OSHA Vinyl Chloride Ruling
Because of the deaths of employees of two chemical companies from a rare form of liver cancer after years of exposure to vinyl chloride, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration has reduced the maximum permissible exposure level of vinyl chloride from concentrations of 500 ppm to 50 ppm. OSHA cited experiments with rats, mice and other animals which resulted in liver tumors resulting from exposures to as little as 250 ppm of vinyl chloride but no tumors in animals exposed to concentrations as low as 50 ppm.
The B.F. Goodrich Chemical Company employees who died of liver cancer, OSHA reported in the Federal Register on April 5, had an average exposure of 19 years to vinyl chloride. The National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health reported after OSHA hearings on vinyl chloride had been concluded that some employees of Union Carbide Corporation also had died from the same rare liver cancer after exposure to vinyl chloride.
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