Document daRno2rLeY1K8J3DYdKr6OQr9

INDUSTRIES z* B. c. Brennan J. R. Farst W. R. Harris G. J. Lazarchik A. P. Leber H. B. Lovejoy, i W. J. Peard a. E. Sourwine H. C. Twiehaus INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE Date: March 1, 1979 From: F. C. Dehn Location: FO West Subject: Carcinogens -- VCM The association of brain cancer with VCM exposure is not new. This is, however, the first incidence I am aware of where such an intensive investigation is underway. 0.. OxA-oc/ / zak Attachment F. C. Dehn ^ FORM 303.A RKV .|.7Q SL 081234 *1 By Bill Cany ^ ' petrochemical products'-made InVthe] WMtuMiMiuamtar U--nited S- tate* a*re produced here,, ac--: today's stricter standards. The: HDUSTON---An apparently highlit--' 'cording to til# highly regarded re- brain cancer victims--all but one are 4 ci!dJence o*f brain cancer among work' * era at a Union Carbide Corn, petro chemical plant near here. .. has prompted a federal health, investiga search of the Houston. Champber of; Commerce. Petrochemicals here em-' ploy 31.000 people, have a production; dead--ranged-in age from 30 to768,-t having worked at . the plant from .7 to 1 31 years. - v, ija valued last year at prhapsS2.6 billion - :. The seven-year -employe worked. 4 tion to determine which of the plants and a payroll estimated at a half btt-t there in the 1980s; s while .vinyl chlo-M hundreds of chemicals, might ..have lion dollars. ^ ride was still being manufactured, not'1 caused the disease *3^- tj .'"i '] Hacent years ImveL^seerCamother' just processed. from' purchased -lotnTj MbAaumaet^.iea vinvlvchlnrtrf* j .price to be paid la iiwnun flesh, as into beer andfoodcan nng aTMv - which has: been produitfdor^jWdisaed chemical after chemical produced, or .- durtritfeoattogs^X^ j in the Texas- City Union Carbide plant > otherwise used here in, tied to cancer v ' Union Carbide's: plant manager' In.-4 for 30 years and has- been associated , ' or is suspected of causing cancer. Ben-' Texas City, Damon. L. Engle,jays, vi with1 the type-of'cancer-diagnosed in.; zene, acrylonitrile; vinyl,chloride--all nyl chloride, accounts for; flve'percent' at least seven workers among 11 who ' art here with hundreds brothers^. of the plant's activity andamounts,to,, contracted brain cancer since-IMS. Last year 's^statewide f hundreds of millions'poundage year.'' In the course of that inveetigationCs' The Washington' Post: hss learned^:- ., _ showed_Texaa . . --_-- ` Perhaps 80 employee are regularly ex- to^ haveyan. unusually posed to Ik he said, and 8^)00 t 10.Q07" U.S. health investigators obtained avtn1' hlgh.death rate front lung cancer; an workers over the-past 3 years havw*l dence. of another possible rash of Incidwtce attributable* nv- what offl- potentially beast iipoasd to-the-c brain cancer at the Texas City plant ' dale-call a virtual epidemic of:lung cercauaingproduct.. sijjsogj of another chemical company. Mon- - cancen along the Texas-Golf Coaat ;;-Inl974 vinyLchloride was citeds santo, where vinyl chloride used to be *- - And a Port Arthur chemical engk a cause of made. near last August saying oil and chant- workers exposed i The investigation" beganafter a Un- \ leal companies have made the region ^evidence ion Carbide employe;, a-victim* of brain cancerrelated- to vinyl chloride, complained in November to- the-fed eral Occupational Safety and Health Administration. ; In previous health studies,seientists have found indications that vinyl chlo ride, a basic building block In today's plastic world, was related to a form of brain cancer called-glioblastoma ulti- form. 4^ '' - .v - S*tate*s,"--su1 edPaP14iuciomopfantiehse foUr-n*i1W.3di -USSESSli, million, claiming he contracted leuk*-^**"w"#l mie as a result of working in. the i Somt "2*000 dually, '*. , . -ion' Carbida-'plsnt how,' Pngto* SfAifS3 '- Shell Oil hss reported that one of .and they have ;been:'notifled by the-:' its products probably caused cancer 1 company of the findings of. 11. brain among workers years ago when safety