Document nDb7geXe17wjoMVk4RrgB6D2

*1 op of the news Good news for VCM The Environmental Protection Agency had encouraging news for representatives of 29 vinyl chloride monomer and poly vinyl chloride producers who met with EPA officials in Washington last week. The discussions concerned the possibility of VCM contamination of ambient air near the producers' plants. EPA Administrator Russell E. Train reported that the agency's monitoring of air and water close to VCM and PVC op erations indicates that the pollutant level is not serious enough to threaten public health. EPA had tested air and water samples in the vicinities of 10 PVC plants and two VCM units located in different parts of the country to gather data to help it decide whether VCM ambient air stan dards may be necessary (Of, June 12, p. 14). In the air measurements, more than 95% of the samples collected within a half-mile of plant property lines con tained less than one part per million VCM concentration, according to EPA. In one instance, 3.4 ppm. was recorded three miles away, but several other read ings at the same location averaged only 0.5 ppm. Train emphasized that the findings were only preliminary and that EPA ex pected to conduct more testing. He also said that at the present time "there is no basis for considering that the levels of vinyl chloride in water dis charges or sludge, if handled properly, are hazardous to human health or aquatic life." Several VCM and PVC producers, the EPA chief asserted, reported making sub stantial efforts to reduce VCM emissions and promised to aid EPA in its contin uing study. Waste stirs controversy The Environmental Protection Agency this month granted Du Pont a one-year permit to dump wastes from its Belle, W. Va,, chemical plant into the Gulf of Mexico about 200 miles southeast of New Orleans. But a federal judge last week barred the company from discharging in dustrial wastes into the Gulf off the coast of Florida. Du Pout's eailicr EPA-authorized dumping of wastes from the Belle plant came under fire from the state of Loui siana, which claimed that the disposal site. 50 miles off the coast of Louisiana, was too close to fisheries. As a result, Du Pont agreed tc move its dumping site 150 miles farther out The company as serts that the distance from shore, depth and current will be sufficient to protect fisheries. Louisiana, which has accepted* the new arrangement, nevertheless says it will seek to have the permit revoked if the wastes are shown to have adverse ef fects on fisheries. The wastes, which include sodium terephthalate, ethylene glycol, sodium styrene sulfonate and various metals, are now untreated. But Du Pont says it will have a plant in West Virginia onstream in about a year to treat the wastes. The company also is planning a new land-based disposal site in West Virginia, expects to complete it by '75. The site, says Du Pont, will reduce its Gulf of Mexico dumping of organics by 94%, and "virtually all" the metal wastes will be disposed of at the new location. As part of the agreement with EPA, Du Pont will underwrite a $250,000 study to determine the effect of waste material on aquatic life at the Gulf site. In the Florida action, U.S. District Court Judge David Middlebrooks issued a temporary injunction in Tallahassee against Du Pont, barring the firm from beginning disposal of wastes 250 miles south of Pensacola. The injunction, for 10 days, was sought by Florida officials, who contended that the wastes would harm marine life. Du Pont denied that claim. Hearings are slated to be held within 10 days to determine whether the injunction should be extended. Standards under attack The worker exposure standard for ethylenimine should be set aside because there is not sufficient evidence to support a finding that the substance is carcino genic, an attorney representing the Syn thetic Organic Chemical Manufacturers Assn, asserted last week. Donald L. Mor gan told a three-judge U.S. Court of Ap peals panel in Philadelphia that in pro mulgating the standards, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration failed to make the findings of fact or statements of reason that are required by law. SOCMA and OSHA attorneys were in the court to present arguments on the challenge to the standard brought by SOCMA this year. A decision on the case is probably at least a month away. Morgan maintained the OSHA relied on two tests on rodents in arriving at its standard. He challenged the first test be cause of the small number of rats tested, because it was conducted 20 years ago and because cf the alleged inappropriate ness of the test methods. He conceded that tumors were, formed in the rats but said it could not be ascertained whether they were malignant The other test, con ducted on mice a few yean ago, also did not yield clear-cut evidence of carcinoge nicity, according to Morgan. An OSHA attorney responded that the two studies have been accepted by the scientific community and asserted that the industry is afraid to conduct its own rodent study on ethylenimine exposure. Dow Wins Point: Meanwhile. OSHA granted Dow Chemical U.S.A. permis sion to follow substitute procedures to protect employees from exposure to two other allegedly carcinogenic chemicals, methyl chloromethyl ether and bischloromethyl ether. While Dow imple ments these procedures, OSHA will study the company's application for a tem porary variance from the federal job safety standards for these chemicals. OSHA standards require that labora tory bench hoods be equipped with ex haust air decontamination devices to pro tect employees from exposure to carcinogens. Dow asserts that it could not complete purchase and installation of the equipment until Feb. '75. Compacts cloud market Detroit auto makers are less than two months away from beginning '75-model production, but what materials the auto companies will be needing from chemical suppliers is anything but clear. Key question: How important a factor will small cars be in the total production picture? Most industry observers say buy ers overreacted to the Arab oil embargo last winter and pushed the small-car share of domestic auto sales to an "in flated" 54%. The percentage dropped sharply after that, but has now moved back up to about 48%. Big-car sales, meanwhile, are strengthening slowly. For example, some Cadillac dealers in the New York area report being sold out and back-ordered. However, the impact of compacts will certainly be felt next year. General Mo tors, for instance, said recently that it will add five small-car lines to its '75 mix. But chemical industry supplies will be tuned to luxury items and peppy engine per formance as much as to economy fea tures. Among the winners: cut-pile car peting, vinyl roofs, extensive plastic trim inside and out, and other items reserved in the past for bigger cars. There'll be few surprises in novel uses of cngjnMrinj^raateiials, since compact 22 CHEMiCAL WEEK June 19, 1974 BFG25529