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VCM Plant Conoco Chemical* Continental Oil Company P.0. Box 605 Westlake. Louisiana 70669 <3181491-6211 September 12, 1977 Dr. Ludwig Schmidhammer Wacker-Chemie - GmbH 8263 Burghausen^ Postfach 1260 West Germany Dear Dr, Schmidhammer: The purpose of my letter is to attempt to determine the situation related to other Stauffer VCM technology licensees related to renewal of the in formation exchange portion of the Stauffer licensing agreement. At the symposium held in San Francisco in 1976, I believe you indicated that WackerChemie's licensing agreement with Stauffer was due to expire, and that you were of the opinion that the information exchange portion would be renewed. If you would be so kind, I would appreciate a response from you to the following questions: 1) Has Wacker-Chemie renewed the information exchange portion of the Stauffer licensing agreement with Stauffer? If not, when does your agreement expire? 2) For what term (how many years) was the agreement renewed? 3) Was a renewal charge asked by Stauffer to extend the information exchange agreement? 4) How was Wacker-Chemie approached by Stauffer related to the information exchange renewal? By letter, phone call, or personal visit? I would like to thank you in advance for taking the time to answer these questions. Please stop by and see us on your next visit to the United States. Sincerely* CCR 000056217 W- Dear ** This is the second quarterly letter that is being mailed to each VCM employee reporting on various safety and health activities, plant safety experience and items of general family safety interest. I hope you will share this information with your family members. Accident Experience During the second quarter of 1977, the VCM plant experienced six first-aid cases and one medical treatment case. Although this is an increase in total number of injuries as compared to the first quarter of 1977 we are still below our 1976 experience. During the first half of 1976 we experienced twenty-one total injuries as compared to 11 total injuries the first half of 1977. Again, this is still a bit deceiving since we did not experience a plant turnaround in the first half of 1977. Safety Achievement On May 17, 1977 the VCM plant completed three years of operations without a lost-time injury. The safety attitude and safe work practices of each employee are the major factors in this accomplishment. This is a notable achievement in which everyone should take great pride. In recognition`of this achievement a safety banquet and dance was held at the Lake Charles Country Club on the night of Friday, June 24, 1977. In addition, a catalog cf safety gifts was distributed to each employee from which a gift of their choice was selected. From what I could observe all those attending the safety banquet had a good time, I know I did. We hope that through each of our efforts we will be able to repeat this event in 1978, after completion of another year without disabling inj ury. Frrst-aid training was conducted by Harold Fisher of the Medical Division, Ponca City`during the week of June 27th. Training classes were held in the plant for all employees. Also, annight session was held at the Chateau Charles for the families of employees. As usual Harold Fisher did an excellent job CCR 000056Z1B of conducting the first-aid training. If you or your family were unable to attend one of Harold's sessions you missed an excellent presentation, Harold presents first-aid training on a level understandable by all. Mark your calendar now for next year attendance at this training session. You won't regret it. VCM Physical Medical testing was conducted in the month of April for all plant employees. The testing was performed by American Heilth Profiles and included such tests as blood, urinalysis, pulmonary function, chest X-ray, tuberculosis, cancer 6f the colon, glaucoma and EKG. These tests were followed up with a handson physical examination. We feel that not only is it important to perform the basic tests:as required by the OSHA VCM Standard, but also to offer our employees additional testing to inform them on other matters effecting their gaaetral health status. Letters have been sent from our Medical Division informing our employees of the results of the medical testing. On April 18, 1977 Bill Henry became the new Safety Director of the VCM plant. Earl Gremillion accepted a transfer and promotion to become the Safety Director of Continental Carbon in Houston. Continental Carbon is a 80% owned sub sidiary of Continental Oil Company. Bill was formerly Safety Director of the Oklahoma City PVC Plant of CONOCO Chemicals. Attached is an article entitled "Drinking - Our No. 2 Killer". I hope you will find this article to be both interesting and enlightening. Sincerely J. A. DeBernardi br CCROO0056219 ** fjis ? L ^7' ;:: .1 '-A /K , 7 ^ "( A'' i t ; ' ' DRINKING: OUR NO. 2 KILLER By refusing to recogpize alcohol as a leading agent of disease, we hamper any preventive efforts MILTON TERRIS. M.D. One m.iy say with u Mil idem c that alcohol is the sec ond mium iinj'i'i mu kmnvn latisr ol