Document qgwy2rqaJRE3gdMv3QdJooDq

BFGoodrich The BFGoodrich Company 3925 Embassy Parkway Akron, Ohio 44313-1799 C C- A October 21, 1991 Dr. Roy T. Gottesman Vinyl Institute Wayne Interchange Plaza II 155 Route 46 West Wayne, NJ 07470 Dear Roy: In response to your request, you should note that there are two main problems with the study by Wong et al. 1991, entitled "An Industry-wide Epidemiology Study of Vinyl Chloride Workers, 1942-1982". First, the authors use the 7th rather than the 9th revision of the International classification of Disease. The effect here is to lump all brain cancers together. Secondly, the authors leave the question of whether there is a relationship between VCM and brain cancer hanging without providing some logical comments and assessments. While they reference Doll's earlier review paper in the introduction, they fail to mention what is important from that paper. Specifically, they fail to note that for brain cancer, and in fact all cancers except liver, there is no consistency across studies which is an important consideration in assessing causal relationships in epidemiology studies. Furthermore, the effect of other potential biasing/confounding factors (eg. other exposures) are not addressed. When I obtained a copy of this publication, I quickly realized that this was the work that was sponsored by the CMA VCM Panel. Unfortunately, the authors failed to send a draft to the Panel for review prior to publication. When I discussed this with Dr. Shah at CMA, he indicated that CMA would notify them that they have violated their contract. The next step will be for the whole Panel to consider what corrective actions are necessary and/or appropriate. Hopefully, the authors will be agreeable to add some clarifying comments in a letter to the editor. 22508001 BFG21278 Dr. Gottesman October 21, 1991 page 2 At present, I view this as a CMA project. However, I will keep you posted as things progress. Best regards, THE 8FGOODRICH COMPANY Robert K. Hinderer,Ph.D. Manager, Health and Toxicology Environment, Health and Safety Management Systems 1021--4/jp cc: Dr. Drumwright Dr. Shah - CMA BFG21279