Document 2J7Kk1yG3yG45BXqv3b1oDJn7

INDUSTRY WEEK / July 8, 1974 critical." But they also believe that there is "a substantial pos sibility" that the decision will be reversed. If it isn't, the alternative is more federal money to compen sate for the interim losses. Losses over the next two years are projected at $400 million for the Penn Central alone. And if the creditors win their fight to be compensated with cash, rather than $500 million and stock in the new rail corporation, the cost of acquisition could increase even more dramatically. OSHA turns attention from safety to health A SUBTLE CHANGE in priori ties is taking place in the Occu pational Safety & Health Ad ministration (OSHA) as the agency shifts more of its atten tion, people, and money toward programs dealing with health, hazards. Not as great a ratio of work ers dies from occupational health hazards as OSHA originally thought, an official says--a Bu reau of Labor Statistics survey for 1972 says that six of every 100 occupational fatalities can be traced to illnesses rather than accidents--but health's time ap parently has come. Why the change in emphasis? "The National Institute of Safety & Health (NIOSH) is charged under the law with pub lishing an annual list of known toxic substances found in Amer ican workplaces," says an OSHA spokesman. "In 1972, they listed 8,000. In 1973, the list grew to 25,000. And if we're -going to make a dent in that, we've got to get started." ; ; j To get off dead center, OSHA is currently involved in a crash program intended to promulgate standards Tor some 16 "substances" for which NIOSH d> livered criteria documents as j| || ji |[ ! long as two years ago. Among the 16 are ultraviolet radiation, electromagnetic pulses, heat, noise, carbon monoxide, sulfur dioxide, lead, beryllium, and others. Teamwork--In addition to ef forts to get these 16 sets of standards on the books, OSHA has also entered into a $3.5 mil lion, 30-month contract with NIOSH for the development of standards for 400 more sub stances thought to be toxic. "A team of 48 people--24 from OSHA, 24 from NIOSH--is working now to take these 400 substances--for which we now prescribe only threshold limits --and to develop full-blown standards with requirements for monitoring, medical records, medical exams, and other regulations." Standards for the first 40 substances will be released all at one time. The rest* will trickle into law as standards for each are developed, the spokes man says. "And eventually they will affect almost every indus try in the country." Along with the shift to health hazards has come a reorganiza tion of the standards staff "along more functional lines," the spokesman says. And some 40 new people have been added in the standards office itself. "Once you promulgate stand ards, naturally, you increase the number of inspections against those standards," the spokesman says. "And with the shift to health nazards, we're trying to upgrade the number of Industrial hygienists on our staff." Originally, OSHA planned to have at leasi one hygienist in each of 60 area offices. "But now we're shooting for two," the official says, "because not only will more inspections have to be made but inspectors will also have to go back to some places once the new standards arc in force." , I > j ! ; j ; BFG25636 o O 8 O' f INDUSTRY WEEK / July 8, 1974 group dropped from December's anticipated gain of 13% to an Arab oil embargo began. Then, | overcapacity. Furthermore, when fearing a drastic reduction of its j the plants being built today are actual 2% gain. Business hires, expected to increase 9%, fin feedstocks, the petrochemical in- j complete, demand will have dustry began to broadcast its j soared to new levels. So, some ished only 3% higher, including story. That story in a nutshell: j experts say, even today's build MBAs who had been projected for a 13% increase. the industry uses 10% of the na- | ing program won't meet the de tion's natural gas and 4% of its j mands of the future. Strong recruiting efforts were petroleum. These raw mate But balancing this attitude is noted in the petroleum, building rials are upgraded by 300,000 j the fact that the chemical in materials and construction, food workers at 1,900 plants into i dustry has gone through some and beverage processing, pack more than $20 billion of prod- j severe periods of overcapacity aging, and metals industries, and ucts each year. j in the past. That bitter experi by the federal government. Neither the embargo, how ence is well-remembered by y Shortage of capacity to hurt petrochemicals TWO WORDS might be used to sum up the situation in petro chemicals for the next few years: ever, nor the energy crisis brought on the shortage of petro chemicals. It was simply a mat ter of not enough capacity to meet ever-growing demand. Capacity -- New plants have since been proposed and con many companies in the industry, and may temper a rush to add capacity. All of this leads industry ex perts to several conclusions. To day's announced plant additions might not be enough to meet future demand; as raw material "not enough." There will not be enough struction has started on many. ; prices increase, so will prices of The shortages, however, don't ] petrochemical products and their j ethylene, from which several appear to be over yet. Richard J. j end products; these develop major plastics are produced. Huges, vice president. Union i ments, in turn, will provide the j There will not be enough pro Carbide Corp., New York, lias basis for a substantial improve- ^ pylene, from which plastics, sur summed up the situation: "The ment in earnings for petrochemi- , factants, and pesticides -- to combination of capacity short cal producers, compared with name a few products--are pro duced. And there will not be enough benzene, from which other plastics and rubber goods ages and shortages of some feed stocks and other raw materials means that some petrochemical products will continue to be in those of recent years. Between 1960 and 1966 the average return on assets in chemicals and allied products ! ! j are produced. short supply for several years to ; was 11.4%, and income grew an \ Those two words--not enough --don't actually give a clear pic- come. Several plastics will be short, including polyvinyl chlo average 9.5% each year. From 1966 through 1972, however, av I ture of what the industry will ride, polystyrene, polyethylene, ' erage return on assets fell to face. But the complexity of the and phenolics. A shortage of i 9%, and income growth aver industry has even the experts puzzled as to which particular products might be curtailed and which might escape unscathed by shortages. 1 ethylene capacity will limit pro duction of important industrial chemicals such as ethylene oxide, ethylene glycol, and ethyl alcohol. Isopropanol, acetone, ! ; ! aged only 3.5% annually. So any higher earnings gen- erated by price hikes will quite likely be needed for expansion to meet growing demand. i j j [ The petrochemical industry and phenol will be in limited i starts, of course, with several supply due to a shortage of ben organic raw materials such as zene and propylene." crude oil, natural gas, or naph To meet such shortages, the : tha. And from these it makes several major products, such as industry will spend more than j $5 billion on capital expendi ethylene, propylene, benzene, tures this year versus $4.1 bil and butadiene. These in turn lead to dozens of other products lion last year. But it takes three to five years to locate, design, and those into dozens upon construct, and start up a petro dozens of others. The ultimate chemical plant. Thus those plants result: thousands of products that are needed now would that range from drugs and fibers have to have been planned in to antifreeze and surfactants. 1970, when the industry was Few outside the industry \ understood this process until the going through a rather bleak period with low profits and | BFG25637 oozwez