Document nnQ2qemo8DJe33gamwZb1oj1

HILL AND KNOWLTON, Inc. PADUCAH, KY, SUN-DEMOCRAT D. 30,000 S. 31,000 , OCT 3_ 1974 T T' I *' '1 :1 rules contested CHICAGO (AP).- Plastics, ' would allow a company that industry officials quickly de cannot meet the standards to nounced and filed lawsuits con V ask for a variance or a time testing new federal safety 'extension.' standards reducing worker ex .': At least two industrial groups posure to vinyl chloride, a gas immediately filed court actions that may cause cancer. contesting the new standards. ' One industry official called. The Society of the Plastics the standards "economically Industry Inc., which represents unrealistic, technically unfea 'more than~90 per cent of vinyl sible, politically motivated and cloride and .polyvinyl chloride medically ridiculous." producers, filed suit in New President Todd C. Walker of. York asking the U.S. Court of the Firestone Plastics Co., a di .' Appeals for judicial review. A vision of 'the Firestone Tire & . separate suit was filed by the Rubber Co., added in a state-,; Hooker Chemical Co., of Stam- ment Tuesday that the stand-'. ' ford, Conn. ard "puts the vinyl plastics in-- After several deaths from a dustry on a collision course --rare liver cancer which were with economic disaster. More .thought to be related to the importantly, it throws two mil-' . handling of vinyl chloride were lion jobs down the drain, ac 'reported, the government in cording to an economic impact ("April ordered an- emergency study made earlier this year by lowering from the. thempre- Arthur Little & Co.," an indus vailing limit of 500 parts per trial consulting firm. million to which workers could Asst. U.S. Labor Secretary :'be exposed. ' John H. Slender, who had an Preliminary tests conducted nounced the new Occupational '; in Northbrook, 111., later that Safety and Health Adminis-, month showed that test mice tration (OSHA) standards ear- -;> developed liver cancer when lier Tuesday, said some plants: exposed to concentrations of 50 will have trouble meeting the parts per million of vinyl chlo tightened standards, but he ride. ->__ added, "This will not cause the I industry to shut dbwn." S The stricter regulations for vinyl chloride, a chemical used in numerous plastic products, would cover 7,500 U.S. plants with 350,000 workers. Present standards will remain in effect until January with a gradual, one-year transition to the tight er standards, Stender said. Stender said provisions' 1V OJ uro\ -4 o 8