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KcGiV j\PRtj229^ INTERNAL CORRESPONDENCE /v rs v/vs*-'*' U C IJ9 CHEMICALS AND PLASTICS TO (NAME) COMPANY LOCATION COPY TO Mr. J. E. Beckman Mr. J. Cox Dr. E. Q. Hull Dr. H.M.D. Utidjian Mr. A. G. Voress ^ OATS P. O. SOX 7. TEXAS CITY. TEXAS 77S90 March 13, 1979 susject Texas City NIOSH/OSHA Issue Gentlemen: Attached are some press Items which you may not have seen. Please circulate to others as you feel appropriate* Our next update for employees will appear in tomorrow's issue of THE FORECASTER and we will mail you a marked copy. Also attached is a clip from today's HOUSTON POST regarding a State Health Department investigation. We don't have all the problems. DLE/gt Attachments UCO 053496 NEWS DIGEST Investigated TEXASCITY,Texas (UPI) - Industrialhealth investigators are checking ISbrain tumordeaths among vinyl chloride work ers at two -plants, officials said Tuesday. ' The U.S.Occupational Safety and Health Administration wis investigating 1* deaths at Union Carbide Corp., where vinyl chlOnde is stillhandled.Monsanto Inc.;whkh ho longer hand les the dtenucal/disctoaed five brain tumor deaths. " ' -Federai medical detectives have linked vinyl chloride to a' cancerous brain tumor called gliablastoma multiforme. OSHA' was surveying the records of 10,000 past and present Union Carbide workers- the basisof an employee inquiry. r i/V; V\<vA ^ , VSVILLE HERALD--Sunday, February 18. 1979--PAGE 13A j Houston Carbide | V. | Plant Is Probed ; HOUSTON (UPI)--Federal health officials say an unusually high Dumber of workers at Union Carbide's Texas City plant have dkd of a type of bnia tumor linked to the cancer - causing agent vinyt chloride, according to The Houston Post. In a copyrighted article today, the Pori said the suiotance once was manufactured and non is processed at the large chemical and plastia plant A Tjimr Departmect official said scientists associate the W.W. "BT McManus, plari nanager of the Union Carbide . Chemkab and Plastics Uvisian at the Port of Brownsville, ; said Friday that vhqdcMarife boat med at the local plant aar ever has been, "I iklk very fertaoately that neither we, OSHA (Occupational Safety Health Administrationi or NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health) know of any products we manufacture erase in this plant, except far a few laboratory agents kept la a special place, that are cw- daogcaic," McMaarosaid. . The Brownsville plant, he said, produces acetic add and acetic anhydride far me in the manufactureiri aspirin, paints, solvents and piaUics, among other products. cbemical with a cancerous tumor known as glioblastoma multiform. The Pori said it learned medical certificates from ri least nine Texas City workers who died between 1962 and 1938 listed that type of tumoras the cause of death. In addition, federal authorities told the newspaper a 10th plant employee still living has been diagnosed as "probably" having thesame form of tumor. * Health records <f current and former Texas City plant wor kers, 8.006 to 10,000 persons, are being researched by scientists working for the Occupat i n a 1 Safety and Health Adminirirxtion and the National Institute for Occupational fofiefy and Health. , "The company feels tlds is not a crisis that poses any immediate exposure haza-ds for current employees," said plari manager Damon Ekigfo. "Practically all of the affected enpfoyees worked for substantial periods of time from the mkMQs through the preamt in a period in which neither the government nor the compmy had any reason to suspect vinyl chloride." He said the company is not ready to accept the OSHA suggestion that vinyl chloride is responsible for the deaths. r ucc 053497 a *5. t *! :t i--`U` t',4 ' * il JJw Houston Poit/Tuei., March 13, 1979^ 's cancer deaths Va . \ -a ByJIABOlD SCARLETT ttca) significance, but "we are going to requested. 1 ! ' sor of occupational medicine at the take a look at It and aee what, If any Officials of Texas-U.S. Chemical were University of Texas School of Public ... . . - < . , J-Ui. / ` l ` . I thing, we find." . ` > unavailable for comment ; ' ' . Health to Houston. . .The State Department of Health it ; ; The high school is about eight blocks' ' Townsley, to' a letter which reached : The attorney said it was Key, a former investigating what may be a high rate of from the adjoining BFGoodrich and -Moore on Friday, said he had also found 'director of NIOSH, who suggested be re leukemia deaths .among 1964-74 gradu-, vTexas-U.S:.hemlcal Co. plants, which four cases of Hodgkin's disease among 1 atea of n, Port Necbes high scbool near , process styrene and butadiene for manu die Ugh school's graduates. 