Document e5azxVXEynMkLN3Dqxbxoxndg

vV j 9 i M-Li j `s_/^ r\.* 4.-^ j_, Wednesday, October 2, 1974 VOL. LiV NO. 240 ' >.r< it Health Hazards Vinyl-Chloride Risks Were Known by Many Before First Deaths Hindsight Shows Weakness In Firms' Systems Aimed At Protecting Workers The Tip of a Large Iceberg By Barky Kramer Sffl/f ticpor!,r of Tiit Wall Stkret Joi knaL A Jew weeks before Christmas in 1948, Earl Parks, then 28 years old, signed on as a helper-trainee at the large B. F. Goodrich Co. plastics factory in Louisville, I<y. The plant had been making polyvinyl-chloride plastic from vmyi-cnionde gas since oetorej the war, using a process developed by GoodtiCil til 1<X>J . It was a growing industry that Mr. Barns joined. Polyvinyl chloride --dubbed PVC for short--had found special, but limited, opplications In the war years, especially as a fireproof coating for electric wiring in fighter planes and ships. But in the late 1540s, so-called vinyl consumer products, made from PVC. began coming into vogue; and by the time the 1950s were under way polyv'nyl-chloridc products such as contain ers, phonograph records and curtains were staples in American households. The basic Goodrich process, still in use today, pipes vinyl-chloride gas into large re- This is the first of tiro stories con cerning implicit ions of the discovery that vinyl chloride can cause cancer. actor vessels; there, the gas is agitated to gether with a liquid and catalysts. The pro cess causes polymerization, a linking to gether of the molecules of the gas (a mon omer) into the long chains that give PVC (a polymer) its strength and other desired characteristics. The First Years In his first years with Goodrich, it was Earl Parks's job to Crawl inside the reactors after each batch of PVC was drained off and to chip away that portion of the polymer that had congealed. During the hour-long task, repeated several times in the course of an eight-hour shift, Mr. Parks and other workers who performed the same function would unavoidably inhale the heavy, sweetsmelling fumes of vinyl-chloride gas that had escaped polymerization. As the 1950s went by and the 1900s began, Earl Parks was working his way up to the job of foreman, a poet that he had attained by the time that ill health forced his early retirement in the late 1200s. In the years BFG26941 that l.e had workt-d with Goodrich the PVC industry flourished as thousands of new uses were discovered for the polymer. On March 3, 1973, at the age of 50, Ear! Parks died of angiosarcoma of the liver a type of cancer that is invariably fatal. His death attracted scant public attention at the time, but today the significance of Mr. Parks's illness is unquestionable and shat tering in Its implications. For Earl Parks came to be one more statistic in turning a hypothesis into a reality: Vinyl chloride can cause cancer. Deadly Statistics The link between angiosarcoma and vinyl chloride is further buttressed by other deadly statistics. Seven of Mr. Parks's fel low workers at tile Goodrich plant also con tracted the disease, and five have died. In ail, there have been 16 documented angio sarcoma cases in the U.S. in recent years, all of them linked to vinyl chloride. In addi tion, 10 other cases have been reported in Europe. While the total number of cases is small, the Industry has been shaken to its roots. The disease new is known to work insidi ously, slowly, during decades of exposure, the Implications being that the cases thus far are quite likely only ihe tip of ail ic.eberg. Nine companies, with 11 plants and 940 employes, currently produce vinyl chlor ide monomer from ethylene, a petrochemi cal. The monomer, in turn, is used by 21 companies operating 30 major plants and employing 5,000 workers, to make more than five billion-'pounds cf PVC annually. (World-wide production is some 18 billion pounds annually.) Even the five billion pounds of PVC an nually produced in this country isn't enough to meet the domestic demand for the plastic into which PVC is formed. From 3.C-00 to 4,000 processors, employing an estimated 700,000 workers, fabricate the plastic into a wide variety of products ranging from vinyl floor tiles to shower curtains. According to a study done for the Society of the Plastics In dustry by Arthur D. Little Inc., as many as 2.2 million jobs depend on paiyvinyi-chioride .plastic. If PVC were banned, the study says, the annual loss to industry in saJcs and pro duction would be some JOG billion to S30 bil lion. (The Manufacturing Chemists Associa tion