Document x5Y1rbBV1qrar5QZK8Gn7KXyy

Health Hazards Vinyl-Chloride Risks Were Known by Many Before First Deaths Hindsight Shows Weakness In Firms' Systems Aimed At Protecting Workers The Tip of a Large Iceberg By Barry Kramer Still Reporter o! THE WALL STREET JOCKNaL A few weeks before Christmas In 1948, Earl Parks, then 36 years old, signed on as a helper-trainee at the large B. F. Goodrich Co. plastics factory In Louisville, Ky. The plant had been making polyvinyl-chloride plastic from Ylnyl-chloride gas since before the war, using a process developed by Good rich In 1937. It was a growing industry that Mr. Parks joined. Polyvinyl chloride--dubbed PVC for short--had found special, but limited, appli cations In the war years, especially as a fireproof coating for electric wiring In fighter planes and ships. But In the late 1940s, so-called vinyl consumer products, made from PVC, began coming Into vogue; and by the time the 1950s were under way polyvinyl-chloride products such as contain 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 is the first of two stories con cerning implications of the discovery that vinyl chloride can cause cancer. actor vessels; there, the gas Is agitated to gether with a liquid and catalysts. The pro cess causes polymerization, a linking to gether of the molecules of the gas (a mon omer) into the long chains that.give PVC (a polymer) its strength and other desired characteristics. The First Years In his first. years with Goodrich, it was Earl Parks'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 in the course of an eight-hour shift, Mr. Parks and other workers who performed the same function would unavoidably inhale the heavy, sweetsmelling fumes of vinyl-chloride gas that had escaped polymerization. As the 1950s went by and the 1960s began,' Earl Parks was_working his way,: up/to the that he had worked with Goodrich, the PVC Industry flourished as thousands of new uses were discovered for the polymer. On March 3, 1973. at the age of 50, Earl Parks died of angiosarcoma of the liver, a type of cancer that is invariably fatal. His death attracted scant public attention at the time, but today the significance of Mr. Parks'a illness is unquestionable ar.d shat tering in Us Implications. For Earl Parks came to be one more statistic in turning a hypothesis Into a reality: Vinyl chloride can cause cancer. Deadly Statistics The link between angiosarcoma and vinyl chloride Js further buttressed by other deadly statistics. Seven of Mr. Parks's fel low workers at the Goodrich plant also con tracted the disease, and five have died. In all, there have been 16 documented angio sarcoma cases in the U.8. in recent years, ail of them linked to vinyl chloride. In addi tion, 10 other cases have been reported In Europe. While the total number of cases is small, the Industry has been shaken to its roots. The disease now is known to work insidi ously, slowly, during decades of exposure, the Implications being that the cases thus far are quite likely only the Up of an ice berg. Nine companies, with 14 plants and 940 employes, currently produce vinyl chlor ide monomer from ethylene, a petrochemi cal. The monomer, in turn, is used by 21 companies operaUng 36 major plants and employing 5,000 workers, to make more than five billion pounds of PVC annually. (World-wide production Is some 18 billion pounds annually.) . Even the five billion pounds of PVC an nually produced in this country lgn't enough to meet the domesUc demand for the plastic into which PVC is formed. From 3,000 to 4,000 processors, employing an esUmated 700,000 workers, fabricate the plasUc into a wide 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 million jobs depend on.polyvinyl-chloride .plastic. If PVC were banned, the study says, the annual loss to industry in sales and producUon would be some 565 billion to $90 bil lion. (The Manufacturing Chemists Associa tion estimates the wholesale annual value of all PVC products is $3 billion.) Emergency Decree At the moment, no one believes the ln'dustry will suddenly come to a screeching halt. However, after the first human cases of vinyl chloride-induced angiosarcoma were disclosed, the Labor Department's Oc cupational Safety and Health Administra tion 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 50 parts per million. That level was far below the industry standard, in effect for years, of 500 parts per million. OSHA's emergency decree was made last May. Since then, animal research found that tumors develop at 50 parts per million. Yesterday, OSHA issued a new