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^ ->|$ -jDOSINtM AMD FINANCE IP* trial in Federal court in Jacksonville*^, on eWgm of mail fraud. During die trial, government witnesses described how they had been sweet-talked into mortgaging their homes and cashing in their savings to-follow Turner to the end of the rainbow. Few, if any, ever got there. But last week. Turner got time to catch his breath. After hearing more than 200 witnesses and deliberating for dune days, the jury couldn't reach a verdict on any of the charges against Turner, and the judge declared a mistrial. The promoter is not yet in the clear, how ever. The judge immediately scheduled new trial to begin Aug. 5. PLASTICS: The PVC Scare To most Americans, polyvinyl chloride is just another confusing chemical term. But to American industry, the versatile plastic is the key material in literally thousands of products ranging from phonograph records, floor tile and toys to auto upholstery, pipe, and food pack aging. Until recendy, the pervasiveness of PVC had little significance except to those in the $12 billion industry who make the material or who convert it into various products. But that situa tion has changed radically, and PVC producers and users are profoundly worried. The chemical industry has document ed thirteen cases in the U.S. in which workers exposed to vinyl chloride, the gas used to make PVC, nave contracted angiosarcoma, a rare and fatal form of liver cancer. This, in turn, has caused concern that workers who fabricate PVC into end products and perhaps even cot sinners may be exposed to the gas under ffTtaiw conditions. Although there is still little if any evidence to substantiate the fears, several government agencies are studying the situation, and Federal health officials are proposing strict new standards governing exposure to vinyl chloride. The safety move threatens to produce a confrontation with plastics manufacturers, many of whom claim the new rules will force them to dose their plants. As the reports of deaths from angio sarcoma mounted, the Federal Occupa tional Safety and Health Administration ordered that those working with vinyl chloride should not be exposed to more than 50 parts of the gas per million parts of air--one-tenth of the previous permis sible level--and also proposed that the permissible exposure level be reduced to zero by Oct 5. In addition, more than 100 aerosol products--such as deodor ants, hair sprays and pesticides--that used the gas as a propellant have been banned or voluntarily withdrawn from the market Liquor bottles made from PVC have also been banned, and die Food and Drug Administration is formu lating a new rule that will cover PVC used to package foods. While many plastics companies had already imposed more stringent stand ards on their own,-they are nonetheless annoyed by the zero-exposure proposal and by the added requirement that it apply to workers fabricating products from PVC. These rules, they say, would require an unprecedented amount of monitoring and control "Do you know the effect of that OSHA rule?" an ex cited plastic industry lobbyist asks. "If of U.S. industry would have to shut down." That it an extreme view, of course, but it does seem likelv that some marginal companies -might abandon the PVC business rather than take on the ex tra costs of meeting tough standards. A spokesman for Olin Corp., for instance, notes that PVC accounts for just 3.5 per cent of the company's chemical sales. "If we can't meet the standards," he says, "well just go out of the business." B.F. Goodrich, the major PVC producer, says that it can't meet the standards with cur rent technology, but that it has em barked on a crash research program to find a solution. In some cases, fabri cating companies can use other materials in place of PVC, but the cost of the sub stitutes is likely to be higher. Spaed: Federal officials may be cool to the industry's arguments, however, because they believe there were delays in bringing the news of the dangers of vinyl chloride to the public's attention. The Manufacturing Chemists Association, for example, began a study of the prob lem with European scientists in 1971, but said nothing about it to the government until last July. Now that they have some evidence. Federal agencies want to move as quickly as possible to determine the full extent of the potential dangers to workers and to the public. Last week, the Environmental Protection Agency invoked a section of the Clean Air Act to order 27 companies to produce data on vinyl chloride emissions in 49 plants. Uppermost in EPA's mind is the question of how much of the gas has been leak ing into the environment As chairman Russell Peterson of the Council on En vironmental Quality warns, the cancer incidents may represent "only a small fraction" of the problem. Pervasive plastic; Records. i . containers... .toys. .pipe. ... auto roofs... RECEI ... and floor tile 70 JUN1 a u/4 TRADE: A Blow to Detente? Ever since the United States and the Soviet Union began their detente, a key to the success of the effort has been a series of ambitious plans for trade and economic development involving the two countries. Occidental Petroleum Corp., El Paso Natural Gas, the Bechtel Corp. and other firms have signed deals to build everything from a world trade cen ter in Moscow to factories and pipelines in Siberia in return for Russian raw ma terials and liquid natural gas (LNG). East-West economic cooperation last week seemed to be moving apace. Leo nid Kostandov, Soviet minister in charge of the chemical industry, said his ministry was negotiating with a number of U.S. firms on projects worth some $500 mil lion. Konstantin Galanshin, minister of the Soviet Union's pulp-and-paper in dustry, was in New York to sign an agreement with the International Paper Co. providing for a joint study of Russia's pulp-and-paper industry. And the Inter continental Hotels Corp. signed a con- Newaweelc, June 10,1974 LAW DEFT. BOR 007171