Document wr3nqw89KqQYyNJ8mdqdwZnnQ

!. , * .5 a 1 wtoj lube from each wgiini h air at eery fetch prennore and forces gravel avi.r fram the engine intake. Other operating prolJcms include temperatures that are SMK t GnF la> Ivor asm, <0-mph wtnJ*. ami total dark- o* ia Dwetnler and January in the High Antic. Engine* on tinlrip ei|uip meat aarh a* track* and snuwplmr* are bm turned off from Dec. I to Mar. 15. Though the regional*, too. fare fuel 'problems, all are predicting reeenue in* cream this year. They nee their big* gest growth potential mi scheduled pas senger Service, although no one is scoffing at the big bucks to to made in hauling-drilling equipment-and beer-, to oil team* in the Arctic or to the off* again. on*again 66-biUinn James Bay . hydroelectric project in northwestern PWA ships cattle to the Orient and oil~drilIing equipment to the Arctic Quebec. Nonlair (lies >ere from Mon treal. and Quebecair operates cargo- only service. Cato* piano. In the eyes of many indus try observer*. Pacific Western is the best run of the regional*, its fleet con sists of seven Boeing 737*, with three more on order, plus two 727s, two long- range 707s, Ave Convair &JOs. four Her cules jet-prop freighters, and a few fly ing boats, pwa's operations range from its scheduled passenger services to shipping cattle to the Orient and ex tensive relief work in such places as Ni geria and Bangladesh. Scheduled pas senger services account for roughly 63^ of pwa's revenues, charters for about 103. and cargo services for the remaining 255. It* cattle plane is typical of pwa's willingness to provide specialised ser vice* to meet special needs. A conven tional Boeing 707-320C. the plane can be equipped with either 23 stall?. hold ing about 85 1.000-lb. cattle or double tiers of pens that will accommodate a great many more smaller animals. Donald N. Watson. i*wa president, says that the plane has carried as many as 70m cattle from Toronto to Athens. The real keys to profits for per* and the other regional*, however, have been jets ami charter*. The jets bnovted available cat-mtles on routes with good load factors, and the char ters gave the carrier* the capaliility to uw* their aircraft mure economically. Keith Miller, executive vice-presi dent of Eastern Provincial Airways, estimates the scat-mile cost on a 109passenger 737 at 2.2c a mi., compared with 5.5c for each mile on the 41-scai Hundley Page Heralds the 73% are re- placing. The break-even load factor on the^jcU i* A-<. v*. al-iit HOT* on the prop |>lsnc*. "The slimu'slion of a 737 ix very substantial." Mi: ' says. TECHNOLOGY -//jt i Industry's latest cancer scare | . i '** * The deaths of five workers in ten years seem linked to working on the plastic fects on worker* of other industrial -rhcmraU. The cancer took 15 to 20 rears to develop," says one federal epi -dcmiHotrisL Other chemicals could Federal officials met last week with plastics industry executives in Cleve land and Washington to try to deter mine whether the industry has un knowingly been exposing some of its 6.500 blue-collar workers to fumes that can lead to a rare form of liver cancer known as angiosarcoma. The focus was on 23 of the 42 plants in the U. S. that make vinyl chloride or use it to produce polyvinyl chloride resin (pvc), one of the most common plastic*. The hearings grew out of the deaths of four worker* over the last six yean at a B. F. Goodrich Chemical Co. plant in Louisville, Ky. They could ultimately bring costly new role* for the pvc in dustry, whose resins are used in such items as pipe, floor tile, phonograph records, and.latex wall paints. "Im provements in work practices will probably require a 100*7 increase in the work force." says Waller B. Connolly, Jr. labor counsel for Firestone Tire Rubber Co., w hich operates pvc plants m Pottstown. Pa., and Perryville, Md. In any case, the current pvc hulla baloo is certain to spark new demands by organized labor for closer exam ination of the possible long-range ef years ahead. "I hope we're not seeing .. I the beginning of a health collapse.* 4*1 The vinyl chloride case is not tbs- ' { chemical industry's first encounter . : I with OSMA over rarcinogenlea. Lost . ] May the agency invoked emergency I standards for 14 chemicals (gw- May I 19. 1973). Final rules for these mat^ : rials went into effect last week, though 1 both industry and labor are suing for 1 judicial review. \ The prospect of new, petrochemical versions of such health time bombs as "black lung" and mcrcurv poisoning, makes plmstic industry leaders shudder. And indeed, new data presented at tho standing-room-only o$RA hearing by Italian researcher Cesare Maltoni, of Bologna's Institute of Cancer, leave little doubt that vinyl chloride is car* ; rinogenic-at least to rata. He exposed 67 rats to air containing 250 parts pec * million of vinyl chloride off and on for ! 52 weeks. By the end of 127 weeks, * Maltoni reported, two bad contracted / * angiosarcoma and nine contracted I other forms of cancer. Many chemical industry executives had downgraded the importance of earlier animal test ' * * results because the dosages were mas- ^ A solvent that crippled chemical workers v Last August. Thomas F. M*de, 22. was stricken with a nerve disease after two year* of work at Columbus Coated Fabric* Co,, a subsidiary of Borden. Ine., in Columbus. Ohio, that makes vi nyl-coated fabrics for luggage and wall coverings. The disease, diagnosed as peripheral neuropathy, left Meade crippled, and today he wear* leg brace*. He is the most severely af fected of some 130 worker* at the plant who have suffered symptoms of the disen*e. The leaser symptoms include weakness and loss of coordination. When the s\--ptom* became wide spread last ummer, state health offi cial* letted the nerve rcsfwnscs of the plant's 1.124 employee* and told 2UQ of them to stay home for two month*. Many nihm slat id home, too. out of fear. By Diwmlnr, m.<t employees had returned, and many who had showed nrurnpjithic symptoms ajK peared well again. Meanwhile. Ohio health officials had zeroed in on an ink solvent, methyl butyl ketone, used in applying decora tive patterns, as the most likely culprit. While continuing to monitor the plant's air, they banned the use of MBIL The plant's manager* have switched to a substitute, improved ventilation', is sued respirator* to print shop worker*, and moved lunch areas away from work areas. But Corwin Smith, president of Lo cal 437 of the Textile Workers Union of America, which represents the plant's worker*, ia not satisfied. He says that 26 memtor* are still out with Die dis ease. that eight of them are severely crippled, and that three workers whose condition improved are now sick again. On Kch. 9. the local struck the plant as negotiations rolhpred on a new con tract; one of the union demands was a "proper work environment.** Saji Smith: "People here don't know whether they will he crippled in the f*lure nr not." 1M W0-0.00* i RSV 0006686