Document wDEogKdNqwo5NgjV8LbwN1zd3

uc INTERNAL CORRESPONDENCE 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 DATE P. O. BOX t, TEXAS CITY, TEXAS 77 590 March 13, 1979 subject 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 UCC 053924 PASADENA CITIZEN, Saturday. March 10,1979, Page J Pasadena woman files suit against Union Carbide GALVESTON, Texas (AP) - A *1 million damage suit has been filed against Union Carbide Corp. by tbe wife of a man who died of a brain tumor. The suit filed Thursday is believed to be the first since a federal study made public last month linked brain tumors with vinyl chloride fumes. Doris Stiles of Pasadena Sled the suit in behalf of herself and two children. Her husband, James Harvey Stiles Jr., 51, died in 1974. The lawsuit says Stiles worked for Union Carbide from 1946 until his death. The suit contends death resulted frsoro exposure "to caustic chemicals, including but not limited to vinyl chloride." The federal study linked vinyl chloride with the brain tumor glioblastoma multiforme and reported 10 brain tumor deaths among workers at the Texas City plant of Union Carbide between 1962 and 1976. Death certificates for six of the 10 were said to have listed glioblastoma multiforme as the cause of death. ucc 053925 NEWS DIGEST .^-Tumor Deaths lnvestigatftd or^>. TEXAS C!TY,Texas(UPI) - Industrial health investigators l are checking IS brain tiynor deaths among vinyl chloride work i o"k ers at two-plants, officials said Tuesday. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration w'Ss investigating 10deaths at Union Carbide Corp., where vinyl' chloride is stilt handled. Monsanto Inc., which no longer hand- les the chemical,- disclosed five brain tumor deaths. ' -Federal 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 Unioo Carbide workers on the baas of an employee inquiry. " . ' - ' \i. e * *- V\ * i SSVILLE HERALD-Sunday. February 18. 1979--PACE 13A Houston Carbide Plant Is Probed HOUSTON (UPI) -- Federal health officials say an unusually high number of workers at Union Carbide's Texas City plant have died of a type of brain tumor linked to the cancer - causing agent vinyl chloride, according to The Houston Post. In a copyrighted article today, the Post said the suhstance once was manufactured and now is processed at the large chemical and plastics plant. A Labor Department official said scientists associate the W.W. "Bill" McManus, plant nanager of the Union Carbide Chemicals and Plastics Division at the Port of Brownsville, said Friday that vinyl chloride is not used at the local plant nor ever has been. "I think very fortunately that neither we, OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) or NIOSH (National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health! know of any products we manufacture or use in this plant, except for a few laboratory agents kept in a special place, that are car cinogenic," McManus said. The Brownsville plant, he said, produces acetic acid and acetic anhydride for use in the manufacture of aspirin, paints, solvents and plastics, among other products. chemical with a cancerous tumor known as glioblastoma multiform. The Post said it learned medical certificates from A least nine Texas City workers who died between 1962 and 1978 listed that type of tumor as the cause of death. In addition, federal authorities told the newspaper a 10th plant employee still living has been diagnosed as "probably" having the same form of tumor. ' Health records of current and former Texas City plant wor kers. 8,000 to 10.000 persons, are being researched by scientists working for the Occupat i o n a 1 Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health. "The company feels this is not a crisis that poses any immediate exposure hazards for current employees,'' said plant manager Damon Engle. "Practically ail of the affected employees worked for substantial periods of time from the mid-Ms through the present in a period in which neither the government nor the company had any reason to suspect v.nyl chloride." He said the company is not ready to accept the OSHA suggestion that vinyl chloride is responsible for the deaths ucc 053926 The Houston Post/lues., Morch 13, 1979, State probing school's cancer deaths By HAROLD SCARLETT Post Environmeat Writer The State Department of Health is investigating what may be a high rate of leukemia deaths among 1964-74 gradu ates of a Port Neches high school near two plants which manufacture synthetic rubber. Dr. Raymond T. Moore, state health commissioner, said Monday his epidemi ologists may have some initial findings in a week or 10 days, The state investigation was requested by a - Beaumont attorney,. William E. Townsley, who is representing several workers in leukemia lawsuits against Beaumont area plants. Townsley