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Science News A Science Service PuWieition Vo! 106 September 7, 1974/No. 10 Incorporating Science New* Letter Of the Week Carbon monoxide in blood Cancer danger from araenic Humans given cancer virus Infrared astronomy Behavior mod and the law Transatlantic record Research Notes Behavior Earth Sciences Aerospace Science Education Articles Toxicity of plastics Biological clockworks Departments Books Letters 148 149 149 150 151 151 152 152 153 153 154 156 146 147 COVER: A mosaic of plastic aerosol parts sym bolic t the ubiquity of synthetic polymers in modern society. But deaths from vinyl chloride espusure have heightened suspicions about other plastics ingredients. See p. 154. (Photo: Exxon) Publisher E. G. Sherburne Jr. Editor Kendrick Frazier Senior Editor and Physical Sciences Dietrick E. Thomsen Senior Editor and Behavioral Sciences Robert J. Trotter Biological Sciences loan Arehart-Treichel Science and Society John H. Douglas Space Sciences Jonathan Eberhart Staff Reporter Janet H. Weinberg Writer/Copy Editor Lisa J. Shawver Art Director Dale Appleman Assistant to tbe Editor Esther Gilgoff Margit Friedrich Advertising Scherago Associates, Inc. It W. 42nd St. New York, N Y. 10036 Fred W. Dicffcnbach Sale). Director Copyright 1974 by Science Service. Inc., 1719 N St.. N.W.. Washington DC. 20036. ((publication of any portion of SCIENCE NEWS it strictly prohibited. Subscription Department Z31 West Center Street Marion, Ohio 4SJ02 Subscription rate: 1 yr., S10; 2 yra,. $18: 3 yr*., *25. (Add $2 a year for Canada and Mexico. $3 tor all other countries) Change of address: Four to six weeks' notice is required. Please state aiactiy how magazina is to be addressed. Include zip code Punted in u.S.A. Second class postsge paid at Wathinrton, D.C. Esirblisned as'Scence News tetter 6 in mimeograph form March 13. 1922, Title registered as trademark U.S. and Cana dian Patent offices. Published every Saturday by SCIENCE SEP V'CE. Inc.. 1719 N St.. N.W., Washington. D.C. 20036. (202-7B5 2255). Cable SCIENSERV. To the Editor Metric pressure volts 1 have been following the comments about the metric system pressure units with great interest. As a high school teacher I try to place a little more em phasis on the metric system each year. I have been using "newtons/meter** as the basic pressure unit. I've gone to far as to suggest that the name ''pascal" will almost certainly be adopted and that the "megapascal** which would be a newton per square millimeter would therefore be the mo*: probable unit for unit stress. (I teach strength of materials, machine de sign. materials testing, etc.) After reading the various letter* to the editor that you've published (and I have no idea how many others haven't been printed), I am now a little unsure as to how to proceed. Michael A. Richardson instructor Saunders Trades and Technical High School, Yonkers N.Y. Walter Rees (SN: 7/20/74, p. 35) questioned your use of kilograms per square metre (kg/m*) in describing the surface pressure on Venus (SN: 3/16/74, p. 176). He quoted Principles of Physics, by Sears, as defining "pressure as tbe force per unit area" and expressing force "in newtons or dynes, mass in kilograms or grams and pressure in newtons/m* or dynes/cm*." He then concluded that you area instead of force per unit area." In your reply, you said: "It should have read kg/cm*. And that's how tbe Russians do it. Evidently they don't read Sears'' Apparently the Russians don't read their international agreements either--and neither do we Americans. There is only one internationally standardized metric system today--the International System of Units (SI), which has been approved by both the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A. SI obsoleted both the cgs and the mks sys tems. The only SI unit for pressure is tbe pascal (Pa), which equals one newton per square metre (N/m*) or 0.101 971 6+ kilogram-force per square metre (kgf/m*). (The confusion between kilo gram-mass and kilogram-force was one of the reasons for adopting ST.) Thus, in internationally standard units, the pres sure on Venus should have read "9.1 MPa,'' rather than "93 kg/cm*." 9USI units are described well in Inter national Standard (ISO) 1000, available from the American National Standards Institute (ansi) in New York City. ?C', Robert Spahr Site Metrication Coordinator IBM System Products Div.--East Fishkill J*Hopewell Jet.. N.Y. Halofhne findings Since 1 subscribe to Science News, 1 was very interested in tbe handling of your report on our balothane-leaming study (SN: 8/17/73, p. 103), materia) which I know intimately from my own involvement. 