Document Znq29QLy3x5X7NmmMmBxm86J0

iLDownwind Cases7' In Vinyl St. Louis Post-Dispatch July 2, 1974 By MICHAEL J. CONLON The Environmental Protection Agency The disease is so rare that only about'' Of United Press International WASHINGTON recently surveyed seven chemical com plexes in Kentucky, Massachusetts. Louisiana, California, Ohio, Delaware 25 cases a year normally could be ex pected in the United States. Three in one plant was a startling discovery, and THE vinyl chloride cancer scare has and New Jersey and found no evidence Creech alerted the government Jan. 22. jumped the fence from grimy facto* ries to surrounding neighborhoods with frightening new statistics from Connect- , icut. It ultimately may be tracked into the homes of almost every American consumer. The mystery surrounding vinyl chlor ide suddenly deepened late last month . with the first figures showing what may be two confirmed cases of people who developed liver cancer -- not because they worked with the plastic chemical but because they lived near plants where it was produced. Officials at the National Institute of ` Occupational Safety and Health are call` ing them the first "downwind cases." The deaths occurred in the towns of Bridgeport and Stratford among people who lived as far as 2>/$ miles from vinyl chloride plants in the last 30 years.' <- L One of the Connecticut victims was a ousewife. The other was identified by of an imminent health hazard; but it stresses that its findings were sketchy and it told the $12 billion-a-year indus- . try it should take immediate steps to re duce neighborhood exposure to the low- ' est practical level. For the average consumer who may be wearing, carrying, using or otherwise , 'living with some polyvinyl chloride ` product almost every * waking moment, the health implications are less clear but no less a cause for concern. So far, basic consumer exposure to vi-.. - nyl chloride gas has been limited to aer-. < osol sprays. It was used as a propellant in a variety of household aerosol prod ucts until as late as March. So far the government has forced the recall of hundreds of thousands of cans of hair sprays, pesticides, wig cleaners, dog clipping groomers and other prod- : ucts that used the gas. It is looking at still others such as paint sprays and Since then this log of death and dis ease has emerged: --B. F. Goodrich plant, Louisville, seven cases, five fatal. --Goodyear Rubber Co. plant in Niagara Falls, N.Y., three cases, all fatal. --Union Carbide plant in South Char leston, W, Va., two cases, one fatal. --Firestone Tire & Rubber plant in Pottstown, Pa., one case, fatal. --A General Electric Co. plant in -Bridgeport, Conn., where plastic was processed, one case, fatal; another plas tics fabricating plant in Stratford,Conn., one case, also fatal. That adds up to 15 U.S. cases, 12 fa tal. In addition, two cases have been confirmed in West Germany, two in Sweden' and one each in Great Britain and Norway, for a worldwide total of 21. . The outside-the-plant cases in Connect; the government as a Puerto Rican plas terer who immigrated to New York and later lived -- and died -- in the vicinity cleaning compounds to determine if enough remain in the marketplace to warrant action. icut, however, ultimately may prove the most significant since many sections of the country have been bombarded with of one of the Connecticut plants. The same figures from the Connecti- . cut cancer registry also show two other cases of liver cancer that have been con The danger here, particularly where hair sprays are concerned, is that users jin confined spaces -- such as bathrooms, j -- could be subjected to doses of the gas industrial pollutants from vinyl chloride plants for years. In addition to the two deaths, Connect icut cancer listings show two other cases firmed as the first incidents involving - in heavy concentrations, similar to those ; of angiosarcoma but they are described secondary exposure. These people that have produced cancer in laboratory as occurring in people who moved about worked not with the basic vinyl chloride animals. from town to town. No firm link to vinyl gas but in turning its powder or pelle- . It was in the laboratory that vinyl . chloride exposure, either at work or by . tized version -- called polyvinyl chloride* -- into consumer products. Although only about 6500 U.S. workers are employed in plants where basic vi nyl chloride gas is handled, about 700,- chloride's potential as a carcinogen first ' was unearthed. What had been suspect ed for years was suggested strongly in j 1970 by a researcher in Rome. Dr. p. L. * Viola. But his findings were subject to -1 accident of residence, can yet be proved. 000 come into contact with it in its later dispute and largely ignored. stages while turning the widely used - More persuasive evidence came from plastic into everything from seat.covers Prof. Cesare Maltoni in Bologna. Italy,' ` to briefcases. The health implications for that indus try only now are beginning to be real who conducted a study funded in part by the chemical industry. Those results - * came out early in 1973. But the Institute ` ized. And the hazards to people living near plants where vinyl chloride is processed of National Occupational Safety and Health says it was unaware of Maltoni's work until January, when it learned of - are only just being discovered. Health officials do know that about 6 per cent the first confirmed deaths among U.S. vinyl chloride workers. of the six billion pounds of vinyl chlor ide gas produced in the United States., every year escapes into the air -- usualy through factory smokestacks. That important turning point is credit- * ed to Dr. John L. Creech Jr., physician at the B.F. Goodrich plant in Louisville, Ky. He discovered two workers at the plant had died of a rare cancer -- an giosarcoma o/ the liver. On checking further, he found a third case in*the re cords. RSV 0006561