permanent standard requiring employers after Jan. 1, 1973- to reduce exposure to one part per mil lion in factory air, averaged over eight hours, and five parts per million averaged over any period no longer than 15 minutes. (See story on page 10.) While considerably more stringent than the emergency decree, the new permanent standard--particularly with Its five-parts-per-milllon provision and Its allowance of averaging--nevertheless falls short of the "no detectable" limit adyo* Please Turn to Page 10, Column 2 TO06 T AL, the livers of 257< of the workers in a small Health Hazards: Many Knew Risks PVC plant. Then. In the late 1950s, research toxocolo- . Tower ruction. Of Vinyl Chloride Before Deaths gists at Dow Chemical Co. showed that ani mals exposed to as few as 100 parts per mil lion of vinyl chloride (or 100 molecules of vinyl chloride in every one million mole 33. k id i! v.. St vail- ) nu'e, kCity. Continued From First Page cated by unions, many medical experts and such groups as the National Institute for Oc cupational Safety and Health, and the American Chemical Society. This no-detect- able limit would have, constant, not average, adherance to one-part-per-million levels. Therefore, it seems certain that the argu ment won't abate. The analysis showed that the liver had been cules of air l developed slight liver damage. damaged by exposure to "chemicals." C&n-, Based on its research, Dow began a pro cer wasn't mentioned. :. gram in the 1960s to reduce the level of (According to testimony at OSHA's hear vinyl chloride monomer in the air of Its ings on vinyl chloride, held last June and. plants to below 50 parts per million. July, Mr. Parks received a total of almost Dow published Its results in 1961. But the 56,000 in workman's compensation frojn rest of the industry chose to rely on. a Yale Goodrich before he died, but only after University study that recommended 500 Goodrich protested that his Illness couldn't parts per million as a safe level..This same have resulted from exposure to the cheml^ level had been-recommended by the Manu As.the. controversy continues, it is reveal ing to examine how the link between vinyl chloride and cancer was established. If cal.) I It was an alert Louisville doctor who first made thte connection between angiosarcoma facturing'. Chemists Association since 1954, "was affirmed in 1962 by the American Con: Terence of Governmental Industrial Hygien nothing else, such ah examination points out the grave weaknesses of the present system and vinyl chloride. Dr. John L. Creech, who for years has treated workers sent to -him ists and was given the force of law by OSHA in 1971. However, evidence at the OSHA --or lack thereof--of protecting workers and others from Industrial hazards. The Judgment is made in hindsight, but by Goodrich on a fee-per-patient basis, had followed Earl Parks's case for some- time, even though he wasn't treating Mr. Parks. hearings indicates that this level was regu larly exceeded until this year in many plants. (The hygienists' group didn't recom the history of vinyl chloride shows that evi dence of . its toxicity.'; was often ignored.1 Dr. Creech says he had been concerned, about an-abnormally high number of Good mend lowering the level. to 200 parts per million until 1972, four years after Dow con What's more, the chemical compianiei rich workers who had liver disease. When cluded from further tests that repeated ex knew, but'.kept secret for. at `least six months, the fact thatItalian researchers had shown that rats develop tumors, includ he heard that Mr. Parks had died, .he re calls, he asked to see the autopsy report. It was In August 1973 that Dr.. Greech posure by workers to vinyl-chloride mon omer at an average of 300 parts per million or above'for a working lifetime could .cause ing angiosarcoma,-'when exposed . to low learned that Mr. Parks had died the .pre changes in the liver.)., levels Of yinyl.chloride -monomer.' European companies, which paid for. the animal re search; knew'ofthese -research' findings for more than' avyear befdre^the-first human Cases were reported but didn't reduce the expoaire^df'their workers t<3 vinyl chloride. ; But Dr. Irving j;' iSellkoff, ah expert on environmental^ carcinogens, or, cancerrcauslng agenis/'claims^that blame shouldn't be placed-at iridustry'^ldodr.'alone. "We're all a bitr responsibIe1r,`''he - say3. "None of us did our.homework'.^.Culpability, he says, should be - shared .