Document X722qN7nGgZMYLv0RvJzaqK2x
/ 4 Kentucky Labor News
May 25, 1974
03HA Proposes Ban All Vinyl Cliloride Exposure
The Labor Dept, has proposed a million.are in jobs involving use cer. To date, there are 1.1 recorded said the provisions would include: e Providing medical examina
flat ban on worker exposure to of PVC.
cases of vinyl chloride liver cancer Limiting the manufacture, use tions annually ut no expense to
vinyl chloride -- the cancer-caus Scientific studies have found the in the United States and studies or handling of vinyl chloride to workers and maintaining records
ing teas whose killer potential has vinyl chloride health hazard pres have found that hundreds of vinyl regulated arcus.
for 20 years or longer.
been certified by the world's lead ing industrial health experts.
It has adopted--at least tenta
tively--the contention of the trade union movement that there is no
safe level of exposure, that no worker should lie exposed to nny detectable level of vinyl chloride in the air he breathes.
ent in the manufacture of PVC products. PVC is shaped into in dustrial ami consumer products through moiling, molding, extru sion, forming and other processes.
The end results include PVC pipe, floor tile, Vyire coaling, auto parts, apparel and plastic wrap.
Vinyl chloride was linked earlier
cliloride workers have "abnormal" liver functions.
The federal safely law requires the Labor Dept, to promulgate a peimuncnt standard within ..six months' afler a temporary stan dard is issued. Before the tempo rary standard was set Apr. 5, con centrations of vinyl chloride were
Monitoring the atmosphere of regulated areas to determine indi vidual worker exposure.
Allowing workers or their un ion representatives to observe the monitoring.
Initialing programs for respiratiry protection of workers in
The Labor Dept proposal pub lished in the Muy 10 Federal Reg
ister states thnt the standard would apply to nil viuyl cliloride
processes and to "operations in volving polyvinyl chloride where
detectable levels of vinyl chloride are released."
Last month, the AFL-CIO In this year to the deaths of several permitted in workplaces up to 500 regulated areas when measurable But the proposal also specifies^
dustrial Union Dept, had sharply workers at a B. V. Goodrich Co. ppm.
levels of vinyl chloride are de "This section does not appl/ to
critieizcJ the emergency tempo PVC plant in Louisville, Ky. They . In outlining the proposed stan tected.
the handling or use of fabricated
rary standard set by the Occupa died of angiosarcoma of the liver dard for "no detectable level" As ' Requiring protective clothing products made entirely, or in part
tional Safety & Health Adminis --until then, a rare form of cun- sistant Labor Sec. John 1L Stendur for workers in regulated areas. of polyvinyl chloride."
tration. It allowed up to fiO parts vinyl chloride per 1 million parts of air (50 ppm.).
This was only one-tenth of the
previous standard, but labor's po
sition was that the only justified standard was "no detectable level" of exposure.
The gas, vinyl chloride, is used
to make polyvinyl chloride, or
PVC, the solid plastic employed in
a wide range of industrial and
consumer products.
The Labor Dept, has invited
comment on the proposed "no de
tectable level" standard from in
terested parties and will consider
them before making a final deci sion on a permanent standard.
Labor safety experts, while wel
coming the proposal for the vinyl
chloride exposure ban, were study
ing the standard for its applicabil
ity to the larger problem of work ers dealing with PCV, the solid
plastic. While only some 6,500
workers are employed in the basic vinyl chloride industry, nearly 1
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Kentucky a matter
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