Skin Cancer Hazard to Oil Refinery Workers in the 1940s, Standard Oil, 1954

This clip is from the 1954 film, Medical Service for Industry, produced by the Standard Oil Company of New Jersey. The 26-minute film describes the corporation's approach to company-provided medical services for employees in its hundreds of locations around the world. This clip shows the research and action after the company learned that some petroleum oils, from their new fluid catalytic cracking process, caused cancer when applied to the skin of mice. In this clip, Standard Oil ends by explaining that measures for minimizing worker exposure to carcinogenic oils have been implemented. However, that was not the end of this story. The following is taken from the 1974 article Oil Refineries by Rick Engler in the HEALTH/PAC Bulletin published by the Health Policy Advisory Center No. 61 November/December 1974 and available at www.healthpacbu... . Rick Engler is a past Board member of the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board (2015 - 2020) and founder and past Director of the New Jersey Work Environment Council (WEC). Catalytic cracking found its first application during World War II in the manufacture of aviation gasoline. In 1942 Standard Oil (New Jersey) built the first commercial fluid catalytic cracker (FCC). That same year, scientists found that samples of some high boiling catalytically cracked oils caused cancer when applied to the skin of mice. In 1947, scientists in the Medical Department of Jersey Standard Oil concluded that ".. . a potential cancer hazard existed where man came in contact with these oils." And in 1951 Standard reported that measures for minimizing worker exposure to carcinogenic oils, such as better personal hygiene practices, keeping units closed and painting pipelines containing these oils had been instituted. While it is unclear to what extent carcinogen exposure was really minimized at Jersey refineries, it is certain that other oil companies did little or nothing to prevent contact with such potentially hazardous hydrocarbons. The American Petroleum Institute (API), the industry's trade association, funded a study in 1949 at the University of Cincinnati's Kettering Laboratory to find out the cancer-causing potential of intermediate and finished petroleum products. To do this, the Kettering researchers experimented with mice and surveyed company medical departments to find whether cancer was a problem afflicting refinery workers. Mice rapidly developed cancer from some fractions, confirming the results of previous research by Standard. The primary carcinogenic agents in these oils were found to be certain polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs). In 1950 the Committee sponsored an epidemiological study to determine the number of workers who had developed cancer. However, most oil companies refused and/or were unable to cooperate with the study. In 1956, the Medical Advisory Committee ended the survey, concluding that there was ". . . no evidence of occupational cancer within the population surveyed." The conclusion also reflected the fact that, whereas it may take 20 or even 30 years after exposure for cancer to be detected, the study ended in 1956, ten years or so after the widespread use of catalytic cracking began. But the scientists who had worked on the project remained concerned. Despite their healthy suspicion that certain hydrocarbons were likely to produce cancer, their abiding faith in the good intentions of industry resulted in their falsely assuming that ".. . high engineering standards and good housekeeping, with respect to this modern automatic equipment has, in general, restricted the contacts of workmen with these products." But had the scientists spoken to oil workers, their suspicions would have been heightened. They would, for example, have discovered that cat crackers were not, as the industry had claimed, totally closed systems. Pumps and other equipment leaked oil mists and vapors during normal operation. They also would have discovered that during maintenance shutdown, workers enter vessels and clean pipelines where sludges or residues containing potent carcinogens remain. Today, Oil refinery workers are still exposed to several well-established carcinogens and working in this industry has been classified as probable cancer-causing to humans. The entire 1954 film, Medical Service for Industry, can be viewed and downloaded from the U.S. National Library of Medicine’s wonderful collection of historic films at collections.nl... .

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