Document ZJB6Dwmxb2VND1nXpjRnedZDJ

CORPORATE COMMUNICATIONS DEPARTMENT Union Carbide Corporation MEMORANDUM 270 Perk Avanua, New Yorl /I Jf 'tty y) Jul$J25, 1980 . 10017 : Dr. S. G. Austin Mr. N. E. Bolton Mr. J. B. Browning Mr. M. G. Dial Jr. Mr. Damon Engle Mr. A. S. Hart Mr. R. J. Hughes Mr. M. C. Lewis Dr. T. A. Lincoln Mr. A. C. MacLeod Dr. R. E. Pyle Mr. E. E. Tarlka Mr. H. F. Tomfohrde III Dr. H. M. D. Utldi^in Mr. A. G. Voress/ Mr. R. W. Wesson : Mr. L. A. Agnello Ms. A. D. Haughton Mr. G. D. Holt Ms. K. A. Richards I JIA25 J.jl .... fccO In case you did not see them, attached are articles In the Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and New York Times on the epidemiology study at Texas City. (jusufv RL:vp Attachments ralph'levitcm ucc 053612 THE WASHINGTON POST July 24, 1980 Cancer Outbreak Found in 2 Chemical Plants ` Page 1 By Victor Cohit and Joann* Omang WaiblnftQD n*t 'II Wrltm A serioua outbreak of brain cancer has been discovered in two Texas pe trochemical plants, and federal offi cials fear they may find a high inci dence of brain cancer elsewhere- in the huge industry that makes chemi cals from oil. In a probe that started in early. 1979, 29 brain-tumor cases--- 24 of', them fatal to far--have been discov ered among recent and past workers at a Dow Chemical plant in Free port, Tex. Eighteen other fatal eases turned up at a Union Carbide plant in Texas City, Tex. Both plants are in the Houston-Gal- veston area, which is thickly dotted with plants that make or process pe trochemicals. But so far, federal inves tigators have not been able to pin-, point a guilty chemical--or, more likely, a group of chemicals or a proc-_ ess--though there are several under .suspicion- ____ ................................ The brain-cancer incidence among workers in the plants in the last 24 years is twice the normal level in the general population. Dr. Richard Waxweiler of the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) said yesterday. : All of the victims are men. Fear I women work in the plants. Investigators from the two federal j agencies involved--the Labor Do-; partment's Occupational Safety and - Health Administration (OSHA) and the Department of Health and Human Services' NIOSH--have not. yet been able to look In detail at other plants, though they have started some inves tigations. They have reports, they said, of pos sible concentrations of brain cancers in plants at Beaumont and Port Arthur, Tex.; Charleston, W. Vs.: Louisville, and San Francisco, as well as one in Canada. 'There's no reason to suspect all pe trochemical plants," Waxweiler said. But Dr. Victor Alexander of OSHA said there may be "five or six others" at least, and J. William Lloyd, OSHA epidemiologist, said, "Then may be any number of chemical plants in volved." Spokesmen for Dow and Union Car-1 bide noted that the results so far amj inconclusive. "We see no common*< thread that would suggest (that) expo sure to any particular material or lo cation in the plant" is involved, said James Hansen for Dow. "Then Is nothing so far to connect the work place to the brain cancer." .. Damon Engle, manager of Union Carbide's Texas City plant, agreed that the cancer incidence may higher than the national avenge be but f has not yet been proved higher than Incidence in the ana. "If it is we're : Just as anxious as anybody to get to the bottom of it," he said. But he said Hie fact that Dr. Eulah Bingham, OSHA director, "put to gether OSHA'* first medical and sci entific team" meant OSHA had a skilled team to go to the Union Carbide plant early last year and begin to study the brain turnon. Alexander headed that first investi- When the study, began In 1979, re \ gation, which was triggered by a com searcher* suspected that the cause of the cancers might be vinyl chloride, i which is associated with the glloblas- j toma multiforma type of cancer being' found. But some of the victims had no i plaint in lata 1978 from a brain cancer victim at Union Carbide. Ironically, that victim's cancer had spread from another part of his body. exposure to vinyl chloride, the NIOSH. So he is not officially considered one researchers said. of the victims. Tony Mazzochi of the Oil, Chemical But it's important for workers to and Atomic Workers Union said pre speak up, Waxweiler said. TZ we hadn't liminary reports from other studies heard from that worker," he said, found higher-thsn-normal rates of "we wouldn't have known about Un brain and stomach cancan among pe ion Carbide. We wouldn't have known trochemical workers along the Texas - about Dow or any of it" Gulf Coast and as a result the union Working with Texas doctors and and the National Cancer Institute an health officials and with Union Car studying the entire industry. Eventu bide--a company that has been ally 60,000 workers will be checked, he "highly and unusually cooperative," slid, Alexander said--Alexander found 18 "Then is s cancer epidemic among American workers and certainly. tumors among 9,000 people who had worked at the Texas City plant since 1996, when the first victim died. among the workers we represent" He then Investigated "a second Mazzochi said. plant"--which he would not name-- Petrochemicals involve more than and found five brain tumor deaths. 