`by' scientlste, government agen cies ai>4 labor- unions*, \ vious March of angiosarcoma, of the liver. The doctor says he then realized that some thing was seriously wrong, since another Goodrich PyC worker, a private patient' of Dr. Creech, had succumbed to the same type of cancer In 1971. Dr. Creech says he knew that liver angiosarcoma is exceedingly rare and that two cases among such a small plant population was abnormal. (In fact, medical men estimate that fewer than 30 cases occur each .year in the U.S., -striking only one in 900,000 persons.) ' Dr. Creech met with Goodrich's occupa tional health director;-Dr. Maurice N. John Another Disease During the 1960s, there were reports of a disease called acroosteolysis among vinyl- chloride workers. The disease consists of skin lesions and changes in the blood ves sels, leading to degeneration of the bones at the tips of the fingers and toes In those ex posed to high levels of the monomer. (Emis sions of vinyl chloride are generally lower at plants where the monomer, or gas, Is made, since the process Is less complex, and there is less change for leaks than at the polymerization plants; none of the re ported angiosarcoma cases In this country . . 'The case of: Earl Parks is illustrative. son, who subsequently decided to. ask Taber* has occurred among workers making vinyl- Mr! Parks first came to the attention of shaw-Cooper Associates Inc., a Berkeley, chloride monomer, and only one of the 10 Goodrich medical people in 1964, when the Calif., epidemiological-studies concern, to deaths in Europe was ia a monomer plant.) company, concerned about the known liver do a survey of Goodrich death records. But In early 1967, the Manufacturing Chem toxicity-of ethylene dichloride (a chemical the study was hardly needed; on Dec.-19, a ists Association arranged with the Univer from .which vinyl chloride is made 1, tested third PVC worker at the Louisville plant sity of Michigan to study acroosteolysis the liver; function of workers, in the Louis- died at the age of 58; he had been at the among vinyl-chloride-workers, particularly ville plant.-,v : plant for 28 years. those who cleaned the reactor vessels and Mr.` .Parks's '^readings were .'abnormal. Public Announcement * others who were exposed to large concentra Nevertheless* he' continued; to work.at the On Jan. 22 of this year, Goodrich officlials tions of vinyl chloride In the air. The Michi Cotp., on. States Lch can Y. 452. same job.- In October 1964 however,-he was met in Washington with officials of the .Na- gan scientists reported in 1970 that although hospitalized.With what.'was.initially./diag tional Institute for Occupational Safejiy and they couldn't pinpoint vinyl chloride as the nosed as a bleeding ulcer; .Doctors .treated Health and informed them of the three' an cause of the disease, worker exposure to the the "ulcer", without surgery, and Mr.-Parks giosarcoma deaths. The following day, Ken monomer should be cut to 50 parts per mil was released/ ' /' tucky occupational-health officials also were Hon or below. He was.readmltted .to.the hospital the fol informed and Goodrich made its first public Other than Dow, which had already insti lowing May, and the decision was made to announcement. tuted reductions in air level of the mon operate. But when .the operation was begun, Almost since its first commercial intro omer, the rest of the industry in the U.S. Ig surgeons, instead of finding,an'ulcer,.found duction, there have been reports that .vinyl nored the recommendation. Nor was (here instead that Mr. Parks's. problem resulted chloride is toxic above certain levels.'In any significant reaction to findings by Euro from severe liver damage, which, had deed, during World War II, vinyl chloride pean industry that animals developed ad caused blood to back up in the portai vein was rejected as a surgical anesthetic;-'be verse effects from vinyl chloride. This was leading Into the liver. The surgeons .cor cause animals developed heart ;irritation at least partly .because the Europeans down rected the vein problem with.'A. shunt and when exposed to it. In 1949, .Russian.-scien graded the importance of some of their find: took 'a sample of liver tissue for analysis. tists reported "hepatitis-like changes'* in logs. For example, Prof. Pier Luigi Viola, a medical director employed In Italy by Sol- vay it Qle.; the Belgian chemicals company, Sharp Drop in Vinyl Chloride Exposurj& found bone changes in rats exposed to air levels of 30,000 parts per million of vinyl * Is Ordered by Labor Agency for Worlds chloride: even more important, he found that vinyl chloride at that level caused ma lignant tumors In the ear canals, lungs and facncs of rats'. ** a Wail Stuxt Jovskal iUff *prtr WASHINGTON--The Labor Department ordered a sharp reduction in workers', expo sure to vlnvl chloride, a widely used Indus- A date wasn't set in the ruling ^fpr'; im Prof. Viola reported his findings before proving plant engineering and. practices, to an international, cancer congress In Houston the point where respirators won't be'needed.,.In 1970.