1 quest a state epidemiology study, per haps to cooperation with the federal Cen two plants which manufacture synthetic , facturing synthetic rubber. ... V ,,,i Hodgkin's disease la a rare form of ter for Disease Control to Atlanta. 1 rubber/ . . tc1-' < The National Institute for Occupation lymph cancer that, like leukemia, affects - "I did look at his data, and U struck Dr. Raymond T. Moore, state health al Safety and Health has been Investigat the blood and causes anemia. < me that tour cases of leukemia among commissioner, said Monday his epidemi ing the incidence of-leukemia among. The attorney, conceding be is not aL recent graduates seemed on the high ologists may have some Initial nMng workers at the two plants since 1978. trained epidemiologist, said he concluded, side,'' Key said Monday. "It may be a hutweaker 10 days.. i A 1917 NIOSH publication listed sty the high school's leukemia rate was. Duke, but I think it should be looked at." The state investigation was requested rene and butadiene as s "confirmed" abnormal on the basis of cancer data Dr. Oliver P. Monk, superintendent of t tty a >Baaumoat attorney*. William E.. cause of leukemia, Townsley said. supplied by an epidemiologist at Hous toe Port Necbes Independent School Dis Townaley, who ^representing several v The Goodrich plant manager, D.T. ton's M.D. Anderson Hospital. trict, pointed out that Jefferson County is workers to leukemia lawsuits against. Houma ns. disputed Townsley's Implica He said toe data Included statewide said to have one of the highest cancer > Tkiaiimtsii ana plants. tion that the plant la a community health leukemia rates during 1912-76 and specif rates to toe nation. ; *; Townsley told the state health chief be hazard. ic records for Jefferson County and com "I don't know whether there's a higher has. tuned up four leukemia deaths ; "The plant and its operations are the parable age groups. leukemia Incidence here than to any i htnoug ax-students at the Port Necbes-. .subject of s continuing study by NIOSH, The four leukemia victims, all males, ' other high school in `Jefferson County or Groves High School. He said them may which has not yet reported any carcino graduated from the high school in 1964, Harris County," he said. "Certainly, if be other leukemia deaths of which .be la gen problems connected with plant em 19(6, 1968 and 1974, Townsley said, and there Is a problem, we want to know ployment," Boumana said in a prepared the moat recent death occurred "only a about it." .* The attorney said his research IwB- xtatment few weeks ago.'' Monk said that from 1943 until a move ' cates them should, have been not jmore thu mv dfftth In fla Moore said the number of leukemia deaths appear* to be-too small foratatis- "Therefore, It is unlikely that there are prpblem areas outride the plant." i He said Goodrich would cooperate In the state study and provide Investigators with employee medical records if Townsley estimated that the school graduated'2400 to 3,000 male students during the 1964-74 period. The attorney said he discussed the situation with Dr. Marcus Key, a profes to 1953, the high school was even closer to toe two chemical plants than it is now Both plants date from World War O. "We have kids who actually live closer to the plants than the school is," he said. ucc 053498 Houston Chronicle Sunday. March 11.1979 U.S. to check work records back to '41 in vinyl chloride probe BY CARLOS BYARS ed to a brain tumor called glioblastoma lOmwicie Science Writer multiforme, the cause of death of the Union Carbide workers, is in dispute. - Federal officials trying to determine if It is used in thousands of plastic prod- ' exposure to vinyl chloride may have led ucts, including electrical insulation and lo the deaths of 14 employees at two- car seat upholstery. Several plants in .