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NEW YORK TIMES Sunday, December 28, 1975 Did Industry > Cry Wolf? PolyvinylBy STEVEN RATTNER Late in 1974, a trade asso ciation representing nearly all of the chemical manufac turers using vinyl chloride gas, a proven cause of can cer, marched into Federal court in an attempt to over turn strict Labor Department Health standards about to go into effect. "The standard," the com panies said in their court papers, "is simply beyond the compliance capabilities of the industry." They of fered dire warnings of plant closings, job losses, price in creases and massive econom ic dislocation. After all, poly vinyl chloride, vinyl chlor ide's principal derivative, is a $1 billion industry turning out goods ranging from plas tic water pipe to bologna packaging. The legal appeals proved futile; industry was forced to comply. But one year lat er, not one of the doomsday predictions has proved accu rate. All the producers are oper ating within the strict Occu pational Safety and Health Administration standards. The price of polyvinyl chlor ide has been running about 10 percent below 1974 highs and supplies are plentiful. And although one small plant is closing its doors, four new ones are coming on stream. The success of the compa nies in meeting Government standards denounced only a short time earlier as unwork able has led to renewed ques tioning, particularly in Government circles, of indus try's credibility. "It's hard to say whether they were crying wolf," says R. M. Kossoff, a plastics con Chloride Health Rules Can Be Met > sultant. "The acid test is that in a short period of time, they have proved that they can lick the problem." Industry executives say now that they opposed the health standards because they thought they were unneces sarily strict and they weren't certain they could meet them. "We were frankly surprised by some of the results" of the cleanup effort, acknowl edged R. N. Wheeler, Jr., a vinyl technical superintend ent of Union Carbide Cor poration. Vinyl chloride first became an issue in January', 1974, when the B. F. Goodrich Chemical Company, a sub sidiary of the big tire maker and the largest of the poly vinyl chloride producers, an nounced that it had discovered that the 1968 death of an employee was due to an giosarcoma, a very rare can cer of the liver. Similar discoveries fol lowed, with 17 deaths In all of the industry, and health en forcement officials moved in. ' OSHA initially settled on ; a vinyl chloride concentra tion limit of 50 parts per million in plant atmospheres which the industry consid ered fair. In fact, because of earlier indications that vinyl chloride could cause less serious ailments, nearly ' I : Continued on Page 5 21501001 h JS $ l'0p$ re 5ii l'*. 3 u,: I s "I S 5S `.5a ri-ej <- wfo^t *B6CJ 'Sor'eO o 1O1S5 ^.1sS5='1.0>^-=,,q22"?t I! IO-Sh *yC5Mx3o: Isisc>5 (SSI - o* y.c *J2 .oll^ i=s3>n*2rr'Se3 Cw0*, <: li u oeiOg-.*z" c S m c '3 ~^<C 8C.of>t, y&p.yci re c c t6-014" 4refss 5 u w oCl j--: & S S.S a* C^ .re5e g9 *4c So.-o3 ,, Q 2 re <y o.,,2-55^ >>UO j=3> e 3**3 i |S 8 ` C-* 3 c3! -:,.* v^':. i " ' ,V..';-'.'J'.^-p#*w. a ywniM " *Vv`. v^>V*,Pr . ' snwnzsEZxr