Document 5Dn2qBZQLoo8yZ5QYjQxZoLe0

/V* h!Al CTl "f<-D PO Box No 6 Bessemer Road Weiwyn Garden City Hertfordshire AL7 1HD Teieohone Welwyn Garden 23400 (STD Code 07073) Telex 264251 Mr J T Seawell Chemists Manufacturing Association 1825 Connecticut Av NW Washington DC 20009 USA Imperial Chemical Industries Limited Plastics Division Vcur ret Our ref -JS/SEW/DS0-16 Tel ext 5162 Date 11 January 1980 Dear Mr Seawell PVC DUST Thank you for the copy of your minutes of the meeting my colleagues and I attended on 28 November. We did enjoy our discussion with your VC Research Coordinators group and thank you for your friendly reception and hospitality. Dr Adams had hoped to write to you concerning your PVC dust minute hut regrettably he had to go off to Germany for a few days and he asked me to write and give you his views. Getting to grips with this rather complex I0M study without previous immersion in it poses a number of problems for a secretary. I congratulate you on your write-up. Dr Adams, like myself, wonders whether a page of your notes has gone missing at the end of 4.0. You dealt in some detail with the "breathlessness" findings to which little importance is attached because the information is derived from a somewhat subjective examination by questionnaire. However you did not deal at all with the most important finding viz the effect of PVC dust on "lung function". While wre in ICI are sceptical about the radiological findings, we accept fully the "lung function" results. Dr Adams did describe the lung function w'ork in the following terms: "EEV1 and FVC were inversely related to the index of PVC dust exposure. Dust effect was studied after standardization for age, height and wreight by multiple regression. This demonstrated a small but significant dust effect on FEV and they were also able to demonstrate that the dust effect was most marked in cigarette smokers and not apparent in non-smokers. The magnitude of loss in FEV1 was small. After taking into account the effects of age, height and wreight, the overall regression with dust index was -- 0.0040 litres per dust index unit. This was equivalent to a loss of 52 ml of FEV1 for the mean dust index. An illustration of this would be equivalent to a loss for all men of 5*2 ml of FEV1 per year during exposure to the mean of the dust index over a period of 10 years. In cigarette smokers considered separately, this loss was 8.9 nil of FEV1 per year. These figures may be compared with the mean losses in the group due to age or smoking. The mean loss due to age is 35 ml and loss due to smoking 20 cigarettes a day, 6.2 ml a year. SL 095392 2_ FVC - This also showed a significant inverse relationship to dust index among currently exposed men. Gas Transfer - No significant changes were noted in this test." I realise you do revert to "lung function" in summary form at the end of 4.1 but you had not previously dealt with it at length whereas you do give an exhaustive report on the less significant breathlessness results. I hope the above comments will he helpful to you when you come to discuss confirmation of the minutes at your next meeting. One small point which always amuses us. We are described as "IMPERICAL". More often IMPERIAL turns out as EMPIRICAL! Perhaps we are empirical and pragmatic in our approach and it does show through!! The word "imperial" is not popular these days and leads to many a psychological block and Freudian slip. (By the way in 6.0, the company name is VTNATEX). We hope you are well and look forward to meeting you again in the not too distant future. With best wishes. Yours sincerely J Stafford Division Manager Health & Environment Protection SL 095393 '980 ECN technology 21 Cool reception for Carter's $13 billion gasohol programme i>t sliu-'.i Cjrt(r\ announcement ot a plan tsi com mu SS 5 12.8 billion to the e.tsohol programme over the next ten years has been cooliv receded b> the industry farter'' intention to increase fermentation ethanol capacity ox told to 2 billion nre sear bx next sear is seen as over optimistic and unrealistic, despite the fact that it is less ambitious than suggestions living nude by government officials recently (see last week's /-.'CM The gasohol programme contains a number ol incentives, most of which were already known or suspected. The major new proposal is for making $300m. year ,i\ tillable for loans and loan guarantees for small and medium sized ethanol and -iioinaxs projects over the next ten years. T:iese plants are expected to he sited urgelv on farms and will generally produce less ihan I ICni. lure year ethanol. The Tncrgy Security Corp will also make avail m'e a total of SI billion over the next ten rears lor the construction of fermentation .`tnunol plants This is intended to encourage private investment in projects using feedsuicks other ihan corn and with significant potential lo reduce imports" The other incentives included in the programme are largely tax waivers and credits, most of which arealready incorporated m the Senate's version of the windfall profit' lax bill intended to reduce the profits made bv the oil majors. The existing federal tax exemption on gasohol. lor example, will be extended to the year 2(100 This amounts to I cent litre on gasohol. equivalent to KJ cent litre on ethanol The full exemption will he avail uhle to anyone who uses ethanol directly as a fuel, without blending with gasoline: an exemption largely aimed at farmers. Many -tales have also waived taxes on gasohol. amounting to a further subsidy of 2.5-22 cent litre. The crude oil entitlements programme has been revised to include ethanol produced from biomass. This will provide an incentive of around 1.3 cent litre until September 30. 