Document aep48wLeO008jVnbRD9bGvbR

minutes receiv:^ OLEFINS JM 1 4 93 ELECTRICAL MATERIALS COUNCIL MEETING Edward Howard and Company One Erieview Plaza Cleveland, Ohio Thursday December 3, 1992 10:00 a - 3:00 p Attendees: Pat Benkner, Vinyl Institute Bob Burnett, Vinyl Institute Nora Jacobs, Edward Howard and Company Mary Mahon, Borden Chemicals and Plastics Rick Smith, Vista Chemical Company Dan Stanowick, Edward Howard and Company Robert Strength, Product Safety Management Tom Williams, BFGoodrich Company I. SELF-INTRODUCTIONS AMD APPROVAL OP MINUTES OF SEPTEMBER 25. 1992 MEETING IN CONJUNCTION WITH THE MARKET ADVISORY PANEL Self-introductions were dispensed with and on motion from Chairman Rick Smith, the minutes of the previous meeting were approved by Mary Mahon and seconded by Tom Williams. II. OPENING REMARKS A. Purpose and Objectives of Meeting Rick Smith stated that this meeting was in order to review the program that our public relations agency, Edward Howard and Company has put together as a result of the Market Advisory Panel session that the Electrical Materials Council held in Atlanta, Georgia in September of this year. He stated that we need to decide on programs, keeping in mind that we will most likely, have a lower budget than in the 1992-1993 fiscal year. CTL008159 The Vinyl Institute. A Division ol The Society of the Plastics Industry, Inc Wayne Interchange Plaza II, 155 Route 46 West, Wayne, New Jersey 07470, (201) 890-9299 2 III. STATUS OF EXPENDITURES Pat Benkner reviewed the budget through to and including October 1992 with a projection to the end of the VI fiscal year (June 1993) . She noted and it was confirmed by Dan Stanowick that all invoices related to the Market Advisory Panel and the Market Research have now been paid. Both items ran $1,000-$2,000 over budget. Both Rick Smith and Bob Burnett voiced the Executive Board's concern over the pro-active task forces of the Vinyl Institute and the fact that there would most likely be less budget monies in fiscal year 1993-1994 for the Electrical Materials Council. IV. CODE MATTERS Bob Strength reported on the following: Corrosivity - The Electrical Materials and Products Subcommit tee (EMPS) of SPI met on November 10th in Washington, D.C. The discussion centered around corrosivity, the Polyolefins Fire Performance Council (PFPC) testing program, current action in ASTM E5.21.70 (the Radiant Panel/NIBS apparatus) and IEC-89 working group 3. The group agreed that the negative vote issued by Jim Bennet of GE on the ASTM E9.21.04 "Cone Calorimeter Test" would probably be declared non-persuasive if reissued in the next ballot. Hank Roux, Chairman of E5.2170 has restructured the task group to rewrite the method for a new ballot. The new task group has only 6 members none of which have vinyl interests. The PFPC had previously indicated their interest in getting E5.21.70 back on track. IEC 89 is currently reviewing the CNET test, the DIN test, ASTM E5.21.70 and ASTM D9.21.04 along with a couple of "acid gas" tests. Unless the U.S. is able to standardize one of the ASTM methods in a timely fashion these two tests will probably be dropped from consideration. NFPA 90A - There is a special group which has met 2 times to review "combustible" loadings in plenums. Attached is a work statement for this group (Attachment A) . It will probably sponsor testing to determine safe levels of combustibles, primarily wire and cable in plenums. Bob Strength will attempt to get on this committee or at least the special task group. CTL008160 3 Action: Bud Hall to bring this matter up at the next Technical Committee meeting. Pat Benkner to make sure this is added to the agenda for the next Technical Committee meeting. ** UL "Limited Corrosivity" Project - UL is undertaking a special project to develop criteria for "limited corrosivity" i.e., LC. This is similar to the industry-sponsored project which resulted in the NEC LS designation and the UL listing for limited smoke per UL 1685. Action: Bob Strength to find out what he can about this project under the auspices of Vista and keep the Technical Committee and the Electrical Materials Council apprised of this situation. Rick Smith will also talk to Bud Hall about this issue. Hazard Assessment - There is a current ballot out to handle negatives received in the recent ASTM E5.35 "Hazard Assessment Guidance Document" ballot. Most of the negatives were received from Pat Horton of Allied Tube and Conduit. If the recommendations of the special task group for handling the negatives are upheld then the standard may be approved by year end. This is about the sixth ballot on this document over the last six years or so. The Guidance Document can then be used to produce actual Fire Hazard Assessment Standards for reach products such as electrical wire and cable insulation. PVC looks good in such Fire Hazard Assessments. Bob Strength mentioned some informational seminars being held by the Canadian Standards Association on corrosivity