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HILL AND KNOWLTON, Inc. Debating Health vs. Jobs 's ' Plastics Industry Mobilizes to Thwart Tough Rules on Handling Vinyl Chloride By Walter Mossbeso with the highly sophisticated methods of In-1 the standards forced PVC production to end. ttof Mtportcr of Tut Wall street Journal plant control that have been developed by,"our Industry would be forced out of bust- WASHINGTON - At the federal govern- the industry over the years. If the proposed nets." mnt moves closer to Adopting stringent 'no-detectable-lever standard is adopted,1. The National Association of Home Build-1 controls over handling of the ubiquitous in the vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride) era said the standards could drive the rising) dustrial chemical vinyl chloride, manufac resin producing industries will be forced to`costs of housing even higher by forcing | turers who use it are mobilizing to try to close down immediately." builders to abandon economics! PVC hous*1 stow that the controls would prove economi A number of labor-union and occupation- tag components. It warned that such a de- { cally disastrous. * al-heslth experts are exoected to dispute the velopment could mean "sorely needed hous-1 The rules would be utterly unworkable, the companies say, and Industry would lose an essential manufacturing material. In consequence, they add, makers of plastic pipe, auto patts, phonograph records and many more products would be driven to the trail. And, they contend, thousands of Jobs would vanish. This gloomy picture la likely to dominate Labor Department hearings, beginning today, on planned standards for eliminating the exposure of plastics-industry workers to the chemical, which is suspected of caustng cancer. . exposure to vinyl ehloiide, a gas, has been linked by researchers to 10 cases of a rare liver eancer, angiosarcoma, among workers handling it in the U-8. and other countries; in Id of these cases, death .resulted. In addition, angiosarcoma has recently been blamed for the death of two employes In U.S- plants handling polyvinyl chloride, the powdered derivative of vinyl chloride that is fabricated into a wide range of plsstfe prvjuete (Two ohe*,i deaths from angiosarcoma have been dis covered among people'livtng In the vicinity of plants using polyvinyl chloride.) society's claim at the nearings. They con Ing would be beyond the reach of an in- f tend that It is possible to meet tbe standard without closing the industry. creasingly large segment of the public." I Norton Co.'s plastics and synthetics dlvi- slon. which makes tubing for medical uses,.! But harsh predictions are contained In warned that if the new rules curbed supplies ; many of the more than 125 letters from plas of PVC, desperately needed equipment used tics firms already on file with the Labor De In kidney dialysis and heart surgery might partment. The letters, representing the writ become unavailable. And GraniteviUe Co. of ers'- formal "comments" on the- planned! Graniteville, S.C., a maker of fire-retardant rules, give an indication of the probable tents and tent material, ealled PVC "the tone of this week's hearings. Although most most Important component" In its products. ! letters concede that some controls are What's more. Arthur Culbertson, a Flor- needed on vinyl chloride, most contend that Ida plastics executive, and Gerald Kessler, the proposed measures would mean nothing an officer of an Ohio plastics company, . less than the collapse of their Industry. urged modification of the proposed stan- v Almost all the letters come from users of dnrds on the grounds thatRhey themselves polyvinyl chloride, or PVC. and not compa had had long personal exposure to vinyl * nies directly handling vinyl chloride itself or chloride without ill effects. those turning U into PVC. In moot cases, Most of the letter writers acknowledged (hey explain that their suppliers of PVC the need to protect workers from the pout-* have toid them the standards will make it bility of liver cancer. But they urged delay * impossible for them to continue producing in imposing such harsh restrictions, both to ` the raw plastic. Urged to write to the gov give scientists time for further* research and , ernment, the PVC users hare done so, fore to allow the businesses to phase In the newt casting their financial rain. controls. 2 Dire Predictions But one writer took a decidedly less sym- pathetic view of the dangers of death from Unless a reasonable approach Is!ivinyl chloride. Jamcbon Crane, of Crane taken." wrote Frank G-oeneved Jr.. preai-lP,MU,, Inc,, Columbus. Ohio, wrote, In April, the Labor Department's occu dent of a plastic-pipe-extruding firm in Flor-l-We continue to b Impressed with the com- pational safety and health administration ida, "It could mean the destruction of manylpaflion of ^ number of deaths annually? Imposed a temporary emergency standard small businesses such as ours where w|du( to prompted by loss of Jobs, ver-1 limiting workers' exposure to vinyi-chlcridc have invested our life savings." isus the 19 angiosarcoma deaths world-aide* gas to BO parts per million in the air they R. J. Clayton, chairman of Louver Drape; 0ver M yoon of PVC production." breathe, a sharp reduction from the previous Inc., a California maker of PVC window ----- - -- *-- -- limit Of two parts. Now. the agency is pro blinds and folding dours, wrote that "37 posing--and witnesses at this week's hear- years ago. at the depth of the depression, I * Mgs will debate -- a standard cutting ex started a one-man business which has M posure permanently to "no detectable" level grown today where we do approximately S7 at all. Although the plastics industry opposed million worth of business and emjdoy over 290 people." If the new rules are imposed, the emergency ruling, tte voice has so far he said, "we'd be back to a one-man busi been weaker than that of organised labor ness overnight." and various scientific groups, which back One firm. Custom Trim Products Inc., the tough rales. which makes plastic trim for several big Doom lor the Industry? auto makers, warned that the new rules At this week's hearings, however, the in could cut off its supply of PVC resins, end dustry is expected to argue strongly that the ing its production and causing it to risk law "no-delectable" exposure plan would spell suits by Detroit for failure to fulfill supply doom for the several dozen plants that make contracts. The firm, an officer wrote, vinyl ehloride gas or turn U into polyvinyl ` would undoubtedly be forced into bank chloride powder or resin, and for most of ruptcy." the hundreds of plants that turn polyvinyl Hubbard Apiaries, a beekeeping com chloride into plastic products. pany in Onsted. Mich., wrote to declare that WAU, STRF.P.T JOURNAL NEW YORK, N. Y. D, 5H.OC5 TOe standard would require that most It couldn't remain in business if PVC sup-, operations In the production of vinyl chlor plies were threatened because its honey is ide and polyvinyl chloride, which employ sold in PVC bottles and glass bottles are1 an estimated 6,900 workers, be conducted in scarce as a result of a soda-ash shortage. JUN251974 $* cloeed-off, regulated areas where exposure In fact, many of the letters contended can be controlled by ventilation devices or that PVC Is etready in short supply, highly other methods. In addition, some operations versatile and absolutely necessary for a va of plants turning polyvinyl chloride into riety of important uses. products, which are said to employ up to Spokesman for the record industry in- 700.000 workers, would be subjected to simi-tsisted (hat the plastic is vital to its opera- lar stringent engineering rules If those oper-itions. MCA Records lnck contended that if ttlons could cause the polyvinyl chloride powder or resin to release trapped quanti ties of raw vinyl chloride ga^ Lajt week the Society o! the Plastics In dustry, a trade group, assorted that suffi cient technology doesn't exist to meet tht proposed aundtrd and warned that much of) the vinyl and polyvinyl chloride Induatryl might liave to close if the standard goes imo | effect. The society predicted that l.< millioni Jobe and "at least 163 billion" in sales and' production could be lost. Ralph Harding Jr., president of the soci ety, said that the proposed standard "la technologically Infeasible to achieve, even} BFG24419 23Z17132 i