* <&zas City chemical plants will dig into Harris County manufacture iL 'thousands of employee records dating. Union Carbide, in Galveston County, 'tackto 1941. still produces vinyl'chloride. Monsanto Nine workers at the Union Carbide formerly produced the chemical but ceasplant died of a rare form of brain cancer ed about 10 years ago. : that has been linked to vinyl chloride. The National Institute of Occupational Five employees at a Monsanto plant may Safety and Health will investigate wtietb- have died from the same type ofcancer. er the Union Carbide employee deaths 'Investigators hope to determine if any were related to vinyl chloride exposure ' other former employees may have been and whether the number of deaths is victims of the cancer. excessive. ' ' Vinyl chlonde previously has been link- Monsanto is conducting an investigation ed to liver cancer. But whether it is relat- in cooperation with the federal Occupa- tional Safety and Health Administration. Dr. Sanford Leffingwell of the Occupa tional Safety and Health Institute's Cin cinnati laboratory says one study will focus on the wort history of a group of Union Carbide employees to aee if there is a difference in exposure to various cbenueah ,.... ,, . "We hope this will lead to identification of the (cancer causing) agent in the plant," LefiQngweQ says. The same study also will seek to esti mate how many cases of the rare brain tumor should occur in a normal popula tion of the same size^Leffingwell says his guess is that there have been more cases than normal. This study is expected to take about six months. . At the same time, the institute will be trying to establish the status of everyone who worked at the plant for a year or more since it was opened in 1941. "We want to find out if they are living or dead and what they died of," he says. This study, expected to take about a year, also could turn op other work-relat ed causes ofdeath, he says. Damon Engle, manager of the Union Carbide plant, says the possible relation ship between vinyl chloride and other illnesses, including this form of brain tumor, was noted in a study sponsored by 29 members of the Manufacturing Che mists Association, a trade organization of producers or users ofthe chemical. The study was one of the research projects started after the discovery in 1973 that vinyl chloride can cause liver . *wlll be surveyed, a company spokesman cancer. V . " says. Engle says' Union Chrbide spenOl.2 ' John Spam of Monsanto's St. Louis million on controlling leaks and emissions headquarters says the company began of vinyl chloride chemicals and has met ' examining employee records after learn federal standards for exposure to the ing of the Union Carbide cases. chemkal since early 1975. "Five deaths are being studied as sus About 190 employees out of 2,200 at the pected of being caused by brain tumors or plant on a regular basis work in areas i malignancies. These are not confirmed where vinyl chloride is used, he says. cases, just suspected," be says. Engle feels that the cases turning up now are the results of exposure to chemi cals In the USDs and 'COs and are being found in the course of the long-term studies started during the liver-cancer scare. Although Union Carbide employees are Ksays the company will cooperate vernment officials in "a massive program of review of employee records to detennine if there were any incidents of brain cancer among employees." The records search may go back 30 the target of the studies discussed by years and involve more than 5,909 em Leffingwell. Monsanto employees also ployees, he says. ucc 053499 PASADENA CITIZEN, Saturday, March 1, lf. Page Pasadena woman files v.v _ j suit against Union Carbide GALVESTON, Texas (AP) -- A $1 The federal study linked vinyl chloride million damage suit has been filed with, the brain tumor giinhia!.tnm. against Union Carbide Corp. by the wife . multiforme and reported 10 brain timnr of a man who died of a brain tumor. deaths among workers at the Texas City The suit filed Thursday is believed to " plant at Union Carbide between 1962 and ' be the first since a federal study made MW, Death certificates for six of the 1* public last month linked brain tumors were said to have listed giinhWnm with vinyl chloride fumes. r , multiforme as' the cause of death. Doris Stiles of Pasadena filed the suit " *,, _ ** in behalf of herself add two children. Her husband, James Harvey Stiles Jr., 51,' died in 1974. The lawsuit says Stiles worked for Union Carbide from IMS until his death. The suit contends death resulted frsam "to caustic chemicals, including but not MmitaH te vinyl chloride."  