told the state health chief he has turned up four leukemia deaths among ex-students at the Port NechesGroves High School. He said there may be other leukemia deaths of which he is unaware. The attorney said his research indi-. cates there should have been not more than one leukemia death in the ex-stu dent group. Moore said the number ol leukemia deaths appears to be too small for statis tical significance but "we are going to take a look at it and see what, If any thing, we find." The high school is about eight blocks from the adjoining BFGoodrich and Texas-U.S. Chemical Co. plants, which process styrene and butadiene (or manu facturing synthetic rubber. The National Institute for Occupation al Safety and Health has been investigat ing the incidence of leukemia among workers at the two plants since 1976. A 1977 N10SH publication listed sty rene and butadiene as a "confirmed" cause of leukemia, Townsley said. . The Goodrich plant manager, D.T. Boumans, disputed Townsiey's implica tion that the plant is a community health hazard. "The plant and its operations are the subject of a continuing study by NIOSH, which has not yet reported any carcino gen problems connected with plant em ployment," Boumans said m a prepared statment. "Therefore, it ts unlikely that there are problem areas outside the plant." He said Goodrich would cooperate m the state study and provide investigators with employee medical records if requested. Officials of Texas-U.S. Chemical were unavailable (or comment. Townsley, in a letter which reached Moore on Friday, said he had also found four cases of Hodgkin's disease among the high school's graduates. Hodgkin's disease Is a rare form of lymph cancer that, like leukemia, affects the blood and causes anemia. The attorney, conceding he is not a trained epidemiologist, said he concluded the high school's leukemia rate was abnormal on the basis of cancer data supplied by an epidemiologist at Hous ton's M.D. Anderson Hospital. He said the data included statewide leukemia rates during 1972-76 and specif ic records for Jefferson County and com parable age groups. The four leukemia victims, all males, graduated from the high school in 1964, 1966, 1968 and 1974, Townsley said, and the most recent death occurred "only a few weeks ago. " Townsley estimated that the school graduated 2,500 to 3,000 male students during the 1964-74 period. The attorney said he discussed ihe situation with Dr. Marcus Key, a profes sor of occupational medicine at the University of Texas School ol Public Health in Houston. The attorney said it was Key, a former director of NIOSH, who suggested he re quest a state epidemiology study, per haps in cooperation with the federal Cen ter for Disease Control in Atlanta. "I did look at his data, and it struck me that four cases of leukemia among recent graduates seemed on the high side," Key said Monday "It may be a fluke, but I think it should be looked at." Dr. Oliver P. Monk, superintendent of the Port Neches Independent School Dis trict, pointed out that Jefferson County is said to have one of the highest cancer rates in the nation "I don't know whether there's a higher leukemia incidence hero than in any other high school in Jefferson County or Harris County," he said "Certainly, if there is a problem, we want to know about it." Monk said that from 1943 until a move in 1953, the high school was even closer to the two chemical plants than it is nuw Both plants date from Wm Id War 11 "We have kids who actually live closoi to the plants than the school is, " he said I Houston Chronicle Sunday, March 11,1973 U.S. to check work records back to '41 in vinyl chloride probe ; BY CARLOS BYARS . Chronicle Science Writer ed to a brain tumor called glioblastoma 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 I Texas City chemical plants will dig into Harris County manufacture it * thousands of employee records dating Union Carbide, in Galveston County, - back to 1941. still produces vinyl' chloride. Monsanto Nine workers at the Union Carbide formerly produced the chemical but ceas plant 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 wheth have died from the same type of cancer. 