testing. Bob noted that he was slated to attend this CSA conference in Marcelo Hirschler's absence, but at the last minute was told by them not to come. Action: A representative should be covering this activity and it was suggested that Marcelo Hirschler take this on. Pat Benkner will forward the request to the Technical Committee for discussion at their January 20th meeting that Marcelo Hirschler find out the outcome of this meeting and keep the Electrical Materials Council apprised of the workings of the group. ** ** Per discussion P. Benkner had on January 5th with Bud Hall, he is covering these items for the Technical Committee. CTL008161 4 Toxicity of Combustion Products - At the last meeting of the special committee on Toxicity of the New York City Building and Fire Code Commission NIST presented their toxic hazard test proposal. Previously, consideration was given the "Pittsburgh" test with support from the Carpet and Rug Industry (CRI). However, CRI recommended the use of lethal area (LA50) rather than lethal concentration (LC50). This resulted from extensive test work at Dr. Rosalind Anderson's laboratory in which most carpets performed well against red oak. The Commission was challenged to explain how they may use "Hazard Assessment" within the frame work of the New York City Building Safety laws. There has not been a meeting of this committee since February. A new ballot on the ASTM E5.21 (NIST) based method is out. Dr. Steve Packham has rewritten the document but deviated significantly from the NIST protocol and technical discus sions. This has resulted in a letter from Dr. Richard Gann of NIST appealing to E5.21 members to vote negatively. Bob Strength noted that he did before and will again. National Electrical Code - The 1993 National Electrical Code NEC is now available. It will allow "optional designations" on wire and cable such as, but not limited to LS for "limited smoke" and SR for "sunlight resistant". Even though there is no criteria for limited corrosivity "LC" that designation may now be used on wire and cable as well as "NH" for non-halogen, etc. UL has published their test method (UL 1685) for listing "limited smoke" electrical products. Bob Strength has been accepted as an alternate to Peter Lloyd who is a member of Panel 7. His membership is still on hold for Panel 6 and 12. Work will commence on the 1996 NEC in January 1994. All submittals (about 4,000) must be in by November 1, 1993. V. PUBLIC RELATIONS STATUS REPORT Dan Stanowick reported that the second Electrical Connections newsletter for this fiscal year will be issued shortly and the third issue will be put out most likely in the spring of 1993. Dan Stanowick reported on the presentation made by Dave Penney at NFPA in which he talked about the SwRI study. A copy of Dave's presentation is attached to the minutes of this meeting under Attachment B. He noted that this paper will also be added to the Electrical Materials Council technical paper bibliography. Bob Strength noted to the group that SPI's Coordinating Committee on Fire Safety has also distributed this paper. CTL008162 5 Dan Stanowick informed the group that a proposal is still pending with Construction Specifiers Institute for a June 1993 conference in Houston, Texas. The subject for this conference would be a presentation on vinyl in electrical applications. Rick Smith asked who might be appropriate to give this presentation. He suggested the possibility of Dave Penney or Bud Hall presenting this paper. Action; Rick Smith is to discuss with Dave Penney and/or Bud Hall. Publicity and Media Relation Notes Dan Stanowick informed the group that the reprint for the 50th Anniversary backgrounder has appeared in a number of publica tions . Dan then mentioned the Engineered News Record (ENR) ad, showing the group the special publication of Plastics in Construction and distributed a copy of the publication to the group. Dan Stanowick informed the group of a response he made under R. Burnett's signature to Firefighters News responding to an article on vinyl chloride and setting the record straight on PVC's performance qualities. DESC Dan Stanowick gave the group background information on DESC beginning with an article picked up by Rick Smith that DESC was taking a hard look at some materials including PVC and the environment. After some brief correspondence between R. Burnett (compiled by D. Stanowick of Edward Howard) and David Moore, Engineering Directorate for DESC, a meeting took place with Bud Hall and Tom Williams who then updated the group on the meeting. Tom Williams passed around to the group his report on this meeting (which is attached to these minutes under Attachment C) and noted that the meeting included most of the same people whom he had seen at a previous meeting he held with DESC. Dan Stanowick said that PVC was on their list as a result of a study, of which Bud Hall is trying to get the full report entitled "Cables for Automatic Test Equipment (CATE) - Mil-I