Document jmwKnz9JaO6ozVZLxgrj7gvQQ

r lies i ;,i i i u t_u : i. c. l uii i j diui - ou,, _ Call Ext. 2686 when received OCCUPATIONAL SAFETY & HEALTH REPORTER A weekly review of occupational safety and health developments PAGE 1 of 2 Volume 11, Number 25 THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC. November 19, 1981 HIGHLIGHTS OF CURRENT REPORT ----- & BRAIN CANCER CASES found by government investigators last year at a Union Carbide Corpo ration petrochemical plant in Texas City, Texas, have no connection to any worker exposures to chemicals used or manufactured at the facility, according to the findings of a Union Carbide epidemiological investigation. Union Carbide's study finds a total of 12 deaths from brain cancer among workers studied, compared with 7.42 deaths expected, and the company says the ex cess deaths may represent a "chance occur rence" (p. 475). A STOPGAP FUNDING BILL for the Occupa tional Safety and Health Administration and oth er federal agencies for fiscal 1982 is approved by the House. In its vote, the House rejects a White House-backed amendment to institute a 5 percent reduction in funding levels set in the legislation (p. 475). ETHYLENE DIBROMIDE should be treated as a potential occupational carcinogen, the Na tional Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reports in a current intelligence bulletin. NIOSH recommends a ceiling limit for the sub stance of 130 parts per billion (p. 477). INDIANA VARIANCE*PROCEDURES should be reviewed by OSHA, to make certain that the state methods are in conformity with federal standards, the United Steelworkers of America urge. The union expresses specific concern about variances granted by the state to three compan ies from medical removal provisions under the lead standard (p. 477). NEW DIRECTIONS GRANTS to fourth-year recipients are approved by OSHA on a prelimi nary basis. The grants contain about $5 million in funds from OSHA and the National Cancer Insti tute (p. 477). THE AFL-CIO WITHDRAWS its suit against the Labor Department seeking nullification of OSHA's deferrals of its workplace hearing con servation standards (p. 479). A MOTION TO QUASH an inspection warrant on the basis that the warrant alone, and not any of the supporting documentation, was served on a shipbuilding firm, is denied by a Wisconsin feder al district court judge (p. 479). OSHA'S GOALS FOR 1982 are outlined by Assistant Labor Secretary Thorne Auchter in a notice to agency field personnel. Among the agency's priorities will be development of a plan for reviewing hazardous conditions for which no standards currently exist (p. 479). THE U.S. SUPREME COURT is asked by an employer to review a decision by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit which permitted a wall-to-wall inspection on a warrant that was supported by an employee complaint about one specific location in the workplace (p. 480). A PREDISPOSITION TO ASTHMA and other respiratory diseases in the workplace can be shown by a variety of tests assessing changes in respiratory, cardiovascular, and other body sys tems, a symposium sponsored by the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygien ists is told. Another speaker says that threshold limit values set by ACGIH's threshold limit val ues committee are intended to protect workers from becoming sensitized to substances in the workplace (p. 480). REPAIR SHOP WORKERS once employed by Reading Railroad Company receive X-ray screening by NIOSH as a prelude to a planned mortality study of railroad shop workers across the U.S. who may have worked with asbestos 25 or more years ago. The screening is prompted by a NIOSH survey which finds five deaths from mesothelioma among former repair shop work ers (p. 482). SfCDon I Copyr>ghl C 1981 by The Bureau ot National Affairs, lac 0095 3737'8i'SOO bO UCC 053901 PAGE 2 of 2 475 UNION CARBIDE FINDS NO CORRELATION BETWEEN CANCER CASES, PLANT EXPOSURES Epidemiological studies by Union Carbide Corporation failed to find any correlation between brain cancer cases discovered at a Union Carbide petrochemical plant in Texas City, Texas, and employee exposures to chemicals used or manufactured at the facility, the company announced Nov. 11. In a letter mailed to each employee at Texas City, Plant Manager Damon L. Engle and Plant Physician David H. Glenn said that the excessive occurrence of brain cancer "may represent a chance occurrence" and is not a result of any chemical exposure at the planL The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported last year that they had found 18, and possibly as many as 25, brain cancer cases among employees at the Texas City plant That was about twice the incidence rate found among the surrounding population, the agencies re ported (Current Report, OcL 30, 1980, p. 573). Union Carbide's study, begun in 1979, found 12 deaths due to primary malignant brain cancer among the 6,588 Texas City employees studied. By comparison with U.S. rates, 7.42 cases would have been expected, the company stated. The overall mortality rate of employees working at Texas City since 1941 is "significantly less" than