Document kmkDyDY8gjwpx7eKa0DBRQrkb

Wall Street Journal, Sunday, Feb- 8f 1976 Vinyl Chloride. Tied vlrcnmental Protection Agency opened hear Peter F. Infante of NIOSH, previously fount! ings on proposals to limit vinyl chloride that birth defects of the central nerveus sys-i emissions from PVC plants. tern were significantly higher'in three Ohio] To Higher Incidence Previous government regulations have communities vli^Sj.FV'C U manufactured'' placed limits on the amount of vinyl chloride from vinyl,1 chloritkT However, CDC scien' Of Miscarriage's y- to which workers Inside plants can be ex lists who loked`-wt his results were unable posed, anduse of.the gas is "restricted in to liijk the higher nto of birth defects spe-` 11 * 9 ' ^ ^ ' * U.S. Study. Snys Exposure To Chemical May Damage consumer products,' especially aerosols, ciflcally to vtn$d chloride.'- j. .* .-.j based on studies that have linked some SO "The increased occurrence of fetal mor-i 'cases of a rare liver cancer to vinyl chloride tallty among wives of workers subsequent to In PVC workers around the world. , New Study's Speculation vinyl chloride exposure new raises serious scientific an dpublic health concern for the , _ Sperm Cells of Workers 4 The new study speculates that vinyl possible genetic risks of vinyl chloride to hu-' chloride may damage the sperm cells of the mans," .the government scientists con workers, causing a higher number of de cluded. ` _ ; By Barry Kramer formed fetuses that are spontaneously The new findings aren't unexpected Pre flr/.r/i ii-r &/ The Walc Street Joikxal aborted. They noted that other studies have vious research has-shown that hospital-oper' NEW YORK-Vinyl chloride, the indus shown vinyl chloride and its matabolites ating-rcom personnel--who are exposed to trial chemical that has been linked to cancer (chemicals created when vinyl chloride high levels of anesthetic gases that are among workers who are exposed to It, ap passes through the body can cause cells to chemically similar to vinyl chloride-have a, parently also causes a higher incidence than mutate in the test tube. Other studies have higher incidence of spontaneous abortion?! normal of miscarriages among the workers' shown excess chromosome breaks `In the birth defects in offspring, cancer.and liver" wives, government researchers" reported. cells of vinyl chloride workers, v ` - and kidney disease. The miscarriage rate] They suggested the reason is that vinyl- One of the authors fit the current study," among the'wives of .anesthesiologists, who; chloride may damage the sperm cells ot the worker-husbands.- ,' A study of 62 families in which the hus-, bands worked in plants that processed vinyl chloride into the widely used plastic poly-, vinyl chloride, or PVC, showed that preg nancies were twice as likel yto end in spon-1 "taneous abortion as compared with families whose husbands worked in industries with" little or no vinyl chloride exposure. The re searchers also compared "fetal wastage" ini the families before and after the husbands began work in the PVC plant and found that the miscarriage rate was more than 2.5 times greater in pregnancies that occurred after exposure to vihyl chlonde. Previous studies of the effect of vinyl chloride have been hindered because there aren't any good national records on sponta*. neous abortion. Thus, the rate at which mis-carriage Occur normally isn't known. "Control" Group Set Up ! , - - So the government researchers set up a. "control" group consisting of 3 families in which the husbands worked with rubber or fashioned pVC into finished products (where exposure to vinyl chloride is minimal). The group exposed to vinyl chloride and the con trol group were caicfully matched for age, as it s known that fetal wastage is greater in older couples. ~ . The study, was conducted by scientists from the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, or NIOSH, and from the Center for Disease Control, or CDC, - both units of the Department of Health, Educa tion and Welfare and from the School of Public Health of the University of North Carolina. It was first presented at a scien tific meeting in Chechoslovakia last October and has been submitted for publication In the British medical journal, The Lancet. The study wasn't released in this coun try, however, until F.alph Nader's Health Research Group demanded a copy from the U S. government under the Freedom of Information Act. The Health Research * Group then distributed the report as the En- cc: Mac Roy Gasque, M.D. R. L. O'Connell, M.D. OLI 3250