Document ajd74pn4jDqgqJwdx8m0mY4N

941- c?fik7hdtc& a*dC6e4fuea& AUCTOWH PA. Offi Mayo Saitb J. V. Heider 29 May 1974 RECEIVED MAY 311974 APCI CHEM. GROUP law dept. Per our telephone call of today, attached fs the Supreme Court opinion regarding the EPA decision. Y* Attachment - Page 5 of 27 May 1974 C & E News AP00053775 state health inspector. The inspec Academic R&D spending ha9 tor entered che company's yard to doubled In past eight years University R&D spending, t ralKior* 4000 - 'T'.'--r--- * *',i. ----------- CurrirrtdstW'T take an opacity reading on the smoke coming from Western Alfal fa's chimneys during a drying oper ation. Subsequently the company was told that its emissions violated -- -- Coiiil.irt Wliiti* . state standards and was ordered to cease arp1 ________________ f Writing the court's opinion Jus- 300C tice William O. Douglas said that Fourth Amendment protection does not extend to sights seen in "the open fields." Further, lie observed that the field inspector did not enter the company's plant or of fices, or inspect either its equip ment or its files and papers. "He had sighted what anyone in the city who was near the plant could see inj the sky--plumes of smoke," Justice] 1000 Dougins said. He also noted that 0 ........ ------ although the inspector was on com pany property, "We are not advisei 1M4 M U TO 72 5 that he was on premises from whicl |bFc>(cyWc<|liMcv*te1HT. bMM O* Qrcu4*r.Ucotafntdal KMuct the public was excluded." Hence] invasion of privacy, if it can be said to exist, is "abstract and theoreti- al." Further, this group received S9G million or 9% more R&D monies in 1973 than in 1972. Federal funds accounted for $8o million or 89% of Argentina plans hug the increase. NSF adds that the 20 largest institutions accounted for chemical program "41% of federally financed R&D performed by all academic institu tions in both 1972 and 1973." And, NSF says, that "almost one half, or $66 million of the support from .foundations and voluntary health agencies was concentrated in these 20 institutions in 1973." Argentina is launching a massive $1 billion investment program to de velop its chemical and petrochemi cal industry, Some of the plans were unveiled last week in Buenos Aires, when president Juan Peron was on hand at the signing ceremo ny involving members of his gov ernment and senior officials of Ita High court eases pollution inspection ly's Montedison. Montedison will act as general consultant to Argen tina for the development. Though full details are not yet Available, Argentina wants to set The Supreme up a variety of projects duriDg the government air. Coming eight years. These include do not need * or plants for making polyolefins; basic other permissica^l^^B^fewP*' organic chemicals such as ethylene ny'a unrestrictro nWHlBWlrV&ual- oxide and acetic acid; and man iy monitor the iraoWHSw^emitted made fibers and fertilizers. from its chimneys. An Environmen Montedison will be directly in tal Protection Agency spokesman volved in the first stage of the plan, says that the agency is very satis which will cost an estimated S40Q fied with the court's decision since million and includes a major petro it makes the job of monitoring air chemicals center to be sited at quality easier. Bahia Blanca, about 360 miles The unanimous ruling overturned southwest of Buenos Aires, The two lower court decisions that held Italian company also will invest in that conducting such tests without an aluminum plant that Italimpi- cither a warrant or the company's anti, a major Ttnlihn construction consent constituted on unreason firm, will hc)[* build at Puerto Ma- able search within the meaning of dryn, 325 miles farther south. the Fourth Amendment. Other West European chemical The air pollution decision firms are expected to take part in stemmed from n June 19<iD inspec the overall plans. Like Montedison, tion made on the grounds of West they will have a financial stake in ern Alfalfa Com. by a (Vlnrado the new plants. Vir.yl chloride issue focus of U.K. group Reflecting growing international concern about vinyl chloride, the U.K.'s Chemical Industries Associ ation has set up a committee to :oordinate research into possible ienlth risks involving the monomer nd to recommend ways of avoiding :hom. On the committee are represen tatives of the four U.K. polyvinyl chloride makers--British Industrial Plastics, BP Chemicals Interna tional, Imperial Chemical Indus tries, and Vinatex, a subsidiary of Continental Oil--which can pro duce a total of 410.000 metric tons of PVC annually. Also represented are the British Chemical Industry Safety Council, the British Plastics Federation, and the Chemical In dustries Association itself. The companie* have agreed to spend about $10 million for detailed stud ies on in-plant safety condition*, for reducing the atmospheric vinyl chloride vapor levels in their plants to 50 p.p.m. or less, and for devel oping improved monitoring *yi terns. The funds also will be used for animal experiments and epide miological studies. Committee chairman A. W. Barry Barnes of ICI's plastics divi sion, stresses that the move is a positive one on industry's part to counter a recently recognized in dustrial problem nead-on. He also strenuously denies that the indus try has been responsible for keeping the lid on release of research results of Italy's Prof. Cesarc Maltoni, who has shown that vinyl chloride vapor at concentrations down to 50 p.p.m. induces onset of angiosarco ma, a liver cancer, in rats (C&EN, May 20, page 16). Focal point of the committee's attention is the polymerization pro cess, where workers run the great est risk of vinyl chloride exposure. Mr. Barnes points out that atmo spheric concentrations of the mono mer in U.K, plants already have dropped dramatically from a level of about 1000 p.p.m.. 20 year# ago to 150 p.p.m. by the middle of last yeAr. Improvements in operating conditions and the installation of leak-proof valves and the like have brought the level to 50 p.p.m. to day, he adds. "The ultimate for most existing plants ia. 10 p.p.m.," Mr. Barnes claims. "New plants with the most rmxlorn technology might achieve 5 p.p.m." But amounts below this "arc not conceivable.-," in Mr. Barnes' view. AP00053776