- It was the first reported link beWhat'* more, until January 1978 jvrkfcra|I*?" cancer-an^trtnyl ^ehlorida.^ But tta ZC)0 6 VLZ I ; i  JUwu.g -......... operate. But when the operation was begun, Almost since Its :irsi uumjnuv. ...... surgeons. Instead of finding1 an ulcer, found duction, there have been reports that vinyl j nored the recommendation. Nor was inert* Instead that Mr. Parks's problem resulted chloride Is toxic above certain levels. In any significant reaction to findings by Euro om severe Uver damage, which had deed, during World War II, vinyl chloride pean industry that animals developed ad* aused blood to back up in the portal vein was rejected as a surgical anesthetic be verse effects from vinyl chloride. This was leading Into the liver. The surgeons cor cause animals developed heart Irritation at least partly because the Europeans down rected the vein problem with a shunt and when exposed to it. In 1849. Russian scien graded the importance of some of their find took a sample of liver tissue for analysis. tists reported "hepatltls-Iike changes'' In ings. For example. Prof, pier Luigi Viola, a medical director employed in Italy by Soi- vay & Cie., the Belgian chemicals company, Sharp Drop in Vinyl Chloride Exposure found bone changes In rats exposed to air levels of 30,000 parts per million of vinyl chloride: even more important, he found Is Ordered by Labor Agency for Workers that vinyl chloride at that level caused ma lignant tumors In the ear canals, lungs and bones of rats. By a Wall BTttrr Journal H*U RtyyrUr WASHINGTON-The Labor Department ordered a sharp reduction in workers' expo sure to vinyl chloride, a widely used indus trial gas that has been linked to liver can cer. The ruling, which comes alter nine months of controversy, brought a lawsuit from the plastics Industry, which contends the standard can't be met, and criticism from organized labor,.which contends the rule contains too many loopholes.': Vinyl chloride Is a' basic ingredient lir making A date wasn't set Jn Che ruling for im proving plant engineering and practices to the point where respirators won't be needed. What's more, until January 1976 workers may refuse to wear the respirators when ex posures don't exceed 25 parts per million, even If they exceed the one part per million over eight hours specified in the regulfttihhj Despite this attempt ay compromise^ : however, the;,Soc|ety-oftthe^^astica"indus- vtiyi^ndjapma^producers sued the Labor De^ partinent to' overturn the ruling only mo ments after it was issued yesterday. And Prof. Viola reported his findings before an international cancer congress in Houston In 1970. It was the first reported link be tween cancer and vinyl chloride. But the professor expressed doubt about the purity of the yinyl-chloride gas he had used and stated that the r^t cancer findings, because they:Vpccurr^:at such high levels' of the ^monomer, had /pb,human Implications. .(Prof. Violi'vsubsequently found tumors (in rats^xppscjj to 500.parts per million;,but this factwasn'$reyealed until well after the first human angiosarcoma cases were re vealed.) 1 ' S.5u iraided r with Nav; many everyday plastic products. The new standard. Issued by the Labor Department's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, requires that, start ing Jan. 1, vinyl chloride levels In the air that workers breathe be held to one part vinyl chloride per million parts of air, aver aged over an eight-hour period. Actual levels may exceed one part per million for short periods, but they must average out to no more than five parts per million for any 15-minute period within the eight-hour time span. " The standard also calls for regular moni Firestone Plastic Co., a unit of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co,, said it will ask a court to stay enforcement of the standard while the suits are being tried. Ralph Harding, president of the industry group, said the standard is "unrealistic, probably will be impossible for most, if not all, of the industry to meet and appears to have been developed oh some basis inconsls. tent with recorded facts." The job-safety agency "may believe that