Document 9JKrJnZoN0wdM1O8DBBkkmvwL

technology URL 05162 A mw process lor making glycol from syngas Union Carbide and Ube Industries (Tokyo) have signed an agreement for the joint development of a process to make ethylene glycol from synthesis gas. Both companies are running pilot plants and Carbide says that it expects the new route to be commercial ized in the expansion round that will follow its current building plans in Alberta, Canada. Ube has built the first commercial plant to make oxalic add from syn thesis gas. And the technology under development now is related to that The syngas will be converted into oxalates, presumably dialkyl oxalates, which will be hydrogenated at low pressure and low temperature to ethylene glycol. Carbide has been working for Borne time on a different approach to ethylene glycol from synthesis gas that employs a rhodium-complex cata lyst But it requires high pressures, and the company's patents indicate that the process also turns out large amounts of methanoL The Ube approach, some think, will prove easier to commercialize, although corrosion could present a problem for a commercial plant. A study Mis to link scrykmHrils to eancor Results of a study of the mortality of acrylonitrile workers by the U.K. Health and Safety Executive and Britain's Chemical Industries Assn, have failed to confirm the compound's carcinogenic effect in man. However, the authors urge continued surveillance of acrylonitrile workers. The study of 1411 men, who worked in six facilities from 1950 to 1968, found a statistically insignificant excess in the number of cancer deaths, although there were significant excesses in the number of deaths from stomach cancer and, among young men, from lung cancer. The British study follows a milar project at Du Pant's Camden, S.C., plant, where the incidence of cancer among acrylonitrile workers was shown to be higher than that for Du Pont workers in general. ~OTmw design tor a IHiidtzed-bed coal combustor A fluidized-bed system developed at Battelle Colum bus Laboratories is looking for commercial backers. Herman Nack, a Battelle researcher and co-inventor of the process, says an eight-year development pro gram has shown that the process offers an excellent response to load changes, minimal erosion and corro sion of boiler tubes, and easy startup and restart Among the mechanical features is a denae-bed region at the bottom of the combustor through which unreacted fuel and sorbent material is recirculated. Heat-exchanger tubes are separated from the combus tor. The design is easily adapted to modular construc tion, allowing much of the equipment to be fabricated in a factory, rather than field-erected. Battelle has licensed Strothers Wells to build the unit for enhanced oil-recovery applications, and is negotiating for applications in pulp-liquor recovery, process heat ers and steam boilers. A coal gasification profset Is on schedule The $135-million KilnGas project at Wood River, 111., to process 600 tons/day of high-sulfur coal into a medium-Btu gas for an Illinois power station boiler is under budget and on schedule. Allis-Chalmers Coal Gas, a consortium of utilities, and the state of Illinois are funding the project, which is scheduled to be completed by fall 1982. Thomas Dineen, president of A-C Coal Gas, now figures the cost of gas from the plant at $5.25/million Btu. That is up from a 1980 estimate of $4.50/million Btu, but Dineen figures a utility can generate electricity with the process for "about half the cost of a nuclear plant," or about "$950/installed kilowatt." A-C believes it can market 6,000 Mw. of capacity by 1990, even if the government provides no incentives to convert from gas and oil. Tax credits could boost the market to 18,000 Mw. The major equipment change to convert an existing boiler to the fuel is replacement of the burners, which Dineen estimates is 3% of the total capital cost. He notes that a utility could make up that cost by going into the fertilizer * A 1,000-Mw plant burning high-sulfur coal could produce about 400 tons/day of sulfur and 20-30 tons of ammonia. IfTRI seeks becking (or In-situ oil roeovery Faced with a loss of Energy Dept funding for an in titu method of recovering oil from tar sands and oil shale, the Tltinois Institute of Technology Research Institute (HTRI) is turning to major oil companies for hacking. James Krstanaky, program manager for the project, says the researchers hope to find "single source" financing. The firm is looking for $8 million to get the technology "to the point where we could design a pilot plant" The process uses radio-frequency ener gy to uniformly heat the oil deposits. It has been tested on a 25-eu-m tar-sand plot yielding 8 bbl of oil for refining and 12 gal of higher distillates. The yield would translate to about 680/bbl crude oil, says HTRI. The oil-shale version of the process has been tested on a 10-cu-m plot The Energy Dept has invested about $5 million in the research project IITRI thinks four or five more years of research will be needed before it can propoee a demonstration-sized operation on the order of 50,000 bbl/day for oil shale and 100,000 bbl/day for tar sands. HTRI says companies that have considered investment so far are more interested in tar sands. 