estimates the wholesale annual .value of all PVC products is 53 billion.) Emergency Decree At the moment, no one believes the In dustry will suddenly come to a screeching | halt. However, after the first human cases of vinyl chloride-induced angiosarcoma were disclosed, the Labor Department's Oc cupational Safety and Health Administralion Imposed a temporary emergency stan-; dard for PVC factories; thenceforth, OSHA decreed, the permissible level of vinyl chlor ide in the air of such factories would be 30 parts per million. That level was far below i the industry standard, in effect for years,; of 500 parts per million. OSHA's emergency decree was made last May. Since then, animal research found that tumors develop at 50 parts per million, Yesterday, OSHA Issued a new permanent standard requiring employers after Jan. 1, ' 1975, to reduce exposure to one part per mil- ; lion in factory air, averaged over eight! hours, and five parts per million averaged ! over any period no longer than 15 minutes. : (See story on page 10.) While considerably j more stringent than the emergency decree, the new permanent standard--particularly with its flve-parts-per-millton provision and its allowance of averaging--nevertheless C.CAJT tfi-J eJ t Qp , falls short of the "no detectable" limit advo- 3706001 . WALL STREET JOURNAL -'Wednesday, Oct.2,1974 V'S ;j Health Hazards: Many Knew Risl<s Of Vinyl Chloride Before Deaths Continued From First Page The analysis showed that the liver had been cated by unions, many medical experts and damaged by exposure to "chemicals." Can such groups as the National Institute (or Oc cer wasn't mentioned. cupational Safety and Health, and the (According to testimony at OSHA's hear American Chemical Society. This no-detect ings on vinyl chloride, held last June and able limit wculd have constant, not average, July, Mr. Parks received a total of almost adhorance to one-pa rt-per-million levels. tS.000 in workman's compensation from Therefore, It seems certain that the argu Goodrich before he died, but only after ment won't abate. Goodrich protested that his illness couldn't have resulted from exposure to the chemi As the controversy continues, it is reveal- cal. ) | ing to examine hc-w the link between vinyl chloride and cancer was established. If nothing else, such an examination points out the grave weaknesses of the present system It was an alert Louisville doctor who first made the connection between angiosarcoma and vinyl chloride. Dr. John L. Creech, who for years has treated workers sent to him -or lack therenf-cf protecting workers and others from industrial hazards. _ The judgment is made 'n hindsight, but by Goodrich on a fee-per-patient basis, had followed Earl Parks's case for some time, even though he wasn't treating Mr. Parks. the history of vinyl chloride shows that evi Dr. Creech says he had been concerned dence of its toxicity was often ignored. about an abnormally high number of Good What's more, the chemical companies rich workers who had liver disease. When knew, but kept secret for at least six months, the fact that Italian researchers had shown that rats develop tumors, includ he heard that Mr. Parks had died, he re calls, he asked to see tho autopsy report. it was in August 1373 that Dr. Creech ing angiosarcoma, when exposed to low learned that Mr. Parks had died the pre levels of vinyl chloride monomer. European vious March of angiosarcoma of the liver. companies, which paid for the animal re search, knew of these research findings for more than a year before the first human cases were reported but didn't reduce the exposure of their workers to vinyl chloride. But Dr. Irving J. Selikoff, an expert on The doctor says he then realized that some thing was seriously wrong, since another Goodrich PVC worker, a private patient of Dr. Creech, had succumbed to the same type of cancer in 1971. Dr. Creech says he environmental carcinogens, or eeneer-caustng agents, ciaims tuat blame shouldn't be placed at industry's door alone. "We're all a bit responsible," he says. "None of us did i knew that liver angiosarcoma is exceedingly rare and that two cases among such a small plant population was abnormal, iln iav-t, medical men estimate that fewer than 30 cases occur each year in . the U.S., striking our homework." Culpability, he says, should be shared by scientists, government agen only one in 900,000 persons.) Dr. Creech met with Goodrich's occupa cies and labor unions. tional health director. Dr. Maurice N. John The case cf Earl Parks is