Document bV7w63j8yRO0NkJg9Xp40Rj1

PVC, Vinyl Chloride Makers Weigh Meager Legal Options After Appeals Court Rebuff TANKER COLLISION: Fireboal moves in close (o fight fire on board an oil tanker that collid ed with a phenol-carrying ship on the Delaware River in Marcus Hook, Pa.t on January 31. Two persons are known dead; another twenty or more are injured. Compama Navlera VIlanueva SA, owner of the tanker, "Corlnthos," has brought suit for $35 million in damages against Keystone Shipping Company, Philadelphia; Bankers Trust Company, and Monsan o Company. The chemical ship, the "Edgar M. Queeny," is owned by Bankers Trust and char tered by Monsanto. Energy R&D, Health Programs Get More Funds in Fisdal '76 The Ford Administration is proposing increases in money outlays for enert y research and development programs of 39 percent in fiscal 1976-from a dollar amount of $1,131 million in 1975 to $1,577 million in the next fiscal year. Includt d in the President's budget message sent to Congress last week, this increase is being spread among all major program areas and reflects further growth in pio- grams that increased by nearly 53 p< r- cent from 1974 to 1975. Altogether, the cost of the Federal ener gy programs for fiscal 1976 is placed at $ !.2 billion and covers general operating p ograms such as development of energy pdicy, management and leasing of Fcdera ly owned oil, gas and coal resources, uranii m enrichment, and the Federal regulate ry programs, as well as the research and dtvelopmcnt programs. The uranium enrichment operatioi s, which primarily provide fuel for civilian nuclear power plants and must increase significantly in order to meet future de mand, the budget.said, will entail an ex penditure of $738 million next year. Jn (he area of energy regulation, ti By PETER B. GK1FFIN Market Editor Leading polyvinyl chloride produc ers gathered in New York late last week, under the auspices of the Socie ty of the Plastics Industry, to deter mine what if any further legal action to take in an attempt to alter or fore stall the implementation of Depart ment of Labor's orders governing worker exposure to vinyl chloride. Those orders were upheld by a special Federal Appeals Court ten days ago when it rejected on all counts a fivepart industry challenge to them. Informed legal sources both within and without the industry, however, said last week, that the options available to the in dustry are few now, with none offering real istic hopes of success. According to `one source close to the industry court effort: "There are no real options. The case is worse now than before, and it was bad then." By presstime Friday (February 7) no de cision on whether to appeal had been made. There is still one VCM-related suit out- standing in the Court of Appeals It is a sep arate petition for judicial review brought by the Oil. Chemical & Atomic Workers Union fOCAW Vs. Brennan). In its legal challenge, OCAW seeks the tightening of certain health and work safely procedures and the inclusion of some others which were omitted from the original OSHA regu lation. Disposition is not expected for sever al weeks The denial of the industry's petitions for judicial review of the standards and rules restricting employee exposure to VCAT pro mulgated last October by Occupational Safety & Health Administration <0SI1A), was a unanimous decision of a special three-judge Federal pane] of the US Court Continued on Page 40 NIOSH Urges OSHA To Reduce lis Standard On.Chloroform Exposure A new Federal standard for occupa tional exposure to chloroform, reduc- - a.L_ .........* INffxr it !! i He1IilE|!,!i *, I!iitiiifiij oi m11m1* ..' ;Ta 'C O in uu 8 o Uftili4 -sl l-ilslini 7-1 c liHslip to 'O ,, S8|fc|-sgZ" -|pS- lll8l!l.!pw I sf'ill! !filiflf"lif!lll PERFUMES & FLAVORS Continued from Page white pepper was being offered at 98c., down a cent, while Ceylon black and Sara wak pepper, also doton a cent each, were being offered at 90c. and 86c., respectively. Cochin ginger prices took a turn down after a couple of weeks of inactivity and were being quoted at about 56c. a pound, down 2c. Both West Indian whole nutmegs and Dutch poppy seed took a cent dip and were selling for about $1.52 and 79c., respective ly. The largest decline posted last week was the one for East Indian mace. Broken No. 2 material dropped 10c. and was being of fered at $3 a pound. COATINGS & PLASTICS Continued from Page 40 offer respirators to all employees in affectcd ureas, to be used at the employees discretion when VCM levels remain be neath twenty-five-ppm). These concerns were raised again last week. However, since the original court affida vits were filed, the National Institute of Oc cupational Safety & Health (NIOSH) has ap proved for use three makes of cannistcr\ypc air-filtration respirators Approval was granted for prototypes submitted by Mine Safety Appliance Company (MSA), Welsh Manufacturing Company and the Acme Division of Scott Aviation, by midJanuary (within a month of submission for approval; normal delays range up to ten months, a respirator industry source said last week). These cannister types are expected to be the work horse units in atmospheres con taining no more than twenty-five ppm of VCM. The manufacturer's have geared up to meet the VCM demand, spokesmen say. Secretary Slender of OSHA has said he be lieves there will be sufficient quantities available by compliance date, and Justice Clark put aside the industry claim by saying these types "are now available and acceptable." However, a spokesman in the gas mask and respirator division of MSA said last week that that firrii, which controls over 50 percent of the industry capacity for the specified respirator tybes, fias received considerably fewer orders than anticipated and had in fact already filled all orders re ceived to date. Demand has been so slow, the spokesman said, that the company is considering closing down its expanded pro duction facilities for the VCM units. PRIME PIGMENTS ANTIMONY OXIDE-Prices for antimo ny oxide have consolidated at