Document a4B0oa4gg2jkk87YR63w5wv7a

CURRENT REPORT 887 ! The United Steelworkers of Amenca urged the aluminum located near Grumman, the Hooker Chemical Company, industry to take prompt action, including stepped-up en vironmental and medical monitoring to curb the increased which was known to produce polyvinyl chloride and dispose of its PVC wastes in the ground. risk of cancer. Niebling said it is known that breathing airborne vinyl The association said that the leukemia mortality was chloride can lead to cancer of the liver but its effects from somewhat greater for potroom workers, but this was found ingestion are not clear. "I don't think anything is known at not to be related to duration of employment or date of initial the present time of its effects in drinking water," he said, employment. adding that the department "wants to be very conservative" Upward trends were reported in lung cancer among by closing the wells. Like Grumman, the towns of Bethpage workers in potrooms, paste and carbon rooms, and cast and Hicksville, Long Island, can obtain drinking water from houses associated with smelters. Among potroom workers, sources farther away while the wells in the immediate area there also appeared to be an upward trend in the occurrence remain closed, Donohue said. He noted that in 1975 before of lung cancer with increased duration of employment. The the controversy erupted publicly, the county health depart association said that more in-depth studies of these areas ment had to wait up to six months for results from EPA and will be forthcoming. the Albany laboratory of water analyses. In the past couple of Union and industry representatives were scheduled to meet with investigators from the National Institute for Oc weeks, the results have been reported within three days to a week. cupational Safety and Health in Rockville. Md., December 13, to review the preliminary findings of the study and the association's plans for a final report projected for March 1, Testing of the water began in April 1974 when Grumman reported to the health department that its drinking water was affected by an odor. The first tests showed negative 1977, according to the Steelworkers. results. Another set of tests in the summer of 1975 turned up The association said the research involved tracing down employees, then examining death certificates of those who vinyl chloride and Grumman simultaneously closed the wells. died to determine the cause. These causes were then com pared with government figures to determine where there might be excesses that might be traced to conditions on the job, the association explained. Donohue said the tetrachloroethylene found in the Bethpage well is of "less concern" that vinyl chloride to the department and he noted that the amount is equivalents 100 parts per billion in the water. He said the results of a study by the National Academy of Science, expected in March 1977, on the health effects of I Health Hazards "these exotic chemicals" would be significant. "At the pre sent time our ability to analyze what is contained in the water exceeds the ability of the medical profession to tell us GRUMMAN CHANGES ITS WATER SUPPLY its significance," he said. FOR PLANT WHERE VC WAS DISCOVERED Grumman Corporation in Nassau County, N.Y., has begun pumping drinking water from new sources to its aircraft assembly plant where workers were left unaware for a year Oregon I i that vinyl chloride, a suspected carcinogen, had been found in the water. Grumman shut down five of 14 wells supplying the Belhpage, Long Island, plant in August 1975 when the WARRANTLESS SEARCH IS INVALID, STATE CIRCUIT COURT JUDGE DECIDES The clause of the Oregon Safety Employment Act that per chemical was discovered but never informed the 20,000 mits inspection of a workplace without a warrant based on employees. probable cause violates the Oregon Constitution and the A state assembly health subcommittee is conducting Fourth Amendment to the U S. Constitution, a state circuit hearings to determine why neither Grumman nor the Nassau court judge decided. County Health Department publicized the reason for closing Judge Walter I Edmonds, Jr., of the Circuit Court for the wells. Jefferson County ruled on November 1 in Stoic of Oregon In a related development, the health department v. Keith R. Foster d/b/a Keith Manufacturing Com December 13 ordered closed Well No. 9 of the Bethpage pany (No. 5943) that the Accident Prevention Division of Water District, which serves the public, after analysis show the state Workmen's Compensation Board is not entitled to ed the presence of 100 micrograms/liter of inspect the defendant employer's premises absent a showing tetrachloroethylene, another suspected carcinogen. One of probable cause that a violation of safety or health stan week ago two other public wells in the area also were closed. dards exists. Gerard Donohue, deputy director of Environmental Health A Safety Compliance Officer of the Accident Prevention Services for the county, told OSHR the wells were closed Division (APD) attempted three times to inspect the because of the presence "of various suspected carcinogens." employer's workplace, but was denied entry each time. In its Donohue said a program of analyzing water samples from application to the court for an inspection warrant, APD area wells by the Environmental Protection Agency and merely stated that it sought to make a "routine inspection" state health laboratory in Albany would continue. and that the employer had not been inspected for over a Grumman has arranged to bring in public water from year. sources farther away than its original wells for its workers The Oregon Safety Employment Act, ORS 654 206(2). to drink, Robert H. Niebling, executive deputy com provides that cause for the issuance of an inspection missioner of health for the county, told OSHR. warrant "shall be deemed to exist if reasonable legislative Donohue said the health department's Bureau of Water or administrative standards for conducting such a routine, Pollution Control and other agencies were searching for periodic or area inspection are satisfied " This provision possible sources of the vinyl chloride and other substances "violates the prohibition against unreasonable searches and found in the water, such as dichloroethylene and seizures found in the Fourth Amendment to the United trichloroethylene. He said the search included a firm States Constitution and in Article I. Section 9 of the Oregon Copyright 1976 by The Bureau of Nattonal Affctrs, Inc. ASI-PR 0002592