23. 1M1/Cwnfc Wak 43 From triphenylphosphine and mixed alkyl aryl phos phines for homogeneous catalysis to organometallics for polyurethane, silicone or esterification catalysis, M&T Chemicals has many of the catalysts you need for your most rigid applications. One reason why is that we've been developing, supplying and using organometallic chemicals for more than 70 years. So we have a lot of experience and technical know-how that may be of help to you--yours for the asking. For a free 4-ounce sample of our triphenylphosphine, or for more information on any of our other commercially available organometallic catalysts, call or write M&T Chemicals Inc., P.O. Box 1104, Rahway, NJ 07065. (201)499-2331. M8T CHEMICALS NG 4 CtEN Auq.31, 1981 Newscripts />.~u by K. M. Reese Recent news of novel transmission for cars A recent discussion of the variablespeed transmission for automobiles (C&EN, July 20, page 64) has elicited further information from Alan Goodson of Columbus, Ohio. Goodson says "that other fine magazine (Road & Track) has in formed its readers" that a Dutch auto maker, DAF, has been using a vari able-speed transmission in its small cars for years. Volvo absorbed DAF a few years ago, he says, and tried the transmission in a larger car, but it did not compare favorably with a regular automatic transmission. More recently, according to Goodson (according to Road & Track), Fiat has been working with a modified variable-speed transmission. The variable-speed transmission involves a system of belts and pulleys. It absorbs more power than a regular transmission, but in principle im proves a car's fuel economy by per mitting the engine to run for longer periods at its most efficient speed. Dehydrated celery studied for use by military It has been said, possibly by Naj^oleon, that an army travels on its stomach. The wisdom of this maxim evidently has carried military food science well beyond the point where a cook who could make acceptable ice cream from powdered milk was worth a couple of Lana Turner movies and a second-round draft choice. A current example is dehydrated celery. Early results of an evaluation of the current version of this product were presented by Margaret Driver before the ACS Division of Agricul tural & Food Chemistry at last week's national meeting in New York City. Driver and colleagues A. R. Rahman and I. A. Taub are with the Army Natick Research & Development Laboratories, Natick, Mass. Dehydrated celery is an important salad ingredient for military people aboard submarines or stationed in arid climates. The advantages of the product, Driver notes, are compact ness, continuous availability* and uniform quality. The trick is to make a product that rehydrates to a celery of more acceptable crispness and turgor (the distension of the proto plasmic layer and wall of a plant cell by its fluid contents). A process for making dehydrated celery was developed at the Western Regional Laboratory of the Depart ment of Agriculture, according to Driver. As now used, the process in volves blanching, treatment before dehydration with aqueous mixtures containing salts and various concen trations of humectants, such as polyols or gums, and air-drying at 110 to 120 F. Evaluation of the product is still under way. However, Driver says, the results to date indicate that treat ment before dehydration with texturizing formulations containing 10% polyol will yield a product that can be rehydrated to a celery with good acceptability. The rehydrated celery compares well with the natural product in terms of color, flavor, and texture. Comforting calculations on _ the Medfly spraying The decision in California to douse the Mediterranean fruit fly with malathion from the sky prompted Fred eric French of Portola Valley in that <Z state to send in some comforting cal culations. According to the "Merck Index'' 3D r* o C/1 (ninth edition), French says, mala- CO thion is 1.75 times as toxic as aspirin, CO "using the popular