Document 6RDyGojKX51K3be5ZMYdg35Mg

Ml Tiie Chemical Worid This Week m ifiinr * *i 'Vw t k 4 ' V^ 4 \ :V' ? ; :~V' v EVIDENCE MOUNTS LINKING VINYL CHLORIDE AND CANCER The growing suspicion that expo sure to vinyl chloride has led to the deaths of polyvinyl chloride workers from a most rare'form of liver can cer has apparently been reinforced. A research study in which rats ex posed to high levels (apparently 30.000 p.p.m.) of vinyl chloride vapor also develop angiosarcoma of the liver was slated to be disclosed publicly in the U.S. by Prof. Cesare Maitoni of the University of Bo logna, Italy, just after press time. The study has been supported by a consortium of Eurrr; in firms, in cluding Imperial Cnemical Indus tries (C&EN, Feb. 11. page 8). What's more, the view that the deaths are an isolated event limited to just one of B. F. Goodrich's U.S. plants and not proved to be occu pationally linked is fast disappear ing. Four angiosarcoma deaths now have been confirmed at the BFG plant instead of the three revealed earlier (C&EN, Jan. 23. page 6). Another diagnosed case of angiosar coma occurred in an ICt employee who worked in a t'.K. vinyl chlo ride operation for 20 years, sources in the U.K. and U.S. say. The clustering of the four BFG cases "cannot be explained by chance alone,*' Dr. Marcus M. Key, director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, told those at a Cleveland briefing on the cancer hazard ear lier last week. What action the U.S. takes, if any, beyond interim procedures NIOSH has recommended hinges upon the outcome of a fact-finding hearing at the Labor Department on Feb. 15. Prof. Maitoni, BFG, Dow Chemical, organizsd labor, and others were scheduled to testi fy-AFL-CIO was to present a uni fied, organized labor position urg ing the department to promulgate an emergency temporary standard, a procedure used earlier for 14 other carcinogens. Dr. V. K. Rowe, Dow's top toxicologist, was expect ed to oppose this procedure, asking instead (or regular rule making for a permanent standard. He suggests the deaths result from gross expo sure 10 to 30 years in the past. Ail four BFG deaths, as well as another four liver disease cases at the plant under investigation, in volved persons who cleaned poly merization reactors after this step in the suspension process for PVC. BFG has used a less hazardous cleaning process for the past five years, however. Significantly, the latency period for most cancers to develop nearly Kty: not *xpl*intd by chance matches the great growth in the U.S. PVC industry that has taken place over the past two decades or so. NIOSH estimates there are 5000 workers at risk in U.S. PVC plants and 1500 at vinyl chloride plants. NIOSH will contract out an epi demiology* study that will be inde pendent of the study on workers al ready ^der "'ey at member firms of the Manufacturing Chemists As sociation. MCA's results will not be ready for "at least two to three months," a spokesman says. Ear lier, MCA halted circulation of its 1972 safety data sheet on vinyl chloride, which stated that human carcinogenicity had not been ob served. Plastic prices get big boosts As U.S. chemical makers sort out the fine points of the recent Cost of Living Council action relaxing Phase IV price controls on petro chemicals. plastics resins, ana syn thetic fibers (C&F.N, Feb. 4, page 4), price hikes are being announced with resin makers leading the way. So far three major resin produc ers--Dow Chemical, Monsanto, and Union Carbide--have spelled out large and wide-ranging price itw creases for resins following the CLC action. These boosts come after vear in which listed chemical price* have moved up relatively modestly. According to Labor Department data, the price index fer plastic* resins and materials moved up 4.1% between December 1972 and December 1973. For chemicals and allied products the gain was 4.9%. Of course, the "gray market** price for mins and many other chemical {>roducts has been spiraling upward or some months. Among the recent price moves Monsanto has posted increases of 5 cents a pound on bulk shipments of polystyrene resins, and increases of 4 cents a pound on bulk acryloni* trile-butadiene-styrene (ABS) and styrene-acrylonitrile (SAN) resins. New price for general-purpose poly styrene is 19 cents a pound. Truckload quantities of ABS resins now range from 32 to 45 cents pound, and SAN in truckload bags is 27 cents a pound. Monsanto says that "these increases are consistent with the Cost of Living Council ac tion of Jan. 30** ana reflect in creased cost of raw materials, energy, and distribution, among other factors. Dow, citing reasons much the same as Monsanto's, has raised the price of its general-purpose polysty rene from 17 to 26 cents a pound. ABS and SAN now go for 32 cents a pound, up from 23.5 and 24 cents a pound. Price of highdensity injection- and blow-mold ing polyethylene was increased from 14.5 to 16.5 cents a pound. Dow's low-density film-grade poly ethylene is now 17 cents a pound, up from 13 cents. The company says that these new prices still do not match those of the world mar ket but should help it compete on the world market for petrochemical feedstocks. Carbide's new prices for highdensity injection- and blow-mold ing polyethylene are the same at Dows, but its low-density film grade is a bit higher at 18.5 cents a pound. SAN is now 28 cents a pound, up from 22 cents, while nigh-impact polystyrene increased from 16.5 cents a pound to 21.5 cents a pound. Carbide raised the tab on its polyvinyl chloride resin suspensions by 5 cents bringing the a CAEN Feb 18, 19?4 RSV 0006608 "J mJhi. a* -t*P Letters Chasing rainbows? Sift Once more we ere regaled by the re port of a committee composed--es usual! --"of leading educators." that of the Panel on Alternate Approaches to Graduate Edu cation (CAEN. Dec. 24. 