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 chloride 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 work history of a group of Union Carbide employees to see if there is a difference in exposure to various cherrncals. "We hope this will lead to identification of the (cancer causing) agent in the plant," Leffingwell 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^Leffmgweil 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 up other work-relat ed causes of death, 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 m a study sponsored by 29 members of the Manufacturing Che mists Association, a trade organization of producers or users of the chemicaL The study was one of the research projects started after the discovery in 1973 that vmyl chloride can cause liver cancer. Engle says Union Carbide spent $1.2 million on controlling leaks and emissions of vinyl chloride chemicals and has met federal standards for exposure to the chemical since early 1975. About 160 employees out of 2,200 at the plant on a regular basis work in areas where vinyl chloride is used, he says. Engle feels that the cases turning up now are the results of exposure to chemi cals in the 1950s and '60s and are being found in the course of the long-term studies started during the liver-cancer scare. Although Union Carbide employees are the target of the studies discussed by Leffingwell. Monsanto employees also will be surveyed, a company spokesman says. John Spano of Monsanto's St. Louis headquarters says the company began examining employee records after learn ing of the Union Carbide cases. "Five deaths are being studied as sus pected of being caused by brain tumors or malignancies. These are not confirmed cases, just suspected," he says. Spano says the company will cooperate with government officials in "a massive program of review of employee records to determine if there were any incidents of brain cancer among employees." The records search may go back 30 years and involve more than 5,600 em ployees. he says. uco 053928 Friday Morning, March 9.1979 Sfyc alfu'siun D.nlg JTctua Si-million suit filed in brain tumor death By JOEL KIRKPATRICK News Staff Writer A lawsuit seeking $1 million in damages and contending vinyl chloride fumes caused , a., brain tumor which led to the death of James Harvey Stiles Jr. has been filed against Union Carbide Corp. by Stiles' surviving wife and children.' ' The lawsuit was filed Thursday'afternoon in 56th District Court in Galveston under the Texas wrongful death and survival law. The plaintiffs, Doris Stiles and her children. contend Stiles was em ployed by Union Carbide in Texas City from 1946 until the time of his death on July 19,1974. The suit seeks to prove "that the death of the deceased was proximately caused by exposure to chemical fumes including but not limited to vinyl chloride which induced a brain tumor..." The plaintiffs contend that at the time of Stiles' death they were not aware of the cause of his death, which "has only recently been discovered to have been caused by exposure to vinyl chloride fumes as well as other chemical fumes over a period of time." Mrs. Stiles contends that the defendant Union Car bide Corp. knew or should have known that vinyl chloride and its fumes and the fumes of other chemicals were hazardous to the health of her husband. According to the suit, the plaintiffs "believe the defendant purposely withheld such knowledge from its employees and wholly failed to take any action whatsoever to protect its employees and that such failure con stituted negligence and gross negligence." The plaintiffs contend the defendant breached ~ its obligation to Stiles to provide him with a reasonably safe place to work. Mrs. Stiles' husband would still be alive, she contends, but for the ex posure to vinyl chloride, its fumes and vapors, which caused the brain tumor which was the proximate cause of Stiles' death. ucc 053929 Houston Chronicle -, Friday, March 9.1979 $1 million lawsuit is alleging death due to vinyl choloride Chronicle Galveston Bureau i [ " and' her children, James Harvey Stiles > . i ' HI, Sharon Stiles Baker and Cart Stiles. GALVESTON -- A, Pasadena woman ,, ? The lawsuit hays StiJes worked at Onion filed a *1 million damage lawsuit against Carbide from 1946 until his death from a the Union Carbide, Corp. in connection brain tumor July 19,f1974, 15 days after with, the death of her husband from;a, his51st birthday.,.^/: ' bram tumor, > - i; , : ' It alleges that the death was caused by The lawsuit is believed to be the first' exposure "to caustic chemicals including filed;after a federal investigation linked, but not limited to vinyl chloride," which brain tumors with vinyl chloride fumes. , induced abraintumor.vs- The investigation by the Occupational. ," j The ^awsnifcharges that the-company SgfetT'and Health Administration arid the - knew or should'have known of the dan- National Institute of Occupational Safety gers of vinyl chloride and that "defendant and Health, made public last month, link- purposely withheld "such knowledge from ed 10 deaths of workers at the "Carbide: its employees arid wholly failed to take plantin Texas City to vinyl chloride; A:, anyaction whatsoever to prelect its em- Iater investigation linked several deaths . pioyees."' A':"":' "{. - of workers at the nearby Monsanto ,Co. It charges gross"negiigence under the plant to the plastic product. state's wrongful death statutes.