Document NEEJjxkwxnjb45My5DJR1DdpV

UNION CARBIDE CORPORATION Chemicals & Plastics 270 Park Avenue, New York, New York 100L7 To: (See Attached Distribution List) Date: January 16, 1975 From: Dr. A. B. Steele Subject: Vinyl Resin Operations Flash Report Vinyl Chloride Monomer OSHA Standard Since the Court of Appeals did not respond to the Governments Motion of a clarification of the language of the Stay of the effective date of the OSHA Standard nor to our statement in opposition by January 1st, it now seems un likely that the Court will make any special effort to rule on the motion in the near future. Since all parties agreed that the Emergency Temporary Standard remains in effect, the only issue is the matter of the 90 day lead time fol lowing the Court's decision on the Petition for Review. The fact that a Federal Register Notice, scheduled to issue concerning the interim variance procedure, was never published would seem to indicate that the Department of Labor silently agrees that the matter of temporary variances is now a dead issue. EPA EPA must at some point commit itself to utilize one or another of the various provisions in the law which give it authority to regulate vinyl chloride emissions. The choice appears to be narrowed either to Section 111 or 112 of the Clean Air Act. The choice is an EPA policy decision and SPI via Keller and Heckman is at tempting to determine what industry' might do to aid EPA in formulating a proper decision. Once the policy and legal parameters are drawn, the EPA Committee of the VCM and PVC Producers group will be able to address the technical aspects within the context of the approach EPA decides to employ. Training of personnel at 514, as required by the VCM Standard, continued with completion scheduled for next week. Canister gas masks.manufactured by MSA and Scott Aviation, have been ap proved by NIOSH. Thirty masks and 400 canisters have been ordered. Suspension/Non-Solvent Resins December production was 13.4 million pounds of suspension resin and 1.8 mil lion pounds of non-solvent. Monomer efficiency was a record breaking 95,2 per cent. It is premature to say that this is now par for the course but it may well be that all of the measures taken to improve efficiency and reduce personnel ex posure to VCM have come together and the operation is now actually seeing this as expressed by a significantly improved monomer efficiency. UCC 095347 -2- January 16, 1975 Specialty Resins Chewing gum base resin production was 109% of plan. L. A. Dreyfus has delayed shipment of all orders for January. i The Conversion Agreement with Cellofilm to make PVAc Solutions for Border will be allowed to expire at the end of the first quarter and manufacture will be resumed at Charleston. Solutions production was 28% of plan. ABSrml A. B. Steele Ucc 095348 DISTRIBUTION LIST -- WEEKLY FIASH REPORT -- VINYL OPERATIONS : Mr. L. M. Baker Mr. E. Bell Mr. G. P. Bigelow Mr. L. D. Burnett Mr. J. L. Carvajal Mr. R. G. Davis Mr. M. E. Eisenhour Mr. D. Engle Mr. C. R. Field Mr. R. L. Frantz Mr. J. E. Giffin Mr. R. J. Hanna Mr. J. M. Herbert Dr. W. R. Manning Mr. S. A, Mortimer Mr. J. Nesmith Mr. G. J. Norberg Mr. J. R. Peterson Mr. G. T. Scott Mr. G. C. Shipston Dr. A. B. Steele Dr. T. T. Szabo Mr. G. F. Tacquard Mr. R. N. Wheeler Dr. V. Z. Williams 312 312 32 28 514 312 515 515 28 515 514 511 28 511 28 33 28 28 28 28 28 32 515 514 28 Bound Brook (Bldg. 200) Bound Brook (Bldg, 72) New York Office New York Office South Charleston (Plant) Bound Brook (Bldg, 72) Texas City Texas City New York Office Texas City t/ South Charleston (Plant) South Charleston (Tech Center) New York Office South Charleston (Tech Center) New York Office New York Office New York Office New York Office New York Office New York Office New York Office New York Office Texas City South Charleston (Plant) New York Office UCC 095349