Document NewD2vD8vqRxGqQwNXkbbkMdE

THE WALL ^Chloride&i % Under (M eraser JniHt IHTJlplir' -Declaring that a teaXh ftv OQfitPBt 1 exists (or 4.* mllUoo people living near ttnttatlMu.'* He MftlJ plants, Iht government pro* to he fete to-meetTfeoi requiring e 90% cut in air emleetoqe though untried teth Uh cancer-ltnked chemical ............ dtvteoped-to do it ... 3be standard prspoeed by the Eavlrvm- *>tqoodyssir *ltee^kS55ite-Oo., -feifeir Protection Agency would require the 90 or ao existing manufacturers at major maker, saidMtepKpoetd staafeN Is chloride and two atater compounds, attainable "and poeeend nvnrriitln* pififeMi dichloride and polyvinyl chloride, %T Cteofemar.rwhich wlroady lt weU i "beat available'' technology to fen# --------------------- - spokesnumi from their planta. Concentrations expects to> the chemicala In air srpimdthe planta ly average leas than one part pea that million, the EPA said. The new (tender?) would reduce that level to about 0.1 partpur ultimately win be res* minion. Vlnyl-clttoride gas is used primarily to to ***!** the WPAngWOan. the plastics industry to mate gotyvteyt is Houston that tt to chloride, or PVC, a plastic that te'Wfegp mm wocfNepoR used to consumer products and lunstrurttse. andwoifi%MMt It tuu been under intense scrutiny, awed by a B.JV-Goodrich Co. unit January t74 that several of its employes had died from a rare liver cancer United to exposures to the gas. ' EPA Administrator Russell Train feta thst hiaagency doesn't know precisely what level !* low enough to eliminate any cancer but that he hopes the proposed standard deduce most of the cancer easts traced -tpe substance. From one to 90 cases of Mar each year are attributable to vicinity xpostve to vinyl chloride, he said. Mr. Train said that -meeting the new (standard would cost manufacturers about 9198 million plus another 970 million each year to maintain the required emission levels. at cost, he said, could force four plants, or 0.0% of the Industry, to : .These (acuities, according to rthe l,Vt>xid*ntal Petroleum Oorp.'a poly- > plant in HJcksvtUe, N.Y.. and tJumei Qorp. polyvinyl-chloride plants e, Calif.; Tucker, Ga., and8omr,99J. The plants employ a total of 10 J BE. Train said the agencycoeaMemd reg that emissions he eliminated-M. but (eared that such a stringent atanRard would effectively close the entifefe-. Wastry. Because the lapse between eirjiites fevtayl chloride and the appearance atdnEKJtey be as much as 10 years, Mr. Ifete MU fee EPA couldn't ignore the grmkfeg public exposure to the gas. Vinyl-chtedas production is up about 900% from it td 10 ysar* ago. ~gilwi' Exposure Reduce* In October 1974, after months of fact-find ing and hearings marked by bitter contro versy, the Labor Department ordered a cut In worker fttpoeuro to vinyl chloride within the plant to one-part per million from the previously allowed 50 parte per million. In dustry officials had warned that the rule was so harsh it could lead to s total close down of plants making PVC plastic vinyl- chloride ga*. So tar, however, only Uniroysl Inc. tea announced plans to dose a plant rather than the workerwxposuro standards. 8 to does Its Peinesville, Ohio, FVCres- pdant by March 1. neefEPA steudfefrwont be adopted until after a BFG2B905 9068ZOdS to restrict plant emiastana ofvtnyi-chlorid* ; gas but at the same time-dsnied there we*- any known risk from such leeks into the < atmoaphw. "We don't believe that there is any eur* > rent, nor hh there been any past, risk to the health of individuals residing In the proxim- - ity of vinyl-chloride gas and polyvinyl-chlor ide-resin plants, but the VCM-PVC produc ers agree that rigorous emission controls are In the public Intereat," said Ralph L. Harding Jrypresldwit of the Society of thm Plastics Industry A ,* The society represents makers pt the vhqd-chlortde*manomer end polyvlnyK chloride plastic made in the V.8. Mr. Hard ing said his group views the EPA's action aa 'primarily a precautionary step." But h noted that the EPA's proposed standard hasn't been studied in detail by Industry rep resentatives and that further comment will be made within the normal rule-making pro cedures preceding imposition ot the require ment. A spokesman for B. F. Goodrich Chemi cal On., a unit ot B. F. Goodrich Co., said In T