1 was very pleased with tbe fair and accurate presentation of our work, and the cart exercised to place it in per spective regarding its implications. It is H01 a Hading requiring further research and documentation before we can be sure that further regulation of halothane is required for human safety. I find your publication an interesting, informative and pleasant way for the busy specialist to keep abreast of the develop ments and excitement of science across the broad array of its endeavors- Your care in pointing up controversy or dis agreement about findings is particularly appreciated and helps avoid the merely sensational while retaining the Davor ot ferment in science. Robert E. Bowman Wisconsin Regional Primate Center University of Wisconsin Madison, Wis. Influencing events Reading the cheating incident at the 7iiat.-:liie fu-r Fempv k*M.-:uy (SN: 8/17/ 74, p. 100): Did anyone ever consider the possibility that the rats, finding them selves unable to psychically influence the stimulating machinery, accomplished their pleasure through control of its operator? Why not? When the Post Office logjams your magazines, you don't vent your in fluence on the mechanical sorters, do you? Or do you? Robert L. Dawes Asst, instr. Mathematics The University of Texas at Austin Austin, Texas `Confessions' response The volume of response to Jonathan Eber~ horfs article "Confessions of a Space Freak" (SN. 7/27/74, p. 51) has been astonishing. We can't possibly print even a small fraction of the letters, but we are preparing a summary, with typical short excerpts, for a future issue,--The Editor, SCIENCE SERVICE Institution for tha Popularization of Science founded 1921; a nonprofit corporation Board of Trustee*--Nominated by tbe AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE: Deborah P. Wolfe, Queens Collese of City University of New York: Bowen C. Pees, The Franklin inatituta; Athalstan Bpllhaus, National Ocoanlc end Atmospheric Administration. Nominated by the NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES: Oareld F. Tape. Associated Universities: Allen V. Aitln. Nations! Academy of Sciences: Glenn T. teeberg (President). University of California, Berkeley. Nominated by the NATIONAL RESEARCH COUNCIL: Gereld Holton, Hervard University: Joseph W. Berg Jr., National Research Council: Aaron Roianthai, National Academy of Sciences. Nominated by the JOURNALISTIC PROFESSION: Neman Cousins, 'V.'o-'d". Julius Duscha, Washington Journalism Canter; O. W. Riegcl (Secretary,. Wssh'ngton and Lee Univei'ty. Nominated by E. W. SCRIPPS TRUST: Milton Horrit (Treasurer), Washington, DC: Edward W, Scrippi II (Vice President and Chairman of tha Executive Committee). Edward W Seri Ops Trust; John Trean, Pittsburgh Press. Director: E G. Sherburne Jr.: Assistant Director: Dorothy Schriver; Business Manager. Donsld R. Harless; Things of Science: Ruby Yoehtoks. September 7, 1974 OLI 1144 147 SURPRISES FROM THE PLASTICS Dozens of plastics ingredients are now suspected of serious health effects by Janet H. Weinberg First take a billion small units and zip them up into long chain molecules. Fcr s'.rcng.h, f!1c* s ,,kc CkibiUm carbonate, clay, asbestos, fiber glass or wood flour, and couple the mixtures with organic siloxanes. For flexibility add dialkyl phthalates and maybe some epoxidized soy oil and oleic esters. For color, titanium dioxide or iron oxide or cadmium or chromium or an or* ganic dye. And don't forget stabilizers, antioxidants, ultraviolet absorbers, pre servatives, lubricants, flame retardants and antistatic agents. Once made, you can do any number of thiDgs with this synthetic soup. You can sleep on it, eat with it or take it to the beach. You can comb your hair with it, brush your teeth with it or sit on it. You can keep your beer in it or build your house with it or build an artificial heart with it. The world not nly has a voracious appetite for plas tics, but also has grown to rely on them for a virtually endless list of uses, from recreation to saving lives. In the United States alone, more than 29 billion pounds of plastics are produced each year. An estimated 2.5 million workers are engaged in mass producing them. Chemists in hundreds f industrial laboratories experiment with chemicals, combining and recom bining them into plastics with a variety f different properties. The chemicals mentioned--polymerizers, stabilizers, cross-linking agents, antioxidants, etc.-- each impart a desired property to the end product, be it strength, brittleness, flexibility, color or resistance to degra dation. There is one big yellow streak across this rosy picture, though, and it was pointed out with drama and tragedy. Many of these chemicals used to make plastics are so toxic that they affect workers' health. Earlier this year, 15 vinyl chloride workers died from a rare, chemically induced liver cancer. It now appears that not just vinyl chloride, but a host of plastics com ponents are toxic, even in tiny concen trations. And the workers are alarmed. The chemical industry, scientists and the Government are working toward a solution but the problem is too compli cated and far-reaching for quick an swers. Scientific evidence has poured in