Friday Morning, March 9.1979 dp (Mutton Daily $1-million suit filed iii brain tumor death By JOEL KIRKPATRICK contend Stiles was eta- been caused by exposure to action whatsoever to - News Staff Writer ployed by Union Carbide in vinyl chloride fumes as well protect its employees and A lawsuit seeking $1 Texas City born 1946 until as other chemical hones that such failure con- million in damages and the time of his death on July over a period of time." stituted and contending vinyl chloride 19,1974. Mrs. Stiles contends that gross negligence." fumes caused a . brain The suit seeks to prove the defendant Union Car- The plaintiff contend the tumor which led to the "that the death of the bide Corp. knew or should defendant breached Its death of James Harvey deceased was proxlmately have known that vinyl obligating to shi-- to Stiles Jr. kus been filed caused by exposure to chloride and its fumes and provide him with a against Union Carbide chemical fumes including the fumes of other reasonably safe place to Carp, by Stiles' surviving but not limited to vtajl. were wife andchfldran.;'' chloride which Induced a to the health of her Mrs. Stiles' husband The lawsuit was filed brain tumor... " husband. L would still be alive, she Thursday afteraoon in 56th The plaintiffs contend According to the suit, the contends, but for the - District Court in Galveston that at the time of Stiles' plaintiffs "believe the posure to vinyl chloride, its under the Texas wrongful death they were not aware defendant purposely hrrr* and vapors, which death and survival law. of the cause of his death, withheld such knowledge reisH the brain The plaintiffs, Doris which "has only recently from Its employees and which was the proximate Stiles and her children, been discovered to have wholly to take any * smim' iVaft UCC 053501 $1 million lawsuitis alleging death due to yinyl choloride p Chronicle Galveston Burton *5?, * ~ tjfj Jl Her^chfidretf, JamesHarvey Stiles - ` ` `-ff 1 and Carl Stiles, . '(_G_A__L_V_E_S__T_O__N - _A_._P__a_s_a_d_e_n_a_'_w__o_m__a_nT*h' 'e lawsuit hays----------------w---o-r-k-e--d- -a--t--O- -nion filed a tl million damage lawsuit against rCartide'ftom T9ff Mfl Ids death fit>m a ! the Onion CarbideCorp, in cotuiecpbitv brain tumor, July 19-1974,'15 days after with the death: of her, husband froma - -hls51at birthdayj4^3^i"',* : _, ) u` braidtumor^, r-<4,i It alleges that'Thddeath tias caused by -The lawsuit is believed to he the first " expoeure "to caustic chemkals including, filed.'after a federal Investigation linked .."bulapt lbpitedto.v^hriIdttorideJ" which brain fumors with vinyl chloride fomes. ~ '^ induced abrefatomor.Ml***1 j -The investigation by the Occupational^ j Th^lawsnit'charges-that the company SB# and Health Administration and the^ 'knew or Shadld Ifove'knowirof the; dan- National Institute of Occupational Safety,; gers of vinyl chkxideahd thaf"defendant afid Health, made public last month,'link- ,, purposely wfthWdlsJfch knowWgelrtm ed 10 deaths of workers at the Carbidei^ ns empldyeesiad wholly failed to'take plant'In Texas City to vinyl cWoridei Ah' any ectkmehatsteyq to protect its era-, later investigation linked several deaths, v ' of workers at the nearby Monsanto ,Ca-;v Ucharges ardss begligence under the plant to the plastic product .' ' Mate'swrongful death statute! l J ; Sci0^t^ts.teUe^Jhat')^^^"l^, mi'-i------- - ----- vinyl chloride femes ran cause d tumor'*v ' called glioblastoma muldforme and cause- death. - - 1 Scientists are sifting medical and deathj;? records of thousands ofcurrent and for- * * iheTemployees of the plants to determine'- how ,widespread the condition migit bs .-;i among workers.- * > The lawsuit was filed Thursday in state district court here by Doris Stiles, widow : of:James Harvey Stiles Jr., for herself, 1 1 The Dally Sun, Friday, March 9,1979, - -k r,., - '">** s ft. 1* - .. * TEXAS CITY - Union Carbide officials led toStiles'death. rrv3t; ?:' say they are not prepared to comment on . The dead man's wife and three children '/ , die 91 million suit filed against the com- ;;cootend in the suit that Union Carbide is. * pany by the family of an employee who guilty of "gross negligence" foc not died afterdeveloping a brain tumor. ' forming Stiles about the danger of vinyl" Ron Ritchie, employee relations chloride and other..hazardous chemicals ( manager for Union Carbide's Texas City iThandled at the plant M : I 1 plant said, "Carbide has not received a# The`suit states,1-the defendant pur-... 