Amoco Labs Closed Over Tumor Rate

Amoco Corp. shut down one floor of its chemical research center in Naperville, Ind., after 10 employees in the building were stricken with brain tumors since 1982. Over a decade, the rate of brain tumors at the suburban Chicago center, which employed 2,000 people in 1990 and is now down to about 1,000, is almost one per year for every 2,000 people, more than double the rate in the general population. Four employees, including one who has died, were diagnosed with malignant tumors called glioma. Six others have been diagnosed with three different types of benign tumors.