Document OEZ74ddXdL7gpkoEn3zyp17Oj

FROM iname--location--phone, Allan M. Ford St. December 11, 1981 S U B JE C T NITRO LITIGATION Louis A2S 4-2578 D. R. cc C. F. R. S. Bishop Callis Nelson - A3NB - B3CA - A2SA REFERENCE T O W. R. Gaffey - G 2WE CONFIDENTIAL jfiTTPPwpv ' `-'o o v o r?r'n I lCT A T I UKiNC'L/Liui i 1 i' Ai Vi-_oC I've attached information gathered by Dan Bishop consisting of PR statements that have been utilized at one time or the other in the past. I suggest that you take sections of the appropriate release for your reply, as they've already been cleared as correct and will need no futher approval. jb enclosure A. M. Ford IN ' . IO i REV. a .`7 7 > fr o m <nam6-"Location--phonej Allan M. Ford - St. Louis A2SA 4-2578 _____________________ S U B JE C T : December 8, 19 81 NITRO LITIGATION cc. REFERENCE : TO : D. R. Bishop - A3NB CONFIDENTIAL ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE I've attached the memo Bill Gaffey sent me as we discussed today. If you can give me the appropriate replies from your Q&A, I'll get approval on the rest. j*> enclosure IN - 10 >R E V . S 7 7 Tl o 2 iTrnTniTi rrrrrniTnnTTTTTTT, !!!n i!T T f!![;T T I!ir!H T ! T !fif!!!!!, ! ; ! , ! f i !!! 19th Oct. 1981 Judith! A .Zack M.P.H., Mens ant Co 800 NLindbergh Blvd St Louis MO 63166 Thank you very much for the r.eprint of* yeur paper" The morta lity experience of workers exposed to tetrachiordibenzdioxin in a trichlerephenol process accident". The mechnism of the accident seems t be very similar to that from Sevese.* I would be interested, how much thp building was contaminated r the environment f the plant. P o s s i b l y "because the accident was in 1949, it was not ascertained. M a y I ask you to do me a great favonr and tel me, what was the fate of the building, how it was decontaminated/ if it was decontaminated / and if you could post to me copies of the literature that are in referencies under number 3-,4.,5-,6.,7* I could send you all papers about eur eccident. any thanks for your kindness and kind regards. Sincerely yours? 2,4,5-T EQUIPMENT BURIAL When the 2,4,5-T unit was dismantled in che early 1970s, Che equipment was decontaminated and buried cr. che sice. Monsanco monicors che containment of all its solid waste buried at Micro. A series of monitoring wells are in place around che plant and throughout the solid waste disposal area. Periodic inspection of these wells enables M o n s a n t o to ensure that Che w a s t e is being contained, A wa t e r .sample taken fr o m the well n e a r e s t to the site w h e r e the 2,4,5-T equipment is b u r i e d was also tested and failed to detect any tatra- d iox i n down to our limit of d e t e c t i o n -- 10 tarts oer trillion. DETAILS C 2,4,5 TRICHLC EC ?H :; c x v a c e t i c a c i d (2,4,t T) PRODUCTIDN A? T \Z NITRO PLANT INITIAL PRODUCTION The production of 2,4,5-T vas initially started on- an experimental basis during the summer of 1945 in the old pilot plant (3-32). .At that time the intermediate, Sodium Trichiorcphsr.ate (NaTC?) , was also produced there. From information gathered there, plant production was started in October, 1943. Production of the NaTC? was performed in a 500 gallon autoclave in 3-41, the M3T Department. The NaTC? 'was then transferred by pipeline to 3-34 where carts of the old rubber antioxidants (Ajcne, etc.) were utilized to complete the 2,4,5-T croduction steps through the wet flit er cake steps. Since the material had to be dried elsewhere, ope rat.lens were scat tered over the plant. Some material was dried in the rotary dryer in 3-46, tray dryers in 3-21 (El-60 Department), tray dryers in 3-16 (drye r building)* and tray dryers in 3-79 (Thief ice Seeds). Tray dried materia] *as returned to a section of 3-34 Flectol where it was milled and packaged. 