illustrative. son, who subsequently decided to ask Taber- Mr. P?.rks first came to the attention of shaw-Cooper Associates Inc., a Berkeley, Goodrich medical people in 19-34, when the Calif., epidemiological-studies concern, to company, concerned about the known liver do a survey of Goodrich death records. But toxicity of ethylene dichlorlde (a chemical the study was hardly needed; on Dec. 19, a from which vinyl chloride is made), tested third PVC worker at the Louisville plant the liver function of workers in the Louis died at the age of 58; he had been at the ville plant. plant for 28 years. Mr. Parks's readings were abnormal. Public Announcement Nevertheless, he continued to work at the On Jan. 22 of this year, Goodrich officials same Job. In October 1934, however, he was met in Washington with officials of the Na hospitalized with what was initially diag tional Institute for Occupational Safety and nosed as a bleeding ulcer. Doctors treated Health and informed them of the three an the "ulcer" without surgery, and Mr. Parks giosarcoma deaths. The following day, Ken was released. tucky occupational-health officials also were He was readmitted to the hospital the fol informed and Goodrich made its first public lowing May, and the decision was made to announcement. operate. But when the operation was begun, Almost since its first commercial intro surgeons. Instead of finding an ulcer, found duction. there have been reports that vinyl instead that Mr. Parks's problem resulted chloride is toxic above certain levels. In from severe liver damage, which had deed, during World War II, vinyl chloride caused blood to back up in the portal vein was rejected as a surgical anesthetic be leading Into the liver. The surgeons cor cause animajs developed heart irritation rected the vein problem with a shunt and when exposed to it. In 1949, Russian scien took a sample of liver tissue for analysis. tists reported "hepatitis-like changes" in C- OAJ i / /Ju > . . , 23706002 BFG26942 PVC plant. <-.;c ** jrnrii .* Then, In the late 1950*. research toxocolo- glsti at Dow Chemical Co. showed that ani- | mals exposed to as few as 100 parts per mil- | lion of-vinyl chloride (or 100 molecules of j vinyl chloride In every one million mole cules of air i developed slight liver damage. Based on its research, Dow began a pro gram in the 1960s to reduce the level of vinyl chloride monomer in the air of its plants to below 50 parts per million. Dow published Its results in 1961. But the rest of the Industry chose to rely on a Yale University study that recommended 500 parts per million as a safe level. This same level had been recommended by the Manu facturing Chemists Association since 1954, was affirmed in 1962 by the American Con ference of Governmental Industrial Hygien ists and was given the force of law by OSHA In 1971. However, evidence at the OSHA hearings indicates that this level was regu larly exceeded until this year in many plants. (The hygienists' group didn't recom mend lowering the level to 200 parts per million until 1972, four years after Dow con cluded from further tests that repeated ex posure by workers to vinyl-chloride mon omer at tin average of 300 parts per million or above for a working lifetime could cause changes in the liver.) Another Disease During the 1960s, there were reports of a disease called acroosteolysis among vinyl- chloride workers. The disease consists of skin lesions and changes In the blood ves sels, leading to degeneration of the bones at the tips of the fingers and toes In those ex posed to high levels of the monomer. (Emis sions of vinyl chloride are generally lower at plants where the monomer, or gas, is made, since the process is less complex, and there Is less change for leaks than at the polymerization plants; none of the re ported angiosarcoma cases in this country has occurred among workers making vinyl- chloride monomer, and only one of the 10 deaths in Europe was in a monomer plant.) In early 1967, the Manufacturing Chem ists Association arranged with the Univer sity of Michigan to study acroosteolysis among vinyl-chloride workers, particularly those who cleaned the reactor vessels and others who were exposed to large concentra tions of vinyl chloride in the air. The Michi gan scientists reported in 1970 that although they couldn't pinpoint vinyl chloride as the cause of the disease, worker exposure to the monomer should be cut to 50 parts per mil lion or below. Other than Dow, which had already Insti tuted reductions in air level of the mon-1 