assumption that people are similar to rats." To get the same toxicity as a 5-grain tablet of aspirin, he adds, "one would have to injest* 175 mg of malathion." The aerial-spray dosage of mala thion used in San Mateo County and the Santa Clara Valley area of Cali fornia was 2.5 oz per acre or 1.627 mg per sq ft, French reports. Thus to take aboard 175 mg, he says, one would have to lick up the malathion that falls on 107.64 sq ft. He suggests that "the earnest experimentaJist" could arrange to do this with least difficulty by setting out a clean glass slab, 10 feet square, just before the spraying. * Spelled that way in jest, no doubt. Department of obscure Information Some 6000 septic tanks are in stalled annually in the state of Okla homa. Oil accounts for more than 30% of Venezuela's gross national product. Editor's Page URL 05164 The image and reality of chemistry Alfred Bader is chairman and chief executive officer of Aldrich Chemical. He spoke earlier this year at an awards ceremony at the University of Wisconsin, Milwaukee. Here are excerpts from what he had to say. When I was a student at Harvard in the forties, the profession of chemistry was regarded very highly, and many of the ablest students wanted to become chemists. Ask the man on the street then what he associated with chemistry and his answer was likely to be "vitamins or new drugs, plastics, a better life." Ask the man on the street today and his answer is likely to be "cancer" or "pollution." The reasons for this change are manifold and complex, and I would like to touch on just a few of these. Cancer is on everybody's mind at least some of the time, and of course in a roundabout way chemical research is responsible for many deaths by cancer. For cancer is an illness of old age. Research in medicinal chemistry has helped to double our life span in the last century, and so naturBily many more people die of cancer. Another reason is that, unfortunately, as a profession we have done a very poor job edu cating the public and the media. Let me give you an example taken at random from many that come to mind. Some months ago the Milwaukee Journal had bold headlines on the front page that 2 ppb of benzene had been found in the water of a well near a chemical company in Port Washington. Two ppb--i wonder what the editor would say if someone pointed out to him that gasoline contains 2% benzene, and 2% is 10 million times as much as 2 ppb! Now, of course, we don't drink gasoline, but I am sure that many gas station operators oc casionally have traces of gasoline get into their coffee or their drinking water, and then it's likely to be much more than 2 ppb. The Milwaukee Journal is a very responsible newspaper. It is we, the scientists, who have done a poor job in communicating with the media about the significance or insignificance of such findings as 2 ppb of benzene. Here, of course, is yet another reason for the disrepute of chemists and chemicals: Our analytical methods have gotten bettor and better and pretty soon we'll be able to show that everything is everywhere, at least in some amounts. Like 2 ppb. Of course, yet another reason for the disrepute of chemistry is that some companies have been negligent and have polluted the environment, and it is almost comical to see some of these very companies trying to change their image by deleting the name "chemical" from their corporate names. The reality of the matter is that chemists have contributed very heavily to the quality of life. Many of us wouldn't be alive at our age had we been bom in the 17th century, and life all around us has been improved by chemistry. The image of chemistry is much worse than the reality, and the bright high school student seeing America slowly sinking into a cesspool of chemicals on the cover of Time magazine wants no part of chemistry. Therefore, you will find that because chemistry is today associated with cancer and pollution many fewer of the brilliant young students will enter chemistry, and the quality of chemical research will decline and so will the rate of improvement of the quality of life. White many able chemists will cfeayee with me, l believe that historians of science looking at the 20th century will conclude that pure synthetic organic chemistry peaked shortly after the middle of this century. Once Woodward had synthesized such enormously difficult compounds as vitamin B12 and strychnine, everything else seemed almost anticlimactic. From then on, the great contribution of chemical research is in Hs application to biochemistry, to understanding the chemistry of life. If fewer and fewer really outstanding students enter chemistry--as is now happening--that understanding will come about very much more slowly. Research scientists are the locksmiths to a better life, and only when society as a whole, and our government, and our media understand this, will there be a change. View* expressed on Ms peps ere Vioee of * author only not neoessvHy those of ACS Sept. 14, 1981 CAEN S BOOKSHELF URL 05165 Safe Handling of Chemical Carcinogens, Mutagens, Teratogens and Highly Toxic Substances. 