Document MMb8qDJ8Y61pppGXE01KdxxOy

R.B.Downey C.R. Flynn D/5426 D/5470 12-16-74 Attached la a copy of an article taken from European Chemical Neva, issue dated November 15, 1974, which verifies the VCM Standards in the Netherlands at 10 PPM. C.R.Flynn CRF:imd cc: w/a J.E.Stroope R.P.Kenney BFG33505 o 40 3r -'1 technical week Y Netlherlaiiidls sets legal limits for VCM coEcemtratioms the Netherlands' government, through At the same time, irrespective of legal its Ministry of Social Affairs (Volks- requirements, the company will con gezondheid), last week adopted a reso tinue working towards further reduction lution from its factory inspectorate de of VCM concentrations in PVC plants partment (Arbeuls Inspectie) that per and of the total VCM emission, accord missible vinyl chloride monomer levels ing to the statement in the working atmospheres of PVC Commenting on the cases of illness plants must not exceed 10 ppm. The that have been reported in PVC plants current level of SO ppm was introduced outside the Netherlands, DSM stated earlier this year from the then existing that periodic medical examinations level permitted of 200 ppm. have not furnished any medical evi DSM, one of the two Netherlands dence of diseases amongst DSM wor PVC polymer producers, has stated, in kers that might have been caused by a message to its staff, that the lowered VCM. standard will not affect the continuity All DSM workers are regularly sub of production at its Beck PVC complex. jected to medical examinations in which. As concentrations of more than 10 ppm level may occur in certain plant' areas for short periods of time. DSM has now decided that in these situations special attention is given to abnormal conditions of the blood indicative of liver disease, as well as to afflictions of .fingers and skin, the statement added. the workers will be obliged to wear pro tective respiratory devices. Formerly these were only used at concentrations above 50 ppm. Based on Sumitomo Chemical nology, DSM's 120 000 ton/ycar PVC facilities have been in operation only two years, and the company states that vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) levels are comfortably below 10 ppm, although not as low as 1 ppm, which has been established as the future per missible limit in the USA. . Shell, the other Netherlands PVC producer, operates a 160000 ton/year PVC facility at Pemis, based on BASF Tmfra Ilmen Action Apart from the request that health and safety matters should be incorpora ted IT.IV Ml. M11MU.M ' .111 V ..4 /!.. Luo/y lilV HVkllVlitiUUd UUIVlti) U(V IUJU having discussions with the Netherlands government on legal requirements in general for chemical plants, and on the need for a "compendium" on chemi cals. The chairman of the Netherlands Trades Unions, Mr. Aric Grocnevclt, has written to the Netherlands Minister of Social Affairs, Mr. Boersma, on the need for legal requirements for chemi cal plants. technology. Nearly half of this capacity has been in operation since 1967 and Shell may have difficulties in ensuring that this older plant meets the new 10 ppm^ limit Shell states however that it can comply in all its plants. He has suggested that a system should be set up whereby permission is required to sell new chemical products, and also that a catalogue or compen dium should be established which lists process characteristics, toxicity levels DSM has also stated that it is taking and safety requirements, for example, measures to ensure additional protec for all chemicals produced. tion during certain operations in the This is in addition to the assertion plant, such as the provision of special that the collective work contract, the clothing, and that people directly en cao, shoufd be extended to cover health gaged > in the production of PVC will and safety matters (ECN, November 8, be instructed at special meetings. page 32). ICI Australia develops water de-saltin:tOor ict Australia's Sirotherm process for de also that Japan has begun a market salting brackish water using thermally study of the possible uses of the pro re-gcncratcd ion-exchange resins is now cess. `. attracting world-wide interest from the ICI Australia, which jointly deve process industry and water authorities. loped the process with the Common A report from the State Government wealth Scientific and Industrial Re of Australia indicates that a European search Organization, has offered its authority has sought ICI Australia's Sirotherm process for applications such assistance in evaluating a project to re as a 75m. gallon/day municipal water cover better-quality drinking water scheme and the preliminary deminer from the highly salted river Rhine, and alization of boiler feed water. ICI offers new polyester resin curing system a NEW ICI resin-with-catalyst system that cures when exposed to a special bright light and stops when the light is removed has been added to the Impol range of unsaturated polyester resins which came on to the market in February,. 