Document b527DnbnjGjmORLroz21d4QVO

* is i< \ . j?c. & 1 I THE PI AIN DEALER. WEDNESDAY. FEBRUARY 13. 1974 i By John Nnsshnum A medical detection pro gram is under way to cieter* mine the effect oi vinyl and polyvinyl chlorides, used in the-plastics industry, on .workers' health and possi ble cancer-ccuring proper ties of the chemicals. Tlie crash research pro rsm Is being conducted by federal agencies, tite Na tional Institute of Occupa- tional Safety and Health tnd its parent. Center for Disease Control, assisted by university scientists and with help from industry and labor. The institute detailed pro gram plans here yesterday for labor and management representatives at Sheraton Motor Inn. Cleveland Hop kins International Airport. About 75 representatives of various chemical manu facturers, several schools of public health, the AKL-CIO Industrial Union. United Rubber Workers; Oil. Chemical and Atomic Work ers: International Union of Chemical Workers and United Steelworkers'unions attended. been chroriidcd In medical literature. Normally, an es timated 20 cases a year oc- cur in Use entire United Stales. Dr. Msirdus M. Key. insti tute director, called the sus pected canlcer-caujiRS role of the chltjrkles a crisis in occupational keaUi;. ile said he hoped the situation couid h e comined to the four deaths and [a handful of utltr liver disorders also re ported recently. Bui Dr. Irvin? Selikoff of Mount Sinai Hospital Modical Sclioojl. New York, a 'leading Industrial epide miologist. said the chemi cals could Icaust other dis eases. The vinyl industry in this country is, or.ly about 25 years old. I Chemically in duced cancjer in humans of ten t a k e i as long as 20 years to show up so there may be many other unre cognized cases. The Chemical Workers Union esadimes CO.vou U S. workers are exposed to the vinyl and polyvinyl chiu* rides. The present concern re sulted from a report to lift institute Jan. 22 by B. F. Goodrich Co. of four deaths ' between 1203 and 12*3 from a rare cancer of the inner lining of bj.-i vv-*os i "it* liter anK'i'g e:r:h">vs :*.> chemical" pi-ut i;t i.-.u:ville. Ky. The liver cancer, h e m a ngio-cr.dotUc:.."*;i - coma, was first described in 1910, and only 4-i cases note Dr. Henry Falk, a center pathologi.Tr. reported none of the viciiiVts had a history of liver disease. But in two of the patients the diagnosis was nonaitjohoiic cirrhosis <>: the hierl .v;.j ;.:e car.ccr cLiifiruiied ur.iv ;,;au- tv*><icS. | In the stiidy. medical in'f>ti-_'jtors puU nick cr.emic j i plants similar tu the foui^Mp.o punt. They i'l examine workers, hunt vi> former employes and study the records of deceased . workers. A tentative list of 27 com- . panics, from which a hand ful will be chosen for study. ` include four in northeast Ohio. t They are General.Tire & i Rubber Co.'s Chemical- i Plastics division. Ashtabu- 1 la; the B. F. Goodrich plant ; iu Avon Lake, and tl:e L'ni- : royal Inc. chemical division * ami Robintech Inc., both in j Painesville. ..j Scientists, labor and in dustry representatives ham mered out emergency safe- t y standards for chloride handling which the institute will recommend to the U.S. . Departmenfof Labor. . * The standards include * protective clothing, respira tors. mandatory showers, ventilation, and a slitter 1 federal standards on cnlo- . ride fumes. { D r. Samuel S. Epstein. : pr.n'essor of environmental health at Case Western Re serve University, said more preventive research was needed in order to avert the need of responding to `cri- ; sei. He said many hazards may be .overlooked by not investigating substances - and industrial processes un til a hazard is detected. T a e only things that i.Muci;: us here loony is U:e unusual occurrence ot a rare : Had VC merely produced an increased in cidence of Inna cancer we would not be here." he said. / APOOOf5427 A : - K,The Chemical World This Week i. - EVIDENCE MOUNTS LINKING So fax three major resin produc ers--Dow Chemical, Monsanto, and Union Carbide--have spelled VINYL CHLORIDE AND CANCER > out large and wide-ranging price in creases for resins following the CLC action. These boosts come after a Tta growing suspicion that expo another four liver isease cases at year in which listed chemical prices sure to vinyl chloride has led to the the plant under in' stigation, in- have moved up relatively modestly. deaths of polyvinyl chloride workers volved persons wh< cleaned poly- According to Labor Department from a most rare form of liver can cer has apparently been reinforced. A research study in which rats ex posed to high levels (apparently merization reactors after this step in the suspension p: ess for PVC. BFG has used a ess hazardous cleaning process f< the past five data, the