Document kmn1BJ5QR4jKjvxy7waZGJvBb

f INDUSTRIES To: F. C. Dehn H. B. Lovejoy J. O'Connor G. C. Strickler INTER-OFFICE CORRESPONDENCE Date: February 20, 1981 From: Z. G. Bell Location: 5 West Subject: For your information, I have attached an article from the February 9 issue of the Chemical Marketing Reporter. I am sure that you can sense the potential ramifications of this award on the chemical industry. /ta Attachment FORM 303-A RKV. 6.1-70 SL 106948 i B.F. Goodrich Loses VCM Cancer-Link Case>" A Federal district court in Camden, N.J. has ordered B.F. Goodrich Com pany to pay almost $400,000 in compen satory damages to a New Jersey woman whose husband's death was : linked to emissions of vinyl chloride 1 gas from Goodrich's Pedricktown, ! N.J., polyvinyl chloride plant. Mrs. Grace M. Grasso charged that Goodrich failed to perform tests on emis sions of vinyl chloride gas from Us PVC plant, which opened in 1970 less than two miles from Mrs. Grasso's home. Mrs. Grasso's husband, John C. Grasso, died of liver cancer in January, 1977, at the age of forty-nine. Mrs. Grasso was awarded $991,291 in compensatory damages, includ ing' over $37,000 to cover medical expenses incurred during her husband's six-month illness and $285,000 to cover his future esti mated wages. "We firmly believe that exposure to vinyl chloride at the low level found at Ped ricktown could not have caused Mr. Gras so's angiosarcoma,'' Goodrich said in a prepared statement. The company says its belief is based on laboratory studies and medical evidence. "All angiosarcoma cases attributed to vinyl chloride exposure," the company adds, "have been in workers who have experienced high concentrations of vinyl chloride in the workplace over long periods of time. The Pedricktown facility began operations only in 1970 and has not emitted high levels of vinyl chloride. In fact, no one either inside or outside any Goodrich facility is being exposed to such conditions," Goodrich says. A Goodrich spokeswoman in its Akron, Ohio, headquarters says Mrs. Grasso's case is the first of its kind brought in con nection with the company's Pedricktown plant. Goodrich is reviewing the court's de cision and is considering an appeal, the spo keswoman says. February 9; 1981 CHEMICAL MARKETING REPORTER SL 106949