Vinyl Chloride Production 1954 BF Goodrich Company

Vinyl is a synthetic plastic material that has the most uses compared to any other plastic in the world. In 1926, the BF Goodrich Company accidental discovered vinyl chloride (VC), then found many uses and soon products made from VC started entering the market in a big way. The 1930s saw the entry of many vinyl coated umbrellas, raincoats, etc into the markets. After this, vinyl was used in the manufacture of sealants for auto shock absorbers, thus finding usefulness in the auto industry as well. In the 1940s, there was an acute scarcity of natural rubber because of the war, thus vinyl was used as a coating for wires and proved to be an excellent substance for insulation of wires. However, industry studies in the 1950s revealed harmful health effects of vinyl chloride exposure, but this knowledge was suppressed and misrepresented for several decades. Industry experiments in laboratory animals, as early as the 1950's, found evidence of harm but officials did not initially disclose the findings. PVC manufacturers also delayed release of study results showing that rodents exposed at levels much lower than the allowable workplace exposure limits developed liver sarcoma. Then in February 1974, the CDC reported the death of four tire plant workers who were employed at the same B.F. Goodrich factory in Kentucky. The cluster of deaths was unusual—each of the four men succumbed to an extremely rare form of liver cancer known as hepatic angiosarcoma. The company's medical staff identified vinyl chloride, a chemical used in the production of polyvinyl chloride (PVC), as the cause of the cancer. Public concern grew once the report surfaced. Thousands of workers were being exposed to high levels of a substance whose toxicity had come to light. Once news of vinyl chloride's risks surfaced, OSHA—not even four years old at the time— sprang into action. Less than three months after the publication of the CDC article, the agency issued an emergency temporary standard lowering the permissible exposure level for vinyl chloride from 500 parts per million (ppm) to 50 ppm.20 The following month, OSHA proposed a permanent rule that would reduce the exposure level to 0 ppm. Industry groups protested, claiming such a standard would put plastics manufacturers out of business. As a slight compromise, OSHA's final standard allowed manufacturers to maintain no more than a 1 ppm air concentration of vinyl chloride. The entire rulemaking process took nine months. Manufacturers were easily able to comply with the rule after B.F. Goodrich developed a system to sequester the chemical and prevent worker exposure.
Vinyl chloride is a powerful example of the success of OSHA health regulation. When OSHA proposed a regulation to reduce worker exposure to vinyl chloride, manufacturers roundly denounced the rule, predicting that it would wreck the industry. Yet, months after the 1975 vinyl chloride regulation went into effect, the magazine Chemical Week described an industry rushing to "improve existing operations and build new units" to meet increased market demand. The Sept. 15, 1976, issue reported that producers "have installed the equipment needed to meet the worker-exposure requirements set by [OSHA], but without inflating production costs to the point where PVCs growth might be stunted. In the early 1980s, the Congressional Office of Technologic Assessment (OTA) confirmed that the vinyl industry actually spent only a quarter of OSHA's original estimate to comply with the standard. The new technology designed to meet the standard actually increased productivity. OTA also examined eight OSHA standards and found in almost every case, the cost was a fraction of OSHA's estimate, and did not have an adverse effect on the industry. For more on the history of vinyl chloride, read the 2002 book Deceit and Denial: The Deadly Politics of Industrial Pollution by Gerald Markowitz and David Rosner. Their book details the attempts by the chemical and lead industries to deceive Americans about the dangers that their deadly products present to workers, the public, and consumers. This is clipped from the 1954 film, Man-Made Miracles, a film about the development of synthetic rubber and vinyl chloride by the BF Goodrich Company.