it has adopted a compromise position," but the result is un acceptable to the industry, he added. Industry sources also indicated displea The Research Goes On Based on Prof. Viola's early cancer find ings in rats, Montedison S.p:A., the huge Italian chemicals company, in 1970 asked Cesare Maltoni, a respected researcher at the Institute of'Oncology in Bologna, Italy, to do more extensive animal studes. By Oc tober 1972, Prof. Maltoni says, he had found that 250 parts per million" of'vinyl chloride produced tumors in rats in:>three parts of the body: the ear canals, kldiieya and the. liver. The liver tumors included angiosar coma. The professor immediately'informed his sponsors. .... r.. S C.i toring of plant air. regular medical exams sure at the inclusion of plants'making fabri The Europeans, offered their-information, for workers and establishment of "regulated cated products from polyvinyl chloride. The .to the Manufacturing. Chemists .Association areas" where vtnyl chloride, exposure tis industry had proposed excluding . these In the U.S., but only If'-the^AmericanSifeuar-; high. It prohibits directworker contact.with plants, contending they didn't present any anteed confidentiality., With// great-yeTuc- liquefied vinyl chloride and requires posting hazard. tance, the associationaays. it-IlnaUy. &gTeed of signs warning the chemical is a "cancer- But the department said it decided to in to the secrecy condition tbe) suspect agent." clude them because polyvinyl chorlde resin vital importance of 1earning* of, any. tadjea-r Since last April, companies handling and pellets can give off vinyl chloride gas in lions from the European research with-. vinyl chloride have been under an emer small amounts during processing. It said, out the delays which, could'^have^resulted gency restriction of 50 parts per million, however, if the plants weren't exposing from duplication of effort.*' - " ` ' without any time period. workers to more than half a part per million On Jan. 30,. 1973, a year before-the^firs^: The emergency standard was issued of vinyl chloride gas, they needn't under human angiosarcoma cases were ^reported after the discovery, beginning last January, take any control measures. by B. F. Goodrich, the lMCA finally gbt;the of cases of a rare and fatal liver cancer, an In Midland, Mich., Dow Chemical Co. Maltoni data. For five months, ;the ^secrecy, giosarcoma, among workers exposed to said the standards were "unnecessarily restrictions were such- that- government vinyl chloride. Nineteen deaths among such stringent" and unsupported by the data on agencies, PVC workers exposed to vinyl r in IQS go. ir I SUp> staukes it ught- packt Miitalog rt-Or, ch ofs and mer*. workers in the U.S. and other countries Bow workers that was presented at public chloride and even company doctors were have been attributed to liver cancer caused hearings. kept in the dark. Then, In the late'spring, by long exposure to the chemical. Organized labor expressed some immedi the Europeans agTeed that the Chemists As Vinyl chloride is a gas that is processed to torm a powdery substance known as poly vinyl chloride. Polyvinyl chloride, in resin ate reservations of its own. '1 In Akron, Ohio, Peter Bommarito, presi dent of the United Rubber Workers union, sociation could pass the information on to the U.S. National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, the Labor Department or pellet form, is then fabricated into a wide variety of finished plastic products. which .represents many vinyl chloride work agency that monitors worker safety.-: On ers, said "it would appear this thing has a July 17, 1973, representatives of the associa Coverage for Worker* number of loopholes in it." Mr. Bommarito tion and the agency met. Though only about 6,500 workers are em reserved final judgment until he has seen a There Is some dispute as to what tran ployed In plants that make vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride, about 350,000 others, who work in facilities that create finished products from the polyvinyl chloride, will full text of the regulations, but he was quick spired at the meeting. The Labor Depart to take issue with the decision to let workers ment agency claims it wasn't given the fulldecline the use of a respirator until 1976. story; the chemists' association claims that "We can't make a guy put on a respirator, the agency misunderstood the findings. But also be covered by the new ruling. Workers and while he's not wearing one, he may be one 'thing is certain: The agency, and who handle only