Document gbq0xJ4JNxveapOb174XYJbq

Monsanto MONSANTO POLYMERS & PETROCHEMICALS CO. P. O. Box 1311 Texas City. Texas 77590 Phone; (713) 945-4431 January 29, 1974 William R. Gaffey, Ph.D. Director of Health, and Epidemiological Studies Tabershaw/Cooper Associates Inc. 2180 Milvia Street Berkeley, California 94704 Dear Dr. Gaffey: In response to your letter of December 3, 1973, to Mr. Butz , we have attempted below to provide you with the necessary information on the list of our terminated employees as you requested. - Our records reflect that Mr. resigned to accept other employment. At the time of his resignation, his address was . The Texas City directory shows that he still lives at this address. ?o off O UQj Uj K. -j o 5Q ' Cl qz - Our records reflect that Mr. was discharged on June 28, I960. His personnel file reflects that he spent a period of time in the state prison in Huntsville, Texas, after he was terminated from our plant. - Records reflect that Mr. resigned to accept other employment. At the time of his termination, his address was listed as >. The city directory does not show that he lives at that address at this time, and it is our understanding that he is working for a company out of Houston which specializes in the start-up of new plants and at this time is somewhere in Canada. 5O S or o Lj" uj Q O LU UJ r-- ~J o >5 - Records reflect that Mr. resigned June 21, 1963 , and at the time of his resignation resided at . At that time , he was vested as far as our pension plan was concerned, and our records unit of Monsanto Company RSV 0007797 ft William R. Gaffey, Ph.D. Page 2. January 29, 1974 do reflect that on November 23 , 1966 he requested early re tirement and started retirement January 1, 1967. > - Records reflect that Mr. resigned in order to relocate geographically. Our file shows that his last forwarding address was We have no knowledge as to whether he is still living at that address. - Records reflect that Mr. resigned to accept other employment and at this time resides at - Records reflect that Mr resigned Cp (May 18, 1962 because of ill health. At the time of his resignation <f-his address was We have no 3- & knowledge of his whereabouts at this time. <D 6^O$' . __________- Mr. resigned August 13, 1966. the time of his resignation, records reflect that he lived at The city directory shows that he still lives at that address. At - Records reflect that Mr. resigned to ac cept other employment, and at the time of his resignation lived at . It is our under standing that he lives at , at this time. ^ _ - Mr. _ was terminated on August 9, 1971 hfecause of physical limitations (back) placed upon him by his v 'physician. Records reflect that he applied for total and permanent SO Srj if' c' disability and that this was disallowed by Metropolitan Insurance Company in 1971. At the time of his termination, his address was * A at this time that he lives at . It is our understanding - Mr. resigned July 5, 1972 to accept other employment. At the time of his resignation, our records reflect that his address was , It o' is our understanding that he still lives in the area, but we do not have his address. Please let us know if you need any further information. Very truly yours, E. H. Jones Superintendent, Personnel RSV 0007798 inbepshabj/caopGr1 as^aciat&s inc 2180 Milvia Street, Berkeley. California 94704. Telephone (415) 845-3355 Jill WILLIAM fl. GAFFEY. PhO Director. Health and Epidemiological Studies December 3, 1973 Mr. R. V. Butz Plant Manager Monsanto Company Box 1311 Texas City/ Texas 77591 Dear Mr. Butz: The enclosed list contains the names and termination dates of the terminated employees at your plant/ whom we discussed in our telephone conversation of November 28,1973. It would be extremely helpful to us if you could find out which of these men were alive as of December 31, 1972. If any of them are found to have died before that date, we would like to know the date and place of death. Those whom you cannot trace will be turned over to a retail credit agency for follow-up according to their routine procedure, without using the name of the company or the plant. Yours sincerely. WRG:kd Enel. William R. Gaffey, Prr.D. Director of Health and Epidemiological Studies RSV 0007799 A Subsidiary ot The Equitable Lila Assurance Society of the United States at America. Name <4^ 4^ & & Termination Date 9-15-68 6-28-60 8-28-68 6- 21-63 6-21-68 4- 13-72 5- 18-62 8-13-66 2-16-72 8-9-71 7- 5-72 RSV 0007800 Irving R. Tabersfiaw, M. D.. President W, Clark Cooper, M. Secretary-Treasurer /i<i4ocuxtc4, *}c. 2180 MILVIA STREET, BERKELEY, CALIFORNIA 94701 MAILING ADDRESS: P.O. BOX 772 July 30, 1973 Teleohone 1415) $45-3355 Mr. R. V. Butz Plant Manager Monsanto Company Box 1311 Texas City, Texas 77591 Dear Mr. Butz: Thank you for your reply to our questionnaire in connection with the VCM Epidemiological Study. This letter is intended to give you a description of the study, and of what we will be looking for when we make an appointment to visit your plant. We are trying to identify all workers who have been in occupations with some exposure to vinyl chloride for at least one year before December 31, 1972. Having identified such a population, we will then determine for each worker whether he was alive on December 31, 1972, and if not, the date and cause of his death. These data will be merged for all the plants in the study, and the mortality compared with that of the general population. Accordingly, for the job titles listed in your earlier reply to us, we will be interested in the following categories of workers. 1. Employed as of December 31, 1972. For these men we will need date of birth, date of hire, and job history - that is, job titles and dates held. 2. Retired as of December 31, 1972 and alive. For these men we need the same Information plus date of retirement. 