Document QOLOVm04KZ8mYY0Q3j58dkm4

HILL and KNOWLTON, Inc. Utm5 IS clan?i $recc JAMAICA, N. Y. o. 441,961 SUN. 423,733 OCT 2 t974i U.S. clamps new lid on plastic gas ' CHICAGO (AP) -- Plas tics industry officials quickly denounced and filed lawsuits contesting new federal safety stand-! ards reducing worker ex-1 posure to vinyl chloride, a gas that may cause cancer, v One industry officials called tire standards "eco nomically unrealistic, tech nically unfeasible, politi cally motivated and medi cally ridiculous." President Todd C. Walk er of the Firestone Plastics Co., a division of the Fire stone Tire & Rubber Co., added in a statement yes terday that the standard ""puts the vinyl plastics in dustry on a collision course with economic disaster. More importantly, it throws two million jobs down the drain, according to an economic impact study made earlier this year by Arthur Little & Co." an industrial consult-, ing firm. j Asst U.S. Labor Secre-I tary John H. Sunder, who had announced the new Of- cupational Safety and Health Admiivstration (OS- HA) standards earlier yes terday, said some plants will have trouble meeting the tightened standards, but he added, "This willj not cause the industry tol shut down." THE STRICTER regulations for vinyl chloride, a chemical used in numerous plastic products, would cover 7,500 U.S. plants with 350,000 workers. Pres ent standards will remain in effect until- January with a gradual, one-year transition to the tighter| standards, Stender said. | Stender said provisions would -allow a company that cannot meet the stand ards to ask for a variance ora time extension. At least two industrial groups immediately filed court actions contesting the new standards. The Society of the Plas tics Industry Inc., which represents more than 00 per cent of vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride pro ducers, filed suit in. New York asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for judicial re view. A separate suit was filed by the Hooker Chem ical Co., of Stamford, Conn. *..>. AFTER SEVERAL - deaths from a rare liver cancer, thought to be re lated to handling vinyl , chloride were reported, the government in April or dered an emergency lower ing from the then-prevail ing limit of 500 parts per million to which workers could be exposed. Preliminary tests con ducted in Northbrook, lit., later that month showed that test mice developed liver cancer when exposed to- concentralions of 50 parts per million of vinyl chloride. The new standards an nounced by Stender state that: Current maximum, lev els will remain in effect until next January. They allow workers handling polymer vinyl chloride to be exposed to up to 50 parts per million in eight hours. In 1975, the level must drop to one part per million over any eight-hour period and five parts averaged over any period no longcri than 15 minutes. By Jan. 1, 1976, any worker exposed to more than the eight-hour or 15- minute limits for the chem ical must have a respirator. Until then, respirators are 1 optional if levels remain less than 25 parts per mil lion. Penalties for violators1 include a maximum of $10,-! 000 fine and six months) in prison. _ i 23527125