Document g2dv84q67jZDwqdyxd2xqw503

w received MAY 23 1974 3j RARRY BINGHAM JR. Editor and Publisher miniat*- H WHEEU*JR- Associate Editors ROBERT T, BARNARD Editorial rage Editor ADELE VINCENT DAVID HAWPC JOHN HART BERT EMKE FRIDAY, MAY IT, 1971 FOUNDED 1KM. HUGH IIAYNIE* Cartoonist /!'< Opinion ^AYg0 Too high a price for safety on the job? THE PROPOSED new rule* on exposure of chemical workers (o vim I chloride gas brine sc1 (.'VC Into sharp locus one oI the most pcrplcxme - - i-.i questions facing America: How much risk to r human life and health arc we willing lo lake i . for the Jobs and consumer conveniences pro vided by industry? The key word is "risk." 1 The evidence to date suggests overwhelm ingly that tbo old federal safety rules limit ing exposure to 500 parts of vinyl chlorido Jn one million parts of air were too loose. Nineteen known rases of what had been con sidered a rare form of liver cancer have now been reported among vinyl chloride workers in this country (seven of them in Louisville) and elsewhere. Emergency rules limiting exposure to 50 parts per million were hastily put into effect when the liver cancer hazard became appar 1 ent. Now tho federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) proposes to --require that no detectable levels of vinyl -' 1 chloride gas be permitted in areas where L. worken may be exposed. Meanwhile, the fed eral Environmental protection Agency has -asw --. -L, A Goodrich plant wtxkar emerges ' become concerned about the possible hazards from a vinyl polymerisation vat of the gas in the almosphere of areas around vinyl chloride plants. The new OSIIA standards, if they wete pressure, and the industry just as clearly must successfully Implemented by the industry, show a good faith effort to eliminate tho doubtless would end the threat to workers' hazards. safety, Cut three factors must be considered: OSHA, the industry and the public must U) Chemical industry spokesmen claim that face the- fact that Hie proposed rules could it will be prohibitively costly and/or tech force tlie industry to close some plsnts and nologically impossible lo meet the new stand might increase production costs so sharply ards, especially if they become effective in that the use of plastics mad* from vinyl July, at is now proposed. (21 Vinyl chloride chloride would be discouraged. This, in turn, Is a basic material in the production of plas leads to the second point--tho use of vinyl tics used in a wide range of consumer goods chloride end-products by many other indus bud in packaging. And (3). although laboratory tries. If the new OSilA rules force s sharp teats with rats suggest that exposure to 30 decline in vinyl chloride production, this Im parts vinyl chloride per million of nr, as per pact could spread like ripples In a pond to mitted under the present emergency regula other segment* of the country's closely inter tions, may be dangerous, there is no docu related and Intordvp'-ndent industrial econo mented research to far to suggest that ex my. Products ranging from plastic squeeze posure to lower levels--10 parts per million, bottles to home appliances could become more for example--is hazardous. expensive or simply unavailable, and jobs could bo lost. Threat to older {Junto The vinyl chloride Industry doubtless wilt The claims of the vinyl chlertde industry, of course, can be considered self-serving. Rut that doesn't mean they are invalid. Meeting - the proposed OSIIA standard of "no detectable levels'* in plant areas where workers may be exposed almost surely will add significantly mike these points next month at a public hearing on the p.-cpeicd OSIIA rules. And in dustry spokc.men juA as surely will argue that OSIIA is overreacting to the admittedly serious liver cancer hazard, and that compromtac standards should be tried. to production costs. And it may prove to be technologically impossible, especially at such older vinyl chloride plains as the ft. F. Good rich Company facility in Louisville, to con form with the proposed regtilaiimts. Itio Industry, nevertheless, cannot he al lowed iiidcfinilely lo postpone si-ps which will protect both ns workers and i-ersons who I Jive near Its plants. A July deadline for reduc ing vinyl chloride to "nil dctectablo levels'' within and around us plan's may ne unreason i able, but clcatly OSIIA must continue tu apply t Compromise standards, of course, Involve risks. Human risk is an inescapable factor in most industrial processes, yet it is a factor that must be minimized. Underground coat mining, for example, is an occupation which almost certainly will always be more hazard ous. unless it can one day be totally auto mated, than working on an automobile assem bly line. It is also, however, an industry which is essential to the American economy and tho present American lifestyle, both of which cos tume enormous energy. The essential nature of the industry, how ever, means that the sdded cost of making underground mining reasonably safe can bo passed on to the consuming public--unless tho country is willing to pay the environmental coat of depending entirely on strip-mining for Its coal. One can argue, of course, that plastics made from vinyl chlorido, unlike the energy provided by coal, are a frivolous and essen tially "phony" part of the American economy and culture--something, in other words, wo could do without and perhaps be better off for the deprivation. Thia again, however, involves broad public preferences--the same kind of choices we face in balancing clean air against automo bile production, or insect-free crops against the long-term harm of DDT and some other pesticides to our environment It also in volves jobs. No worker wants to be exposed to hazards on the job. But neither do most workers want their jobs eliminated along with the hazards. . OSH.Vt &/pgMt challenge Hie vinyl chloride case is only one at thousands in which OSIIA, >ct up under a 1970 congressional act, has butted heads with industry. These clashes have been frequent and paintul enough to prompt moves in Con gress--including an unsuccessful effort last week--to clip OSIIA's wings and to soften the alleged seventy of tho agency's rulings. Perhaps, as some supporters of OSHA argue, these moves were ha'rl.cd m corporate board rooms And perhaps mo;, industrial ex- I evuiivcs, while grumbling abo il "arbitrary" < rulmes by OSIIA, actually are finding that i the agency's standards cun be met at in creased but reasonable cost But the vinyl chloride case appears to prerent the biggest and most frightening chal lenge OSIIA has encountered in its bnef hisloiy. Ultimately. It is a challenge not past to a federal bureaucracy, but to the American people. Adler next month's public linaring. it should be clearer whether OSIIA is mcriing or exccedir.it its congressional maudsti-. nut only U soteix insist that occupational safety be come r.n L .uc m this sear's congression al elections will it hecu-ue e'ear whether or nut Hie congressional mandJtc is also Lhc people's. ucc 006833