Document QJnbZNakoZ6GXJjNmg67NDGG5

HEALTH, SAFETY, AND ENVIRONMENTAL affairs group T E. LAWRENCE SECTION KV467, TEL(203) 7B4-2686 flsmsht*. frr^r f /i OA/ & /T> jToiur^- <^*-7 ''A i /^fcEIVED JUN 1 01983 T. w, carmuoy FILEJ 1 YR.____ '. CT SMT7 N ucc 005618 360 CHGMVCAL REGULATION REPORTER (Current Report, Jan. 21, p. 11U). In December 1982; GAO released a separate report requested by tbe Senate commit tee on voluntary industry testing under TSCA (Dec 17,1982, p. 1077), -'-r : -i. . v For additional mionaatioc on tbe GAO dele transfer, contact tbe TSCA Assistance Office (TS-799X Office of Toxic Substances, KPA. Room E-&1L, 401 M SL S.W,, Washington, D.C. 20400, or qall (BOO) 424-90*2 toll tree or *24-1404 in tbe Washington, D.C^ area.- i* : =A- '*/ :---1 TERMS EXPIRE four atsac'memsers ' ^ \ AFTER MEETING; ENT UNCERTAIN ' I.'; -w Tbe E2mronmntal\ Protection Agency Administrator's Toxic Substances Advisory Committee wfll maim June 28 In what may be the last session for four of its members. Terms scheduled to June 20 are thane of ATSAC Chairman Dan R. Harl an attorney for piamood Sham- rack Corp4 Lloyd W. too, retired bead of Haselton Industries^ Dorothy of Denver, and Ehrabeth M. Whelan, executive tbe American Council on Science and Bealth. ATRAC to of 11 members. . rfj Agency officials said tbey uncertain wbetber any-of tba members would be rea ted by new EPA Adminis- trator Wiliam D. Bwrtretaka Former EPA head Aume.M. Barford declined to extend terms of Carter Administra- tion appointees, but all mem unw on tbe board were selected by tbe Reagan Admini tfon. . The agenda of tbe Jane meet g' will include committee recommendations on the Ti Substances Control Act's application to new snbstaocw eloped under biotechnol- ' and an update on tbe Office' Toxic'Substances^ imple- i of tbe act Tbe time locatian of the meeting "are not yet final - . The group last met Is discuss biotechnology (Current Report, March S&, pJl412; "the disposal of Wastes would then become a direct coat af doing business and wouM ester into the of 'bottom itne1 management derisions.": -r; i "C V toduatry, Environmental Support ^ , WUliuD Stover, vice president and director at gov. rotations lor CMA, said tbe industry supports replacing tbe feedstock tax with waste-end tax because the Koopept is environmentally sound, provides a "clear economic lnccn- ttvw, "' i inequitable approach wito^nc that Is fair.** Stover said, that industry does support any spedfis legtsia proposal pending in evuul questions to be addressed, (U&odtag what event triggers cnlleetkie df the tax the tax. Be'said tbe disposal of disposer of hazardous tax on tbe Ultimate i-p `.ti Asked wbetber tbe industry would support raautborizatiou of tbe i by tbe time the statute w, Stover responded that es in 18 mouths, tbe industry will have a better pit wbetber tbe law needs to be reauthorized. Adoption of *S .waste-end tax mechanism "would make that tion] s lot easier," he acknowledged. Support for 1 was by.J CeoMth t--ia, director of polii Wildlife and toxic ; Siffiwy Wolf, 1 for the National itproeotitive of Action: and John a man for tbe'Etoviroemental Policy < ` KamlM/said details that need to tor addressed in tbe legislation Include assuring that the tee structure wD pro vide necessary funding levels throughout tbe 10-year reautb- ktiou ptsiod; recognizing that the. toe structure and tie incentives supplement rptber than supplant tbe t waste regulatory program under tbe Resource Cooaervatita and Recovery Act; and dfetintuidhing between toxic and non-toxic wastes and between true recycling and questionable disposal schema to escape taxation. Supcfhmd >}' CONCEPT OF WASTE-END TAX GAIN! SUPPORT OF MOOSTRY, SEVERAL' ENVIRONMEi| AL GROUPS 2 kCirdiMMM 1 5 ''-7 )>, f.L`s Vs* - ,1 , '-..'