Insulation Sleeving Materials Report" by Support Systems Associates, Inc. CTL008163 6 Action: Pat Benkner to contact Peter de la Cruz and ask him to try to obtain a copy of the full report. Pat Benkner to forward the full report, once received, to the Technical Committee for review and comments. DESC asked how they might better handle news releases to the media and should they issue a follow-up release? Dan Stanowick is to research and compose a letter in response to David Moore and reply under R. Burnett's signature. Action: Dan Stanowick is to send to Hazardous Technical Information. Service in Richmond, Virginia the EMC packets including Dave Penny's presentation to NFPA. VI. NEW BUSINESS Tom Williams brought up a new item, a letter he received from Charles A. Glew of Gary Corporation on PVC industry issues. A copy of this letter is enclosed under Attachment D. Action: 1. Tom Williams is to talk with Charles Glew and invite him to the next meeting of the Electrical Materials Council. 2. Pat Benkner is to send to Charles Glew a meeting notice on the next Electrical Materials Council meeting along with the codes portion of the minutes of the December 3rd Electrical Materials Council meeting. Rick Smith noted that the Electrical Materials and Products Subcommittee of the SPI may be the place for Gary Chemical to be involved. Action: Bob Strength is to check on membership in CCFS re: Gary Chemical. VII. MARKET ADVISORY PANEL FOLLOW-UP Dan Stanowick distributed information to the participants of the Electrical Materials Council Market Advisory Panel with a cover letter from Rick Smith thanking them for their partici pation. CtL008164 7 Dan Stanowick informed the group that he received 6 surveys back from participants, noting there were no surprises. He noted that one participant said that he felt that the second session was more productive and successful than the first and recommended continuing to hold these panel sessions. Dan then ran through the action steps from the EMC market advisory panel follow-up meeting held on September 25. Action steps listed in the minutes of the September 25, 1992 meeting were reviewed as follows: 1. Conduct basic industry research to develop nontoxic stabilizers to replace lead and cadmium. Put on the agenda for the Technical Committee meeting on January 20th. 2. Conduct lifecycle analysis. Recommended that a lifecycle analysis would not be done at this time and we would wait to see how the American Plastics Council is proceeding with their lifecycle analysis. 3. Develop method for safe disposal, presumably in a landfill, the toxic byproducts (or fluff) which results from wire chopping. Put on the agenda for the Technical Committee meeting on January 20th. 4. Develop list of companies that use recycled vinyl wire and cable. Done 5. Establish a databank of information on vinyl in electri cal applications, returned from the field. Pat Benkner noted that Mike Fisher of the Durables Committee of the APC is looking into establishing a data base for durables and noted that in the minutes of VIGOR'S meeting on November 10th, Scott Gabeline of Vista noted that VIGOR is relying largely on the Durables Committee of the APC to develop these statistics with R W. Beck. Bob Burnett commented that VIGOR felt confident in leaving this action item with the Durables Committee of the APC. CTL008165 8 Action; Pat Benkner has the continuing action to monitor this project. 6.- Fund academic/institute research on wire and cable recycling technology. To be discussed during Edward Howard's communications program recommendations. 7. Develop and disseminate technical background about vinyl's limited impact on ozone depletion. It was noted by Pat Benkner that she sent to the group a letter from Meredith Scheck recommending that the group does not do anything on ozone depletion at this time, as the issue is very complicated and still not complete. The chlorine white paper that the VI has on file may cover this. Pat Benkner noted that up to this time, she was instructed to issue this paper to VI members only. R. Burnett is checking into revising and offering this paper to a wider distribution. 8. Broadly disseminate to the industry information about relevant regulatory and legislative matters. Pat Benkner will forward upon receipt, to Dan Stanowick, copy of "SPI Issues" for extraction of pertinent items of interest to be placed into the Electrical Connections newsletter. 9. Expand communications efforts to reach code and building officials at both national and local chapter levels. To be discussed during Edward Howard's communications program recommendations. 