Document xgOVLz3xnZJqx8bd52MBYRrm

June 12, 1974 Page 13 C. "(2? PESTICIDE CHEMICAL NEWS If the agency decided to require the label change, it might only have to be used on new carbofuran production and not on distributed stocks, EPA is also thinking about suggesting that USDI conduct monitoring studies on carbofuran-linked bird kills, An EPA-er noted. \ VINYL CHLORIDE PLANT EMISSIONS NOT IMMINENT HAZARD, TRAIN SAYS Vinyl chloride emissions do not "pose an imminent hazard" to people living near vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride plants, Russell E. Train, Administrator, En vironmental Protection Agency, said this week (See june 5, Page 3). The agency reported that 95% of the air samples taken near plants showed less than 1 p.p.m. vinyl chloride. EPA still intends to set vinyl chloride emission standards, however, even though the agency stated that there was no scientific evidence indicating that emissions ' are hazardous. -* Train met June 11 with representatives of 28 vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride manufacturers. The Administrator recommended tightening and improvement of plant operating procedures and suggested early consideration of "longer-term proc ss modifications." At the meeting, the manufacturers assured Train of their continued cooperation. He asked each manufacturer to begin or continue monitoring vinyl chloride plant emissions. EPA monitoring of vinyl chloride in water, drinking water, sludges and air will continue. This week, the agency released preliminary vinyl chloride monitoring results from Regions I, IV, VI, and IX. EPA has preliminary results on monitoring at seven chemical complexes, including the two vinyl chloride and ten polyvinyl chloride plants. The agency said: "At four of the chemical complexes tested (Louisville, Ky.; Plaquemine, La.; Long Beach, Calif.; and Painesville, Ohio), a number of individual air samples showed more than 1 p.p.m. vinyl chloride. A one-time high of 33 p.p.m. was obtained at one site although repeated sampling at this site indicated that this level was unusual. The average at this site was in the range of 0.5 p.p.m. to 1 p.p.m. 37 flo CO ooo>>bu < "Most of the air sampling was done within one-half mile of the property lines of the plants. In one case a level of 3.4 p.p.m. was recorded at a distance of three miles from the plant. The average of several readings at this site was ap proximately 0.5 p. p. m. " After reviewing water and sludge monitoring results, Train said "at the present time, there is no basis for considering that the levels of vinyl chloride detected in water discharges or in sludge if handled properly are hazardous to human health or to aquatic organisms. " R&S 104467 Page 14 Jtine 12, 1974 PESTICIDE CHEMICAL NEWS Wast water monitoring near plants showed a 24-hour average high of 5.4 p.p.m. vinyl chlorid and a single high level of 22 p.p.m., EPA said. Typical vinyl chloride lev Is in wastewater were 2 p.p.m. and 3 p.p.m., the agency noted. And, EPA stated, "no currently available evidence indicates that vinyl chloride is present in detectable levels in drinking water." The agency continued: "Not unexpectedly, the levels of vinyl chloride entrapped in sludge and other solid wastes from the reactor kettles ranged from 100 p.p.m. to in one case 1,400 p.p.m. EPA monitoring was done near the following plants: Borden Company, Leominster, Mass.; Diamond Shamrock, Delaware City, Del.; Stauffer Chemical Company, Dela ware City, Del.; Uniroyal Chemical Division, Painesville, Ohio; Robintech, Inc., Painesville, Ohio; B. F. Goodrich Chemical Company, Louisville, Ky.; Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company, and Dow Chemical Company, Plaquemine, La.; American Chemical Corporation and B. F. Goodrich Chemical Company, Long Beach, Calif.; and T nneco Chemical Company, Flemington, N. T. The agency is planning epidemiological studies in some areas near vinyl chloride and polyvinyl chloride plants "to further assess the implications of vinyl chloride emissions for the general public." The pr liminary report on sampling at the Borden Chemical plant in Leominster, Mass., indicated that many of the air samples had 0.06 p.p.m. vinyl chloride. 'The actual'value is less than the detectable amount' anc! may,bo zero '. The plant, according to the report, had 'over. 100'vents which could provide a significant ' source of vinyl chloride emissions. Region IV's preliminary report on monitoring at the B. F. Goodrich Chemical Company, Louisville, Ky. showed 24-hour averages of 0.53 p.p.m. and 1.5 p.p.m. vinyl chloride in air samples taken at one site. The report said the highest vinyl chloride Con centration in air measured during the monitoring of this plant was 33 p.p.m. At the Goodyear Louisiana plant in Region IV, vinyl chloride in ambient air samples collected in glass gas bottles & syringes ranged from a trace or less than 0.03 p.p.m. to 5.76 p.p..m. The preliminary monitoring report on the B. F. Goodrich Company (BFG) and American Chemical Corporation (ACC) plants in California stated that the survey "indicated that the plants will routinely be in violation of the standards proposed by OSHA (Occupational Safety and Health Administration) since 5% of the ambient air samples exceeded 1 p. p. m. ..." The Region IX report estimated that four pounds of vinyl chloride leave BFG per day in wastewater