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P <br />5 <br />FEDERAL REGISTER, MARCH 17, 1978 <br />Human and animal data demonstrate that DBCP causes <br />sterility and that animal data indicates that exposure to <br />DBCP presents a cancer hazard to workers. <br />In late--Ju-1y, 1977, preliminary results of semen <br />analyses of 27 exposed employees at the Agricultural <br />Chemical Division (a formulator of DBCP) of the Occidental <br />Chemical Co. in Lathrop, California, indicated severely <br />depressed sperm count in eleven of these employees. Later <br />confirmed a high evidence of sterility and infertility at the <br />plant. <br />Based on a determination that the available data <br />conclusively established that employee exposure to DBCP <br />presented a grave danger of sterility as well as cancer, <br />OSHA proposal called for an 8 hour TWA permissible <br />exposure level of 1 ppb, with a ceiling of 10 ppb averaged <br />over any 15 minute period. In addition, the proposal <br />included a prohibition on skin exposure to the substance. <br />OSHA has concluded from the evidence in the record <br />that DBCP presents a hazard of cancer and sterility to <br />exposed workers, and indicates DBCP to be a.potent <br />carcinogen. This leads to the conclusion that DBCP must be <br />regulated as a human carcinogen. <br />Based on evidence that DBCP can penetrate the skin, <br />and that skin exposure is a significant route of entry, OSHA <br />1 <br />r I.'1'T7 T n <br />