2 vols. by Douglas B. Walters Ann Arbor Science Publishers, Inr., If) Tower Office Park, Woburn, Mass. 662 pages. $33.95 for each Volume. Reviewed by Wesley R. Van Pelt, Manager, Industrial Hygiene Dept., Hoffmann-La Roche foe., Sutley, N.J. This two-volume set, complete with bright red and white cover, is a compi lation of material derived from the symposium "Safe Handling of Chemi cal Carcinogens, Mutagens, and Tera togens--The Chemists' Viewpoint" at the American Chemical Soc./Chemi cal Soc. of Japan Chemical Congress, Honolulu, in April 1979. Like so many costly, multiple-author confer ence proceedings of the "environmentsafety-ecology" milieu, this work has the potential of being shallow, uncriti cal, disjointed, out-of-date and gener ally useless. In fact, the exact opposite is true here. A superb job has been done in editing this book. For its intended pur pose (a practical reference for the research chemist who uses carcinogens or other nasties), the work lives up to expectations. The editor has chosen his coauthors well. They appear to have first-hand knowledge of their particu lar areas, which leads to a clear and critical review of the literature. Refer ences are numerous and as recent as 1978. The six major chapters are: "Labo ratory Design, Handling and Manage ment"; "Chemical Monitoring and Medical Surveillance"; ".Informational Needs and Chemical Classification"; "Structure-Activity and Toxicity Pre diction"; "Spill Control, Degradation, and Deactivation"; and "Disposal". This is a practical book, describing the state of the art. However, the reader may be disappointed when the state of current knowledge leads to the often-heard conclusion "more research is needed." For example, the chapter on photodegradation of carcinogens such as the nitrosamines describes seemingly contradictory experiments on the effec tiveness of light in destroying these molecules. Sometimes light works, but more often it results in only partial destruction or the formation of equally toxic breakdown products. Even the popular aluminum-foil/alkali method for nitrosamines is shown to produce the potent carcinogen 1,2-dimethyihy- drazine. On the other hand, some problem solutions are given in almost recipe style. Several chapters describe in great detail successful methods of packaging small vials of carcinogens for storage or transportation. This book will be valuable to research chemists, industrial hygie nists, and others who need to deal with small quantities of highly toxic chemi cals. IN RAPID REVIEW Unit Conveniens and Formulas Manual. By Nicholas P. Cheremisinoff and Paul N. Cheremisinoff. Ann Arbor Science Pub lishers Inc., Iff Tower Office Park, Woburn, Mass. 171 pages. Paperback. $8.95- A collection of tables showing con versions from one unit to another, together with general formulas often encountered in the fields of: electrical engineering; general chemistry; hydraulics; mathematics; heat transfer; and statics and dynamics. There is also a section on general conversions and one on fan laws and formulas. Handbook of Organic Industrial Sol vents. 5th ed. Order directly from: Alliance of American Insurers, 20 N. Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL 60606, 12* pages. Paperback. $4.20 (includes firstclass mailing). Physical 'and chemical properties are tabulated for a wide range of organic industrial solvents. Health, -skincontact, fire, and explosion hazards are listed. Engineering controls are described; information is given on waste disposal methods. Introduction to Modern Electronics. By Julien C. Sproo. John Wiley & Sons, New York. 349 pages. $24.95. College text that assumes knowledge of introductory physics and calculus. Among the topics covered are: direct-current, transient, and sinusoi dal and other time-dependent circuits; vac uum tubes and transistors; amplifiers, oscillators, and optoelectronic devices; digi tal circuits; communications electronics. A Guidebook to Nuclear Reactors. By Anthony V. Nero, Jr. University of Cali fornia Press, Berkeley, Calif. 1979. 