Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, February 3, 1994 TAG: 9402030289
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
WASHINGTON - The government failed to tell almost 170,000 U.S. workers that on-the-job exposure to chemicals has increased their risk of cancer, although it discovered the risks 10 years ago, a consumer group charged Wednesday.
The government discovered 240,450 at-risk workers in 1984, but has only tracked down 71,180 of them to warn about their exposure to asbestos, uranium, dioxin and a host of other toxins, records show.
In a letter to President Clinton and his top health officials, the Public Citizen advocacy group urged an end to the "unethical cover-up."
Dr. David Satcher, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said he hadn't known about the lack of notification, but now will push for money to complete it.
The National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health discovered the at-risk workers during a massive 1984 study of U.S. companies. NIOSH and its parent, the CDC, said the workers must quickly be told of the risk and advised to be tested for cancer. But the Reagan administration only allotted $300,000 for an effort that CDC said would cost $4 million.
The workers were in 203 plants in 38 states including Virginia and West Virginia.
- Associated Press
DuPont, LG&E form power partnership
DuPont and LG&E Power Inc. are forming a partnership to supply electricity to DuPont's nine fiber plants in the southeastern United States, including the nylon plant in Martinsville, the companies said Wednesday.
DuPont spokesman Bill Brown said the company expects "most of" the people working in the power operations to remain employed there.
"Under this setup, we're going to be able to concentrate on what we do best, which is make man-made fibers," he said.
LG&E Power is a subsidiary of Louisville Gas & Electric Energy Corp. The Richmond and Waynesboro DuPont plants also are affected.
- Staff report
Judge strikes down GM benefit change
DETROIT - General Motors Corp. had no right to increase health-care costs to about 50,000 early retirees who had been promised the benefits for free, a judge ruled Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge John Feikens ruled that GM, in an attempt to encourage people to retire early, entered into a contract to maintain the same free health-care benefits for the lifetimes of the early retirees and their spouses.
He said GM violated that contract when it implemented deductibles of $750 a year in 1988 and eliminated vision and hearing-aid coverage.
Raymond C. Fay, a Washington lawyer representing the retired workers, said the ruling could have a far-reaching effect on other cases in which companies changed their benefit plans after the workers left.
GM contended it had the right to revise terms of health insurance and never promised any retirees that health-care costs would be free.
But Feikens cited a 1980 company memorandum that specifically promised the free benefits. The judge said the memo "is troubling because it seems . . . to be deceptive."
The ruling affects GM workers who retired before the age of 65 from 1974 to 1988.
Richard F. O'Brien, GM's vice president of corporate personnel, said the company is considering an appeal.
- Associated Press
Office space rare in Newport News
NEWPORT NEWS - Vacant office space on the Peninsula has dropped from more than 15 percent last year to about 8 percent, according to a poll of building owners.
The Society of Industrial and Office Realtors polled the owners in October and released its results Tuesday. There was a vacancy rate of more than 15 percent for first-class properties in January 1993.
Once the vacancy rate falls below 10 to 15 percent, companies have a harder time finding space and developers consider building, said Robert M. Thornton of Thornton & Co., a Virginia Beach-based commercial real estate agency.
- Associated Press
by CNB