since the vinyl chloride deaths. The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (niehs), the Occupa tional Safety and Health Administra tion (osha), the National Cancer In stitute (nci) and other agencies are sponsoring toxicology research on the components of plastics manufacture. Studies were done prior to this year, of course, but the field has gained mo mentum since the vinyl chloride inci dent caught scientists with sufficient un derstanding of only the barest details of the problem. The emphasis of current research is to anticipate future lethal surprises by investigating the biologic effects of some of the more reactive and suspect chemicals. Most plastics components have known ioxic effects in animals from original industry testing, but the toxic levels in humans, and the disease pathologies and mechanisms are known for only a few. Much of the data is on vinyl chloride (SN: 8/3/74, p. 71). It now appears that exposure to small, but stilt un defined quantities of vinyl chloride can cause fibrotic lesions on the liver after only a year or so of exposure. An en zyme in the body attacks unpolymerized vinyl chloride and breaks down the molecules into monochloroethylene ox ide. This is probably the carcinogenic species that acts upon the membranes of the liver cells, eventually leading to lesion formation. Many other plastics components show evidence of harmful toxicity. Hans Weill, from the Tulane University School of Medicine, has studied health effects on workers who produce toluene diisocyanate (tdi). This compound is used in the production of polyurethane foams and as an addition to nylon 6. tdi is derived from phosgene (lethal war gas), and stringent precautions must be (and are) taken to prevent workers' exposure. By studying a newly built tdi plant, Weill found that even a single exposure to tdi could cause acute res piratory symptoms. Two or three of the plant's workers became clinically sensi tized to tdi and showed severe reac tions to tiny exposures. 154 Science News, Vol. 106 O L I 1145 'Rudy Jaeger and co-workers at the Harvard School of Public Health stud ied the specific modes f action of .several toxic substances. One, 2-CbloroJfc-butadiene, used to make neoprene ^B^nthetic rubber), causes liver dam age and hair loss. They found that this chemical, along with vinyl chloride monomer and other chemicals, has a more damaging effect on fasted test animals than fed. This is probably as sociated with the depletion of a mem brane-protective substance, Jaeger says. Sandor Szabo from the Harvard Medical School has shown that acryl onitrile, used in the production of aery!on, produces bleeding and tissue dam age to the adrenal cortex in rats. A related compound, propionitrile, pro duces duodenal ulcer. By studying a group of such related compounds, he has been able to determine that the ulcerogenic activity of a toxic substance is "mostly but not exclusively" related to a two-carbon group bearing a reac tive radical such as cyanide, nitrile, or sulfhydril. This information should help industry predict and regulate po tentially dangerous substances. Data on the lung carcinogenesis of chloromethyl-methyl ether (cmme) has been obtained by Roy Ernest Albert and co-workers at the New York Uni versity Medical Center and Benjamin jG. Ferris at the Harvard School of Public Health, cmme is used as a crossl5nk'n*! sg-nt for polymer resins, and is laced with bis-chloromethyl ether, a proven lung carcinogen in animals. Studying the records of 1.800 cmme workers from six of the seven U.S. plants that produce it, they found that as a whole, the death rate from respira tory cancer in the group exposed to cmme was double that in a similar group of unexposed workers. Evidence on the toxicity of plastics components could go on and on. As toxicologists study the effects of these chemicals on test animals and on work ers more and better data will emerge. But at this point, a very proper moral question can be posed. Although expo sure standards are set for many of these toxic substances, why have workers been exposed to chemicals whose toxic and carcinogenic effects are not com pletely known? afl-cio health director Sheldon Sam uels is an outspoken critic of the chemi cal industry on this point. "The men and women we represent," he says, re ject the "barbaric attitude that death and disease are part of the sacrifice that must be made for food, clothing and heifer." Industry and Government have een lax in researching, setting and maintaining safe standards of exposure, he says. Government agencies have been given a raft of laws and acts with which to regulate the exposures of workers, the public and the physical environment to toxic substances. But herein lies part of the problem--some feel that there are too many agencies, too many laws and too many loopholes. Farley Fisher, a chief in the Environ mental Protection Agency's office of Toxic Substances, says the