1975. .page 351 I feet at a great disadvantage in having only the CAEN report in front of me but the ne cessity of making at least some reply be fore. hopefully, this report follows others Into obliwon. mandates a quick (and mer cifully brief) comment. Once more the universities are being told that they must buckle on their soup kitchen aprons and save society! Let s make sure that we tr*i.i these students in all those things which this panel thinks so ciety wants and yet we of the universities are so in qualified to do! The fist of shibbo leths Is breath-taking: "enhance prepara tion lor problem solving," "increase the breadth ot students' outlooks.*' "make them aware ... of Industry" (Do I get cu cumbers from sunshine or sunshine from cucumbers'* t always forget!)--away with dtecipitne-oriemed attitudes (!)--"reorient themselves to fulfill a pivotal role In socie tal planning " (I enjoyed that one!), "too many overtrained students" (whatever that means!), "each major discipline ... re-ex- amine Its ... aims and social uses." "pref erential treatment to groups hitherto dis criminated (unfairly?) agamsl (Dr. Pages pronouncements on that question In col umn 3 of page 36 were sophistry of a high order). Need < continue' One might seriously ask many questions but Surety the first one is whether, perhaps, we have not already chased too many rain bows and whether each of us Individually and departmental^ should not simply ask ourselves whether we have not already st'ayed too far from our ?;a:d of compe tence end expertise. that of educating stu dents to think in chemical terms. The hilarity engendered by the metaphor (7) at the end of the article prompted me to recall that, no doubt apocryphal, story about the great leader (or was It a commit tee') who. having exhorted his followers on to greater things, replied to the an guished question of "but what should we dp" with the ringing phrase "EVEN MORE'" Thomas M. Dunn pTO/9tSt>r Of Chemrjfry. UntrO'Htf Of Mich igan. Ann ArOO'. M<ch More on petrochemicals SiP The Jan 7 issue el CAEN (page 5) quoits the Shan ot Iran as saying. "You cannot get petrochemical products from atomic energy.'' Most of your readers will realize that statement is not quite correct. Mineral oil. the Shan s Oil. is basically a grand mixture of hydrocarbons. Given lime stone as a source of carbon. I.e. CO*, water as a source of hydiogen via electrol ysis. heat and electrical energy from nu- clear power plants and some selected cat alysts. the chemical industry can produce hydrocarbons as deseed Coal may now be a cheaper source of carbon than limestone and can yiefd either carton monoxide or dioxide, or carbon monoxide and hydrogen with addition of wale*, without nuclear en- orgy My point N that production of petro chemicals is possible without natural o4 or gas. and even without coal given nuclear energy The process it fust one ol energy conversion. The cost of hydrocarbons me this route sets an upper Him. in the long run. on the price ot oil. That upper limit is probably noi as much above me present price tpr pit as many would imagine. Much further along the road, an upper limit on the price or uranium it m turn set by the co$l of recovery from The Guff Stream tor example, and doesn t frighten me at alt. 1 do agree with the Shan in me sense mat an overall systems approach to oil consumption should be taken, and me best use be made of this nonreneweWe re source. However, i remember two lines from my first chemistry teiibook. authored by Prof. Com.in "You can make anything from saiva to a star, if ycut onty know how from black coal tar." The textbook was written before Chadwick proposed the existence of me neutron, and before oil was a commodify m me Middle East. Oeep Aver. Ont. V. H. Stevens Use your right to vote SiR. I am in accord with your editorial concern about me lack of votes sent in by ACS members >n vanous elections and other matte's where voting of the member ship is Concerned How about increasing me membership Charges for those members who can't muster enough energy to vote' As an al ternate. give reduced rates to those who are sufficiently interested >n the Society to utilize then votmq ngms. That should gath er a few more votes. R W Curtis Commercial Deve'oofnonf Oopt. Cincinnati Mitacron. C",'cinnaff. On.o No asbestos here SIR: I would like to point out that on page 19 of your Dec. 10. 1973. issue of CAEN, under me article "Asbestos health question perplexes yoy have published a picture of a cement worker shaking out a bag of UtiHy Cement which happens to be an insuiatmg cement manufactured by C-E Refractories, we have not used asbestos in this produet smee early 1972. and we cer tainly don t ecpreciare the implication that this product is one that is dangerous to workers. In the future i wm.in suggest that before using proprietary items In your articles you check with the manufacturer as to contents of materials particularly m such sensitive areas as asbestos R T. Hegeman President, C-E Refractories Va/ley Eorpe. Pa. Yes, Dominique, there are ... SIR Yes. Dommique. in sp.re of all rumors to the contmy chemists are people (CAEN. Ft> a. peg# 3) Some of us love the beauty o< sun sms and wind: some of us even writ* poem s about sunsets. A long time ago it was shown fhaf there Is a positive ce'em*on between aft human e*ce'enc>e* l you are witimg to accept large feet a* an excellency So chemists, who are wvM ?oov sve'ige m intelligence, are a'so ^uscji oood xmd, and great peop'# m . *h a tew exceptions H B Hass Sutiffit, N .e * A HS-(CH2C0*CH,)-SH Cms-linklnf ipnt and specialty monomer by addition across unsaturation --by reaction with aldehyde, ketone and acid chloride groups. ju jk + siCTi ea,c%b II i A Uli-s-mtta, tmh-s-ia i i\ aa ii-c-0 aJc-In+Ksita,ei, en,*,a ii in n I HC-t-s--{e*ice> cu.h-t-e-w ..xnin-H-n ft? ij j DATA SHEETS AND SAMPLES AVAILABLE ON REQUEST or CMemencs. me 90 Tokaneke Road Daden. Connecticut 06820 Phone: 203-AS5-A741 Cable: EVANSCMEM TWX: 710-457-3356 RSV 0006689 Feb 18. 1974 CAEN 9 ,3