Document QMbVwX3BLopLYrVZxrQeVZrX5

( THE HEW YORK TIMES, SATURDAY. JUNE 1, 1974 New Cancer Cases Widen Fears on Vinyl Chloride ' By JANE E. BRODY Four new cases of angiosar coma of the liver have just been uncovered. They raise for the first time the possibility in the minds of public health of ficials that this fatal cancer hazard that has been linked to vinyl chloride may extend to hundreds of thousands of work ers and to members of the gen eral public. Heretofore, the cancer risk associated with vinyl chloride, a basic chemical in the plastics industry, has been confined to the approximately 6,500 Ameri can workers who make vinyl Public health officials are! The agency has detected currently intensively investi-[vinyl chloride up to half a mile gating these cases because of'from a PVC plant, as well as : their potential implication of a along a highway in Pasadena, 'much more widespread hazard Ithe heart of the largest vinyl than previously suspected. [chloride producing region in Although precise numbers ithe United States. are not known, informed Other potential sources of sources estimated that hun exposure to this chemical have dreds of thousands of workers been the dozens of aerosol con are engaged in the processing sumer products, including hair of polyvinyl chloride, generally sprays and household pesti known as PVC, into countless cides, in which for years vinyl consumer and industrial prod chloride was used as a propel ucts, including paints, furniture, lant. Nearly all such products floor tiles, clothing, food pack have been recalled in the last ages, dentures, garden hoses, month. pharmaceutical products con The new cases of angiosar chloride or convert the chemi struction pipes and insulation. coma of the liver turned up in cal to its polymer, polyvinyl In addition, countless individ a search of records of cancer chloride. Since January, when uals with no occupational ex registeries in New York State the hazard was first revealed, posure to vinyl chloride or its and Connecticut. 19 cases of this invariably fatal polymer live in the vicinity of The New York registry con cancer, which is extremely rare the 14 plants that make vinyl tains a total of six cases of :in the general population, have chloride and the 35 plants that this disease, all six having lived been uncovered among vinyl make PVC. in the Buffalo area, near where chloride workers here and The Environmental Protec a large Goodyear plant has abroad. tion Agency estimates that 300 been making PVC since 1946. Among the newly revealed million pounds of vinyl chloride There is also a preliminary re cases of angiosarcoma of the escape into the environment port of a seventh case in the try, told The New York Times. One of those, a man who died last July at the age of 60. had worked for 39 years at the General Electric plant in Bridge port. According to a company spokesman, for the first 30 years of the man's employment,: he operated machines that pro cessed plastic ("quite probably PVC"), rubber and other ma terials into insulation. The company, which this week notified the National In stitute for Occupational Safety and Health about the case, has begun medical tests, including liver function studies, of all employes exposed to any known level of vinyl chloride, the spokesmans aid. The institute said it was consulting with the company about further studies, and the Center for Disease Control is investigating the other cases in the cancer registry. Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, direc | liver--three in New York State each year as a result of this Buffalo area. Three of the New tor of the Environmental Sci (and one in Connecticut--are a manufacture. Yesterday, the York cases are men who ence Laboratory at Mount : worker who for 30 years made agency asked the 27 manu worked at the Goodyear plant Sinai Hospital here, com-1 I electrical wire insulation from facturers involved to submit in Niagara Falls, but the other mented that "any one case polyvinyl chloride resin and a "process, emission and air thee are all women who had could be a coincidence and ! woman who for nearly 30 years quality data" to help it develop no known occupational ex- more information is needed to lived four blocks downwind air pollution control standards iposure. define the precise risk. How-' 'from a polyvinyl chloride manu for vinyl chloride in accordance facturing plant. with the Clean Air Act of 1970. Case in Connecticut ever, the new cases point to the urgent need for research to According to officers at the clarify the situation." - Center for Disease Control, one of the New York women, who died in January at the age of 62, had lived four blocks south east of the Goodyear plant since the end of World War II. She also had her hair done each week for at least 20 years, al though the beauty salon she patronized told officials they did not use vinyl chloride-con taining hair sprays. The Connecticut registry hasi accumulated a total of eight! cases of angiosarcoma of the[ liver since 1935, Dr. Barbara' iChristine, director of the regis-1 BOR 014040