1481 when the programme will be phased out. along with the crude oil once controls. T his is pronably intended to encourage manufacturers to start produc "ton as sour rc's-nplv m order to benefit :rori the subsiJy, A 10 per cem investment tax credit is available lor plant equip/ncnt lor ethanol production under'the I'Ttx Energy Tax act. under which aH gases and liquids produced from biomass receive a subsidy An additional ten per cent credit is also avail tblc for alcohol production under another aw All federal agencies have been fold by me adminixfrniion to promote the use of .f.i'ohol m their vehicle fleets whene'er i.'s 'hie It is o..pe) ihai bv fhe end of I48 I gasohol will account for ten per cent of all US unleaded gasoline sales. Encourage ment is to be given to "ofT-highway" con sumers. such as farmers, to use pure alcohol as fuel. Money has also been ear marked to finance research into improved methods of alcohol production from biomass and to research alternative raw materials, such as municipal waste. The production of corn and other feedstocks for ethanol production is to become "an important part" of the agricultural policy, and grain reserve targets, commodity pnee supports and similar policies are likely to be extended to cover ethanol feedstocks. No special sub sidies will be introduced, however. The proposals have been under con sideration for 18 months, according to the Department of Energy, and their release is unconnected with the large supplies of corn now available in the US following the embargo on exports to the USSR. It is unlikely, in any case, that new demand for corn feedstocks for ethanol production will increase significantly this year. The com could, however, be stored to help with the massive increase expected when new plants come on stream: an option some industry spokesmen expect the government to take. Most of the major companies involved or interested tn ethanol production for gasohol are doubtful about the success of the programme. Even with the subsidies, the economics of gasohol production arc marginal when compared with gasoline. Cnt t yatdhef programme '4 t/dhor* meanwhile... Brazil also recently announced an expansion to us alcohol programme and now aims to produce 14 billion litre/year ethanol by 1486 and 16 billion litre/year by 14X7 from sugar cane. The earlier target was 10,7 billion Ihrc-'year by 1485. The new programme has been described by one official as difficult but obtainable. The major problem facing the government is not the necessary increase in industrial capacity but the need to increase sugar iunc production. Sugar production is to be maintained at present levels, with ethanol being made from surplus cane. All government cars and taxis in Brasilia will shortly be running on 100 per cent ethanol and individuals are now runmne iheir carson a variety of fuels ranging irom orange peel essence to coal ml Casco reduces formaldehyde residues in board i ORMALOhHYOh residues in particle board can be reduced by 40.50 per cent using a new process developed by KemaNobel division AB Casco. A specially-treated wax solution is applied to the particles before the aJhcsive is added, reducing the amount ol free formaldehyde and water proofing the board simultaneously. Tests have been carried out on the new Swedish process, for which a patent is pending, at a number of factories. Casco claims that the process is environmentally sale, complying with all emission limits, including those recently introduced in Den mark which arc currently the strictest in Europe. Goodyear looks at butadiene-from-ethanol Goodyear Tyre and Rubber is looking at the possibility of using ethanol to produce butadiene in an effort to reduce the oil requirement of the US tyre industry. The research being earned out by the company is based on existing technology for converting ethanol to butadiene and for producing ethanol from agricultural feedstocks, according to a spokesman. The main prionty is making the process more efficient. In brief The EEC Commission is to investigate the toxicity of the insecticide toxaphene (chlorinated cam phene). Already banned in Belgium, Denmark, Italy. Luxembourg and the Netherlands, the product's use is strictly limited in the other member states, where it is used on rape and leguminous tedder crops, lawns and forestry plantations. The EEC investigation follows proposals from the US EPA to ban the product because of its suggested carcinogenicity. Residues of toxaphene on food crops are already limited under exist ing EEC legislation. Carcinogenic and other toxic effects of vinyl chloride monomer and PVC are to be Xre examined by the US Occupational Safety and Eleallh Administration. Such action is appropriate, says the agency, because of the new information w hich has been obtained. U Half ol the workers at Dow's Magnolia. Ark., plant who were found to be sterile after exposure to the pesticide DBCP (di bromochloropropane) now have sperm counts in the "fertile range". Tests earned out in 1477 showed that 24 per cent (24 men) of those exposed to the product had become sterile, while anotlicr 46 per cent had reduced sperm counts. . ) The Netherlands' government has made a formal application to the EEC asking for I he Hague to he considered as a possible site lor (hi European Patents Office. SL 095394