^ . Scientists believe, that ^Inhalation'of " " vinyl chloride fumes can cause a tumor ` " called glioblastoma multiforme and cause death. .... Scientists are sifting medical and death records of thousands ofcurrent and for- -* mer employees of the plants to determine^, how widespread the condition might be among workers. -' The lawsuit was filed Thursday in state district court here by Doris Stiles, widow of James Harvey Stiles Jr., for herself The Dally Sun, Friday, March 9,1979, Carbide reserves Comment TEXAS CITY -- Union Carbide officials led to Stiles'death. say they are not prepared to comment on The dead man's wife and three children the {1 million suit filed against the com contend in the suit that Union Carbide is pany by the family of an employee who guilty of "gross negligence" for not in died after developing a brain tumor. forming Stiles about the danger of vinyl Eon Ritchie, employee relations chloride and other hazardous chemicals ' manager for Union Carbide's Texas City : handled at the plant 1 plant said, "Carbide has not received a The "suit states,' "the defendant pur copy of the suit filed in the 56th District posely withheld such knowledge from its Court. The first we knew of it was what we employees and wholly failed to take any read in the newspaper. Until we receive a action whatsoever to protect its employees copy, we can't make a statement" ,. ,,V and that such"'.failure constituted Thursday the family of the late James negligence and gross negligence." Harvey Stiles Jr. filed a SI million lawsuit Now under way by the National Institute against Union Carbide Corp. which alleges = for Occupational Safety and Health is an -- chemicals used at the corporation's plant investigation into the brain" tumor deaths in Texas City caused a brain tumor which h," (See CARBIDE, Page J) Carbidef (Continued from page 1) of Union Carbide employees. brain tumors, or cancer. The chemical- NIOSH reports there is a possible link ' .. . cancer probe, said federal officials, will -.between the chemical vinyl chloride and not be complete for several months. . f UCC 053931 The Daily Sun, Wednesday, March 7,1979, Page 5A,, 'Chain reaction' implicates Monsanto By CATHY GILLENTINE Daily Sun Reporter TEXAS CITY-A chain reactionof friend and"Health (NIOSH), which is ourTister Sied remembering friend lias extended the agendy," Layne added. V\ investigation of brain cancer deaths City Secretary Bobby Earle has ' across the city from Carbide to Monsanto, reported, that QSHA representatives have , It began with an emplojtee complaflit^ come to city "hall on several occassions ' and most of the information we have been recently" to obtain death certificates for getting has come frora. people fI other people who worked at aslant TMonsanto." ... " andHied -ih' the Same *'ay?Vsaid3!)HSA In addition to word of-meuih iefforts,-- i spokesman. Davis Layne5; "We are con- . OSHA has been relying heavily on help: - tinning to get complaints and are planning from union representatives in gathering . . a full.'epidemiologieaJ..investigation at information,accordingtafLayne. "Andthe publicity given the investigation has added ; information as m<ji*e and more people hear?' have only seven Industrial HygieniSis in : the Houston office and ipariy of theitnnust, ; cover other worker complaints.":: Personnel at both,jUnion Carbide&id : ' Monsanto are aiding jn the investigation ro which involves,, to 11316;' ten 'deaths at j Union Carbide and five at Monsanto. ' '.V: Monsanto(Continued from Page 1) Carbide victims had not been established as a cause of death in the five cases , unearthed from some 1,300 death cer- tificates checked by Monsanto. The Monsanto investigation was begun by the company following the reports of an investigation at Union Carbide. The entire investigation began with a'' Carbide worker complainton November 27 made to OSHA. OSHA workers then unearthed ten deaths from brain cancer between 1962 and 1978. An-eleventh victim 11 of the tumor, also a Carbide worker, is still' living. Vinyl chloride, suspected as the cause of several types of cancer, is still manufactured at Union Carbide. The substance, used in the manufacture (da variety of plastic materials, has not been produced at Monsanto since 1968. Monsanto purchased the plant from the federal government in the mid 1940's and produced vinyl chloride there from 1963 to 1968. Investigations at the two local plants could last from six months to a year, aecording to OSHA, and investigations are : complicated by the long time span which _ can elapse between exposure and illness., Vinyl ^chloride as a. possible cancerproducing ageht haslieen under study in " the United States and abroad lor a number of yean. Current data confirms that cancer can result from contact with the substance, ucc 053932