289 pages. Paperback. $9.95. The four parts of this volume include: A General Introduc tion to Nuclear Reactors; Commercial Nuclear Reactors (including pressurized- CHEMICALENGINEERING SEPTEMBER 7. IMI NUS provides sampling and analysis programs for the control of Polychlo rinated Biphenyls (PCB's) Electricaltransformers and other sources must be carefully monitored for the pres ence of PCB's. NUS Corporation's major laboratory facilities m Pitts burgh and Houston can support your efforts in monitoring PCB's in fluids and for routine and emer gency environmental monitoring programs. Detail-oriented documen tation of procedures and certification of PCB content assure you of accu rate, permanent and retrievable records. Call our toll free number at 800-245-2730 or contact the Houston lab directly at 713-488-1810 and put Cyrus Wm. Rice Division's nearly 70 years of expenence to work for you. NUS CORPORATION A Halliburton Company NUS. Corporation ' Cytus Wm. Rice Division P.O. Box 330 Pittsburgh. Pennsylvania 15230 NUS Corporation Cyrus Wm. Rice Division 900. Gemini Avenue Dear Lake City Houston, Texas 77058 EOE . Ctrcto 4St on Reader Service Card 151 Newscripts y K. M. Reese URL 05166 Pure and simple. M&T tnphenylphosphine is over 99% pure. Its oxide content is less than 1%. And chlorine h and ash are typically less than 25 and 100 parts per million respectively. That's the pure part, here's the sim ple Our tnphenylphosphine is quick and easy to obtain. We ship standard 1 and 5 lb containers and 25. 50 and 220 lb drums from stock. We can even meet your needs for truckloads. All of which means if you're looking for a ligand for use in homogenous cataly sis. a chemical inter mediate or a reagent in Wittig chemistry, you've come to the right place. For a free 4-ounce sample of our triphenylphosphine to test, analyze and evaluate in your application, contact M&T Chemicals Inc., PO. Box 1104 Rahway, NJ 07065. (201)499-2331. MST CHEMICALS NC. 4 4* C&ENAup. 3.1M1 Hazards poaad by newts and dtnoflagellates In the news this week are a couple of hazardous organisms, an Oregon rough-skinned newt (Taricho gran ulosa) and a dinoflagellate (Gonyaulax catenella). The newt was involved in an inci dent reported by physician Susan Bradley and pharmacist Larry Klika of Coos Bay, Ore. (Journal of the American Medical Association, July 17, page 247). A 29-year-old man drank about 150 mL of whiskey be fore noon one day in July and at 6 PM ate a 20-cm rough-skinned newt on a dare. His Ups were tingling within 10 minutes. During the next two hours he complained of numbness and weakness, but refused to see a doctor. He then suffered a cardiopulmonary arrest. The patient was taken to a hospital, where strenuous resuscitative mea sures were applied. At the same time, Bradley and Klika called various poison control centers around the country. They finally reached a biol ogist who tola them about the toxicity of the newt, but by then it was 2:30 AM, and the patient died soon after. The toxin turned out to be tetro- dotoxin (CuHnNsOg), which occurs in at least 40 species of puffer fish and certain newts. It causes muscular paralysis resulting in hypotension and respiratory arrest A 10-g, rough skinned newt has been reported to contain, on the average, some 250 fig of toxin, enough to kill 1600 white mice by injection. With the exception of man, mammals familiar with the newt refuse to eat it The hazardous dinoflagellate mentioned above is the cause of par alytic shellfish poisoning (PSP). This kind of poisoning is a major problem in California, according to a rundown fay reporter Shirley Hudgins in Sea Grant Today (May/June 1981-- published by the extension division, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University). The problem is being studied by biologists Bernard Abbott and Mans Ross at the Uni versity of Southern California with support from the Sea Grant program of the National Oceanic & Atmo spheric Administration. They're working with Gary Kleppel of the Southern California Coastal Water Research Project, The toxic agent in PSP is saxitoxin ((CioHi7NtO^,+]. The oompound occurs in G. catenella as part of a larger molecule. Shellfish who eat toe one-celled dinoflagellate simply store the larger molecule because their di gestive systems, being nonacidic, do not break it down. When humans eat the shellfish, however, their digestive systems release the toxin. Ingestion of only a few shellfish producespassing nausea and stomach cramps. Many such cases probably are diagnosed as a touch of some other common ailment. However, ingestion of enough of the contami nated shellfish can cause death within a few hours. The toxin blocks sodium transport in the nervous system. The