Document r60D9yyKj9oBy7Ma9LvLzJr6v

environment PVC WORKERS use respirators with airhose attachments to keep exposure to VCM below 1 ppm. Masked men get drop on VCM PVC plants meet new OS HA standard with few exceptions, but most must use respirators and lose some production to comply If requests for variances are any crite rion, most polyvinyl chloride plants have complied with the Apr. 1 deadline limit ing worker exposure to 1-ppm, vinyl chloride monomer. Only four companies--Firestone, Union Carbide, Air Products and Chem icals, ^Borden--have applied to the Occu pational Safety and Health Adminis tration for temporary variances. And all operating PVC plants appear to have re duced time-weighted average exposures to the monomer to well under the 25ppm. limit that went into effect in April 1975. But meeting the new 1-ppm. limit requires "extensive use of respirators," say several chemical companies. And with extensive engineering changes still being made at a number of older plants, requests for an extension of standards usually are being based on the difficulty of doing construction work while wearing respirators. Air Products, for example, has a major rebuilding project under way at its Pensa cola, Fla., plant, where it is expanding ca pacity from 80 million lbs./year to 150 million by December, And changes are being made at its Calvert City, Ky., unit. Delays in equipment delivery are slowing progress toward minimum use of respira tors. Firestone, whose request for an interim six-week extension was turned down by OSHA (CIV, Mar. 24, p. 9), is waiting for a response to its request for a variance until Sept. 30 for discretionary use of res pirators. Last week the company closed its Pottstown, Pa., plant to complete six to seven weeks of construction work. Oper ation continues, with respirators, at Perryville, Md. "The temporary variance was re quested because it was our judgment that we could not continue the massive engi neering changes and equipment installa tions required in our polymerization buildings if our craftsmen were required to wear respiratory equipment on a full time basis," says Todd C. Walker, presi dent of Firestone Plastics. "Under the law, we can grant variances only when equipment is unavailable," says John Concannon, chief of the divi sion of variance determination for OSHA. Union Carbide isn't optimistic about its request for a one-year extension, and the company says 62 workers at its Texas City, Tex., suspension-resin plant will have to put on respirators for "extended periods and they won't like it." The aver age respirator time there is 30%, longer for maintenance work, Carbide adds. Another reason for its request for an extension, says Carbide, is the "uncer tainty about the Environmental Protec tion Agency regulations for VCM emis sions from tne plant." EPA initially proposed a 90% reduction of emissions; Great Lakes Chemical Corporation You're-on target when you look to Great Lakes Chemical for BROMINE .. BROMINEX' (fhmt Betanfaatsfor UrethanesF BR0M0ACET1C ACID . . BROMOBENZENE/gr 2-BROMOBUTYRtCAClir CHtOROftCRIN DECABROMOPHEN0XYBENZENE DIBROMOPROPANOL EPIBROMOHYDRIN THYtBROtMi&^ ETHYLENE IHBROMlDE FLAME RETARDANTS ; FUMIGANTS.6RAIN AND SOIL - HEXABR0MOBENZENE (BZ-87 ") HYOROBROMIC ACID, : PENTABRPMOETHYLBENZENE (EB-80") 1 '>, . .n.: TElRABIW#BfSPHENOLA (BA-59 ") 2 A R-TRf&RfiMfiPHENOL TRIS (2,3DIBR0M0PR0PYL) PHOSPttATifTPBB*) GREAT LAKES CHEMlCALCOItfORATION GtMralOffieMrP.O. Box 2200 West Lafayette, IN 47906 Phone:317-463-2511 800 Hunt Avenue, New York. NY 10022. 614 CtenwewlAve, Rafeiffc. NC 27603 17461 BarterAyr.; Irvine, CA 92705 Circle 021 on Mgt. Info. Service Can April 7, 1976 CHEMICAL WEEK 3 BOR 0 1 0 7 3 9