Document zoq62r0DzwzBggMrJDM305Kdn

the WAl.l. STREET jOt'RNAU WVilnt'tJiiy, Oct. 2, 1474 Health Hazards Vinyl-Chloride Risks Were Known by Many Before First- Deaths Hindsight Shows Weakness tJ In Firms* Systems Aimed j At Protecting Workers [ The Tip of a Large Iceberg By Barr K&amer tWt MtpprUr 1 Ttll Wall truer J Kal A tew weeks before Christmas la IMS, Ctrl Parkt. then W years old, tinned on at a helper-trainee at the large B. F. Goodrich Go. plastics factory in Louisville. Ky. The plant had been making polyvinyl-chloride plastic from vinyl-chloride gas since before the war. using a process developed by Good rich in 1037. , It was a growing industry that Mr. Parks Joined. Polyvinyl chloride-dubbed PVC tor short--had found special, but limited. appU* . cations In the war yean, especially as a fireproof coaling for eleetrlc wiring in fighter planes and ships. But In the late IMQi. to-called vinyl comumer 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 gaa into large re- fWi (a tXe firtt of two ttorleo cmcentfcip implications of the discovery ttaf vinyl chloride can casae cancer. actor vessels; there, the gas is agitated to gether with a liquid and catalysts. The pro cess causes polymerization, a Unking to gether of the molecules of the gas (a mon omer) Into the long chains that give PVC (a polymer) Its strength sad other desired characteristics. The Firs* Year* In hie first years with Goodrich, It was Bari Parka'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 unavtodabty inhale the heavy, sweetsmelling fumes of vinyl-chloride gas that had escaped polymerization. As the lMOs went by and the lMOa began, Earl Parka waa working Ms way up to the job of foreman, a post that he luui attained 1 by the time that ilt Health forced his early j retirement in the late 1960*. In the years that he had worked with Goodrich, the PVC Industry flourished as thousands of new uses were discovered for the polymer. On March 8. 1373, at the age of 80, Earl Parka died of angiosarcoma of the liver, a type of eancer that is Invariably fatal- His death attracted scant public attention at the time, but today the significance of Mr. Parks's illness is unquestionable and shat tering In its 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 Bnk between angiosarcoma and vinyl chloride is 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 id documented angtoarcotna cases in the U.S. In recent years, all of them linked to vinyl chloride. In addition, 10 ether cases have been reported in Eu rope. While the total number of cases is small, the industry has been shaken to its roots, The disease now le known to work insidi 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, adherence to one-part-per-mlllion levels. Therefore, it seenu certain that the argu ment wont abate. As the controversy continues, it is reveal ing to examine how the link between vinyl chloride and cancer was established, if nothing else, such an examination points out the grave weaknesses of the present system --or lack thereof--of protecting workers and others from industrial hasards. The judgment is made in hindsight, but ously. slowly, during decades of exposure, the history of vinyl chloride shows that evi the implications being that the cases thus dence of its toxicity was often ignored. I far are quite likely only the tip of an ice What's more, the chemical companies i berg. Nine companies, with 14 plants and knew, but kept secret for st least six! MO employee, currently produce vinyl chlor months, the fact that Italian researchers ide monomer from ethylene, a petrochemi had shown that rats develop tumors, includ cal. The monomer, in turn, is used by 21 companies operating 3d major plants and ing angiosarcoma, when exposed to low levels of vinyl chloride monomer. European employing 5,000 workers, to make more than live billion pounds of PVC annually. companies, which paid for the animal re search. knew of these research findings for (World-wide production is some Id billion more than a year before the first human pounds annually.) Even the five billion pounds of PVC an cases were reported but didn't reduce the exposure of their workers to vinyl chloride. nually produced In this country Isn't enough But Dr. Irving J. Sellkoff, an expert oni to meet the domestic demand ter the plaetlc environmental carcinogens, or cancer-eaus*| Into which PVC is formed. From 3.000 to 4,- ing agents, claims that blame shouldn't be- 000 processors, employing an estimated placed at industry's door alone. "We're sjl ai 700.000 workers, fabricate the plastic into a bit responsible," he says. "None of us did- wide variety of products ranging from vinyl ! our homework." Culpability, he says, should - floor riles to shower curtains. According to a ; be shared by scientists, government agen-j study done for the Society of the Plastics In cles and labor unions. ] dustry by Arthur D. Little Inc., as many as The case of Earl Parks is illustrative.1 2,2. million jobs depend on polyvinyl-chloride plastic. If PVC were banned, the study says, Mr. Parks first came to the attention of Goodrich medical people in 1964. when the the annual loss to industry In sales and pro company, concerned about the known liver duction would be some Mi billion to $90 bil lion. (The Manufacturing Chemists Associa toxicity of ethylene dichloride (a chemical from which vlnyt chloride is made) tested tion estimates the wholesale annual value of all PVC products Is S3 billion.) the liver function of workers in the Louis ville plant. Emergeory Decree Mr. Paries's readings were abnormal. At