victim feels numbness around the lips and then in the stomach and eventu ally suffers total paralysis. PSP was first reported in this country in 1903. Some 400 cases and 30 deaths were reported during 1927-80. In 1980 alone, 100 cases and three deaths were reported. A professorial exchange The other day in Washington, D.C., there was a meeting concerned with the conservation of stone buildings and monuments. The work is highly interdisciplinary, and those present included a professor of geology who knows about atone, but not neces sarily very much about conservation, and a professor trained in chemistry whose specialty is conservation of historic and aesthetic works. The premeeting chitchat revealed that petroleum companies are snapping up young geologists at handsome salaries as fast as the schools can crank them out--faster, actually, because toe companies also are snapping them up from each other. At thin point, the geologist and the chemist engaged in toe following exchange: Geologist: "I have a master's candi date in geology who's decided she wants to go into conservation. What kind of program would you recom mend?" Chemist: "How about psycho therapy?" Department of obscure Information - The Mediterranean fruit fly does .Aot eat California iceberg lettuce. Japan consumed 7.6 billion cubic meters of water in 1975. 475 Current Report URL 05167 Carcinogen* NIOSH Responds UNION CARBIDE FINDS NO CORRELATION BETWEEN CANCER CASES, PLANT EXPOSURES Epidemiological studies by Union Carbide Corporation failed to find any correlation between brain cancer cases discovered at a Union Carbide petrochemical plant in Texas City. Texas, and employee exposures to chemicals used or manufactured at the facility, the company announced Nov. 11. In a letter mailed to each employee at Texas City, Plant Manager Damon L. Single and Plant Physician David H. Glenn said that the excessive occurrence of brain cancer "may represent a chance occurrence" and is not a result of any chemical exposure at the plant. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported last year that they had found 18, and possibly as many as 25. brain cancer cases among employees at the Texas City plant That was about twice the incidence rate found among the surrounding population, the agencies re ported {Current Report. Oct. SO, 1980. p. 57S). Union Carbide's study, begun in 1979, found 12 deaths due to primary malignant brain cancer among the 6,588 Texas City employees studied. By comparison with U.S. rates, 7.42 cases would have been expected, the company stated. The overall mortality rate of employees working at Texas City since 1941 is "significantly less" than the national average. 765 observed compared with 923.82 expected, ac cording to the compaoy. Three reasons for labeling the four or five excess deaths a chance occurrence were given by Engle and Glenn: The company was unable to associate the deaths with any particular chemical exposures. The types of brain cancer found are present in the same percentages as those seat among the general population. Ordinarily, the company maintained, chemically caused cancer is a specific and often unusual type, different than those seen in the general population. Excessive brain cancer has not been confirmed in any chemical plant similar to the Carbide facility in any other part of the U.S. "There is no cause for alarm," the company officials told the Texas City employees. They added that deaths due to cancer, "however small in number," will "continue to re ceive our attention and concern," and that Carbide will continue its investigations and cooperation with NIOSH in the agency's own on-going study. Union Carbide said it expects that the NIOSH study will reflect conclusions similar to thoae of the Carbide investiga tion Both studies used a common data base that includes the health and work histories of 6,588 workers who have been employed at the Texas City plant since 1941, according to the company. Current standards and practices at the Texas City facility "provide more than adequate protection from known health hazards," Union Carbide asserted The Carbide study was reviewed by Dr. Brian McMahon of Harvard University and and Dr. Philip Enterline of the University of Pittsburgh. A spokeswoman for the National Institute for Occupation al Safety and Health, while stressing that the institute was pleased with the cooperative professional relationship it has experienced with Union Carbide, nonetheless questioned some of the company's interpretations of the data. Spokeswoman Deborah Van Brunt told BNA Nov. 16 that, although NIOSH could corroborate the