AboutBlueVinyl.org: Worker Safety

The manufacture of polyvinyl chloride (PVC or vinyl), like most other chemical processes, is closely regulated to minimize its impact on human health and the environment. Air and water emissions resulting from the process are regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and companies that manufacture vinyl or its feedstock, vinyl chloride monomer (VCM), must report their compliance with these standards. The EPA has estimated that the industry’s VCM emissions have been reduced by over 99 percent since new workplace standards were introduced in the 1970s.

Members of the Vinyl Institute subscribe to the following principles of environmental stewardship;

To seek and incorporate public input regarding our products and operations
To provide chemicals that can be manufactured, transported, used and disposed of safely
To make health, safety, the environment and resource conservation critical considerations for all new and existing products and processes
To provide information on health or environmental risks and pursue protective measures for employees, the public and other key stakeholders
To work with customers, carriers, suppliers, distributors and contractors to foster the safe use, transport and disposal of chemicals
To operate our facilities in a manner that protects the environment and the health and safety of our employees and the public
To support education and research on the health, safety and environmental effects of our products and processes
To work with others to resolve problems associated with past handling and disposal practices
To lead in the development of responsible laws, regulations and standards that safeguard the community, workplace and environment

Revised Procedures Safeguard Environment, Workers
Like almost all manufacturing processes, the production of vinyl involves the use of materials that can be hazardous if improperly handled. In day-to-day operations, however, the vinyl industry has amassed an outstanding record of safe operation. Today, the entire vinyl production process is essentially a closed one, with most activities taking place in closed vessels. Not only does this maximize production efficiencies, it also reduces environmental emissions and minimizes potential worker exposure to VCM.

In the 1970s, a link was made between extremely high, prolonged exposure levels to VCM among vinyl production workers and a rare form of cancer, angiosarcoma of the liver. Angiosarcoma has also been linked to thorium dioxide given medically, arsenic given medically and, perhaps, to the use of anabolic steroids. Some 198 VCM-related angiosarcoma cases have been recorded worldwide since the link with exposure to VCM was made — all in VCM/PVC plant workers. This includes 50 cases in the United States. However, over half of the U.S. cases were identified between 1973 and 1980. The number has dropped significantly since then, and is expected to continue to drop. This is due to extensive improvements that were made in the vinyl production process after the problem was identified, including new manufacturing techniques and enhanced technologies established by industry. The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration issued strict regulations in 1975, limiting workplace exposure to 1 part per million averaged over eight hours. There have been no documented cases of angiosarcoma of the liver among vinyl chloride manufacturing plant workers whose careers in the industry began after the new regulations were promulgated.

The U.S. and European vinyl industry voluntarily participate in an angiosarcoma registry, a database which tracks deaths from angiosarcoma, and continue to participate in follow-up studies. Newly released reports have reconfirmed that, while some vinyl industry workers in the first 30 years of the industry experienced angiosarcoma more frequently than the general public, steps taken by the vinyl industry to improve worker safety have been successful. Employees at vinyl resin plants no longer face an elevated risk of liver cancer. Researchers also had speculated that there might be associations between vinyl chloride exposure and other illnesses. The latest reports make clear that such associations are unlikely.¹ Available epidemiological data indicate that employees exposed to low levels of VCM even for long periods of time have suffered no adverse effect.

In 1977, a study of more than 15,000 workers in vinyl fabrication plants (plants that convert vinyl resin or compound into finished products) found no evidence of VCM-related health effects in that group.²

Monitoring Workplace Exposure
Today, all vinyl production facilities in the United States continually monitor workers to track any health problems that might be associated with the production process. No hazard, other than those typically associated with an industrial process, has been identified.

The U.S. Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) oversees all workplace standards related to vinyl production. Since 1975, OSHA has set an eight-hour time weighted average VCM occupational exposure limit of 1 ppm (part per million). OSHA standards for working with VCM also:

Any violations must be promptly reported to government authorities and are a matter of public record.

Reducing Environmental Emissions
The EPA regulates the release of many chemicals, including VCM, under several statutes: the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act and the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act. The 1976 EPA standard for VCM ensures that the annual average outdoor air concentration within five miles of an ethylene dichloride (EDC), VCM or vinyl manufacturing plant does not exceed 1 ppb (part per billion). EPA regulations also:

Any releases of VCM over one pound must be reported to the EPA under the National Emission Standard for Hazardous Air Pollution and are a matter of public record. Those releases decreased 63 percent (per one million pounds of vinyl produced) from 1987 to 1996. The EPA has set a goal of zero for VCM in drinking water, and has established a maximum contaminant level of 2 ppb. (Two parts per billion are equivalent to one inch in 8,000 miles.)

Assessing Community Risk
Since the 1970s, individual manufacturing plants have conducted monitoring of surrounding communities to identify potential health threats to nearby residents resulting from the vinyl production process. Several independent studies also have been undertaken to detect an association between angiosarcoma in the general population and exposure to VCM, as well as correlations between exposure and other types of cancer. These include studies conducted by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and specific reviews conducted in the states of New York and Wisconsin, and in Great Britain, Sweden, Holland and Canada.³ In no case could a correlation be found. EPA representatives have further stated that the agency has been unable to establish a link between living near a VCM/PVC plant and angiosarcoma.

Based on chance alone, or due to factors other than VCM exposure, research has shown that there is likely to be one case of angiosarcoma about every two years among the five million individuals who live within five miles of a VCM/PVC production facility.^4-12 However, there is no confirmed case on record in which a member of the general population has been harmed by exposure to VCM, and the actual risk among the five million individuals presumed to live within five miles of a VCM or PVC production facility has been calculated to be less than 0.1 case of cancer in the next 70 years. This compares with the risk of smoking 1.4 cigarettes; drinking one-half liter of wine; traveling 10 miles by bicycle, 300 miles by car or 1,000 miles by jet; or having one chest X-ray.¹³ No other community health problem has been linked with any validity to the presence of vinyl or VCM production facilities.

Production Process a Model of Resource Conservation
Releases or emissions from chemical manufacturing processes are regulated by the EPA and all companies that manufacture vinyl and its feedstocks — ethylene dichloride and VCM — must report their compliance with these standards. Each year, U.S. manufacturers file data with the EPA about releases of any of nearly 650 chemicals. This is done under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act and the data are used to compile a Toxic Release Inventory (TRI). Releases include those to the air, water and soil, and transfers off site for further management, such as to publicly owned wastewater treatment plants.

In 1992, an independent consulting firm, Chem Systems, of Tarrytown, N.Y., conducted a lifecycle assessment of several vinyl products. Among other results, Chem Systems characterized the manufacture of VCM as a “classic case of waste minimization,” since virtually all material used to make VCM is recycled back into the process.¹⁴ Solid wastes created by the vinyl production process, as well as air and water emissions, are regulated by the EPA. Industry-wide, those totals are decreasing as individual plants improve their environmental controls, recycle more material back into their own production processes, and reduce accidental discharges to air and water. Additional material is recycled via resale to other industries, which use the by-products as raw materials for their own production processes.