2. NaTC? PRODUCTION The initial plant production of NaTC? in the 3-41 500 gallon autoclave was performer by adding all the reactants Tetrachiorobenzer.a, (TC3) , NaOH and Methanol to the autoclave. Heat was applied and when the pressure reached'the desired point, the clave was vented. Cn March 3, 1949, approximately six months after startup, a violert reaction and decomposition occurred in the autoclave. The pressure rose from the desired 150 PSIG no 1500 PSIG in approximately five minutes. Fumes and* the tarry residue from the autoclave were discharged into the atmosphere and onto the entire interior of the autoclave section. The entire building was ahurt own. at this time and immediate recent am.inarien and ri aanup was started. Since no cause , for the violent reacticr./f ecor.ccsiticn or chvsioLogical effects cf the zumes cr i- a >3 e , residue or, people vers known, t.he hourly personnel with union backing, refused to .encage ir. cleanup and decontamination activities. Monsanto, cue to lack of knowledge on the result of exposure to the decomposed material, did not force the issue. A decontamination setae consisting of the Plant Manager, John R . Durland; Area Supervisor (Mfg. Supt.), James Roe; Department Supervisor, Merlin '.iunn; and a few salaried personnel from Mr. Roe's area proceeded with cleanup activities. The entire autoclave area was scrubbed with Sodium Hypochlorite and then the entire .autoclave area was sprayed with aluminum paint. At this time Monsanto had no knowledge of chlore.cne and in the ensuing cleanup a number cf people plus some operators in the department when the eruption occurred contracted the skin condition. Several were severe cases. After the autoclave area was cleaned up, M3? production resumed. After bench.study / in the laboratory, the NaTC? process was changed so that the possibility of a runaway reaction was vastly reduced cr eliminated. This consisted of loading Methanol and caustic and then feed Tetrachlcrobenzene at a controlled rate while controlling temperature and pressure. This process was used without incident until production ceased in 1969. In the summer of 1950, a new MaTC? production" unit (3-51) was put into operation. V --r In November 1962, a new 2,4,5-T unit in 3-34 was put into operation reducing the handling of the solids ar.c reducing exposure through all steps of the process. In August, 1963, the NaTC? and 2,4,5-T production were combined in one 'unit <3-92) with vastly decreased exposure hazards. > .. -- Jw In August, 1969, due to process and quality problems plus decreased `industrial r'"\ hycisna limits, production of 2,4,5-? was discontinued. In the late summer and early fall of 1972, the entire building and equipment vers dismantled and disposed with much of it being buried in a landfill. Dismantling was performed by the Cleveland Wrecking Company. 3. MEDICAL PRC3LZMS There were no medical problems with chloracne or other complaints until after the 3-41 incident. After this, there were numerous cases of the acne. Seme of the workers were treated by dermatologists (Dr. 3oggs, Dr. Halloran, etal). 4. VOLUNTARY WC?-K After the 3-41 incident, work in both the*M3T and 2,4,5-T Departments were on a vol1untary basis which caused severe labor *problems since personnel could shut `down j either department if they so desired without fear cf discipline. Staffing of 2,4,5- vas a problem while this presented no problem in the MST Department. In the spring of 1954, an agreement was worked out with the union where the 2,4,5-T Department could be staffed by assigning the people with the least plant seniority to the' decartment. In 1956 an agreement with the union was reached wherebv it was nscsssa: i for a worker to notify department supervision i-h writing 20 cays in advance when thev desired co leave one department. 5. PREMIUM PAY In IPfo, a premium cf 30.04/r.our was awarded to the department personnel. This was eventually extended to all people involved in handling 2,4,5-T. *4 2,4 5-T PP.ODCCTION ACTIVITIES ( 1. Summer of 1943 - Interim production in 3-32. 2. October 1943 - N'aTC? production in 3-41 - 2,4,5-T production in 3-34 3. March 8, 1949 - 3-41 incident. Runaway reaction. 4. Suniesr of 1950 - NaTCP production in 3-51. 5. November 1952 - New 2,4,5-T facilities in 3-34. 6. August 1963 - New facilities in 3-92. 7. August 1969 - 2,4,5-T production discontinued. 8. July-Sapt, 1972 - Facilities dismantled by Cleveland eking Company. O. 7 it '2/1/79 o I'llVlIJ ,c R V* * ' . A E -- L O C A T IO N -- P H O N E I A l l a n M. F o r d - St. Louis A 2 S A 4-2578 December 8, 1981 CC. SUBJECT NITRO LITIGATION C tE F C aE N C E TO : D. R. Bishop - A3NB CONFIDENTIAL ATTORNEY WORK PRODUCT ATTORNEY-CLIENT PRIVILEGE I've attached the'memo Bill Gaffey sent me as we discussed today. If you can give me the appropriate replies from your Q&A, I'll get approval on the rest. jb enclosure r 1t ' i b 7 7