20 Cancer Deaths Reported Linked to Shell Refineries : Survey From Oil Firm’s Consultants Show Benzene to Be Probable Cause of Many of Leukemia Fatalities

At least 20 Shell Oil Co. employees at refineries died of leukemia between 1973 and 1982, and a consulting firm hired by Shell said benzene exposure was a likely cause of many of the deaths, according to documents obtained by United Press International.

The documents also showed that Shell officials complained to Thorne Auchter, then head of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration, about his agency’s investigation into the deaths and invited him to dinner at Shell headquarters.

Studies at Shell plants in Wood River, Ill., show that 14 workers died of leukemia between 1973 and 1982. Six more died at a Deer Park, Tex., plant between 1978 and 1981. The 20 deaths far exceed statistical probability.

A top Shell health official conceded that the number of leukemia deaths in Illinois was statistically high and said the likely cause was exposure to benzene, a petroleum byproduct used in a wide variety of industrial applications, including the manufacture of plastics.

Although the statistical sample of the Wood River deaths provided a better means for close study, the company’s consultants also suggested that benzene exposure as a likely cause in the Texas deaths.

But Paul F. Deisler Jr., Shell’s vice president for health, says there are no current risks to employees, and the troubles with OSHA arose over confusion about what information it wanted.

Documents obtained by UPI and interviews with government and Shell officials also showed that:

--The rate of leukemia deaths was twice as high as statistically probable, and the death rate from acute myelogenous leukemia, which usually kills within months of diagnosis, was four times higher than normal.

--Shell issued a memo to employees saying that, although the number of deaths was high, there is no current danger. Government agencies question whether that memo was overly reassuring.

--When OSHA requested company health reports for employees with low white cell or platelet counts, Shell first said there were no such employees. Four months later, the company provided the information.

Dr. Peter Infante, an OSHA scientist who has been investigating the deaths, said that Shell tried to intimidate him several times.

Shell Aide Complains

A top Shell official wrote to Auchter, complaining about Infante’s requests for data and asking that Auchter help “alleviate” Infante’s demands, documents showed.

Another letter from Shell discloses that the company treated Auchter to dinner in March, 1982, in Houston and suggested he use a group of Shell-proposed scientists to study the matter. The letter also referred in critical fashion to “some of the scientific work coming out of your organization.”

With worries about benzene mounting, Shell hired an outside consulting firm to study the situation.

The firm, Epidemiology Resources Inc., warned Shell on May 25, 1983, that benzene appeared to be the cause of the abnormally high number of deaths at Wood River, according to the documents.

Its report said there had been 14 leukemia deaths among workers at the plant, more than double the statistical probability of 6.4.

“This excess of 7.6 cases is highly statistically significant,” it said.

In addition, the report said of the 14 deaths, eight were from acute myelogenous leukemia. Statistics from general population studies indicated only two such deaths should have occurred, it said.

There was “no reasonable possibility” the deaths could be attributed to non-occupational causes, nor could they be explained by data error, the report said.

“Thus, benzene is the most likely cause of the excesses seen,” it said.

Benzene can cause cancer in laboratory animals and several studies have suggested an association between benzene and leukemia in humans. Humans contract the cancer primarily through the inhalation of the vapors or through skin absorption.

Myelogenous leukemias are cancers of the blood in which white blood cells produced in bone marrow fail to mature properly.