10. Expand the industry's efforts to develop improved standards through CSA, NIST, ASTM, ETC. Tabled for now. 11. Increase participation in various standards bodies, including NEC Panel 12 and 16. A list of panel members was sent to the Electrical Materials Council by Pat Benkner previous to this meeting. Tom Williams also noted that it might be a good idea to list in the newsletter where the vinyl industry is presently being represented, (ex. Bob Strength, Vista Consultant, participated in a meeting, etc...). CTL008166 9 12. Develop stronger liaison with other industry associa tions, including CMA and IEEE. Happening now. 13. Carefully define and target key audiences for ongoing communications. To be addressed during Edward Howard's communications program recommendations. 14. Develop and widely disseminate information about vinyl's total installation costs. Put on hold (To be kept on file as an inactive item for possible future use). 15. Reach industry opinion leaders through presentations at local and national meetings of the American Institute of Architects, IEEE, NECA, IECA and NFPA, etc. To be discussed during Edward Howard's communications program recommendations. Dan Stanowick recommended holding off on responding to market advisory panel participants until after the Technical Commit tee meeting on January 20, so that we can include in this letter progress or action decided upon on various action items listed above. Tom Williams suggested that panel participants should get a "letter a month" from the Vinyl Institute. Nora Jacobs then suggested that it might be a good idea to send the panel participants a letter now, anyway, before "it gets too old". Dan Stanowick suggested not limiting any mailing to the market advisory participants alone, but why not add the EMC contact list. (Discussion was then tabled until the communications program section of the agenda.) VIII.MARKETING AND COMMUNICATIONS INITIAL RECOMMENDATIONS FROM EDWARD HOWARD AND COMPANY Dan Stanowick gave an overview of his marketing and communica tions recommendations which are attached to the minutes of this meeting to include objectives for the next fiscal year, target audiences, strategies and recommendations for future programs. CTL0Sl6? 11 enough? What do we need to do? How do we handle the down side. What is the risk management going to be? With regard to Dan Stanowick's marketing and communications recommendations, Rick Smith noted in summary: The budget is going to be no more than $75,000, but most likely somewhere in the neighborhood of $65,000. We know that publicity needs to be included in this budget. We need to decide how to spend the rest of the money. Rick Smith then noted that we did not need to decide this at this meeting today. The group should think about it and further discussion is to take place at the next meeting. He also posed the question as to what other kinds of things might we be doing that is not mentioned in the Edward Howard and Company communications program. IX. NEXT MEETING DATE/LOCATION . The next meeting of the Electrical Materials Council will be held in Austin, Texas on Thursday, February 18th at the Vista R and D Center. A notice with details will follows. Respectfully submitted, Pat Benkner Assistant Manager CTL008168 10 Dan recommended an industry outreach program to the group in order to establish working relationships with various other industry groups and organizations with an interest in electri cal materials. Tom Williams suggested that maybe just member companies should pool together a directory of these groups with the following action item coming out of this discussion: Action: The group is to individually make a list of all the electrical materials groups and organizations, writing out a definition of specific groups and forwarding same to Pat Benkner. Mary Mahon noted that she thought EMC had put together once before, a list like this. Pat Benkner is to check the VI files and if there is anything in them, she will forward it immediately to the EMC group. Dan Stanowick then went on to suggest that the Electrical Materials Council may want to broaden the scope of papers being presented at various trade shows. Brochure - Tom Williams thought the idea of a 4-color brochure (see Dan Stanowick's communications recommendations) was a good one. Tom Williams noted that we should rescope and broaden EMC's perspectives, i.e., to include computer housing, electrical, and not just wire and cable. Dan Stanowick also recommended having on hand a basic speech which could be used on an as needed basis. Fire Initiative - Tom Williams noted that much more consider ation should be given to this issue on corrosivity. We need to focus on corrosivity more than anything else. Are we pushing the Technical Committee hard enough on this issue? Are we listening to them and what they are saying back to us? Do we have information on how damaging this issue could be to us? Nora Jacobs noted corrosivity is the issue in the halogenrelated area where we do not have the data. We have research we can counter on other issues (toxicity, smoke, flammability) but not on corrosivity. Action: Conference call to take place on December 29th at 9:00 a.m. eastern standard time between Tom Williams, Bud Hall, Bob Strength, and Rick Smith to discuss corrosivity. Are we doing cTL008l69