the moment, no one believes the In dustry will suddenly come to a screeching halt. However, after the first human cases of vinyl chloride-induced angtosareoma were disclosed, the Labor Department's Oc cupational Safety and Health Administra Nevertheless, he continued to work at the same job. In October'1964, however, he was hospitalised with what was initially diag nosed as a bleeding ulcer. Doctors treated i the "ulcer" without was released. surgery, and Mr. Parks ji tion imposed a temporary emergency stan dard ter PVC factories; thenceforth, OSHA decreed, the permissible level of vinyl chlor ide in the air of such factories would be M parte per million. That level wae far below He was readmitted to the hospital the fol lowing-May, and the decision was made to operate. But when the operation was begun, - surgeons, instead of finding an ulcer, found Instead that Mr. Parki'l problem resulted the Industry standard, in effect tor years, of 800 pacts per million. OSHA's emergency decree was made last May. Since then, animal research found that tumors develop at 90 parte per million. Yesterday. OSHA Issued a new permanent standard requiring employers after Jan. i. 1378, to reduce exposure to one part per mil from severe liver damage, which had caused blood to hack up in'the portal vein leading Into the liver. The surgeons cor rected the vein problem with a shunt and took a sample of liver tissue for analysis. The analysis showed that the liver had bees damaged by exposure to "chemicals.*' Can cer wasn't mentioned. lion In factory air, averaged over eight hours, and five ports per million averaged over any period no longer than IS minutes, According to testimony at OSHA'* hear ings on vinyl chloride, held last* Juno and July. Mr. Parka received a total of almost (Bed itefy on page 10.) While considerably more stringent than the emergency decree, the new permanent standard -particularly With Its five-parts-per-mUHon provision and its allowance of averaging--neverilvk-s* falls short of the "no detectable" limit advo cated by unions, many medical experts and AP00008343 / *6,000 tn workman's compensation from Goodrich before be died, but only after Goodrich protested that his illness couldn't have resulted from exposure to the chemi cal.) It was an alert Louisville doctor who first made the connection between angiosarcoma and vinyl chloride. Or. John L. Creech, who for years has treated workers sent to him by Goodrich on a fee-per-patient basis, had followed Earl Paries's ease for some time, even though he wasn't treating Mr. Parka. Dr. Creech says he had been concerned about an abnormally high number of Good* rich workers who had liver disease. When he heard that Mr. Parks had died, he re* calls, he asked to see the autopsy report. It was in August 1973 that Dr. Creech learned that Mr. Parks had died the pre vious March of angtosarcoms of the liver. The doctor aays he then realised that some thing was seriously wrong, since another Goodrich PVC worker, a private patient o! 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, tin fact, .nodical men estimate that fewer than 30 j cases occur each year in the U.S.. striking only one in 909,000 persons. > Dr. Creech met with Goodrich's occups* tlonal health director. Dr. Maurice N. John son, who subsequently decided to ask Taber* ahaw-Qooptt Associates Inc., a Berkeley. ; Calif., epidemiological-studies concern, to do a survey oi Goodrich death records. But the study was hardly needed: on Dee. 19. a third PVC worker at the Loutsvilie plant died at the age of 58: he had been at the plant for 38 years. Public Announcement On Jan. 22 of this year. Goodrich olftd&ls mot in Washington with officials of the Na tional Institute for Occupational Safety and Health and informed them of the three angtosareetna deaths. The following day, Kentucty occupational-health officials also were Informed and Goodrich made Its first public announcement. Almost since Us first commercial intro duction, there have been reports that vinyl chloride la toxic above certain levels. In deed. during World War n. vinyl chloride was rejected as a surgical anesthatic be cause animals developed heart Irritation when exposed to it. rn 1M. Russian scien tists reported "hepatitis-like changes" In the livers of of the workers in a email PVC plank Then, In the late 1950a, research toxocologiats at Dow Chemical Co. showed that ani mals exposed to as few as 100 parts per mil lion of vinyl chloride (or 100 molecules ef vinyl chloride in every one million mole cules erf alrl developed slight Uver damage. Based on its research. Dow began a pro gram In the 1900s to reduce the level of vinyl ehloride monomer In the air ef Its plants to below 80 parts per million. Dow published its results In 1M1. But the rest of the industry chose to rely on a Yale University study that recommended 800 parti per million as a safe lave). This same level had been recommended by the Manu facturing Chemists Association since 19M, - was affirmed in 19C2 by the American Con ference of Governmental Industrial Hygien ists and waa given the force of law by OSHa In 1971. However, evidence at the OSHA hearing* indicates that this level waa regu larly exceeded until this year in many plants. (The hygienists' group didn't recom mend lowering the level to MO parts per million until 1972, feur years after Dow con cluded from further teats that repeated ex posure by workers to vinyl-chloride mon omer at an average of 900 parts per million or above for a working lifetime could cause changes in the Uver) Another DUease During the 1960s, there