Document Nepz4nZa0XYooMkEQDvYRpR5E

Y' - i ^day. May 24,1974 ~ ~ r Akron Beacon Journal" A 3] r-............. `Standards Could Idle Thousands' . The president of B. FI Goodrich's chemical division said today that the proposed standards to govern exposure to vinyl chloride could put 6,500 Goodrich production workers out of work as well as "hundreds of thousands of other employes . . The charge was made by Anton Vittone in a press re lease announcing the compa ny's "most intensive research and development program in its history" -- "a multi-million dollar effort" to reduce the level of vinyl chloride gas lost in manufacturing: operations. AT LEAST seven employes of Goodrich's Louisville plant have contracted a rare liver cancer which has been linked to the chemical used in the plastics industry. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration - (OSHA) in April imposed temporary standards cutting the permissable resin dust in For Best Results Read The Want Ads r working places from 500 to 50 parts per million. Some au thorities say the level should be cut to zero. "The proposed standard of no detectable level of expo sure does not appear to be possible with the current state of technology, and, if imposed could displace not only the 6,500 vinyl chloride monomer ahd polyvinyl chlor ide (PVC) production work ers, but also hundreds of thousands of other employes in the companies which use PVC," said Vittone. 5 i i VITTONE said several re search programs were under way, but that "time is re quired to break technological barriers . .." He added, how ever, that "incremental im provements can be expected on a continuing basis . . ." In addition to the manufac-. ture of plastics, vinyl chloride is used as a propellant for most household sprays. On May 7, the U. S. Consumer Products Safety Commission said it intends to ban the use of the chemical in sprays. BFG29522 ! r- "it r 24171001