Document bBnvRMa7vwOMvdpwgX2nMY08D

i/L The Vinyl Institute NEWS Wayne Interchange Plaza II, 1S5 Route 46 West, Wayne, New Jersey 07470 Contact: Nora Jacobs Edward Howard & Co. (216) 781-2400 For Immediate Release PIONEERING WORK ON VINYL CHLORIDE SAFETY WINS INDUSTRY'S AWARD WAYNE, New Jersey, June 21, 1988 -- The individuals whose work helped eliminate the health hazards once associated with the manufacture of vinyl chloride monomer have received this year's safety award from The Vinyl Institute, the trade association representing the leading manufacturers of PVC (polyvinyl chloride, or vinyl), VCM (vinyl chloride monomer) and PVC modifiers and additives. Dr. Maurice Johnson, retired from the BFGoodrich Company, and Dr. John Creech, of the University of Louisville, shared the award, which is given annually in recognition of outstanding contributions toward improved safety and health within the PVC industry. Johnson and Creech established a link between the manufacture of vinyl chloride monomer and a hazard to human health in 1974, when they noted an unusually high rate of rare liver cancer -- angiosarcoma -- among workers in vinyl chloride monomer manufacturing plants. Until that time, exposure to vinyl chloride monomer had been studied in rodents, but the potential hazard to humans was unknos*EUTMTM==^^..-.------------ -- i (more) The Vinyl Institute, A Division of The Society of the Plastics Industry ULh J! 2- - I In presenting the award, Dr. Roy T. Gottesman, executive director of The Vinyl Institute, noted that many lives no doubt would have been lost without the work of both men, whose findings mobilized an entire industry into corrective action. Following the discovery of the link, new manufacturing practices were adopted throughout the PVC industry that virtually eliminated the health hazard related to the production of vinyl chloride monomer, the principal raw ingredient used to manufacture PVC, or vinyl, plastic. The industry's reaction to the findings of Drs. Johnson and Creech often has been cited as a model of industry responsiveness and accountability in a time of crisis. Today, PVC is used in countless consumer and industrial products and is the world's second largest selling plastic material. m -Go 00.