finished products, and don't endangering himself." What Is more, he OSHA, made no move to change the stan have any chance of contact with "raw" added, "The respirator situation is going to dard of 500 parts per million and didn't do vinyl chloride or polyvinyl chloride, are the be even worse In nonunion plants.'' so until after the human angiosarcoma only ones exempted. The Labor Department initially proposed that exposure be limited to "no detectable level." without any averaging over time. This proposal pleased organized labor and some key researchers in the field of occupa tional health. . But the Society of the Plastics Industry, a trade group, and many compa nies using the chemicals, denounced it as technologically impossible and warned it would drive the industry out of business. Discretion in Enforcement Union safety experts have been heavily cases were announced. In Europe, by con involved in the rule-making process, and trast, Great Britain had lowered the maxi one of their major contentions has been that mum level to 200 parts per million following protection from the gas should be derived the cases of acroosteolyais in the '60s; and primarily from controlling exposure through West Germany had set a level of 100 parts engineering and work-rule changes rather per million In 1970, based on Dow's 1961 re: than from respirators, which workers often suits with animals. According to New Scien balk at wearing because they can be bulky" tist, the British science Journal, "No other and unreliable. section of the U.S. or European industry fol The department defended Us reliance on lowed Dow's lead. The reasons for this in the use of respirators, saying definite dates ternational confusion are obscure." couldn't be set for dealing with the problem This all changed quickly, of course, once In selecting as its final standard one part per million over eight hours and five parts per million over 15 minutes, the department solely through engineering and work rules the first human cases of angiosarcoma were because "we are presently unable to deter-' reported by Goodrich. Indeed, the swifiness mine when It will be feasible.'' It added, with which new research has been carried apparently was trying to reach a compro mise between its original idea and the toughest proposal offered by the Industry, which would have left exposures as high as "We would agree that respirators have many drawbacks" but said, in the absence of -complete engineering control, they are needed. out since Jan. 23 Is perhaps without prece dent In the world of medicine and science. Much of this recent research. Is con- cerned with studies of the incidence of dis 10 parts per million In some plants and 25 parts per million in others. The official explanation of the regula ease of all types among vlnyl-chlorlde work tions also said that although a deadline ers. Thus far, some studies show, that work The department sought to smooth further wasn't set lor completing engineering and ers .exposed to high levels of vinyl chloride the adjustment for industry by delaying work-rule changes, a continuing plan, avail show greater than expected incidences not oil d*llvInlroducphy Flft until next January the drop from thq pres able for government Inspection, must be only of angiosarcoma but certain; .other, can ent 50 parts per million. Also, it gave its en pursued by each company at a pace agreed cers as well. The ramifications of these, find forcement staff discretion to determine how on by safety Inspectors, until respirators are ings lor the future of the,; Industry. and Its the companies must meet the standard.- needed only occasionally. It admitted, how workers remain to- be seen.' However,;, for While the goal is. to reach the new levels ever. that at different plants this could take the veterah PVC workers, 'whatever through "engineering and work practice as long as "several years." changes the findings produce wUl`be useless controls," such controls must be deemed "feasible," and companies can deal with any exposures produced by Inadequate con trols by giving workers respirators. The unions are expected to study the rul in counteracting the Insidious effects,.of ing in depth, and they, too, could file a law working day after day. year after year, in' suit If they conclude the final standards are what now Is generally viewed as a cbntaml- Inadequate. nated atmosphere. ...... 3749003 ... need Wr P. O. 7704 your in th unde RECC ' Minl-C TRY IT FC P An outstan lions in a western co The $U' requiremet chining ar employees This 'pc operations Send r C T