morbidity and mortality in (his 11u niry, second only fn tobacco. lipi(hii i mil u; ii .i I, (I hi ii a! and laboratory evidence has made ii thar ih.u cirrhosis of the liver in ihe Unircd Scares ocaused primarily by alcohol consumption. However, if is only one in the impt ssive list of diseases associated illi akoho). '! hrse iik hale acute and chronic intoxica tion, toxic psychoses, gastritis, pancreatitis, cardiomyo pathy, peripheral ncmopai liy, as well as automobile, I a >Mte and is s. upai i< mal accidents, suicide, injuries and dc aibs due to assault, and canu-i ut the mouth, piiarj ux, larynx, esophagus and hyrr. The most Iruitlul approach to prevention lies in the vpidcimolotpiai concept ol the interaction of a^ent, host anl environment. Vet many prominent leaders n! the alcoholism-control Vnovetncnt in the United Stans reject this concept; (hey refuse to see alcohol labeled as an a^ent of disease. Instead, they focus all attention on the host. 'Hie individual who consumes larpe amounts ol alcohol is considered to he alcoholism pmiu on a biological or psychological basis. In prac1111, the. approach avoids preventive measures and aliinist completely lehes oil treatment, even thoui'Jt thel.ipiuiu tesults are often unsatisfactory. In us report to the nation in I`XU. the Cooperative l 'Mitmission on die Study of Alcoholism recommended m olui ation.d program designed tit "assist yount* peo ple m adapt themselves realistically to a predominanrh drinkuiih society." The purpose is to introduce indiMihials to alcohol early, within the family, sn they may Warn to drink in moderation. While this objective is Continued 11 v i-i r. 0000562^0 CC& 2j Prohibition may have had untoward social effects, but it did reduce alcohol consumption. Its repeal has produced a sustained rise in cirrhotic deaths laudable, l question the validity of the approach. It's precisely the countries that introduce children to al cohol at an early age --Prance atul Italy are good ex ample's---that have the highest death rates from cirrhosis of the liver. The approach is also somewhat strange. It would he difficult, tor example, to imagine a Cooperative Com mission cm the Study of Tobacco Addiction, consisting of leading figures in medicine am! public health, who would adopr as one of their major goals ro "assist young people to adapt themselves realistically to a predom inantly 'smoking* society," and who would urge that individuals he introduced to cigarettes early, within the family, so they may learn to smoke in moderation. In 19*7 V cirrhosis of the liver was the seventh lead ing cause of death in the United States, hut only four years earlier, it was ninth among the causes ol death, and lour years before that, in 1965, it did not even appear among the nation's If) leading causes of death. The cirrhotic death mrc has had an interesting his tory. brom 1900 to 191 h it varied between 13 to 15 per 100,000 population. It dropped sharply during the first World War to a low of seven in 19 .0, remained ar seven for Id years, through 1933, and then began the continuing uphill climb which brought ir to its highpoint in the 20th century, 16 per 100,000 m 19/3. How can we account for these variations.-' I'ortnnarely, data are available on alcohol consumption tor all years except the period of prohibition, and we find a striking parallelism between the* per capita consump tion of alcohol from spirits and wine and the cirrhotic mortality rate As per capita alcohol consumption rises and falls, so does the cirrhotic death rate. The fall in the rate during World War I was asso ciated with a drastic decline in alcohol consumption as a result of effective wartime prohibition. Was civilian prohibition also effective:' Current mythology holds that it was not. The lac r that the cirri iota mortalu y ran stayed at seven from- 1920 through 19^ \ .nul Ivg.m to rise immediately thereafter, indicates that the my thology is probably serving other interests than the rrurh. Prohibition had untoward social dims stub as racketeering and crime, ami it was clearly im I lei live in maintaining popular support sufficient to prevent re peal. Nevertheless, prohibition had considerable sue cess in maintaining alcohol consumption at the level to which it had been reduced in World War I. *1 lie mis rained rise in the cirrhotic death rate since die repeal ol prohibit ion has paralleled a continuing rise in aim hoi consumption in the United States. The British Experience The United Kingdom lias never adopted prohibition. Nevertheless, their success in preventing alcoholism and its consequences has been quire remarkable. During World War I. die British we re beset bv lag ging pnxluction in industry, especially in shipbuilding. A major factor was alcoholism. Three measures were taken: hirst, gram was no longer nude available lew the mamilaclure ol alcohol, since, in any i asc, ir was needed to Iced the population. Second, the hours of sale' of alcoholic beverages were drastically restri< fed. Third, the price of alcohol was sharply increased through taxation. As a result of these measures, the cirrhotic mortality rale fell (rum 10 per 100,01)0 pop tdaoon in I 91 i m live in 1930. With the end ol the war, the restrictions on alcohol prodtu lion were lilted, but the hours ol sale were never CCR 000056221^ MEDICAL OPINION an o ? oo &> i-'g O. 1 5 O' a c t o& 3. a ~S 3,,W- -O"c* o2 56 "2 Ja! m ID a0a3J3 "fOaTDi)J <o -3 ** o=o-<2ao- a rn 5O S.w 52 o *<o = oO- 5a~s >5 Hi to ll a-- a. <o Cao_b. 3 3a ^H 5s a :r 2-<3 * o> "vj vl 05 05 O O '- ^ w oi b) it. io to -j 0)0 0 A Ol fo tfi 'l - __-J--0.9roU->S; O OO) Oo2 > N--*s"otOtoO^sOjsow" wPC cc^ oocs ic%: O o rOoc. *Ow C p~oj --oC) 2m3 iE or> 70 O ooo Oins -- S^ cr o -- 03 CE a POoO OC'-r' N> #nVo I COST OF BEVERAGE ALCOHOL, CONSUMPTION AND LIVER CIRRHOSIS MORTALITY IN VARIOUS COUNTRIES Uk ".!.