, employs approximately 2,000 at its Springfield Installation. The plant manufactures a wide variety of plastics tor consumer and industrial uses, including polysty rene, ABS and SANS plastics, form aldehyde resins and phenolic resins The Springfield plant is part of Monsanto Plastics and Resins Go.