the national average, 765 observed, compared with 923.82 expected, ac cording to the company. Three reasons for labeling the four or five excess deaths a chance occurrence were given by Engle and Glenn; The company was unable to associate the deaths with any particular chemical exposures. The types of brain cancer found are present in the same percentages as those seen among the general population. Ordinarily, the company maintained, chemically caused cancer is a specific aDd often unusual type, different than those seen in the general population. Excessive brain cancer has not been confirmed in any chemical plant similar to the Carbide facility in any other part of the U.S. "There is no cause for alarm," the company officials told the Texas City employees. They added that deaths due to cancer, "however small in number," will "continue to re ceive our attention and concern," and that Carbide will continue its investigations and cooperation with NIOSH in the agency's own on-going study. Union Carbide said it expects that the NIOSH study will reflect conclusions similar to those of the Carbide investiga tion. Both studies used a common data base that includes the health and work histories of 6,588 workers who have been employed at the Texas City plant since 1941, according to the company. Current standards and practices at the Texas City facility "provide more than adequate protection from known health hazards," Union Carbide asserted. The Carbide study was reviewed by Dr. Brian McMahon of Harvard University and and Dr. Philip Enterline of the University of Pittsburgh. A spokeswoman for the National Institute for Occupation al Safety and Health, while stressing that the institute was pleased with the cooperative professional relationship It has experienced with Union Carbide, nonetheless questioned some of the company's interpretations of the data. Spokeswoman Deborah Van Brunt told BNA Nov. 16 that, although NIOSH could corroborate the overall results re ported by the company, an additional finding was made of a threefold increased risk among employees who worked at the plant 20 years or longer. In addition, NIOSH said it was aware of 23 -- not 12 -- brain cancer cases, as reported in its preliminary findings in August 1980. The institute also took issue with the three reasons stated by Carbide for speculating that the excess may have been due to chance. First, the institute acknowledged that the the failure to find a correlation between particular exposures and the cases was "important evidence" but maintained that such evidence does not rule out an occupational hazard as the cause. Van Brunt added that the cause may be traceable instead to a class of chemicals or certain chemicals in combination with one another. Second, the institute stated that brain cancer in general, as well as the types of brain cancer found at the planL indeed represent an unusual and specific cause of death. Five such deaths usually are found among 100,000 white males in the general population, .the institute maintained, making it the sort of "unusual" cancer attributed to chemi cal exposures by Carbide. In addition, the institute ques tioned that company assumption, saying that common types of cancer are related to occupational exposures as often as are unusual types. Third, the institute, while acknowledging that no similar excess had been confirmed at other locations, contended that unconfirmed higher-than-expected incidence rales found at several plants'"raise a very strong suggestion of brain cancer as an occupational hazard." NIOSH gave as an example a^Union Carbide plant at South Charleston. W.Va..*^ which it said used similar chemicals to those at the Texas f t City facility. A twofold brain cancer excess was found there, ^ y it noted. \. Appropriation* S HOUSE APPROVES STOPGAP FUNDING BILL, REJECTING PROPOSAL FOR IMMEDIATE CUTS The House of Representatives Nov. 16 approved a continu ing resolution that would provide stopgap funding through the end of this fiscal year for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other agencies not yet appropri ated funds by Congress. The bill (HJRes 357) was passed by a vote of 195 to 187 after the House rejected by 201 to 189 a White-House backed amendment seeking to institute a 5 percent funding reduc tion in levels set by the stopgap" legislation. The across-theboard amendment, introduced by House Minority Leader Robert Michel (R-IU), was seen as an attempt to put into law at least part of the President's September request for a sweeping 12 percent cut in domestic programs. The new continuing resolution will affect OSHA. the Na tional Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the 11-19-81 Occupational Safety & Health Reporter uoo 053902 Occupational Health & Safety Letter Volume 11 r No. 22 GERSHON W. FISHBEIf^, PUBLISHER November 22, 1981 Mam Office 1097 National Press Building Washington, D.C. 20045 (202)347-3868 Published twice a month. Rate: Si 10 pet year; S20J in combination with Environmental Health l.ettet Highlights of This Issue NIOSH-OSHA team to dispute Union Carbide data, analysis of brain tumors. Here's a switch--OMB official urges shift of OSHA to merge with NIOSH . .. Occupational injuries and illnesses declined in 1980........................................ Dr. Lebrun appointed medical director of World Bank, IMF................. ...., OSHA seeks public comment on California's EDB standard........................... Hard-pressed educational resource centers to discussl changing rules............... Public views sought on additional formaldehyde data...................................... Method of ranking animal carcinogens for regulator)- purposes proposed ... , .Page 1 .Page 2 .Page 2 .Page 4 .Page 4 .Page 5 .Page 5 .Page 6 M0SH-0SHA TEAM TO DISPUTE UNION CARBIDE DAjTA, ANALYSIS OF BRAIN TUMORS: A team of Government investigators headed by Dr. Richard Waxweiler of NIOSH an i Dr. Victor Alexander of OSHA expect to publish shortly (perhaps in Lancet or the Journal of the National Cancer Institute) an updated version of their epidemiological investigation of brain tumors at Union Carbide's facility in Texas City, Tex. ] The company recently acknowledged that a nearly two-fold excess risk of brain turn >r existed among workers at the plant but that no occupational link could be found and therefore the ex< must be con- sidered a chance possibility. i The company reported 12 deaths due to primary malignant brain cancer and by combarision with national rates 7.42 would have been expected. The company considered all deaths of employees working at Texas City from 1941 through 1977 but confined the survey only to white male employees. By contrast, the Government investigators studied all male employees, white and non-white, and car ried their study through 1979. Using those yardsticks, the Government will report on incidence of 23 cases of brain tumors compared to an expected incidence of jlO cases. A NIOSH official familiar with the study told us the difference could be accounted for almost entirely by the inclusion of nop-white workers and extension of the survey period for two years. | In addition, the Government investigators will challenge the Carbide hypothesis that Ithe increased incidence is due a chance possibility. That may be true, but there is also the distinct possibility that some chemical or chemicals in the plant may be responsible and should be investigated, they sa The company and NIOSH have been conducting separate studies but using the same data base. Car hide informed its employees that no correlation could be found between brain cancer ases and emp'- in chemicals used or manufacture) in the plant. | :ij the oscr-all mortalirs rate ol fmoms cSv uorikin-j at Tc\as Cits stive 1941 is sienilicnnfls 'VUimm . crace i "o? obvened ' - 91 .".I'Ccften md that ot tits' deaths sshis lt . 6.5^9 cumins eev 12 sser-. ,9 -. : ::-r> . v.. r> ntjai of bra in cancer and tha I'iuails. n<> ei . tv tit*tss ecr. brain saver w and empty-; . , exposin'-.. to chemicals u ved m mamd.a u; "exax fits plant mailed to eati; emplosec "1 the Texas Cits fadin'- plant manager Danmn L. Endc and m 'Jr I'.is lei H idcmt v ;>.d that t i. s beliesc tour to tise caves ot brain ijaneei 'mas '.an.ee occurrence and that these saves are not du e to chemical exposure at mi plant." because 053903 Occupatio nal Health & Safety Letter, N ovember 22. 19S1 they said: "First, we have not been able to associate these brain cancer cases with any particuli r chemical e.xpos- ure. Second, the types of brain cancer are present in the same percentages as that seen in the general punulation. Ordinarily . chemically caused cancer is a specific and often unusual rype. different the:' those n in t'ne general population, Finally, excessive brain cancer ha not been confirmed in chemical plants similar to ours in other parts of the country." "Brain tumors." it continues, "are a rare cause of death and while there must be concern ewer am increase in incidence, there is no cause for alarm based on th : results of this study." HERE'S A SWITCH-OMB OFFICIAL URGES SHIFT OF C SHA TO MERGE WITH NIC SH: It's not unusual for someone to recommend the transfe of NIOSH to the Labor Department in a mer ger with OSHA. But now a high-ranking official of the Office of Manage ment and Budget suggests, in a view he describes as his own and not necessarily that of OMB. that 0 SHA be transferred to the Department of Health and Human Services and merged with NIOSH. What is intriguing is not only that it came from John F. MoreaU III, Deputy Chief of Social Regulation in OMB's Office of Information and Regulatory Affairs (agai n emphasizing that it was his personal view ) but that it was presented at a conference on government regulation sponsored by the Am0:rican Enterprise Institute for Policy Research, a think tank which has given tpe Reagan Administration soihe of its top offi- cials and philosophy. Morrall said that a combination of the significant risk te)<st provided by the Supreme Court's ruling on benzene and the use of cost-effecitveness analysis called for i:ri its cotton dust decision, could produce most of the public policy improvement expected from a cost-beneffit requirement, which the Su preme