1 copy of the suit filed in the 56th District. posety withbddsoch knowledge hern ltd Court The first we knew of it was what we, employees and wholly failed tojtake any I < read in the newspaper. Until we recstye a- action whatsoevertoprotactitseagxloytes copy, we can't make a statement'' %?, and that such''''failure constituted Thursday the family of the late James negligence and gross negligence." ; ' Harvey Stiles Jr. filed a $1 million lawsuit"" Now under wayby the National Institute^' against Union Carbide Corp. which alleges - forOccupational Safety and Health is an-- chemicals used at the corporation's plenty investigation into.the braintmpor deaths in Texas Qty caused a brain tumoc which | ^ (SeeCARBIDE.Pafel) ir. Carbide|- (Mted ta piffl) \ T of Union Carbide employees. U*^r y^-brain tumors. orcancre.The chemical- N10SH reports there is a possible link ` cancer probe reid federal officiate, .wdl^ .between the chemical vmyl chloride and ^OTtylcteforie^mon^;,^ ^ ucc 053503 ) Hie Daily Son, Wednesday, March 7,1979, Page 5A^ 'Chain reaction' implicates Monsanto . BByyCCAATTHHYYGGIILLLLEENNTi WINEE,"f '' V' Daily Sum Reporter ' - /' ^ TEXAS CITY-A chain reaction of friend Union Carbide in ooniunctkn with the Union Carbide in coinjundidh with the; National Institute for OccupationalSafety and Heaith (NIQSH), winch is our tr a iu ___ .. . . A Monsanto spokesman emphasized that the glioblastoma multiform type of cancer identified as the cause ofdeath in su of ten < remembering friend has extended the agerxfy," Liyneadded. r investigation of brain cancer deaths City Secretary Bobby Earie baa t (See MONSANTO Page (A) t across the city from Carbide to Monsanto. reported thatQSHA representatives have* "It began with an employee complaint, come to city hall on several Oceanians 1 and most of the information vre have been' recently'to obtain death certificate* for 'getting has come from people rffixm-^. ^ 'wring other people who worked at aidant ` . and'tlfcd ih ihe Sam^* tray," aid^t)HSA . In addition to wd Of moufh 'i^..^,, v spokesman Davis Layne.-."We ate con- . QSHA has been relying heaviiy oQ >dp . - '-inning.toget complaints and are planning ' from union representatives in gatberh^ - a full- Epidemiologicalinvestigation at information, according to LAyne. "And the publirity given thfe investigation has added'! information as more aridmOre people bear, about it and call us,"Layneadded^ji-^' "All ow, invgsUgatfcis are jvcfy*' preliminary atY tMs'jSjwfat," i LayneS' reported.' "Staffs "W^ttndle loStl-to-V vestigatiors oresbilbHng organized-tooK' have only sevenlodustria) Hygienics in . the Houston office and huuty of themmust ! werother workercompiainta.t!^^^ft'> Personnel at both Union Carbidtrend Monsanto are.aiding jn. the investigation'^ which involves,;to date,'tenrdesthr.at * Union Carbide and fiveatMonsaata.^^ Monsanto Carbide victims had not been established as a cause at death in the five cuea unearthed from same 1,301 death cer tificates checked by Monsanto. The Monsanto investigation was begm by the company following the reports of an. investigation atUaion Carbide. The entire investigation began with a' Carbide werkercomplaint on November37; made to OSHA. OSHA workers then ` unearthed ten deatha from brain cancer between1962 and 1971. An eleventh victim ' of the tumor, aboa Carbide worker, isstill living. Vinyl chloride, suspected as the cause of several types of cancer, is still manufactured at Union Carbide. The substance, used in the manufacture <rf a variety of plastic nateriah, hai not been produced at Monsanto lines 1961 Mon santopurchased theplantfrom the federal govecumeU ,ta the mid 1940*1 and producedvtqyl chloride there from 19S3 to Invedlgitiona at the two local plants could hrt ban Ms. months to a ywr, a cording to OSHA, and investigations are complicated tgr the long time span which Vhirt xhlorUe as a poariMa prododng agent has beeo under stndy in the UnitedStates andabroad for a number of yean. Current data confirms that ' can result from contact with the ucc 053504