Document vkELdd6evEOnNxRn3G0EEdD8

k ^ WALL STREET JOURNAL, Friday, March 29. 1974 Vinyl Oi/oride Ban In PesticideSprays Requested by EPA ViU lm MW4 Hi# IqtMr WASHINGTON - The Biwimnwlt) Protection Agency asked manufacturers to voluntarily ban the use ol the controversial chemical vinyl chloride In pesticide aprayi. The agency's request came In letters to II manufacturers and distributors of 23 brands of pesticide sprays that contain vinyl chloride, which has been linked with rare liver cancer. The EPA said the pesticides involved Include household disinfectants. In t sect killers used la restaurants and foodprocessing plants, various agricultural peaUcldea and wasp-control sprays. The vlayl chloride Isn't an active Ingredient of the pesticide but is used as a propellant for the spray. The agency didn't name the brands er the manufacturers, but said K Intends to da so later after glviag the companies time to voice objections. John Quarles. EPA deputy administra tor.disclosed the development in a letter to the Health Research Group, a pubHc-fciteresl organisation that had asked the EPA for a list of peatkldes registered with the agency that contain vinyl chloride. The EPA said that if the companies dent voluntarily substitute other chemicals for vinyl chloride the agency would consider forcing such a move. But the agency aald it doesn't have a position at this time on the hatarda connected with vinyl chloride. Vinyl chloride, normally a gas, has boon Controversial since liver-cancer deaths have been reported In recent months among worker* dealing with the substance. It Is converted in factories into a powdery sub stance called polyvinyl chloride, from which a wide range at everyday plastic products Is made. The Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration hoa issued as emergency temporary health standard sharply reducing the allowable exposure of workers to the chemical starting April g. It also proposed an even tougher permanent standard that bars workers without protec tive equipment from coming into contact with the chemical in any measurable con centration. * Tt 10U1SV}11 TIMES. WE0N6S0AY, MARCH 27, 1974 , Nader group urges recall ^ of vinyl chloride hair spray UHdM Vrai* the firm believes it poses no. health WASHINGTON - Ralph Nadert hazard. Health Research Grasp today urged two Wolfe wrote to EPA Administrator Rut*-, federal agencies to remove from the mar sell Train that his agency has ashed pestl- J ket immediately all hair sprays and pesti dde manufacturers tor permission to * cides containing vinyl chloride. make public the names of products con Dr. Sidney If. Wolfe, director of the taining ylnyl chloride and that it may re consumer organisation, directed the let quest them to withdraw tha chemka] from' ters to the Food and Drag Administration and the Envlronmesial Protection Agen cy (SPA). lie noted that it ha* been more than a month since he petitioned for a ban, re the pesticides. V,. "Such withdrawals most be mandatory^'.-) and immediate, if consumer protections . i* to be insured," he said. wfsr>< calls and public Identification of products containing the propellant chemical that U linked to several cases of liver cancer among Industrial workers. "Each day this action is delayed, more people wiR be exposed to this cancer- causing chemical,'* Ihs letten said. S Louisville workers died \JCh-- (^WA (Concern about the chemical has mounted since the recent announcements of ao apparent link between the deaths of, nine American chemical wurheta and their exposure to vinyl chloride fumes. Five of the men worked at the Bolls Lane plant of the B.F. Goodrich Co. in LonlsI viiie, and two additional workers there i have been diagnosed ns having the sane 1 form of very rare eancer of the liver.) Wolfe Mid the Health Research Group is aware of two brands of Clairol, Ine* [ hair cpray that, uniil last yetr, contained vinyl chloride. He also mentioned that ; 24 pesticides, iacfodtng dog and cat sprays, were known to contain the chonl- cal as s propellant "Clairol's decision that there is nw health hazard from vinyl ehlorlde in their hair sprays rests on the erroneous as* sumption that there ere 'safe' levels of exposure to carcinogens. There is no scientific evidence to support such a con cept for vinyl chloride or tor any other cancer-causing chemical," Wolfe said. Claire! It doabltof *f danger Clairol vice-president John Menkart told Wolfe in a Idler last Friday that a "small amount" of Summer Monde and Miss Clairol hair spray containing vinyl 1 chloride remains on the market but that i AP00027828