3. Deceased as of December 31, 1972. For these we need the same information as for the retirees, plus date and place of death or, if available, a copy of the death certificate. We are lntereated both in retirees who died and men who died on the job. 4. Terminated as of December 31, 1972, present status unknown. For these again we need the above information, plus date of termination and last known address. If, as is frequently the case, a list of active employees as of the end of 1972 is not available, we can use a current list and reconstruct the earlier list by deleting those hired after 1972 and adding the appropriate terminations. Our experience has been that the information we want is usually summar ized on one or two sheets of paper or cards in a man's record, as part RSV 0007801 July 30, 1973 Page 2 of the normal process of recording pay changes and retirement credits. Our procedure is to copy the relevant documents with a portable micro film machine. In some cases the records of active employees may be computerized, in which case we would request a printout with the indicated information. We will seek information for as far back in time as your records go, which will vary from plant to plant. All data will be kept in complete confidence, and no information which identifies any individual or any plant will be released or published at any time. If there are data available on atmospheric levels of vinyl chloride we would also like to obtain this at the same time. Recognizing that it is generally speaking not possible to relate a specific individual to a specific atmospheric exposure, the data nevertheless have des criptive value, particularly when data from several plants are put together and examined for trends over time. Finally, for the job titles listed in your reply to the questionnaire, we will be asking you to estimate the exposure associated with each job title. Again we recognize that this may be very difficult to quantify, but hope at least to be able to classify job titles into "high," "medium" and "low" exposure. All of these data will be treated with the same confidence as the personnel information. Since there are over 40 plants participating in the study, I cannot yet tell you just when we would like to schedule your plant, but I hope that this letter will give you a sufficiently specific idea of what we hope to obtain. Yours sincerely, WRGJ1 William R. Gaffey, Ph.D. Director of Health Studies RSV 0007802 Tabershaw-Cooper Associates , Inc. 2180 Milvia St. , Suite 104 Berkeley, California 94704 Manufacturing Chemists Association VCM Epidemiological Study Plant No. 40 1. When did this plant begin work involving vinyl chloride? Construction began in early 1951 on a vinyl chloride unit and was completed in the latter part of 1952. The first tank car of VCM was shipped from our plant on October 24, 1952. This unit was shut down in December of 196 8 and dismantled. Dismantling was completed March, 1969. In December, 1971, we completed construction and started operation of an ethylene vinyl chloride unit. This unit uses VCM as a raw material. It is shipped into our plant in closed containers under pressure. It goes directly into the process from the closed containers with no employees being exposed to it. 2. What is the approximate size of the current work force, exclusive of secretarial and office personnel? 966. V-- 3. Approximately how many of these are employed in jobs involving some exposure to vinyl chloride? a. At the time our VCM unit was operating, there were 31 operators in the unit. Supervision in the unit at the be ginning was approximately 12, but later reduced to approximately 6. Samples of material were run in our quality control lab by an analytical group which numbered at that time approximately 50 employees. Product was shipped out of the plant by our Material Handling group which numbered approximately 2^Jat that time. Plant maintenance was handled at that time by a maintenance force of approximately 355?" Most of these employees, at some time during the year, would be assigned to this unit for short periods, either during the normal work hours or during overtime. RSV 0007803 Tabershaw-Coope Associates, Inc. 2 June 14, 1973 b. Our present EVC unit is staffed with 15 operators and 6 supervisory personnel. Quality control samples are handled by our laboratory with a staff of approximately 29 employees. Our material handling group at this time includes approximately 44 employees. Our plant maintenance work force is approximately 308. 4. Please answer the appropriate one of the following questions about your retirement plan. c. Required of all employees, begun in 1951. Remarks: Non-Contributory Plan covers all em ployees upon employment. Employee must have ten or more years service on retirement to be covered. Vested after 10 years. 5. Please answer the applicable questions below about retention of records. How long are personnel records kept a. for those who retired but were not covered by a retire ment plan? Termination plus 40 years. b. for those who retired under a retirement plan and have died? Until death of employee and/Spouse plus 40 years. c. for those who quit or were discharged? Termination plus 40 years. d. for those who died while employed? Date of death plus 40 years. 6. Do the personnel records which are retained contain a record of job titles and dates of job title changes for the individual concerned? Yes. 7. Please list the job titles in the current work force which involve some exposure to vinyl chloride. RSV 0007804 Taber shaw-CoopeAssociates , Inc 3 Manufacturing Superintendent Manufacturing Supervisor Manufacturing Foreman Engineer Chief Operator Operator Pumper-Gauger Laboratory Analyst Asbestos Worker Leadman Asbestos Worker Boilermaker Leadman Boilermaker Ironworker Leadman Ironworker Carpenter Leadman Carpenter Electrical Worker Leadman Electrical Worker Painter Leadman Painter Machinist Leadman Machinist Pipefitter Leadman Pipefitter Operating Engineer Leadman Operating Engineer Chief Instrument Man Instrument Man Labor Leadman Laborer June 14, 1973 RSV 0007605