Document x5MKeZ3pZ34DkYQ6kzr1k3Gdy

Government rpcn `IMiiii Industry decries OSHA's For example, we do not know the mecha number of liver cancer cases being 10 no-detectoble level rule nism by which a chemical carcinogen times those expected in a similar uncxoperates or whether a safe level of ex posed population. He stressed that as unnecessarily harsh; posure can be set," Much of the testi these studies, though preliminary, mony presented at the hearing dealt show that multiple cancer sites are in both labor and ACS with industry's, labor's, and research volved and cancer is increasing over workers' effort to resolve tiie latter .time in the population. Dr, Petcfii support proposed standard question. agreed with Dr, Selikoff in that lie The initial impetus for the viqyl said, "I do not believe we will know the chloride industry came during World full cancer-causing potential of vinyl War II when it was used as a substitute chloride for sever.il'years. At this poffTt" Mure mentioning of the words vinyl for natural rubber. According to Dr. the,only way to assure an end ttTlhis chloride fo Occupational Safety and Irving J- ScJi&Q; professor of medicine serious-hazard is to eliminate the Expo Health Administration officials who at City University of New York's sure . presided over public hearings on the Mount Sinai School of Medicine, "This The vinyl chloride-PVC industry, in agency's proposed permanent work immediately points to a problem of general, took the opposite view. Harry place standard for the chemical may current vinyl chloride-polyvinyl chlo E^Configrs, vice president of Diamond well lead to muttermgs that enough is ride investigations; the industry is a Shamrock Chemical, told the hearings. enough. In nine days, the officials lis relatively young one. anti the late ef "In our judgment-the cases of wnrtf?K tened to 55 hours (if direct testimony fects of toxic exposure have only begun illness recently discovered'in industry - by I t panels of witnesses--and many to appear; most of our experience is are jhe..delayed result"of" eondTlionV additional hours in question and an still ahead of us." He told the hearings th^tweire common many .years agqjbut swer sessions--and received 89 written that clinical' field studies' ire" bTOte are-.; no longer present in today* submissions for the henring record. conducted that include examinatfSn? plants" Richard W. McBurney, Much of the data presented OSHA is of more than 1200 vinyl _jchloride<WC corporate medical director of Diamond conflicting. All this is of little comfort polymerization workerijlfcAlthough all Shamrock Chemical, pointed out that to the officials as OSHA has until Oct. the "rcsults'are not yet in,, he reported "during the early years of PVC produc a to come up with its final version of a that studies of H-'r-l current and former tion attention \vas given to vmyl chlo permanent standard. workers at Goodyear's plant in Niagara ride vapors only because of the anes It's likclv that OSHA may well pick Falls, N.Y., "demonstrated a signifi thetic qualities and the explosion haz-. some middle ground standard--tougher cant prevalence of liver abnormalities, ard. Since the explosion hazard occurs than that proposed by industry, softer peripheral vascular changes, and lung at upward of 30,000 p.p.m. and the an-? than that initially proposed by the abnormalities." esthetic effect at LGOO to 500t) p.ffiift Government--which, if either labor or Information on deaths from two the vinyl chloride levels in, work area? industry is unhappy about it, may well plants, one which produces monomer were undoubtedly quite higlf " be challenged in the courts any.wny. and the other polymer, was presented Dr, Carl U. Dernohl, associate medi Data prescnted.'at the hearings tend by Dr. John M. Peters of the Harvard cal director of Union Carbide, told the ed to coalesce, in effect, into two posi School of Public Health. He said that hearing of a health survey conducted tions: that of industry and that of Gov- studies on 161 deceased white males by SPl covering 16 plants employing emment-labor-ACS. For instance, a showed "a 50% excess of deaths due to 2372 persons whose current work per spokesman for the Society of the Plas cancer." There was a "60% excess of mits exposure to vinyl chloride, plus tics Industry maintained that OSHA's lung cancer (13 cases with 7.9 expect 471 who had worked with it in the proposed work-place standard--which, ed) and a 320% excess of brain cancer past. He said that the study identified among other things, calls for a no-de- (five cases with 1.2 expected) with the 1402 men who were exposed to vinyl tectalile level of vinyl chloride--"is not technologically feasible