.I*- OSHA VWYL CHLOMOE CASE WAS LESSON - : - TO HEED ANIMAL DATA. INFANTE MAMTAMS The coocept of a waste-end tax as op to a feedstock tax to finance the snpeffund law for i pp hazardous sutetance spills and sites ga tbe support of reproeatoUves fi environmental and tbe Omni- cal Masufai conference. Association at May 34 preas a . - Reps. Claodtoe (R-RI) and WydeS (D-Ore) ifllfudeoad a last month to rea tbe nperfund and to sbilt law's financing tram a on chemiral feedstocks to tax' on baantous waste (Current Report. April p. 179). Schneider and W; May 24 reintroduced measure in a more simplified Tba bill tes recommendations made i mouths ago by tbe Office of Technology ntto provide economic incentive to reduce tbe g tion of waste i discoarafe land dispoeal (March 19, b. 1294). told toe gathering that by charging v disposal tax of (IS a too on toxic waste and (22 a too on apn>toxk wastes^an economic Incentive would be created to. reduce hazardous waste generation and tmd disposal, npw tbe tot Tom of waste disposal, den said that by creating a logical connection between tx paid and tbe ultimate quantity of waste produced, VANCOUVER, B.C -- (By a BNA SUE Cocrespoodeirt) - The expoieoce of tbe Occupational Shitty and Bealth Administration in regulating vinyl chloride, as a workplace cardaqgtn serves "as a lesson in tbs peril, of Ignoring experimental evidence <f carcinogenicity,"'an agency re searcher told a May 18 session of tbe International Confo. tsice on Cancer hi the Workplace. Fsfiv F. Infante, who directs tbs OSE(A office of carcino gen identification and classification but was jirtsenllng bis owa views a s private n--archer, said la "Vinyl Chloride: A-Caaa Bistory of Regulatory Action in Relation to Scienti fic Knowledge of Cancer-Canting Effects" that a review of developments prior aad rabeoqumt to tbe agency's 1974 Wauanre of an eraargeacy temporary-standard regulating vinyl chloride exposure as a cancer hazard showed the utility of relying upon laboratory bioessays when asrvefl- liDce of human population! prove* inadequate to detact workplace epidemics. * > ' ' Animal evidence puhirthert in 1971 mowed tamorjtndue- tieu from inhalation to 90,000 pern per mllliee of vinyl chloride but it drew little response because tbe exposure levels were so high tbey bordered on the chemical's lower explosive limit. Infante said. Be continued that researchers S-X7-SJ Ccvr-X/* isa br nw Butssm m MManW ajiwtv vw. tut-rwrwmoM ucc 005619 CURRENT REPORT presented unpublished evidence the same year to chemical companies showing what industry scientists viewed as a demonstration of tumor excesses in rats exposed to as low as 5J000_ppm. These, along with interim findings measuring effects at levels lower than 600 ppm, were kept confidential `"to avoid overreaction by the Department of Labor and [the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health],'" Infante said, quoting from internal Union Carbide Corp. Government, labor, and private researchers did not learn of the "expanding knowledge of the carcinogenicity of vinyl chloride" until January 1974, he stated, when industry rep resentatives notified the government of two deaths from liver angiosarcoma that occurred 27 months apart among workers who cleaned reactor vessels at a BJ\ Goodrich plant in Louisville, Ky. "Almost simultaneously, the findings of liver angiosarcoma in rats exposed to vinyl chloride were made public," he added. May Have Gone Undetected OSHA promulgated an emergency temporary standard in April 1974 on the basis of this information. Infante stated. "Had it not been for the identification of vinyl chlorideinduced cancers in workers, a standard probably would not have been promulgated in suob an expeditious manner," be argued. "Furthermore, had the initial cancers observed in workers not been of a rare type, the carcinogenicity of vinyl chloride in humans may have gone undetected." In addition, it was not until "much later" that the govern ment learned of eight liver angiosarcoma cases at a single Canadian plant occurring between 1955 and 1973 in workers who died at age 53 or younger. "Not a single epidemiologic study bad been completed at the time of the 1974 [OSHA] hearings, and, as preliminary results began to unfold, an epidemic was apparent," Infante said. OSHA's remaining unaware of the Canadian deaths during its rulemaking proceedings "does not leave one with much confidence in the current practice of epidemiological cancer surveillance." be argued, adding that "one can rarely rely upon medical reports of cancer to detect workplace epide mics." He pointed instead to the utility of laboratory studies 361 5m wTMc^ impour instances in a landfill, surface 81 indicat ingeste aquatic the Rei on any evidence e to humans when t chromium to the regulation under Act. Com Clerk, Docket No. 261-83 of Solid Waste (WH-565), EPA, 401 M St. S.W., Washington, D.C. 20460. storage site. / t-tr-es oiM-n ucc 005620