30,000 workers in Texas alone and But two of these people had also bring in about 93 billion annually ac worked at Union Carbide. cording to atat* figures. The Houston Statistician* at the famed MJ5. An- Chamber of Commerce reported last demon Hospital and Tumor Institute year that tlx of every 10 pounds or in Houston then combed their compu gallons of U.S. petrochemical produc terized Texas death records for lists tion come from the Texas Gulf Coast of brain cancer victims and their work Dow's Freeport plant which covers 4900 acres and employs 7000 persons records. ; This led the investigators to the t is the biggest one tilers. Dow plant, the site of 25 tumor* OSHA. and NIOSH officials are among more than 30,000 workers since planning a joint conference on the ; the early 1960s. Studies now are focus- problem ponUdy in October involv . ing on company records to determine ing government industry and the sci where the men worked and what entific and medical worlds. The situa chemicals they were exposed to in the tion Ts something w* didn't know , vast complex, which makes 200 differ shout before" said Dr. Irving Seliknff ent products, including antifreeze, of Mount Sinai Medical Center In chlorine, latex, ethylene, vinyl chlo New York. ride and other industrial chemical He Is editor of the American Jour nal of Industrial Medicine, which will building blocks. soon publish the first scientific report on the outbreak, written by a group beaded by Dr. Alexander of OSHA. "W* just don't know how wide- ' spread tills problem is," said Sheldon Rmm>i, AFL-CIO director of occupa tional health and safety. There has been no Industrywide study of it. Just as "there is no systematic epidemiol ogy yet of the American work force," he said. - ucc 053613 -5 THE WALL STREET JOURNAL i July 25, 1980 High Incidence of Brain Tumors Found In Texas Plants of Carbide, Dow Chemical By a Wall Stakkt Juvuiul StaffReporter review led to the discovery of 25 brain-can WASHINGTON - Federal Investigators cer victims among the 40,000 Dow Chemical have discovered an unusually high Incidence employes since 1942; . of brain tumors among petrochemical work- OSHA and NIOSH officials are planning to 'era employed tv Dow Chemical Go. and hold a symposium with Industry officials on Union Carbide Co. In Texas. Forty-three cases of brain cancer, all but one of which have been fatal, have shown up among present and past employes at Dow , Chemical's Freeport facility and Union Car .`hide's Texas City plant. The findings are likely to lead to an Intensified governmentindustry search for the cause. "We have an indication of a twofold in creased risk of dying of brain cancer if you worked at Dow Chemical." said Gordon Reeve, an epidemiologist for the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health in Cincinnati. At Union Carbide's plant, he the brain-cancer problem, Mr. Waxweiler said, but a date hasn't been set Meanwhile, he continued, "it would be wise for the (petro-chemical companies) to look at their own death-record files for brain cancer." In New York, a spokeswoman for Union Carbide called the latest findings "an in terim report" and noted that the study is ex pected to take another year or two to com plete. She said the company is cooperating fully with government investigators. "Cur rently, we have no reason to believe there is any correlation between these turnon and any occupational exposures," she said. said, "the increased risk varied from tune In Midland. Mich.-, a spokesman for Dow to up to three times" the normal level in the said it is "inappropriate at this time to draw population, and depended on bow long a any conclusions" because the series of stud worker was employed there. ies isn't completed. He said the studies so Scientists from NIOSH and the labor De far haven't shown anything conclusively partment's Occupational Safety and Health connecting brain cancer to the workplace or Administration have been studying the two chemicals. Texas plants for more than a year. But so The spokesman said, "At Dow's Texas far, the investigators don't have any leads division, we are talking about approxi as to what chemical or chemicals might mately 24 deaths, out of more than 40,000 have caused the cancer, said Richard Wax- employes, over a 40-year period of observa weiler, another investigator. However, he