and. if adopt SPI's vinyl chloride rules would differ sharply from OSHA's ed, would shut down the industry." In contrast, Peter Bummarilo, president DT of. the United Hubber Workers, said that the "OSHA proposal conies closer to the ideal standard than any yet pro u posed or promulgated for any work place hazard." However, Dr, Daniel P. Hoyd. direc A no-detectable level for employee a }! For polyvinyl chloride resin plants, exposure as determined by a sampling 5 la ceiling pf 40 p.p.m. of vinyl chloride. and analytical technique capablo of rie-.'j !"this year, 25 p.p.m. in 1975. For vinyl, tecting vinyl chloride concentrations of v {chloride plants, a ceiling of 25 p.p.m. 1 p.p.m. with an accuracy of 1 p.p.m, `J Jthis year, 10 p.p.m. in 1975. PVC fabri =bS0%, This would apply to monomer,1, .} cating plants,would be excluded from tor of the office of standards develop polymer, and fabricating operations. * the standard. ment for OSHA, although emphasizing that the proposed standard is just that--a proposal--said that "it repre Labeling for regulated areas and I > Labeling should provide those who vinyl chloride-polyvinyl chloride con-1' [need the information with methods for tainers with the warning to include the t dealing with the problem; it should not sents our best judgment based on the information available on May 10... our words "cancer suspect agent,'.V . be a basis for panic because of a dis-. .easecharacterization. present lodgment is that vinyl chloride is a carcinogenic agent." Dr. Hnvd pointed out that in protecting employees from a carcinogenic material, "We arc operating in the area uf many unknowns. Use of air-supplied respirators in cases of emergency and when vinyl chloride concentrations rise above de tectable levels, v ' ** ;-.v..i,,(;f it .j.j : I * Use of air-supplied respirators is im| practical except for >hort periods of Mime. Air-supjtfif^watttnDQpparalus lalso shouldtulAIWw.OsJF\V., .lulv ?7 107Z n.FM <1 I chloride at Ic-'Kl 10 vcnr> ago, of which ccntrations tanging from 1 p,p !Vl 41C had a Intent period of more than 20 more than '3(Ec by soltime in air. He years. Also identified were "H7 men ex said laboratory results show th;u lUtTt posed continuously to vinyl chloride for removal of vinyl chloride from air or more than 10 years, with 101 being ex nitrogen streams is technically possible posed for more than 20 years. Ur. Ddf- using dual beds. nelil said, "Examinations of t|-f" --* Earlier in the hearing Tonnecn havcTSTTecTtd'slmw tfielfrtfcftnCT of1 nk*> Chemicals testified that it has included !I iKriin.il liver fmntTtiu tusth in grfflrfv prnportKWV than- would be found ^^J^nSSl^AUan^jfcre is no case of angiosarcoma of the liver among these ;* ^t men even though their exposure time is sufficient for the disease to have oc I curred and exposures are believed to carbon adsorption to recover the.mono mer from two small, process streams, neither of which contains air, in plans for its new PVC plant in Pasadena. Tex, However, it pointed out thaPTt*" considers this activated carbon method to be "wholly impractical" where larger have been in excess of 50 p.p.m." He i> ** concluded that "these data fail to sup volumes of air and small concemra..tionsof vinyl chloride are involved,' i> * I* port the need for an exposure level as PVC fabricators should not bo included Mr. Bommarito expressed the belief drastic as that' proposed in the stan under the exposure standard, SPI urges that the standard can be met. saying dard." that where "engineering controls may The -SPI survey's findihg;r`',wpre,'~SifJff only that the standard be defined as a not be applicable, personal protective .portfd, by Diamond Shamrock. D(jlP minimum practical level capable of de equipment can be used." He added Chemical, R_ F Goodrich"'tenfigg^ tection by a recommended method that especially in newer plants the Chemicals, antUEirestone^Mj reported rather than as a no-detectable level. problem is "characterized by the will. that despite extensive surveys o( their SPl's proposed standard drew sharp - not the ability, to do the job." He con current and former vinyl chloridc-FVC criticism from Anthony, -MflzxndHK- cluded that "the medical facts are in workers, no further cases of or deaths citizenship-legislative director of the and the problem is now in the social due to liver cancer have been found, Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers In and political arena." other than the 13 previously reported to ternational Union. He said. "It will lie OSHA. a tragedy if OSHA adopts the so-called rnternationalIndustry also felt that the proposed `common denominator' kind of stan 'standard was too far-reaching. Accord ing to Anton