overall results re ported by the company, an additional finding was made of a threefold increased risk among employees who worked at the plant 20 years or longer. In addition, NIOSH said it was aware of 23 -- not 12 -- brain cancer cases, as reported in its preliminary findings in August 1980. The institute also took issue with the three reasons stated by Carbide for speculating that the excess may have been due to chance. First, the institute acknowledged that the the failure to find a correlation between particular exposures and the cases was "important evidence" but maintained that such evidence does not rule out an occupational hazard as the cause. Van Brunt added that the cause may be traceable instead to a class of chemicals or certain chemicals in combination with one another. Second, the institute stated that brain cancer in general, as well as the types of brain cancer found at the plant, indeed represent an unusual and specific cause of death Five such deaths usually are found among 100.000 white males in the general population, the institute maintained, making it the sort of "unusual " cancer attributed to chemi cal exposures by Carbide. In addition, the institute ques tioned that company assumption, saying that common types of cancer are related to occupational exposures as often as are unusual types. Third, the institute, while acknowledging that no similar excess had been confirmed at other locations, contended that unconfirmed higher-than-expected incidence rates found at several plants "raise a very strong suggestion of brain cancer as an occupational hazard.' NIOSH gave as an example a Union Carbide plant at South Charleston, W Va.. which it said used similar chemicals to those at the Texas City facility. A twofold brain cancer excess was found there. it noted. _____ _ Appropriation* HOUSE APPROVES STOPGAP FUNDING BILL, REJECTING PROPOSAL FOR IMMEDIATE CUTS The House of Representatives Nov. 16 approved a continu ing resolution that would provide stopgap funding through the end of this fiscal year for the Occupational Safety and Health Administration and other agencies not yet appropri ated funds by Congress. The bill (HJRes 357) was passed by a vote of 195 to 187 after the House rejected by 201 to 189 a White-House backed amendment seeking to institute a 5 percent funding reduc tion in levels set by the stopgap legislation. The across-theboard amendment, introduced by House Minority Leader Robert Michel (R-Hl), was seen as an attempt to put into law at least part of the President's September request for a sweeping 12 percent cut in domestic programs. The new continuing resolution will affect OSHA. the Na tional Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, and the Occupational Safety & Health Reporter 00-3?3? SI'SOO SO 972 NAS has not yet decided whether to make copies of the report available for public distribution. For further informa tion, contact the NAS Board on Toxicology and Environmen tal Health Hazards. (202) 334-2216. Hazardous Wait* COURT GIVES ERA FEBRUARY DEADLINE FOR LAND DISPOSAL FACILITY RULES Regulations setting design and operation standards for existing hazardous waste land disposal facilities must be issued by the Environmental Protection Agency by Feb. 1, 1932, a federal district court judge ordered Nov. 13 (Illinois v. Gorsuch, D C. D C., Nos. 78-1*89, 78-1715, 78-1734, and 78-1899). EPA Administrator Anne M. Gorsucb had asked the court to grant EPA a delay until fall 1983 to issue the final standards for permitting hazardous waste land disposal facilities (Current Report, Oct. 23, p 813). The rules, mandated by Section 3004 of the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act of 1978, were to be estab lished by April 18,1978. In his order. Judge Gerhard A. Geaell noted that EPA already had missed two court-ordered deadlines and that it now, "incomprehensibly, seeks a further two-year extension cm the most shallow showing." Gesell said Gorsucb told the court that EPA's prior re search and analyses, which were to be the basis for resolv ing complicated technical and policy issues, were conducted inadequately by the Carter Administration. However, the judge said, the 18-month deadline set by RCRA for issuing the rules "indicates that Congress did not direct the agency to resolve every conceivable problem before issuing regulations." EPA can satisfy the requirements of RCRA and the agency's "lingering technical and policy concerns" by issu ing the regulations and revising them later, if "understand ing and expertise expand," Gesell added. No Jurisdiction on Rotated (sous In other action in the case, Gesell