omer, the rest of the industry in the U.S. ig nored the recommendation. Nor was there 1 any significant reaction to findings by Euro pean industry that animals developed ad- , verse effects from vinyl chloride. This was j ; at least partly because the Europeans down- ; 1 graded the importance of some of their find- j ings. For example. Prof. Pier Luigi Viola, a I medical director employed in Italy by Sol- vay k Che , the Belgian chemicals company, found bone changes in rats exposed to air levels of 30.000 parts per million of vinyl chloride; even more important, he found that vinyl chloride at that level caused ma lignant tumors in the ear canals, lungs and bones of rats. Prof Vida reported his findings before an international cancer congress In Houston In 1970. II was the- first reported link be tween cancer and vinyl chloride. But the professor expressed doubt about the purity of the vinyl-chloride gas he had used and ! staled that the rat cancer findings, because they occurred at such high levels of the monomer, h id no human imolicaliens. JOURNAL Wednesday, r Siv parts per n..,.ion. cut \ 'hi.- f it w.bn t revealed until wadi after the i fir cl human angiosarcoma cases were re vealed. ( | Oct.2,1974 The Itneircli Goes On Based on Prof. Viola's early cancer find ings in rats, Montedison S.p.A., the huge Italian chemicals company. In 1970 asked Cesare Maltoni, a respected researcher at the Institute of Oncology in Bologna, .Italy, to do more extensive animal studes. By Oc tober 1972, Prof. Maltoni says, he had found that 250 parts per million of vinyl chloride produced tumors In rats in three part3 of the body: the ear canals, kidneys and the liver. The liver tumor3 included angiosar coma. The professor immediately informed his sponsors. The Europeans offered their Information to the Manufacturing Chemists Association In the U.S., but only if the Americans guar anteed confidentiality. With great reluc tance, the association says, It finally agreed to the secrecy condition "because of the vital importance of learning of any indica tions from the European research . . . with out the delays which could have resulted from duplication of effort." On Jan. 30, 1973, a year before the first human angiosarcoma cases were reported by B. F. Goodrich, the MCA finally got the Maltorii data. For five months, the secrecy restrictions were such that government agencies, PVC workers exposed to vinyl chloride and even company doctors were kept in the dark. Then, in the late spring, the Europeans agreed that the Chemists As sociation could pass the information on to the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Labor Department agency that monitors worker safety. On July 17. 1973, representatives of the associa- I tlon and the agency met. There is some dispute as to what tran spired at the meeting. The Labor Depart ment agency claims it wasn't given the full story; the chemists' association claims that j the agency misunderstood the findings. But one thing is certain: The agency, and OSHA, made no move to change the stan dard of 500 parts per million and didn't do | so until after the human angiosarcoma cases were announced. In Europe, by con trast, Great Britain had lowered the maxi mum level to 200 parts per million following the cases of acroosteolysis in the '60s: and West Germany had set a levei of 100 parts per million in 1970, based on Dow's 1S61 re sults with animals. According to New Scien tist. the British science journal, "No other section of the U.S. or European industry fol lowed Dow's lead. The reasons for this in ternational confusion are obscure.'' This all changed quickly, of course, once the first human cases of angiosarcoma were reported by Goodrich. Indeed, the swiftness with which new research has been carried out since Jan. 23 is perhaps without prece dent in the world of medicine and science. Much of this recent research is con cerned with studies of the incidence of dis ease of all typos among vinyl-chloride work ers. Thus far, some studies show that work ers exposed to high levels of vinyl chloride show greater than expected incidences not only of angiosarcoma but certain other can cers as well. The ramifications of these find ings tor the future of the Industry and Its workers remain to be seen. However, for the veteran PVC workers, whatever changes the findings produce will be useless In counteracting the insidious effects of working day alter day. year alter year, In what now is generally viewed as a contami nated atmosphere. BFG26943 3706003