ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Wednesday, August 28, 1996 TAG: 9608280024
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NAPERVILLE, ILL.
SOURCE: Associated Press
Amoco Corp.'s Chemical Division closed an entire floor of one building at its research center because of an inexplicably high rate of brain tumors among employees.
All 39 laboratories and offices on the third floor of Building 503 were closed after two more employees were diagnosed with brain tumors this year. That brought to 10 the number of research center employees afflicted with brain tumors since 1982, including three from the one building's third floor.
Four employees, including one who has since died, were diagnosed with a cancerous tumor called glioma, while the six others have been diagnosed with three varieties of benign tumors, all affecting different tissues in and around the brain.
The oil company called in a team of medical researchers from the University of Alabama-Birmingham to try to determine whether there is a link between the tumors and the chemical research conducted in the building. Earlier studies did not establish a link.
Amoco's research park here employed an estimated 2,000 people in 1990, but downsizing has cut the work force to 1,000. Seventeen people worked on the third floor before it was quarantined earlier this month.
Over a decade, the rate of tumors to employees is almost one per year for every 2,000 people or fewer, more than 10 times the rate in the general population.
Dr. Leonard Kurland of the Department of Health Sciences Research at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., said the incidence of such tumors in the general population is five to six per year per 100,000 people. That equals one per 16,667 to 20,000 people.
Earlier studies monitored by the Mayo Clinic and the University of Illinois-Chicago failed to find any link between the laboratories and the tumors. Amoco officials said they moved the employees off the third floor because they didn't want to take any more chances.
``We didn't have an answer, so we took the proactive step of relocating them,'' said George Kwiatkowski, manager of new business research and development for the chemicals division. ``Our primary concern is providing a safe environment.''
LENGTH: Medium: 51 linesby CNB