Document jgYZyNJbM22DqnEr5n6M6mYOy

SEP-22-1994 09-10 ABD00003046 U1STA RS.D 1 512 331 2387 P.002/002 AMERICAN CANCER SOCIETY' NATIONAL HOME OFFICE CLARK W HEATH, JR. MO Vice President Epidemiology and Statistics August 4, 1994 Hasmukh C. Shah, Ph.D. Manager, Vinyl Chloride Panel Chemical Manufacturers Association 2501 M Street, N.W. Washington, DC 20037 Dear Dr. Shah: Thank you for your recent letter. The Time magazine chart is certainly misleading. It may well be that the American Cancer Society source they are citing is Cancer Facts and Figures 1994, in which case it is unfortunate that they ignore the word "possible". Cancer Facts and Figures is widely quoted and not infrequently quotations are not entirely accurate. We review the Cancer Facts and Figures text and update the numbers each year and shall certainly take your comments into consideration. There are, of course, many degrees of "possible" when considering risk factors, and in the instance of lymphoma I would think there is a distinctively lower possibility for vinyl chloride than for herbicides, neither being proven. The document is not meant, of course, to be an exhaustive treatise on all possible cause factors at each cancer site, but to provide brief overviews of major points. For no site other than liver (angiosarcoma) is vinyl chloride evidence conclusive, mid even there it concerns only high, repeated, occupational exposures to vinyl chloride monomer (ideally, we should distinguish between monomer and polymer). Again, thanks for your letter and its attachments. Sincerely, Clark W. Heath, Jr., M.D. cc: S. Montgomery A. Stone J. Laszio, M D. 1599 CLIFTON ROAD, N.E., ATLANTA, GA 30329-4251 404-329-7686 FAX 404-325-1467 TOTAL P.002