the lower end of the industry range. Botli M&T and NL In dustries reduced prices in the last days of January to $1.85 per pound. Effective January 28. M&T cut its price for standard grade material by 60c. per pound (or almost 25 percent) from the $2.45-per-pound level it established early last Fall. NL reduced its price by 31c. (or almost 15 percent) from its former price of $2.16 per pound, effective January 30. All other producers have been at the $1.85-per-pound level since October (Chcmetron is at $1.84 per pound). Competitive reasons were given by NL and M&T for their actions. One importer quotes a price of $1,80 per pound for foreign-produced material (down by almost $1 from prices in September). LEAD OXIDES-Hammond Lead Prod ucts has implemented new price differen tials on less-than-truckload quantities of all its lead oxide products. Effective February 1, these differentials were increased by lev to a new level of 2c. per pound. The 2c.-dif ferential has been in effect for other pro ducers for some time. MISCELLANEOUS METALLIC STEARATES-Every pro ducer has responded to Witco Chemical's February I price reduction on metallic ste arates i>> unpiemeiiuut; .ui. .. creases of 2c. per pound on their own prod ucts. As reported in this space last week, Tcnncco and Mallinckrodt took moves to he competitive with Wlico at about the same time. Mallinckrodt also cut the price of its dispersion types by Ic. per pound. Last week both Pcnick and Synthetic Products revealed similar price changes, and Nopco division of Diamond Shamrock wound up the industry round by reducing its prices by 2c. effective February 5. Nopco, like Mallinckrodt, included a 1c. re duction on its dispersion types. Metallic stearates are primarily used as vinyl stabilizers, but there have been grow ing applications in other plastics, and in paper. Business currently, according to an industry source, is `'terrible." Dutch Oxirane Fined The City Council of Rotterdam plans to fine Oxirane Corporation's Dutch affiliate $1.8 million for "causing danger" due to a short circuit at the firm's plant on Decem ber 1. It's claimed the company was negli gent in failing to report the mishap prompt ly and that a potential danger of explosion existed by reason of a cloud of gas from the plant, which remained in the harbor area tor some time. 21424003 WANTED 3-Pressure Cylinders & Doors For Treating Plant. 7'x 55'-75'-Rated At 200 P.S.I. CONTACT BURKE-PARSONS-BOWLBY C0RP. P.O. BOX 231, RIPLEY, W.VA. 25271 304-372-2211 DICK BOWLBY, FLETCHER PARSONS, W.E. LASHORNE Advertiser's Index A-1 Equipmeni & Chemical Co .................. 54 A I O Chemical Co . Inc..................................64 Aaron Equipment Company Division, Areco. Inc................................................................... 56 Aceto Chemical Corp ................................... 34 A/inomoto Company of New York. Inc ....31 American Hoechst Corporation................1.22 American Smelling 4 Refining Company .24 American Tartars Corporation..................... 36 Arapahoe Chemicals Division, Syntex Corpo ration ............................................................. 37 ARChem Company.......................................... 64 Aries International ..................................... 32 Arnold-Newman Co...........................................57 Ashland Chemical Company................... 21.31 Bamberger Polymers Inc.................................16 Brill Equipment Company............................. sg Brown Chemical Company........................... 25 Burke-Parsons Bowliy Corp...........................61 CPChemicals Inc............................................... 23 CPS Chemical Co............................................. 64 Celanesc Chemical Company Division. Cel- anese Corporation ................................... 2 Chaltem Chemicals......................................... 22 Chemical Dynamics Corp.................... 26 Chemical Exchange Co. Inc......................... 1 Chemical & Process Machinery Corp ...... 57 Chem-Oil Equipment Corp ..........................57 Chemisphere Corporation........ 28 Cilrus 4 Allied Essential Oils Co ...............24 Concord Chemical Company. Inc ..,,.,.,-,...64 Corco Chemir .i Corp ....... 35 Innes. 0 G . Corporation ..................................40 J.B Chemical Co ............... 80 Joba B V....................................................................36 Jones Chemicals. Inc ........................................64 Kahl Chemical Company..................................20 KeJ Chemical Co.. Inc ......................................27 Keith Machinery Core .......................................57 Kessler Chemical Inc ........................................ 10 Koster Keunen. Inc ........ ..36 lawfer Company...................................................54 Lee Chemicals ...................................................... 60 Lindau Chemicals Inc .......................................Cl Loeb Equipment Supply Co .......................... 57 Machinery & Equipment Corp ...................... 57 Madison Equipment Co. Inc........................... 54 Mallinckrodt Chemical Works ........................17 Mayco O'l and Chemical Co Inc ....... 16 36 McKesson Chemical Company.......................10 Metalworking Luhncants Co ........................ 28 Michigan Chemical CorDOfa1iOn ............25 64 Morgan Chemical? Inc .................................... 40 Napp Chemicals. Inc ................................... 30.60 Neatr.foot Oil Refineries Corp ...................... 33 Norda Essential Oil o Chemical Company. Inc. ......................................................................16 Osborn. C J Co ......................... 40 PCR. Inc .......................................................... 32 37 PPG Industries. Inc . Chemical D'v-S'cn ...21 PSBF Industries ins .................................... 6l PVO International inc ................................... A B Perry Equipment Corporation 56 l'fi?f-' fnr .............. .... ......... ''i i