effluents. The Region estimated that about 30 pounds of vinyl chloride leave the ACC plant per day in wastewater. The report said: / June 12, 1974 Page 15 PESTICIDE CHEMICAL NEWS "One on-site release monitored by IR spectrometer reached approximately 75 p.p.m. (vinyl chloride) at the point of m a sure ment in-plant. The mean value of all grab (air) samples collected was about 0.1 p.p.m. and the maximum value mea sured was 3.4 p.p.m. at three miles north of the plants. To maintain the 0.1 p.p.m. level over the three mile area of the study would require about 2,000 pounds of VCM. Each ex change in the basin must be renewed by this quantity to maintain the 0.1 p.p.m. level. J3 (/} o o> 00 "Thus if the exchange of air in the area occurred four times per day, four tons of VCM would have been discharged from these plants." Rep. Obey (D-Wis.) fears that the vinyl chloride problem signifies a more widespread health problem than had previously been estimated. "What is especially terrifying." Obey said, "Is that we are becoming aware of the effects this chemical has on human health only after it has been in production in this country for nearly 30 years and only because it causes, among other things, an extremely rare form of liver cancer." Obey suggested vinyl chloride could be affecting not only workers involved in plastic resin manufacturing, but also "workers who turn the resin into consumer products, and even individuals who live in the vicinity of the vinyl chloride plants." "Will those chemicals that are toxic be ones to which only a small portion of the population is exposed or will they be chemicals that have found their way into the bloodstreams of all Americans?" he asked. MCA Begins Four New Research Programs on Vinvl Chloride The Manufacturing Chemists Association (MCA) will add four new research programs on vinyl chloride to its current animal exposure study (See April 17, Page 21). Dow Chemical Company will conduct studies on animal metabolism and teratogenesis, in relation to vinyl chloride. Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories will do animal chronic inhalation studies at low con centrations and acute inhalations at high concentrations. Industrial Bio-Test Laboratories has been conducting the original, animal exposure, study. The four new studies, to be supervised by MCA, are estimated to cost a minimum of $400,000 to $500,000. Firm Requests Hearing on Suspension/Cancellation of Vinvl Chloride Pesticide Demert & Dougherty, Inc. has requested a hearing on the EPA's suspension/canr cellation of Cobra Ant and Roach Killer. The Chicago company told EPA that Pag 16 June 12, 1974 PESTICIDE CHEMICAL NEWS the product did not contain vinyl chloride. The firm wants 24,984 cans of the product released,for sale in Puerto Rico where it is presently stored. In its hearing request, Demert & Dougherty said one of its former employees failed to file an amended registration when vinyl chloride was taken out of the product in September 1973. EPA is requiring firms to obtain new registrations and new registration numbers. The firm said "the statement that applications will not be registerable under previously registered numbers, in this particular case, shows no purpose in promoting public safety so far as avoiding confusion between products which did and did not contain vinyl chloride as there never was a previous Cobra bilingual label for a vinyl chloride product." Vlnvl Chloride Pesticide Recall Estimated at 271.900 Units The number of recalled units of vinyl chloride containing pesticides has reached 271,900, according to EPA. This is over 100,000 more than the 137,629 recalls that had been estimated earlier (See May 29, Page 3). R&S 104469 FIRST TOLERANCES ESTABLISHED FOR 6-CHLOROPICOLINIC ACID The Environmental Protection Agency on June 5 established the first tolerances for residues of 6-chloropicolinic acid resulting from use of the soil fungicide nitrapyrin. The new tolerances are 1 p.p.m. in or on cottonseed; 0.5 p.p.m. in or on com fodder and forage, sorghum fodder, and wheat forage and straw; 0.1 p.p.m. for negligible residues in or on com grain (field com, sweet com, popcorn), fresh com including sweet com (kernels plus cob with husk removed), sorghum grain and forage, and wheat grain; and 0.005 p.p.m. for negligible residues in the meat, fat and meat byproducts of cattle, goats, hogs, horses, poultry, and sheep. Dow Chemical had petitioned, on June 13, 1972, for the tolerances in terms of nitrapyrin, which is 2-chloro-6-(trichloromethyl)pyridine. However, EPA said residues would be in the form of 6-chloropicolinic acid or its conjugates, and Dow amended the petition on Oct. 4, 1973, to state the request in those terms. The firm had requested a tolerance for residues in or on wheat forage and straw of 0.5 p.p.m., but decreased this to 0.1 p.p.m. The tolerance request for meat, fat and meat byproducts was added to the petition. Dow withdrew requests for tolerances of 2 p.p.m. in or on potatoes, and 0.1 p.p.m. for negligible residues in or on sugar beets (roots and tops). Temporary tolerances were granted the same day to Chevron Chemical for residues of the fungicide cis-N-((l,l,2,2-tetrachloroethyl)-thio)-4-cyclohexene-l ,2-dicarboximide of 1 p.p.m. in or on peanut hulls, and 0.1 p.p.m. in or on peanuts. The temporary tolerances for the fungicide, which is tradenamed Difolatan, expire May 31, 1975.