Court ruled out. Detailed examinations for individual OSHA regula tions--coke ovens, benzene, Acrylonitrile and cotton dust in particular-illustrate the potential improvement from such a strategy, he said. "Although much can be done administratively," he said, `it can be accomplished ma: nly by reducing costs, not increasing benefits. Furthermore, a change in administrations could quickly lead us in the oppo site direction. To assure more lasting reform, one that actually produces significant occupational safety and health benefits, legislation is needed. I recommend the following: "(1) Merge OSHA into NIOSH at HHS where it can concentrate more on promoting Occupational health and less on safety and labor issues such as pay, seniority and comfort. "(2) Require cost-benefit balancing so that.. .more extensive cost-beneficial regulationn can replace intensive inefficient regulation. "(3) Press for reform of workers' compensation (experience rating, co-insurance and jieductibles) to create incentives for firms to provide safer workplaces. "(4) To deal with society's financial interest in reducing health and safety risks, reform the institutions that create these externalities since they create them for all risky situations, both in and outside the work place. In a subsequent interview with OCCUPATIONAL HEALTH & SAFETY LETTER, Meorrail said one objective of moving OSHA into HHS and a merger with NIOSH would be to make the pro jram more scien tific and less responsive to the demands of labor. From a regulatory standpoint, he said, C SHA is currently mg in rbe direction si night by the Administration, is conyei.i'aiing inspections and en orceiv.ent on L' W - )\ll t I '* %IT ' i% V.-L-l'Ml ir.::'*'-;orrmy OS."' A i < > x! the ; bility r--" i'.ie.t-"' .i 'iibx;-*.;:;c;i: 1 n iviiv ' : : ::e ,,km,i !li ni by imi-f w tmui i . ! i\ \ ; 1 \i' : :iu ii ru.M.bSi - 1 . .. 1. , .. . . . '!. , l '>'> 1 *. ! 11 '' *1 -1 k : : \ i ! >i i , i, ,; ! i * i" , -1 'i th, ; ;; t \ w;. -t ,* i m,, ucc 053904 Tuesday, November 3, 1981 iUadttmgton $M A21 Confessions of One `Inside-Dope Addict' By Joanne Omang Wiuhlngion Pan HUtfr Writer Long lie-lore there way an En vironmental Protection Agency, deration Fishbein made a living telling people whnt they needed to know about environmental issues. Hia Environmental Health Let ter marked its 20th anniversary Inst month, the oldeat in the en vironmental hnaineaa and the flagship <if a one-man fleet of news letters that has prospered in a field littered with failed publications. Now there are hundreds of newsletters, specializing in techniutt minutiae and behind-theM'enes reporting within every in dustry. scientific and governmental subdivision. The Newsletter Clear inghouse Directory lists 2,400 newsletters in 150 categories, and about 400 of them are based in Washington, watching federal agencies at very close range. At least 50 specialize in environmen tal news, and customers include their targets: EPA, for instance, subscribes to 30 newsletters, ac cording to an agency official. "Somebody once called us the 4th-and-a-half estate," Fishbein said in a recent interview. Little known outside their fields, the newsletters rarely spark Hill hear ings or win big prizes for their in vestigative work, even though major newspapers often get tips or ideas for whole stories from them. The majority are run by a few people who work hard for not too much money. If the newsletters survive the first two years, they tend to grow into multi publication operations, according to Fred Goss, executive director of the Newsletter Publishers Associ ation. ``Basically we're all inside-dope addicts," Fishbein said. McGraw Hill's Washington Re port on Medicine and Health launched newslettoring in that field in 1947. Fishbein's was next, and then came the Business Pub lisher's Air/Water Pollution Re port in 1963 and the Washington Drug Letter in 1969. "The big explosion was in the mid-60s with the Great Society and the growing demand for spe cialized information," Goss said. The Bureau of National Affairs alone now has six environmentrelated publications. Fishbein Btarted his newsletter at the age of 40, when he decided that he didn't want to work for some one else anymore. A former reporter and editor -at The Wash ington Post, Associated Press and the New York Herald Tribune, he was running the Washington office of the Medical Tribune, a maga zine for doctors, when Congress began' reorganizing # the Public Health Service. "It was old jformer Democratic representative] John Fogarty of Rhode Island who suggested it," Fishbein recalled. The introduc tory issue accurately predicted that a new Bureau of Environmen GERS1ION FISHBEIN ... environmental newsletter turns 20 tal Health would soon be set up within the Public Health Service. He sent the issue to a list of 2,000 potential subscribers, offer ing it for $50 a year, and got 125 buyers, a good return. Now EPA has 10,000 employes and Fishbein's newsletter, still bimonthly, sells for $110 a year. His empire now includes the Occupational Safety and Health Newsletter and the Genetic Engineering Letter. ucc 053905