declined to order EPA to reverse its decision to suspend temporarily the issuing of permits for existing and new surface storage impoundments and incinerators (Aug. 7, p. 435). Gesell said the agency had argued that comments re ceived on these regulations indicated the rules, which apply to pits, ponds, lagoons, and incinerators, were "technically and economically infeasible." In accordance with his December 1979 order, Gesell continued, EPA, in January 1981, issued the regulations and has since taken action to suspend them. While the court had ordered the agency to imue the rules, the judge said, the court does not intend to "undertake a continuing supervision of the agency's implementation of its responsibilities after deadlines have been met." Unless it can be shown that EPA's suspension of its regulations constituted a "bad-faith effort to evade the court's order," the case is closed in the district court, be added. Gesell said it would appear that the suspension action, without prior notice or comment period, "is the type of agency action subject to exclusive review" in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. CHEMICAL REGULATION REPORTER The two decisions came in a suit brought by Illinois, two environmental groups, and the National Solid Waste Man agement Association to compel EPA to issue the hazardous waste rules as required by RCRA. The Environmental Defense Fund Inc., one of the environ mental groups, in this case and in a separate petition for review filed Sept. 18 with the appellate court (Environ mental Defense Fund, Inc. v. Gorsuch, No. 81-2025) challenged the legality of EPA's suspension of permit processing. EDF argued that suspension of permitting would prevent from being put into effect the environmental protections for which RCRA was enacted. EPA recently was granted an extension for filing its record in the appellate court case, pending the rendering of an opinion by the district court. WlrwWpiflV UNION CARBIDE FMDS NO CORRELATION BETWEEN CANCER CASES, PLANT EXPOSURES Epidemiological studies by Union Carbide Corp. failed to find any correlation between brain cancer cases discovered at a UniM Carbide petrochemical plant in Texas City, Texas, and employee exposures to chemicals used or manu factured at the facility, the company announced Nov. 11. Zo a letter mailed to each employee, Plant Manager Damon L. Engle and Plant Physician David H. Glenn said that the excessive occurrence of brain cancer "may repre sent a chance occurrence" and is not a result of any chemi cal exposure at the plant. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health reported last year that they had found 18, and possibly as many as 25, brain cancer cases among employees at the Texas City plant That was about twice the rate found among the surrounding population, the agencies reported (Current Report, Oct 31,1989, p. 995). Three reasons for labeling the four or five excess deaths a chance occurrence were given by Engle and Glenn: The company was unable to associate the deaths with any particular chemical exposures. The types of brain cancer found are present in the same percentages as those seen among the general population. Ordinarily, the company maintained, chemically caused cancer is a specific and often unusual type, different than those seen in the general population. v Excessive brain cancer has not been confirmed in any chemical plant similar to the Carbide facility in any other part of the U.S. A spokeswoman for NI06H disagreed with the company's interpretation of the data. Deborah Van Brunt told BNA Nov. 16 that, although NIOSH could corroborate the overall results reported by the company, an additional finding was made of a threefold increased risk among employees who worked at the plant 20 yean or longer. In addition, NIOSH said it was aware of 23 -- not 12 -- brain cancer cases, as reported in its prelimi nary findings in August 1989. IV institute also took issue with the three reasons stated by Carbide for that the excess may have been due to chance. 11-27-81 Copyright e 1981 by The Burseu of National Affairs, me. eM*-7S73/S1/M0.90 URL 05169 Technically speaking legislation imposing strictures on substances that might harm the environment often timit discharges to a few parts per million. For a fresh look at what a small figure this is, consider that one part per million Is equal to: --One inch in 16 miles: --One minute in two years: --A one gram needle in e ton of hey; -One penny in Si0,000; --One ounce of salt in 62,500 pounds (ol food); --One drop of Vermouth in 60 "fifths''--a vary dry martini! Rah Ghamecotogy. May 1971