1974. impol K brings a number of advan tages to the handling of unsaturated polyester resins. It permits greater flexi bility of workshop and production plan ning because the operator has complete control of when curing starts and when it stops. There is no weighing, mixing or handling of catalysts or accelerators, no waste of catalyst or resin, and no need to clean equipment during breaks in work. Curing is not dependent on workshop temperature, it takes place as quickly or slowly as the operator decides, ICI stated. The process is expected to bring the greatest advantage to traditional contact moulding, in both hand lay up and spray lay up processes widely used in the manufacture of boats, land transnnrt nnri prefabricated building units. \ --i--- ""-'ii'-i'icn will be in the mechanical process of filament wind ing. Many other applications are ex pected to be developed by industry. ICI Petrochemicals Division has a full range of standard unsaturated poly ester resins. In addition, new resin sys tems have been developed in lCI's re search laboratories. These arc based on pure tcrcphthalic acid and include chc- mical-rcsistant resins, heat-resistant re sins, and a range of flexible and rigid gel coats of good gloss and durability. A specially designed plant with a capacity of the order of 20000 ton / year of Impol resins, is being built at Wilton, Cleveland (formerly Tccsside) at a cost of over 1 million and is sche duled to be on line in 1975. The new plant utilises new ICI tech nology and is being built by ICI's En gineering Services (Wilton) Ltd. Interim production for test marketing purposes is available from an existing multi-purpose plant at Billingham. UK consumption of unsaturated polyester resins is currently around 50 000 ton/ycar and has shown good historical growth, although generally lagging behind levels on the continent and in the USA. Major consuming in dustries arc marine, transport, building, and corrosion-resistant plant such as tanks and pipes. The resin is usually reinforced with glass fibre, but may be unreinforccd, as in castings or lacquer. The major producers arc Scott-Badcr, Synthetic Resins, Freemans, BP, DIP, Pinchin-Johnson, Cray Valley Products, and Mitchell and Smith. BFG33506 24&&8602. Top of the news OSHA's rules spur suits When John H. Stender, Assistant Sec retary of Labor and head of the depart ment's Occupational Safety and Health Administration, presented final standards for worker exposure to vinyl chloride monomer gas at the National Safety Con gress in Chicago last week, he expected the Labor Dept "to be sued by both sides." He was partially right within two minutes of the announcement, when the Society of the Plastics Industry filed a pe tition for review of the standards in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York. Other suits followed. Hooker and Union Carbide filed a similar petition in the same court, Firestone filed in the Sixth Circuit, Tenneco and Air Products in the Third Circuit All companies will seek to get the actions removed to the Second Circuit Court. Also, B.F. Good rich says it intends to request a legal re view. But one attorney familiar with the long struggle over the standards tells Chemical Week that "it will be a very tough case for the industry to overturn," citing what he described as an "excellent preamble" to the standards from OSHA. The standards are not the "no detec table" limit originally proposed by the agency, but the three-step program is much tougher than industry proposed at hearings earlier this year. Until the end of 1974 the 50-ppm. maximum exposure set by OSHA as a temporary emergency standard in April stays in effect. In 1975 the maximum exposure will drop to 5 ppm., measured over a 15-minute period. OSHA'S STENDER: Spelled out timetable for tougher vinyl chloride exposure rules. 