controls were not so stringent and cancers among , workers- which dude; ... ., some 30 Shell employes at a Deer Ten deaths between 1983 and MW Park- lubricants facility have com and one living.victim.'; " ^ ' y* plained of numbness and pain in their t~ * Six listed-on death' certificated as' But they said that more study was extremities--a condition called pe- l having glioblastoma:malttfurm^'' warranted to determine a definite rel ripheral neuropathy. * The- living-victim: with gtioblae*- I ationship, so the occurrence of-gliob lastoma multiform among the Union i Carbide workers and the brain cancer among Monsanto employee may con firm that finding or may point to yet j another chemical aa' a cause of the fa J tal disease. -j H Shell and Union Carbide toma multiform.: 1 - r' * /"r'j tlurt wb*Uv*r th* ohms of cancer-- Two listed on. deaths certificate*'; the Union Carbide link of vinyl chlo- [ aa having a kind, of cancer that may ride to the dead. ^urkanr-J^nok yet be glioblastoma and routed to-.vinyL. ~ 7-rrr chloride. *. . - ^ condnrivm-new federal stsndart)r'fbr '* Two deaths* listed as--primary exposure-'to'-toxic' chemicals 'mean brain cancers, which eventually may-; The current concerns draw attaa- i that, whatever* past experiences, t> 0r may not be aa the form tion again to the potentially deadly arH dayylovels are too low to be harmfuL. ; associated with vinyl chloride. ray of Texas Golf Coast petrochemi- cal plants that are so vital to the \ booming Hooston-region' economy. ,J Rhat concern was highlighted by the t 1376 Velsicoi scandal, in which it was , Indeed, Union Cartddfr says many of 4 Its workers are exposed to less 1 amounts of chemicals, than federal law allows. The company says it meets ' e Some workerw who wore ntooet- dt 4 rectly involved in the handling Of.V-'-| nyl chloride but who nevertheless coo- -4 tracted brain cancer. > . . ;i discovered that its Phoavel was caus- j today's vinyl chloride standards of ex- 1 Enjli# ^ th* Wwrfinae so far asms i ing a debillltating nerve- disease- 4 among workers. i-j '| The Gulf Coast's sweeping coQec- i tion of highly complex petrochemical ! plants turns natural gas and petro leum into the essence of everyday life i posuro to workers during an eight- hour day of only one part per million --a concentration of fumes in the sur-. rounding air equal to one drop of ver mouth la a martini w>H, from 80 fifths of gin. --, "preliminary i-nd-ication-* sug--g--e-s-t*i--ng i that vinyl chloride* may have caused ^ the brain cancer at his plant, but said* it is mo early in the health Investiga^ tion to teach a final conclusion. '*,-v - Offlctals at the National Institute ofT r --tin-can linings, auto bumpers, stereo j T--he U--n--i-o--n C--a--r-b-i-d--e- employes Occupational Safety and Health,'-1 ^ records. strriicckkeenn--with brain cancer generally I which is investigating the oirtbreairof * Six of every 10 gallons or pounds of 'I brain cancer; said it is almost imposri-rj ble that such an occurrence eouldrbe .-, random, that something in tiie-envi-^ ronment of the workers -- vinyl chlo- * ride alone, combined with other cbem--i icals or some other substance -- could - be the cause.- - . -t*- SL 081235 At the Monsanto plant health Inves tigators began a' check of . exposure- levels after learning that at least four and possibly; five employee died .'of brain cancer, t' OSHA and NIOSH offlciaU and Uhion Carbide's Engle all cited extensive cooperation, among themselves to de termine which, if any, of the Union Carbide chemicals passing through the Texas City plant may be associ ated with the seemingly high occur rence qtbrain cancer. Noting the- difficulty of -linking vi nyl chloride - ro the brain cancer, OSHA director Eula Bingham said, ^it is too early and there are 'too many- other chemicals in use in the plant.to reach any definitive correlation be tween any particular chemical and the tumors," ' ' ' ` * 1 v * t lev V -> an fee* -rye t THE WASHINGTON POST Monday, Ftbrnta-f 19,1979 SL 081236