current reg ulation of the plastics industry is frac tionated and therefore in some respects, ineffective. The Occupational Safety and Health Act, administered by osha, is responsible for setting exposure standards and maintaining them through the surveillance of inspectors. (Samuels charges there are too few inspectors with too many duties, and that their surveillance is ineffective. Corruption was also charged after the revelation of the now famous Guenther Memo, SN: 7/13/74, p. 23.) The Food and Drug Administration regulates the plastics that go into food and drug packaging. The Consumer Product Safety Commission regulates toys and housewares made of plastics, but neither of these agencies enforce before-the-fact testing on new or pro posed plastics, Fisher says. The epa administers the Clean Air Act and the Water Pollution Act which, respec tively, regulate harmful atmospheric emissions and water emissions that kill Ash, or injure the environment. But, Fisher says, there is no one law or governmental unit authorized to act as ? prescreenipg agency to monitor those chemicals proposed for large-scale production, and to require standardized testing on the human and environ mental health effects of the new sub stances. The epa feels this function is critically needed and has given its support to the Senate version of the Toxic Substances Control Act of 1973. It would, not surprisingly, give the ad ministrative responsibility to that agen cy's office of toxic substances. The act, called tosca, was passed on Capitol Hill after four yean of effort by many groups. The Senate and House versions are similar in several respects. Both assigned to epa the ad ministrative responsibility. Both estab lished test protocols to be followed by industry for the assessment of new (end some hazardous existing) substances. Both provide for premarket screening of chemicals and for annual reports by industry on all the chemicals it uses, develops, researches or imports. Both would establish an appointed Chemical Substances Board to review epa deci sions, and provisions are included in both bills for research, inspections, pro hibitions and penalties, and for the es tablishment of relationships between this law and the plethora of others. A member of the Senate Commerce Committee st2ff, Len Bickwit, says that although both bills were passed last year and a conference committee was convened to hammer out an acceptable compromise, no action has taken place in conference in about nine months. "There are two major stumbling blocks t a resolution of the differences," he says. 'The Senate bill is more c mpre- hensive and tougher. The first differ ence is the extent of premarket screen ing required. Both envision a list of dangerous chemicals and a requirement of testing all the chemicals on this list. But the Senate calls for premaiket noti fication by the industry to the epa of all chemicals developed, their struc tures and proposed uses. Then the agency would decide for each one if restrictions should be made or testing required.'* > Under the RKqp bill the epa would have to compilejl list of substances likely to pose Mbilantial danger to health or environment, then companies would have to submit premarket infor mation only on listed chemicals. Another major difference is that the Senate bill says when two or more laws exist for regulating a certain chemical, the epa will use the toughest or most effective one available. The House bill says use the other law (not tosca), no matter how ineffective. Both sides discontinued conference meetings when a compromise could n t be easily reached, and have met only once since to consider a compromise bill worked out by the staffs of both com mittees involved, efa officials auJ others are urging the conference to re convene before the end of the Congres sional session in December. There is much disagreement outside of Congress on the provisions of the bill. "The whole chemical industry is against the Senate bill," Bickwit says, and it has been lobbying for the House bill. A spokesman for the Manufactur ing Chemists .Association in Washing ton enunciated their position. "The manufacturers are competent to make our own determinations of whether our test results meet osha and epa standards. We feel this bill would rep resent an unacceptable burden on the epa and it would bring about delays in the development of new chemicals." Large companies, he said, generally favor the House bill, but smaller com panies "take a dim view of any legisla tion in this area." Elmer Fike, owner of the Fike Chemical Co. of Nitro, W. Va., exem plifies that view: "I think this bill is horrible and I don't see how a small company can survive with this burden of additional testing. The bill says, in effect, you can't make a chemical until you test it. Our company makes one of the most toxic chemicals in this coun try, ethyifluoroacetate. If this law were in effect 10 years ago, we