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; ||FAMHERST, Mass. (UPI) 4-f Cancer deaths of > The Boston Globe reported. Sunday that the
people who worked at the Monsanto Co. plant in , university .research team believed more studies of,
Springfield, Mass., may be linked to exposure to specific work-^sites were needed' to determine if the ]
materials used in specific work sites, a new study.' deaths were definitely related to exposure to vinyl
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fc A t Spokesman for Monsanto^which has world ;Dr. Rosenmansent a letter to the company's.plant
headquarters in St. Louis, said the chemical company manager saying previous studies did not investigate would wait until released! a further study of cancer^specific work areas. *`I think these studies are
'casesUt the Springfield plant before addressing Revindications: there are problems with specific work
v \ questions raised by the University of Massachusetts -sites in Monsanto," he wrote,
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- ;' ' "^S *`No me is saying every job in Monsanto is
; '/j.?? Thit' study was the fifth ' conducted at the fhazardous," he said. But he added, "There are strong
( Springfield plant. A team of researchers investigated -; indications that workers have developed disease as a
bthe deaths of. 110 men who used to work there. They ^consequence of working" at areas where they have
* ^aidsiwwe caused by cancer that might have been !|been exposed to the chloride.. >.
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study was of former employees who worked at
Dr. Kenneth Rosenman said, "People who worked ^the; plant while the vinyl chloride and polyvinyl
cjthsre longer, who had a longer latency period, had chdoride were used between 1948 and 1975. -
hlgher risks of dying of all malignant neoplasms." Dr. . The team said the former workers bad mouth,
Ttosenmkivdirected the study.
digestive and lymphatic cancers. The team found one
Monsanto's epidemiology manager, William . death due to a liver cancer associated with exposure
Gaffey of St. Louis, said, "I think we'll know within a to vinyl chloride.
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couple ' of weeks whether there realty is any Older workers also were found to have a great
i connertkm between these excesses 'and any past risk of contracting cancer, even with a short exposu
expororeito Re plant."
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