Document YG0o9NYwdnVByaMMQYndKzwQD

HILL AND KNOWLTON, Inc. V Chemical Tied to Defects By William Greider y. Wuhtncton Pott SUft Wtlti* firmed in the United States, sure to a substance which has dent of the Society of the) which showed mutations when become a major ingredient of Plastic___Industry* testified, Workers or consumers ex exposed to vinyl chloride. American manufacturing since however, that no red!arch has posed to vinyl chloride fumes Samplings of human experi World War II. yet established a broader dan may suffer genetic damage ence are fragmentary at this About 6,500 workers are in ger than the direct* exposure which will be passed on to point, he warned, but they volved in manufacturing vinyl by inhalation. That warning, their children in the form of also "give grounds for con chloride and its conversion he noted, was first raised by physical defects, a Senate cern." . into polyvinyl chloride, but the Industry itself when a doc Commerce subcommittee was At Mt. Sinai Medical School more than 1.5 million men and tor for B. F. Goodrich Co. dis-i warned yesterday. in New York, he said, exami women work in processing fac covered a recurring pattern of :: Dr. Irving J. Selkoff, cancer nations of 11 vinyl chloride tories where the plastic is deaths among workers at the researcher and president of workers found "chromosome made into various articles-- Louisville, Ky., plant -- four the Society for Occupational changes to be present consid the area where the danger is victims of the rare liver ail and Environmental Health, erably more frequently than still in debate. ment cited three recent studies expected." The Ohio Depart Selikoff said yesterday that Yesterday's hearing was which suggest that vinyl chlo ment of Health, Sellkoff his study of a polyvinyl plant held by Sen. John V. Tunney's ride, used in thousands of added, found a pattern of in in Niagara Falls, N.Y., found subcommittee and, though his plastic products, may be not creased birth malformations significant impact on workers' staff aides denied it, the sub only a cancer-causing agent in three counties where vinyl health, a rate of death due t|> ject seemed aimed at influenc but "mutagenic" -- creating chloride plants are located. hemangiosarcoma of tbe liver ing legislation on "toxic sub mutations. Selikoff conceded that these which statistically was 1,000 stances" which has already Selkoffs assertion assigns a findings are preliminary and times greater then normally passed both House and Senate new element of hazard to the not conclusive, but said they expected. - and is now before a confer Substance which is the basic add to the alarm over expo Ralph L. Harding Jr., presi ence committee. ingredient in a wide range of domestic products -- ,J(rom plumbing pipes to phonograph records, from plastic wrap used for supermarket produce to upholstery in automobiles. Earlier this year, it was es tablished that inhalation of vi nyl chloride fumes could, lead to a rare form of liver cancer among workers or neighbors of the factories. It might dten effect'confumers if they used certain aerosol spray cans that iZUje JBaHljfttgtan ftauJ were fueled with the substance. Research has not yet settled conclusively whether there is WASHINGTON, ft ft . R.ssjmm.nsm also a general danger from the variety of polyvinyl chloride products which are derived from vinyl chloride. AUG 2 2 1974 In the meantime, three gov ernment regulatory agencies have moved In various ways to restrict pollution from tha vi nyl chloride plants and to pro-, hibit the use of the chemical In such products as hair apraya and pesticide spray pans. An industry representative, Dr. Theodore K. Torkelson of the Manufacturing Chemists Association, denied that Any "mutagenlo" effect on human beings has so far been estab lished by genetic side effects exists and is being studied. The research cited by Seli- koff yesterday included bacte ria studies in Sweden; con BFG24462 23217174