Document QeyrDkjwgNgoM06Jj2jK0BY6

R&S 038386 Environmental Health Associates, Inc. 16 July 1982 Mr. J. T. Sweeney Plant Manager Tenneco Chemicals P. 0. Box 129 Flemington, NJ 08822 Dear Mr. Sweeney: Environmental Health Associates, Inc. (EHA) is con ducting an update of the vinyl chloride epidemiology study sponsored by the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA). As you may recall, the original study was done under contract to Tabershaw Cooper Associates and Equitable Environmental Health (EEH). Thirty-seven plants belonging to eighteen companies participated in the study. The study consisted of approximately 10,000 individuals who had worked in a job involving exposure to vinyl chloride for at least one year prior to December 31, 1972. In 1978, when the final report was issued, EEH suggested that the population be studied again within 5 years to clarify questions about cancer at sites other than the liver. Accordingly, major U.S. producers of VCM and PVC came together under CMA and committed funds for a seven-year update. The producers felt strongly that a good retrospec tive mortality study would be an invaluable project from both the medical and legal points of view. The update that we are now conducting focuses on the time period between December 31, 1972 (end of the original study) and December 31, 1980. It will include employment (exposure) information as well as vital status information. In order to compile this information, we are using indivi dual worksheets. Enclosed you will find the worksheets for the study members from your plant. On these worksheets, we have filled in as much infor mation as was available to us from the initial study. We are asking you to: 1. verify the accuracy of this information; 2. add any necessary information not previously collected; and 3. provide updated information for the extended period of time. '.n A'.. 9- r s i v, (' A 04 M4 4! a ) Page 2 R&S 038387 We have enclosed instructions for completing these worksheets. Please note that you or your staff will be reponsible for classifying jobs as being exposed or unex posed to vinyl chloride (both VCM and PVC). Also, please be aware that some of the information we are providing you with has not been recorded according to the enclosed instruc tions. Do not let this in any way prevent you from following the format we are requesting. In submitting the study worksheets to you, we have attempted to divide them into groups of active or inactive employees (as of December 31, 1972). We have also attempted to separate, whenever possible, those employees known to have died since the last study. In returning these worksheets, please group them under the same headings; active, inactive, and known deceased as of the study end date, December 31, 1980. For the deceased, please provide a copy of the death certificate whenever available. If you have any questions, please feel free to call me at (415) 548-1888, or Kathleen Claxton, Project Manager, or Deborra Samuels, Project Coordinator, at (415) 848-3468. In order to complete the study in a timely manner, we would like to have the forms back in August. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated. Sincerely yours, Enclosures cc: Dr. FD\*r. CVxaAlrvoll So taaic-- nk,f Cv^MriAn Ted fTTrotr rI'kflel lt?sAortn, IVDow y' Mr. G.E. Disch, Tenneco Otto Wong, Sc.D. Senior Epidemiologist/ Biostatistician