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H IL L AND KN O W LTO N , In c . US. Sued on i .'V ,.: .... ;/ CHICAGO (AP) - Plastics Industry officials quickly de nounced and filed lawsuits contesting new. federal safety standards reducing worker exposure to vinyl chloride, a gas that may cause cancer. 1 One industry official called the standards "economically unrealistic, technically unfea sible. politically motivated and medically ridiculous." President Todd C. Walker of the Firestone Plastics Co., a division of the Firestone Tire '& Rubber Co., added in a statement yesterday that the standard "puts the vinyl plas tics industry on a collision course with economic ' dis aster. More importantly, it throws two million jobs down the drain, according to an economic impact study made earlier this year by Arthur D. Little & Co.," an industrial consultant. Asst. U.S. Labor Se'cretary tn?ttUig p, mm OCT 2 1974, frioizeez John H. Stender, who had an nounced the new Occupational Safety and Health Adminis tration (OSHA) standards ear lier yesterday, '-said some plants will have trouble meet ing the tightened standards, but he added, "This will not cause the industry to shut down." . The stricter regulations for vinyl chloride, a chemical used in numerous plastic products, would cover- 7,500 U.S. plants with 350,000 work ers. Present standards will re main in effect until January with a gradual, one-year tran sition to the tighter standards, Stender said. . ` . _,./r were reported, the govern ment in April ordered an emergency lowering from the then-prevailing -limit of !>00 parts per million to which workers could be exposed. . r Variances `{"New Standards .... Stender said provisions Preliminary tests conducted would allow a company that In Northbrook. HI., later that cannot meet the standards to month showed that test mice ask for a variance or a time developed liver cancer when extension. ' ` exposed to concentrations of , A t least two industrial 50 parts per million of vinyl g r o u p s.,immediately filed chloride. ; court actions contesting the . The new standards an new standards. nounced by Stender. state The Society of the Plastics that: . ..,, - v. Industry; me., which repre~ sents mere than 90 per cent of : vinyl cloride and polyvinyl ; chloride producers, filed svit i in New York asking the U.S. Court of Appeals for judicial review. A separate suit was filed by the Hooker Chemical --Current maximum levels, will remain in effect until next January. They ,allow workers handling polymer vinyl chloride to, be exposed to up to 50 parts per million in eight hours. Co., of Stamford, Conn. In 1975,' the level must President Ralph L. Harding ' drop to one part per million of the plastic trade group said over any eight-hour period the government "may believe and five parts averaged over it has adopted a compromise, any period no longer than 15 j position between organized la minutes. bor on the one hand and in- --By Jan. 1, 1976, any work j dustry on the other, but the er exposed to more than the 'result is the standard that eight-hour or 15-minute limits idoes not take into account in for the chemical must have a 'a practical way the known respirator. Until then, respira medical and technological tors are optional if levels re facts." main less than 25 parts per : After several deaths from a million. :rare liver cancer which were --Penalties for violators in thoueht to be related to the clude a maximum -$10,000 fine handling of vinyl djjoride and six months in prison,_