Document dYGVG0x27JzZBQ4g2e04X97j5

0 Thur,day,Sept.S,19U THE W -UNGTON POST M i(t ,Known in 1971 FC hrOUR INFORMATION to Cancer > By Bob Kuttner arcoma have been reported has recommended a perma years behind where we should Washington Post Stiff Writer . among U.S. chemical workers nent permissible level of zero. be." Evidence existed as early as 1971 that low doses of vinyl exposed to vinyl chloride gas, which is the base ingredient for one of the most common In addition, dozens of sumer aerosol products con con "You don't automatically as sume that animal studies are conclusive, but the industry chloride caused cancer in labo- plastics, polyvinyl chloride. taining vinyl chloride gas as should have at least notified ratory animals, according to an internal technical report by The disclosure Jan. 22 by the B. F. Goodrich Co. that three workers in its Louisville, a propellant have been with their own doctors," he added, i drawn from the market. "It's inexcusable that they In the wake of these find didn't tel] the government." j .the World Health Organiza Ky.. plant died of angiosar ings, the chemical industry said Dr. Sidney Wolfe, director tion's International Agency coma led to a crash research has been sharply criticized by of the Nader-sponsored Health, for Research on Cancer. program by several federal cancer scientists for failing to Research Group. i The researcher isn't identi agencies, including the Na fully inform either the govern "It would have been appro- j fied, but several prominent tional Institute of Occupa ment or its own plant physi priate for them to tell us about' '< U.S. cancer scientists believe tional Safety and Health and cians about the results of Eu the European studies as soon j he is Dr. P. L. Viola, the Ital the Labor Department's Occu ropean studies showing links as they knew," added a NIOSHi ian researcher whose earlier pational Safety and Health to cancer as early as 1971. scientist. | work first alerted the chemi Administration (OSHA). "If the latest report means According to the Manufac-j cal- industry to the possible Consequently, OSHA adopt what it seems to mean," said turing Chemists Association.; carcinogenic -- cancer-causing ed an emergency standard Dr, Irving Selikoff, director of the principal industry trade j --effects of high doses of vi lowering exposure limits to i the Environmental Sciences association, the MCA invited | nyl chloride. vinyl chloride workers from | Laboratory at Mt. Sinai Dr. Viola to discuss his study j So far, 14 deaths from a 500 parts per million to 50 i School of Medicine in New with U.S. industry representa-- , rare liver cancer called angios parts per million, and NIOSH | York," then we're nearly four tives in May, 1971. The prelim inary studies showed vinyl I chemical industry sponsored, It also arranged for an epi-| Only after B. F. Goodrich rf chloride was carcinogenic at ^nother series of experiments demiological survey, to study ported that its Louisville plan Jlevels lion. By of 30,000 parts per November, 1971, mil:I by Dr. a second Italian Caesare Maltoni. scientist,1 The U.S. the health records of workers ! Manufacturing Chemists Asso-1 exposed to vinyl chloride. the ciation learned of Dr. Malto-| In June, 1973, at a meeting physician, Dr. John Creech, u dependently discovered thi * cases of angiosarcoma did th trade association fully revea MCA was awnre that concen` m's studies in late 1972. Those 1 with NIOSH officials, indus the Maltoni findings to NIOS1 trations of 5,000 parts per mil `studies showed that animal tu-, try representatives are said to officials. Even at that point lion "and perhaps less" also , mors could be produced at) have down played the signifi according to NIOSH source: could cause tumors in labora concentrations as low as 250; cance of the European find the MCA asked NIOSH to kee; tory animals. | parts per million, or half the ings. the findings secret. According to the latest .permissible exposure levels World Health Organization re i for workers in the United port, which summarizes a ! States. meeting held last June, a labo j However, the MCA did not ratory in Italy during that pe I share the information with riod--presumably Dr. Viola's government agencies, having --was also finding that con; promised its European countcentrations as low as 500 parts ierparts to keep the findings per million could cause tu'secret. mors. including angiosarcomas i Instead, the MCA and sevof the liver. Those results jeral of its member companies have not yet been published. contracted for new animal Subsequently, the European studies in the United States. Although the 1973 Maltoni research indicated that liver cancer could be caused at concentrations as low as 250 parts per million, NIOSH director Dr. Marcus Key told an Aug. 21 Senate hearing on vinyl chloride that at the meeting "no mention was made to us about liver cancer and no mention was made to us about the name of the Italian scientist." Dr, Maurice Johnson, Gooc rich's medical director, cor firms that he knew about th Maltoni study but said tha he saw no need to notify thcompany's plant physician: "It was by no means a finish ed study," he said. When Goodrich's Dr. Creed found the third case of angio: arcoma among plant worker-* Dr. Johnson said, "that wa the clincher." BOR 015019