* " i V1 Alcoholic beverages should be taxed according to their alcohol content. In fact, I believe an ounce should cost five times more than at present A Program for Ihe United Slates To be .successful, a program for ilie prevention of cirrhosis of the liver am! other diseases associated with alcohol must be based on the epidemiological concept of agent-host-environment interaction. Prohibition has proved that it is extremely difficult 10 remove or de stroy the agent; and unfortunately, there is no immu nizing procedure to protect the host. Only one alter native is left: to create environmental barriers between agent and host, a method which has been most effec tive in preventing cholera, typhoid fever, infant diar rhea, malaria, and occupational and other diseases. One of the essential barriers is educational. All neg ative education--that is, advertising of alcoholic bev erages--should be banned. Jimphasis here should be placed on the word "all." We have learned from the action taken on cigarettes that stopping radio and tele vision advertising results in a shift to magazines, news papers and other available media. The positive educa tional pmgtani needs to Iv a serious one, for two rea sons. t iiM. tokenism is a waste of time here as in other aspects of our national life. The program has to be elfo.live, and this means the continuing expenditure of many millions of dollars over a period of many years. Second, the program needs to make up a good part of the loss of alcohol\ulverrising revenue by news papers, magazines and other media, thereby helping to prevent unnecessary opposition. The most important barrier between agent and host is the one which has been shown to be effective in oth er counrries. Alcoholic beverages should be taxed on the basis of alcohol content, to the point where the cost per ounce of alcohol is about five times the cost .it the present time, 'This action needs to lx.1 coupled with a program ol subsidies and technical aid to farm- Mi'ion Tuns. M l) oVV./k (.W/igc .11,.//. ;in . if I'mfcnor m/,7 t.Yi.i/i r:.in, l\ pt. uf Connuutiity ami l'>\ ,\\i,linin', N.V /tied, (.oil.; .uni Cn'ii,liu.ilor, I'.iailt) hi'tilute mi .V11./ (..ih Tf.it hini\, I'niv. of Mich. ers to prevent economic hardship, help them shift to other crops or divert their crops to other uses. Similar subsidies and technical assistance should be provided to alcoholic beverage companies where needed, in or der to permit them to diversify and change to other products in order to soften the economic impact. The Question of Freedom There are many individuals who object to any such program on the grounds that it interferes with individ ual freedom. Indeed it does. It should hr runt 1. how ever, that the degree of interference is much Jess than our freedom-loving forebears in the 19th century were willing to accept for the sake of health. After all, when a city installed a safe water supply, it was never doner with the consent of all the cirizens, and it tost diem a great deal in taxes. Furthermore, their personal free dom was seriously restricted: They were ac tually forc ed to drink the pure water that came out of dir f.m<<t instead of exercising freedom of c hoii c among ilie var inus polluted or potentially polluted wells in die neigh borhood. To be sure, they did have the right to ignore the faucet and either walk or drive iheir carriages be yond the city line to partake from a tasty and prob ably |K)lluted well our in the country. Again, compulsory pasteurization of milk was ac cepted and implemented as a valuable public health prtxedurc in the first half of the 20th century, despite the fact that it interfered much more drastically with individual freedom of choice titan tile proposed pro gram for alcohol control. Consumers could no longer buy raw milk, even though, as everyone knew, it tasted better than the ' unnatural" pasteurized product. 'Die freedom argument is a bit thin, Fveryone in (Ire.K lil itoili is free to buy and consume as nun li al cohol as lie- wishes. His chokes arc made, however, within a different societal framework than ours, one which apparently values life and health more highly. Members of the medical profession in our country will need to examine the evidence carefully and give seri ous consideration to the fundamental issues involved. A fundamental observation is that cliches may save thought, but they will not save lives. I .NI' CcS 000056223