14 CHEMICAL WEEK October 9, 1974 with a 1-ppm. time-weighted average (twa.) for the eight-hour day. But, where engineering of these controls is not pos sible, maximum exposure will be 25 ppm., with respirators to be available, but not mandatory, for worker use. After Jan. 1, 1976, there will be no exceptions to the 1-ppm. twa. and 5-ppm. maximum limit, with respirators mandatory at higher ex posures. The other side--the labor unions--is also expected to attack the standards be cause of the implementation timetable and allowance for the use of cannister and cartridge respirators. "It would ap pear this thing has a number of loopholes in it," says United Rubber Workers Presi dent Peter Bommarito. He also takes is sue with the use of respirators at the workers' discretion during 1975. Other union spokesmen say they need more time to examine the standards. Death Knell: Industry sources say it is impossible to operate at the lower expo sure levels, could mean the demise of the 17 U.S. plants that produce the monomer, the 37 that polymerize it to make poly vinyl chloride (PVC) resins and the thou sands of plants that mold, extrude and otherwise shape the resins into plastic pipe, vinyl flooring, house siding and phonograph records. An Arthur D. Little study for SPI indi cates that about 2.2 million jobs in the U.S. depend on PVC production and that the annual loss to industry in sales and production would be S65-90 billion if the material were banned. (Some 5 billion lbs./year of PVC are now produced in the U.S. Wholesale value of all products is $3 billion.) The question now seems to be whether the courts will upset the OSHA determi nation, whether legal delays can give the industry sufficient time to tool up to the new standards or whether, as one indus try observer states, "a political and eco nomic solution must be imposed by Con gress to save the industry." Counting Criteria: Object of the new standards is protection for 1,500 workers in monomer production, 5,600 PVC plant employees and about 350,000 workers at PVC fabrication plants. Exposure to VCM at the old standard of 500 ppm. or higher has been linked to about 28 deaths worldwide from angio sarcoma, a rare liver cancer, since it was first noticed in January 1974 in former workers at B. F. Goodrich's Louisville, Ky., PVC plant. Technical basis for the OSHA standard is animal tests in Italy and the U.S. (CW, July 17, p. 30) demon strating angiosarcoma in rats, mice and hamsters at 50-ppm. exposure. Ralph Harding, president trf SPI, call's the standards "unrealistic," says it prob ably will be impossible for most, if not all, plants to meet them and that they "appear to have been developed on some basis inconsistent with recorded facts." Trouble Spots: Stender is more opti mistic about the industry's ability to cope with the regulations. But he says the PVC plants will be "hardest pressed." The batch-process polymerization of vinyl chloride in kettles is the point of highest exposure to the monomer gas. Vinyl chloride maker Dow Chemical is bringing legal action seeking to block the OSHA regulations. The company says it has been operating at below 10 ppm. and considers the new standard "more restric tive than necessary." Dow questions the "ability of the industry to develop the needed technology." On the other hand, Robintech says all its PVC pipe fabri cating plants will meet the new standards and that it will expand its Freeport, Tex., resin plant to 150-million-lbs./year. Shell loses a round Environmental Protection Agency Ad ministrator Russell Train last week or dered Shell Chemical to stop production of aldrin and dieldrin for most uses, claiming the pesticides can cause cancer. The ban will remain in effect until EPA completes hearings to determine whether the pesticides' registrations should be canceled. Shell, sole manufacturer of the pesti cides, would have to cancel plans for 1975 production of about 10 million lbs-, but could sell the material it has in stock. The two pesticides are chlorinated hy drocarbons used largely on com, citrus fruits and certain seeds. Aldrin breaks down into dieldrin after application. Train had earlier disclosed his inten tion to impose the ban because lab tests with rats and mice showed dieldrin in creased the incidence of malignant tu mors (CW, Aug. 14, p. 13). Shell re quested a hearing, and last month EPA administrative law judge Herbert PerLman urged that manufacture of the pesti cides be suspended. Last week. Shell appealed Train's lax order in the U.S. Circuit Court in New Orleans. The Environmental Defense Fund, the group that initiated the com plaint, also filed suit last week in federal appeals court in Washington, D.C., re questing that the ban be extended to use and sales of existing inventories. BFG33507