Document X7dk1VqkkBNr0YdX6jw2eD40K

oo OSHA, NIOSH study brain-tumor deaths at Union Carbide facility in tbe years between 1962 and 1978. Shock Waves: Even the tentative link to VCM has sent tremors through tbe vinyl industry. On February 13, Union Carbide plant manager Damon L- Engle sent a Syntex nears naproxen lawsuit settlements Pharmaceutical producer Syntex Corp. Following the discovery that 10 em letter to employees si Texas City appris ing them of the brain-cancer cues. A agreed last week to settle out of court aD pending lawsuits with Syntex sharehoMert ployee! at Union Carbide's Texas City. simDar letter was given to employees at and industrial Bio-Test Laboratories Tex. plant had died of brain turnon, the Carbide'! S. Charioton, W.Va,, facility, (IBT) connected with lBFs alleged defi Occupational Safety and Health Adminis* tratian and the National Institute of and other VCM manufacturers were informed of the findings at Carbide. A ciencies in testing Syntex's anti-arthritic drug, naproxen. Occupational Safety and Health are Dow Chemical statement cautions against The agreement requires the companies conducting an epidemiological study of hasty correlation of the deaths with VCM. to set up a 52.75-imllioa settlement fund, S.000-10,000 present and former workers at the plant The investigation resulted from i worker's complaint last November, Dow says that mortality studies conducted recently at Freeport, Tex., and last year at its Piaquemine, La., VCM facilities failed of which SI JB million would come from 1BT, 5575,000 from Syntex, and 5375,000 from Syntex's insurance company. In !* aBegrng an abnormal incidence of brain "to shew any indication of a similar situa exchange, the lawsuits would he dropped. tnmoro among personnel in the company's tion. Both studies showed no deaths from The arrangement is still subject to court chemical-shipping area. brain tumors among VCM workers." approval. OSHA inspectors visited the plant on The joint OSHA-NIOSH investigation The settlement fund benefits clab Dec. 13, 1978, and Jan. 8, 1979, and teem is gathering data. As a result of action lawsuit plaintiffs, whose suits, filed reported last week that examination of findings to date, OSHA is also investigat in 1976 and later consolidated in federal Carbide's medical records revealed II ing a "compliance complaint'' at Monsan court in New York, alleged that IBT was brain-tumor cases, including 10 deaths. to's operations in Texas City and says that deficient in performing and reporting on a Nine of the workers had died of a form of cancer called glioblastoma multiform; the h is possible that other plants will also be cheeked, though none has been identified. rat study of Syntex's Naprosyn naproxen. The suits also charged that Syntex knew 6 living worker is believed to have glioblasto Davis Layne, area director of OSHAk or should have known about the alleged ma. The other employee died from meningio ma. another type of brain tumor. Houston office says "We are just begin ning to turn the leaves, and it til depends deficiencies, and that the prices of Syntex's securities were artifitially in T According to OSHA Administrator on what turns up." flated because of allegedly fraudulent Euia Bingham, "The total number of representations and omissions stemming brain tumors so far would appear to be from the company's statements about higher than expected for a plant popula Stauffer's board OK's1 tion this size." At the start of the investi naproxen. In addition, on Oct. 15. 1976, the Food and Drug Administration pro gation, which it expected to take about a 2-for-1 stock split posed withdrawing its approval of naprox year, vinyl chloride monomer is the lead ing suspect. While VCM is most common Stauffer Chemical's board last week en's new drug application on the grounds of the alleged deficiencies in the rat study t. w ly associated with angiosarcoma, a form of liver cancer, several studies have linked it to glioblastoma. Sanford Leffingweil. a NIOSH medical officer who is heading approved a Iwo-for-one stock-split propos al that they wiQ present to shareholders on April It for final approval. The move is the latest in t string of stock-split propos by IBT for Syntex. Syntex says it is agreeing on the settle ment to avoid the "expenses of a lengthy trial, which would require our scientists r the epidemiological study, cites s 1976 als by such Chemical companies as Du and executives to waste months in court study by Richard Wexweiler published by the New York Academy of Sciences, and Pont, Mobil Corp-. SmithKJine, and Car lisle Corp.. (CW. Ftb. 14. p. 10). rooms thousands of miles away." But the company admits no wrongdoing in the * a later study by Italian researcher Cesarc Mahoni that showed an incidence of H. Barclay Morley, Stauffer's chair man, said the proposed split would help case, and, in earlier answers to the suits, denied all allegations of improper conduct. s another type of brain tumor in rats bring the stock price, which was around As of July 31, 1978, Syntex's worldwide exposed to VCM. A study supported by the MCA also recognized an inddence of 540/share last week, down to a level that would he more attractive and affordable to sales of naproxen totaled 587 million for the fiscal year. The non-hormonal anti . * glioblastoma among the workers exposed Investors. inflammatory drug, marketed in about 48 to VCM in its sample. Tbe proposal calls for boosting Stauf countries, is t major product in Syntex's Carbide ttys that the affected workers fer*! authorization for shares to 70 million human pharmaceuticals business. I were exposed to VCM in 1950-1965, but from the present 30 million. Right now Naleo Chemical, lBT"s parent compa evidence at this point is far from conclu there are about 21.9 million shares ny, notes that, is pin of tbe settlement, sive. leffingweil says that other chemical! outstanding, and the largest shareholder Syntex agreed to dismiss a suit the drug- In use at the plant, including ethylene oxide and acrylonitrile, are possible causes among the board of director!, Christian de Dampierre, owns fewer than 2%. maker filed against IBT in Chicago, once the settlement of the suits In New York is of brain turnon and will be examined. It is also possible, he points out, that tbe number of glioblastomas could turn out The board also said that, if the share holders approve tbe proposal, the board will consider boosting tbe second-quarter approved. And iBTs 51.8-million pay ment under the settlement terms, Naleo says, will be charged against the reserve not to be excessive fora plant with approx dividend by 10%, to 27.5t/shsre after the for discontinued operations set up by imately 2,000 employees, in tbe period split. The move would be in line with the Naleo in 1978. since 1941, there have been <55 known deaths of Carbide employees at Texes CHy, although afl 10 in which brain company^ policy of raising dividends to offset the effects of inflation. Stauffer has split its stock two for one twice in the Syntex, meanwhile, says it has repeated the study of naproxen in question, and submitted it to FDA in late 1978, but so * ! tumors were listed as the cause occurred past--in April 1957 and in May. 1976. far has had no response from FDA. t 1 at CIHiU WMk/fmruery tt, 1S78 RSV0033815