were reports of a disease called acrocsteolysis among vinyl- chloride workers. The disease consists of skin lesions sad changes in the blood ves sels, leading to degeneration of the bones at the tips of the fingers and toes in those ex posed te high levels ef 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 aagiosareome eases in this oountry has occurred among workers making vtnyl- chloride monomer, and only one of the 10 deaths In Europe was tn a monomer plant.) In early 1987, the Manufacturing Chem ists Association arranged with the Uitiver- aity of Michigan to study acroostedysls among vinyl-chloride workers, particularly those who cleaned the reactor vessels and Others who were exposed to large concentra tions of vinyl chloride in the air. The Michi gan scientists reported in 1970 that although they couldn't pinpoint vinyl chloride a the cause of ihe disease, worker exposure to the monomer should be cut to 50 parts per mo tion or below. Other than Dow, which had already insti tuted reductions in air level of the mon omer, the rest of the industry In the U.B. ig nored the recommendation. Nor was there any significant reaction to findings by Euro pean industry that animals developed ad verse effects from vinyl chloride. This was at least partly because the Europeans down graded theimportance of some of their find* lap. Per example, Prof. Pier Luigi Viola, a medical director employed in Italy by 801- vay A Cie., the Belgian chemicals company, found bone changes in rata exposed to air levels of 90.000 parts per million erf vinyl chloride; even more important, he found that vinyl chloride at that level caused ma lignant tumors in the ear canals, lungs and bones of rat*. | Prof. Viola reported Ms findings before ' an international cancer congress in Houston in 1970. It was the first reported link be tween cancer and vinyl chloride. But the profesaar expressed doubt about the purity ,of the vinyl-chloride gas he had used and stated that the rat cancer findings, because they occurred at such high levels of the monomer, had no human implications. (Prof. Viola subsequently found tumors In raU *xp*fd to '*) parts per million: but this fact n-v.-.iUsI until nvil after the lirst hum.in .intno'uruutnx cso< wr re vealed. i Tt* Research Goes Oa Based on Prof. Viola's early cancer find ings in rats. Montedison S.p.A.. the huge Italian chemicals company, in 1970 asked Cesare Maitent, a respected researcher at the Institute oi Oncology In Bologna. Italy, to do more extensive stomal etudes. By Oc tober 1972, Prof. Maltonl aays, he bad found that 350 parts per million of vinyl chloride produced tumors in rats in three parts of tha body: the ear canals, kidneys and the Uver. The liver tumors included angiosar coma. The professor immediately Informed Ws sponsors. ! The Europeans offered their Information to the Manufacturing Chemists Association In the U.8.. but only If the Americans guar anteed confidentiality. With great reluc tance, the association says, it finally agreed to the secrecy condition "because of the vital imparlance of learning of any indica tions from the European research . . . with out the delays which could have resulted from duplication of effort." On Jan. 30. 1973, a year before the first human angiosarcoma cases were reported I by B. F. Goodrich, the MCA finally got the ; Maltonl data. For five months, the secrecy restrictions were such that government agencies, PVC workers exposed to vinyl chloride and even company doctors were kept in the dark. Than, in the late spring, the Europeans agreed that the Chemists As sociation could pass the information on to the tl.8. National Institute for Occupational* Safety and Health, the Labor Department agency that monitors worker safety. On July it, 1979, representatives of the associa tion and the agency met One Certainty There is some dispute as to what tran spired at the meeting. The Labor Depart ment agency claims u wasriT given the full story; the chemists' association claims that the ageney misunderstood the findings. But one thing is certain: The ageney, and OSHA, made no move to change the stan dard to 600 parts per million and didn't do so until after the human angiosarcoma tows were announced. In Europe, by con trast, Great Britain had towered the maxi mum level to 200 parts per million following the cases to acroosteolysis in tbe 50s; and West Germany had set a level of 100 parts per million In 1970, based on Dow's 1M1 re sults with animals. According to New Scien tist, the British science Journal, 'No ether section to the U.8. or European Industry fol lowed Dow's lead. The reasons for this In ternational confusion are obscure." This all changed quickly, of course, once ' tha fink human cases ef angiosarcoma were reported by Goodrich. Indeed, the swiftness with which new research has been carried out since Jan. 23 is perhaps without prece dent In the world to medicine and science. Much to this recent res*arch Is con cerned with studies of the Incidence of dis ease to alt types among vinyl-chloride work er*. Thus far. some studies show that work ers exposed to high levels of vinyl chloride show greater titan expected incidences cot only to angiosarcoma but certain other can cers as well. The ramifications to these find ings for the future of the industry and its workers remain to be seen. However, for the veteran PVC workers, whatever changes the findings produce will be useless in counteracting the insidious effects of working day after day. year after year, in what now Is generally viewed as a contami nated atmosphere. AP00008344