tion. The last death from brain cancer in added, 13 of the 18 Union Carbide victims volving a Dow employe, or former employe, had worked at' the plant for more than IS occurred in 1977. Those are not epidemic years. x Where the Victims Worked proportions." Dow said it has been cooperating with To try to pinpoint the cause of the tu OSHA and NIOSH in the investigation and mors, federal and industry scientists are plans to meet with scientists from those studying where the victims, all male, agencies in Texas on Monday. worked in each plant. The NIOSH officials Looking at Other Groups said they may have some firmer hypotheses later this year. The investigation grew out of a complaint In late 1978 to OSHA by a Union Carbide em ploye with brain cancer. The subsequent comparison of local hospital records for brain tumors with Union Carbide personnel flies turned up IS cases among the 9,000 in dividuals who had worked at the plant since in opened in 1941, Mr. Waxweiler said. This A recent National Cancer Institute study of workers at three Texas oil refineries also found higher-than-normal rates of cancer of the brain, stomach, liver, pancreas, lung and skin. Brain tumors had the highest inci dence. Consequently, the institute "is look ing at a number of other groups" of chemi cal, petrochemical and pharmaceutical workers, said Linda Rudolph, a health con sultant for the Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers union, which sought the original study. Since last August NIOSH and Union Car hide have been studying 40.000 former and current workers at three Carbide facilities around South Charleston, W.V&. to deter mine the effects of chemical exposure on their health. A limited study had showed "an unusual distribution" of certain types of cancer among 819 deceased employes, in cluding nine cancers of the central nervous system. "From what we know now. we don't see any similarity" between the West Vir ginia and the Texas situations, said Mr. Waxweiler of NIOSH. Both NIOSH and the National Cancer In stitute are part of the Department of Health I and Human Services. - ucc 053614 THE HEW YORK TIMES July 25, 1980 Brain Cancer Discovered in Petrochemical Workers SVWMIWTkilWvYBk Administration said that a lack of avail to officials of WASHINGTON, July 23-- A "high" to- able funds had delayed investigations ficialstft&aoccupetinnal'safety agency. of brain cancer amoat w na into the magnitude of the incidence of A spokesmen at the Department of tion's petrochemical workers has led to cancer Injunta at Beaumont and Fort Health and Human Services' National In suspicion hen that chemicals may lie at Arthur. Tex; Louisville; Chariestui. stitute of Occupational Safety and Health the root of the problem, according to Fed W. Va.. and San Francisco. said thatvinyl charlde was originally sus eral work-safetyofficials. "With varying levels of proof, we be pected of being the brain-cancer causing Investigators for the Department of lieve each of them represents an exces agent. But the spokesman said that fur- Health and Human Services and the De partment of Labor have confirmed an sively high" incidenceof thedisease, said thar research turned up cases of the canDr. Victor Alexander, a medical officer in workers not exposed to the cbemi- ''excessively high" incidence of brain caL ' cancer In at least seven petrochemical *We dent have much Intonmati Vinyl chloride was found to be the plants In Texas, West Virginia, Kentucky shoot chemicals causing brain cancer canee of liver cancer among petrochemi and California. Dr. Alexander added. cal workers hi industry studies published They said that they had discovered 35 "Them chemical plants may have 50 to in 1574and 1571 brain-tumor cases, 24 of which wen 100 chemicals that they use more than a fatal, among workers at a Dow Chemical plant in Freeport, Tex. Eighteen fatal ities have been discovered at a Union mlllloo pounds of during the year," he said. "It's iimnntMt to "wm"1-- the magnitude that a small number of work Carbide plant in Texas City, Tax., the au thorities said. Tha Incidence of brain cancer among ers can handle." He said that "at least a dozen" known cancer-cansing chemicals ware found to most petrochemical plants. the workers in the two Texas plants Is The investigation began in N79, after a twice that of the general population victim of brain cancer at Union Carbide Spokesmen for the two agencies can filed a complaint with the Labor Depart- timed that the results wan still tentative and that no firm scientific conclusions should yet bedrawn. Of the casesunder investigation,.all the reported victims are mao. W/foamtten work- A spokesman at the Deportment of era an in a minority In the Industry end Laban Occupational Safety and Health may be leu susceptible to brmto-canccr ucc 053615