Document wgx4XypQ4EX219OY6rvDL3g33

% H; Hazards V'my\-Ch\oride Risks - Were Rwown Mwuy Before first Deaths \- Hindsight Shows Weakness In Firms' Systems Aimed At, Protecting Workers The Tip of a I^arge Iceberg t\j [ By Barry KRAMBk Staff kffnntr of Tilt Wai.I. STIEST JOCKS A L . . A few weeks before Christman In 1948, Earl Parka, then 28 years old, signed on aa a helper-trainee at the large B. F, Goodrich Co. plastics factory in Louisville, Ky. The plant had been making polyvinyl-chloride i plastic from vinyl-chloride gas since before the war, using a process developed by Good- ; rich In 1987.. , It was a growing industry that Mr. parks - Joined. Polyvinyl, chloride--dubbed PVC.for . short--had found speciai. but limited, appll- cations in the war years, especially as a fireproof .coating for electric wiring' lit fighter planes and ships. But In the late 1940s, so-called vinyl consumer products,., made from PVC, began renting Into Vogue; and by the time the 1980s were under way " polyvinyl-chloride products such as contain- i '. ers, phonograph records and curtains were staples In American households. The basic Goodrich process, still In use today, pipes vinyl-chloride gas Into large re- This to the first of two stories concern ing implications of the discovery that vinyl chloride can cause Cakcefl Z actor vessels; there, the gas Is agitated to gether with a liquid and catalysts. The pro cess causes polymerisation, a Unking to gether of the molecules of the gas (a mon omeri into the long chains that give PVC (a polymer 1 its strength and other desired characteristics.' \ ,,1 The First Years ' ".'l| In his first years with Goodrich, It was Earl Park's Job to crawl Inside the reactors after each batch of PVC was drained off and to Chip away that portion of the polymer that had congealed. During the hour-long task, repeated several times Ih the Course of an eight-hour shift, Mr. Parks and other workers who performed the same function would unaviodably Inhale the heavy, sweet- smeUlng fumes of vinyl-chloride gas that had escaped polymerisation. ' As the 1960s went by and the 1960s began, ' Baft Parks was working hla way.up to tM Job of foreman, a poet that he had attained ' by the time that III health forced hla early1 y retiriftieltL In the late 1W. tn the yekHf that be Had worked with Goodrich, the PVC ' industry flourished'M thousands of new ulieii were discovered for the polymer. . . On March 4,- 197S, at the age Of W, Earl Farks dted'of angiosarcoma of the Bvef, a type at Canrer' thnt le-VfverinBty falsi. His death attracted scant public attention at the, Ume- but "today the' sljjlflHfTOhOe hf Mr.: .Hms is unquietiemble end shatter-. jr.Ait.ii-. ^aansammstl isli1 IT'rv link bctween'^^ISJSIaTdPP^: lyl chloride is further buttressed by other ' % deadly statistics. Seven of Mr. Park's fellow workers at the Goodrich plant also con tracted Ihc dlsesae, and five have died. In all, there hnve been IS documented angios arcoma cases In the (J.8. In recent years, alt of them linked to vinyl chloride. In addition, 10 other enses have been reported In Eu rope. While the total number ot cases Is small, , / the Industry has been shSken to Its roots. The disease now Is khown to Work Insidl- >-;:<msly, slowly, during decades of exposure, the Implications being that, the cages thus (Sr are quite likely only the tip of an Ice- ' berg. Nine companies, with 14 plants and 940 employes, currently produce vinyl chlor Ide monomer from ethylene, a petrocheml- - cal. The monomer, In turn, la used by 21 companies operating 36 major plants and employing 9,000 workers, to make more than five billion pounds of PVC annually. r-\ (World-wide production la some 18 billion ' - pounds annually.i . ;; m' - - Even the five bllUon pounds, of PVC anv>, ? ; nuaUy produced In this country Isn't enough "ZZj meet the domestic demand fCr ihe plastic Into which PVC Is formed. From 3,000 to 4.At^P.000 processors, employing: an estimated 700,000 workers, fabricate the plastic Into a rv'Wlde variety of products ranging from vinyl floor tiles to shower curtains. According to a " study done for the Society of the Plastics In- - dustry by Arthur D. Little Inc., as many as ~ 2.2 tnilUon Jobs depend on polyvinyl-chloride C;;.. plastic. If PVC were banned, the study says. XI the annual loss to Industry In sales and pro- Z.'s~r duction would be some S89 billion to S90 bll- Uon. (The Manufacturing Chemists Associa te-'. '.tlon estimates the wholesale annual value of -.n^.rv all PVC products Is S3 bllHon. I . Emergency Decree Z:" *'-i? 'X:-M the moment, no one believes the ln- *?". dustry wilt suddenly come to a screeching ";~' halt. However, after the first human cases , of vthyl chloride-induced angiosarcoma .' were disclosed, the Labor Department's Oc- .. cupational Safety and Health Admlnlstra- tlon Imposed a temporary emergency stan- . dard for PVC factories: thenceforth, OSHA ---' decreed, the permissible level of vinyl chlor- : -Ide In the air of such factories would be SO | : parts per mllUon, That level was far below the Industry standard. In effect for years, of 900 parts per mllUon. OSHA* emergency decree was made last May. Since then, animal research found that tumors develop al SO parts per million. V -Yesterday. OSHA Issued a new permanent - standard requiring employers after J*n- ' 1973, to reduce exposure to one part per mil- ]|on In factory air. averaged over eight " h.r and five parts per million averaged . SZSp** ' : more stringent than the emergency dee M, the new permanent standard-part cularly Its allowance of nrern# * . ||mK ,,dtlr. falls short of the no^et*^H, ,,prrts and (H\ted hy unions, many medical expe : ' pfertflTiiriilnriirte iM'i'liiinn * vcc 093856