Document gbbD7mZm4d7dYE0On96GO4qZG

J. W. H A N l E s secy, __ . ^ . V Mr. M. C. Throdahl -- 5/15/74 Mr. Hanley has not seen, Would you please have someone handle? Thanks. Joyce Fox r/ 6 MMkl^rl -- Vjfl chloride a a cotortem fm St ha* been und u a propellant m socfc popular products as hair, disinfectant and insect sprays. It is also the prin cipal ingredient of polyvinyl chlorides, the plastics that go into a host of fa miliar products including food wrappers and containers, suitcases, detergent bot tles and garbage bags. No one questions vinyl chloride s utility, but a growing number of doctors now suspect its safe ty. increasing evidence links vinyl chlo ride to a crippling bone disease and a rare but invariably fatal form of cancer. Evidence of vinyl chloride's toxicity has been around for years. Production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC) was begun in 1938 by B.F. Goodrich Co. That year experiments showed that the vinyl chlo ride gas used at the plant was danger ous to animals. A 1949 Russian study showed that vinyl chloride (VC) caused rwmmalignant liver damage in 15 of 48 workers exposed to the chemical; sur veys in other European countries over the next decade and a half confirmed the connection. In 1966 and 1967 Brit ish scientists examining PVC workers reported a high incidence of acro-oste- olysis. a condition partially character ized by distortion of the skin and bones ofthe fingers and feet. Min*Epidamic. The connection be tween VC and cancer was first made in 1970 by Public L. Viola of the Univer sity of Rome, who found tumors in the lungs, and bones of rats exposed to high concentrations of the gas. The link was strengthened in 1973 when re searchers from Bonn University found evidence of liver damage in 19 out of 20 PVC workers at a single plant. The bombshell really burst early this year when B.F. Goodrich Co. reported that TltM*ri3, IW4 RSv 06?10 MlMCfNf three men who worked with VC in its Louisville. Ky.. plastics plant had died of angiosarcoma of the liver since 1971. Since then doctors have identified nine more cases of the cancer in the U5.. one in Great Britain and another in Norway. Their findings are all the more sig nificant because angiosarcoma of the liver is so rare that it has been re ported only about 100 times in med ical history: a major hospital in Los Angeles found only one case in 52.000 autopsies. The discovery of a dozen closely linked cases thus constitutes a sort of mini epidemic of the disease. Since such cancers may not develop for at least 15 years alter initial ex posure. environmental health research ers suspect that more cases will be un covered. Says J. William Lloyd, of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH): "I would suspect that this is going to be the oc cupational disease of the century." His prediction could prove correct, for in the U.S. alone some 6.500 work ers are involved in making Vc gas or converting the gas into PVC; thousands sum are engaged in converting the plas tic into finished products. European and Japanese firms are also heavily involved in VC production. WlMfSptag levels. So fcr. at Least, there is no dear evidence that consum ers are in any danger from VC. The U . Food and Drug Administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have, as a precautionary measure, put a halt to the datrifcution of spray products us ing VC propellants.* The FDA had at tend? ordered companies to stop bot tling whisky in PVC bottles: whisky dMrfvee (he plastic. Other PVC prod ucts offered to the consumer have yet to be proved unsafe. But the risks to plastics workers are real. A research team headed by Df Ir ving Selikoffof New York's Mount Sinai School ofMedicine has found that work ers at one plant are exposed to VC lev els of 400 to 500 parts per million of the gas, more then enough to cause liver dis ease in rats. Workers involved in clean ing the reactors in which VC is convert ed to PVC are exposed to even higher concentrations of the gas. One study showed that VC levels in these cookers range from 600 to a whopping l .000 pamper million Neither Japan nor the European na tions have done more than start studies on VC. but American authorities are moving to reduce the rides from the plas tic peril. The Department ofLabor's Oc cupational Safety and Health Admin istration has issued emergency regula tions reducing allowable VC levels to 50 pans per million Whether this is ad equate to provide long-term protection for plastics workers remains to be seen. An industry-sponsored study has shown that when mice are exposed to those lev els. they develop angiosarcoma Th* mtehtr at wreypmAin --imWHwi um Ff*osee T1MC, MAT 13. If74 RSV 0006711