couldn't have developed it. Because we did and it was Continued on page 157 September 7, 1974 OLI 1146 155 ... Plastics available to researchers, they were able t use it as an intermediate in an im portant cancer drug, "I think the guys down in Washing ton just get law happy. We in the chem ical business, especially the small com pany, think this thing can be taken care of by voluntary means." Small chemical companies generally don't have testing facilities and budgets comparable to larger companies, but some critics feel the dangers warrant \ increased spending and vigilance. A Providence, Md., physician, Pietro U. Capurro, recently made public bis re search (and growing alarm) about the high death rate in that town from simi lar cancers since a small chemical com pany opened there in 1961. Residents (presumably affected by air pollution) as well as plant workers have died in larger than expected numbers. While disagreement and inactivity continue on amending Government reg ulation, there is a consensus on the need for more research on new and existing components of plastic manufacture. Several Government and university sci } entists made eloquent statements at a recent niems meeting in North Carolina on the need for more research funds and more toxicologists, niehs Director Njus: Looking for mutant rhythms. David P. Raul says flatly, "The Govern ment has just not allocated enough of fieial membrane, ion movement through its scarce resources to environmental the membrane changed. research." osha health division admin if the cell membrane is indeed the istrator John P. O Neill soys hs agency* site of the biological clock, which com is now considering additional standards ponents of the membrane might serve for several plastics components based as mediators of ions passing through? on toxicology research, but "priorities The Harvard biologists propose that ion have to be set for developing these fluxes, both passive and active, would standards because of limited adminis probably be mediated by proteins in trative and research funds. The pro the membrane. But the properties of gram will be greatly assisted as more the proteins in turn probably depend on data are available. When the standards the fluidity of lipids in the membrane. were first written for the implementa Since circadium rhythms are tempera tion of osha, it became evident that ture-compensated--the rhythms change there were very little data available on little with any change in temperature-- the impact of chemicals on workers. and since lipids in membranes are Actually, much of the data we would known to adapt to temperature, mem need to establish effective standards lie brane lipids could well be the ultimate in industry. They have experience with key to the biological clock. different control methods and workable The Harvard biological team is now standards, and these data are necessary trying to test their model experimental if we are to avoid setting ivory tower ly. They agree that it's a tough chal standards. lenge. Cell structures and functions can "At this point," says O'Neill, "I think often be studied or measured by grind it would behoove the chemical industry ing cells up. But biological rhythms are to establish some strict exposure stand neither structures nor functions, but a ards for themselves. Just because a phenomenon. "As soon as we grind up chemical is not known to be toxic or the cell, the rhythms are gone," Njus deleterious at the time, there is no rea laments. So they are taking another son industry should permit unlimited tack: isolating dinoflagellates whose bio exposure to the workers as is now done logical rhythms deviate from the norm, in some cases. They should take infor then looking to see whether the mu mation from the list of hazardous tants have mutated proteins in their chemicals already established by ntosh, membranes. "If isolated mutants have examine these chemicals in their own similar changes in their membrane plants and control them now, and not structures," says Njus, "then it might wait for laws to be passed or for work be a key to the clock." P ers* health to be impaired." 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They are, by definition, unbalanced systems in which the rate of production of organic material by living organisms exceeds the rate at . which these compounds are respired * end degraded. The result Is an ac- ./ Cumulation of a proportion of this pro duction as an organic deposit which we term peat. In view of the ecological and eco-. nomic importance of peatlands. this book surveys in detail the results of the vast amount of research through out the world on the various aspects of mires and peat production. A full bibliography is provided at the con clusion of each chapter. 1973. viii. 221p. 61 illus. cloth/$12.00 ISBN 0-387-91112-X Place your order today1' Springer-Verlag New York Inc. 175 Fifth Avenue New York, NY 10010 OLI 1147 157