price index for plastics resins and materials moved up 4.1% between December 1972 and December 1973. For chemicals and 0,000 p.p.m.) of vinyl chloride years, however. allied products the gain was 4.9%. vapor also develop angiosarcoma of Significantly, the latency period Of course, the "gray market" price the liver was slated to be disclosed for most cancers to develop nearly for resins and many other chemical publicly in the U.S. by Prof. Cesare Maltoni of the University of Bo logna, Italy, just after press time. The study has been supported by a consortium of European firms, in cluding Imperial Chemical Indus products has been spiraling upward for some months. Among the recent price moves Monsanto has posted increases of 5 cents a pound on bulk shipments of polystyrene resins, and increases of tries (C&EN, Feb. 11, page 8). 4 cents a pound on bulk acryloni- What's more, the view that the trile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and deaths are an isolated event limited to just one of B. F. Goodrich's U.S. plants and not proved to be occu pationally linked is fa9t disappear styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN) resins. New price tor general-purpose poly styrene is 19 cents a pound. Truck- load quantities of ABS resins now ing. Four angiosarcoma deaths now have been confirmed at the BFG plant instead of the three revealed range from 32 to 45 cents a pound, and SAN in truckload bags is 27 cents a pound. Monsanto says earlier (C&EN, Jan. 28, page 6). Another diagnosed case of angiosar coma occurred in an 1CI employee who worked in a U.K. vinyl chlo ride operation for 20 years, sources in the U.K. and U.S. say. Key: not explained by chance matches the great growth in the U.S. PVC industry that has taken place over the past two decades or that "these increases are consistent with the Cost of Living Council ac tion of Jan. 30" and reflect in creased cost of raw materials, ener- S', and distribution, among other ctors. The clustering of the four BFG so. NIOSH estimates there are 5000 Dow, citing reasons much the cases "cannot be explained by workers at risk in U.S. PVC plants same as Monsanto's, has raised the chance alone," Dr. Marcus M. Key, and 1500 at vinyl chloride plants. price of its general-purpose polysty director of the National Institute NIOSH will contract out an epi rene from 17 to 26 cents a pound. for Occupational Safety and demiology study that will be inde ABS and SAN now go for 32 Health, told those at a Cleveland pendent of the study on workers al cents a pound, up from 23.5 and briefing on the cancer hazard ear ready under way at member firms 24 cents a pound. Price of high- lier last week. of the Manufacturing Chemists As density injection- and biow-mold- What action the U.S. takes, if sociation. MCA's results will not be Lng polyethylene was increased any, beyond interim; procedures ready for "at least two to three from 14.5 to 18.5 cents a pound. NIOSH has recommended hinges months," a spokesman says. Ear Dow's low-density film-grade poly upon the outcome of a fact-finding lier, MCA halted circulation of its ethylene is now 17 cents a pound, hearing at the Labor Department 1972 safety data sheet on vinyl up from 13 cents. The company on Feb. 15. Prof. Maltoni, BFG, chloride, which stated that human says that these new prices still do Dow Chemical, organized labor, carcinogenicity had not been ob not match those of the world mar and others were scheduled to testi served. ket but should help it compete on fy. AFL-CIO was to present a uni fied, organized labor position urg Plastic prices the world market for petrochemical feedstocks; ~ Carbide's new prices for high- ing the department to promulgate an emergency temporary standard, get big boosits density injection- and blow-mold ing polyethylene are the same as a procedure used earlier for 14 Dow's, but its low-density film other carcinogens. Dr. V. K. Howe, As U.S. chemical takers sort out grade is a bit higher at 18.5 cents a Dow's top toxicologist, was expect ed to oppose this procedure, asking instead for regular rule-making for a permanent standard. He suggests the fine points of the recent Cost oi pound SAN is now 28 cents a Living Council action rtlermi iovmdXup from 22 cents, while Phase IV price controls oivpetro* 'Bi^-inpact polystyrene increased chemicals, plastics resins, ana syn from 16.5 cents a pound to 21.5 the deaths result from gross expo thetic fibers (C&EN, Peb. .4, page cents a pound. Carbide raised the sure 10 to 30 years in the past. 4), price hikes are beingfannounced talvon its polyvinyl chloride resin All four BFG deaths, as well as with resin makers leading the way. suspensions by 5 cents bringing the ('"CiEN Feb. 18.1974"\ AP00015428