Document jgq6LkvoBN2Ldz5K1G1zmMV3Q

The Chemical World This Week CADGER DEATHS AMODG PVC WORKERS CAUSE CONCERN Long-existing concern over possible I chloride maker, urged use of a 50- health hazards to workers in firms p.p.m. exposure level in the litera making polyvinyl chloride and ture in 1961 and adopted it as a vinyl chloride intensified dramatir company standard some 15 years cally last week with a disclosure ago. Regular physical examinations that indicates there may well be a for Dow workers support the safety serious occupational disease prob | of this level, says Dr. Etcyl H. lem--one involving cancer. Blair, health and environmental re B. F. Goodrich Co. voluntarily search director. But last summer revealed to federal and state offi Dow warned all of its U.S. vinyl cials that since 1971 three blue-col (workers of a ``potential problem," lar workers at its PVC resins plant {based upon results of an Italian re at Louisville, Ky., have died from a search study that found tumors in very rare form of liver cancer, two rats administered 30,000 p.p.m. of in 1973 and one in 1971. The can vinyl chloride. cer--angiosarcoma--is so rare that To its credit, BFG's voluntary federal authorities estimate that alert is the first such notice ever deaths throughout the U.S. from made to NIOSH by a firm for a se this cause total only 21 per year. rious health problem. But the ensu Alerted to the deaths, federal ex ing probe seems likely to shake op perts and safety inspectors rushed erators of the 36 existing PVC resin within 48 hours to the plant. Dr. plants in the U.S. as well as anoth Marcus M. Key, director of the Na- er 14 vinyl chloride plants. tinnal ' Institute for Orriinational Cnfoln nrtrl UnoUk cooc tnof kic I UilU -- '-*J -- litw agency will step up its effort to de termine the extent of the disease in the U.S. and in foreign countries Lift price curbs on plastics, SPI urges with similar manufacturing pro cesses. Citing high overseas prices luring NIOSH plans to develop, on a plastic resin supplies from the U.S. crash basis, criteria for stringent market, the Society of the Plastics work practices for use in the polyvi Industry has petitioned the Cost of nyl chloride process. An agency Living Council to exempt petro spokesman tells C&EN the criteria chemical feedstocks, plastic resins, might be ready in several weeks. and fabricated plastic products The deaths were among BFG from Phase IV price controls. employees who worked in some The move is a result, according phase of the PVC polymerization to SPI president Ralph L. Harding, operation, but not in drying, fin Jr., of "raw material shortages ishing, or other areas. They had caused by the world energy crisis worked for BFG for 15 to 28 years. and artificial domestic shortages Dr. Maurice N. Johnson, BFG's attributable to Phase IV price regu director of environmental health, lations." Mr. Harding says domes stresses that the causes of death are tic price limits have held resin and subject to verification and that the company is probing to see whether Harding: to end artificial shortages they are occupationally linked. Neither company officials nor federal experts are certain now what the suspect carcinogen may be, if the deaths are due to job ex posure. And apparently there is no violation of the federal standard for exposure to vinyl chloride vapors of 500 p.p.m. of vinyl chloride on a time-weighted-average basis. BFG says maximum exposures in its plants nave jangeu uum ju mj iiaj p.p.m., with possibly higher expo sures but not for long periods. Dow Chemical, a major vinyl I feedstock prices at "abnormally low levels," leading producers to in crease exports of these products to more lucrative foreign markets. The SPI position lines up with that taken by fertilizer makers in their successful bid to have fertiliz er industry wage and price controls lifted to ensure adequate supplies for the U.S. market (C&EN, Nov. 5, 1973, page 2). The fertilizer in dustry victory, however, may be in trouble. The Cost of Living Council is considering placing some new form of price control on the indus try in response to what it believes to be excessive price hikes on cer tain fertilizer products. In arguing its case to CLC, SPI claims that polyethylene sells for up to 45 cents a pound abroad, compared with a domestic price of about 18 cents a pound, and poly styrene that lists for about 16 cents a pound in the U.S. sells in foreign markets for up to 80 cents a pound. The petition also says that petro chemical feedstocks such as ethyl ene and benzene sell on foreign markets for as much as four times their domestic prirp Thus SPI claims, "It is not difficult to see how economic conditions have dic tated significant sales of plastics resins and petrochemical feedstocks abroad." However, two large petro chemical and resin makers, Dow Chemical and Union Carbide, pre viously contacted by C&EN, deny that their exports of these products increased significantly in 1973. To add ammunition to its argu ment, SPI surveyed plastics proces sors in the U.S. to assess the effect of resin shortages on production and employment. According to the poll, 73 of the 159 respondents have cut back their operations by an av erage of 23%, and 52 have laid off an average of 25 employees each. Water quality laws need fleshing out "Believe it or not, industry wan Public Law 92-500 to work," D Monte C. Throdahl, Monsanto s vice president for technology, told government and industry represen tatives at a conference on industry and clean water, sponsored by Mid west Research Institute last week in ivatoao mu. i u u .nuimo, 11'- added, the 1972 Water Quality Act appears to be a skeleton, not an en forceable system. c rtCM 09 1Q74 i