Liver Cancer Alert Declared to Protect Plastics Workers
Dr John L Creech Jr, physician for B F Goodrich chem plant in Louisville, Ky, finds large number of serious liver ailments, including angiosarcoma (rare liver cancer), among workers directly involved in production of polyvinyl chloride from vinyl chloride, gaseous organic chem known to damage liver at high concentrations; Creech's findings lead Natl Inst for Occupational Safety and Health to declare 'occupational-health emergency' and seek ways to protect workers; inst, as well as Goodrich and Manufacturing Chemists Assn, has begun studies of thousands of workers, both alive and dead, and variety of lab animals to determine nature, extent and cause of illness among vinyl chloride workers; inst will recommend emergency corrective action to Occupational Safety and Health Adm, which is considering new regulations to protect workers exposed to vinyl chloride; current Fed standards allow workers to breathe as much as 500 parts of vinyl chloride per million parts of air, level that readily causes liver damage in animals; 75% of world's supply of vinyl chloride is produced in Eur, where signs of liver disease have been found in large percentage of exposed workers; Drs C Maltoni, Irving J Selikoff and Edward Ferrnand comment (M)