Vilione. president of B. F. Goodrich Chemical, "The produc tion of vinyl chloride, its polymeriza dard that SPI sponsored. Under-4lit9 approach. a standard is adoptedStluU everybody can meet. those plants that can go further are under no incen U.S. reactor design loses out in U.K. tion into PVC resin, and the processing tive, at that time, to do anything * of PVC regin into semifinished or fin ished produets is treated in the pro posed standard as one industrial health problem." However, he contended, "Each is an entirely different operation posing its own problems, permitting and requiring different solutions." Of particular concern to many indus try witnesses was the inclusion of PVC processors and fabricators, such as phonograph record makers; under tlte proposed standard. Monitoring data on vinyl chloride exposure in processing more." U.S. reactor design has lost out. in its Most companies at the hearing said bid for the pext generation of nuclear that although it would be difficult, power stations in the U.K. The British they could live with SPl's proposed government has opted instead for the standard. Two companies, howevfl^W- steam-generating heavv-w'aier reactor ported that they are already ooertttfRT (SGHWR) system. The immediate at much lower lcvel?Dr. V. K. Rowe, plan is to build three twin-reactor sta Dow diret^jtr of toxicological research tions with an overall capacity of about in health and environmental affairs, 4000 Mw. of electricity. The first of said that the company, "is genefWtty these stations should be operating by operating within an eight-hour ftoft- 1982. weighted average (TWA) concentfRion The decision, taken by Eric Varley. of 10 p.p.m.^however, brief malfunc U.K. Secretary of State for Energy, plants were presented by several wit tions and otner temporary situations bucks the trend in other countries, nesses, includin'1 Philip J. Weaver, di occasionally result in short-term excur where planned nuclear power programs rector -of industrial affairs for B. F, sions in excess of 10 p.p.m." Andrekir center on U.S. designs for light-water Goodrich. In a conclusion that agreed Products and Chemicals' John T, ttffc reactor (LWU) systems, either General with those of other witnesses, he said, reported that his company haC1"^ Electric's boiling-water reactor IBWH) "Our data does not support this con eight-hour TWA in the 20- to 25-ptffafl. or Westinghousc's pressurized-water cept of inclusion of processor opera range for workers in its polymergggtrnn reactor (PWR). Indeed, at public hear tions" under the proposed standard building and even lower levels for HtBSt ings before the Energy Resources Sub- since "we find no detectable levels of in other job locatior Tenneco CjjgflW- committee of the House of Commons vinyl chloride in most of the processing cais, however, estimated that itafcpuHd Select Committer on Science and work places." have to spend in excess of $10 mrtWfSS Technology last December, both Ar .In addition to urging that fabricators to reach the --exposure levels recom thur Hawkins, chairman of the Central u and processors not be included under mended by SPI2 Electro iv Generating Board, which the permanent standard, the .Society of Vinyl" chloride-PVC industry wit supplit-> power to England and Wales, the Plastics Industry proposed that in nesses contended throughout the hear and Sir /Arnold Weinstock. managing vinyl chloride and PVC plants there he ings that meeting the proposed stan director of British General Elecir.c. a stepped reduction in worker expo dard was just not technologically which has a 507t stake in U.K. Nation sure. feasible, unless workers wore air-sup al Nuclear Corp., came out strongly in This is in sharp contrast to the plied respiratory equipment all the favor of lAVR's, primarily because the American ('hemical Society position time. However, Cnlgon Corp., which technology is already proven and can presented at the hearings by Dr. Ste was moved from 20th to Inst on the be fairly quickly brought into operation phen T. Quigley, head of the Society's witness list, declared that technology without major design and development department of chemistry and public af was available to remove vinyl chloride effort (C&EN, Feb. IK, page 11). fairs, and Howard H. Fawcett, chair from the air. William I.ovett of the Mr. Varley cites a number of reasons man of the ACS Committee on ('hemi company's activated carbon division for deciding on the SGHWR route "In cal Safely. ACS, in essence, supports said that the Jpognmor can readily be the fiovornmej^tit will pro the OSHA proposed standard, asking adsorbed on activated carbon in con- vide power reliably afnrwMan proceed in rv.rst ii,iv 1071