Document pmxM6oXRq5XyJrLoXO3qrR7Ra

A misuse defense. Manufactur ers say that under strict liability principles, they are held liable even if products Are misused. The study en dorses a comparative fault system in product cases and permits manufac turers to shift some liability in work place injury cases. A state-of-the-art defense. This idea for manufacturers would bar recovery of damages when a product conformed to industry practice at the time of manufacture. As a short-term solution, the study recommends "adoption of joint un derwriting associations with federal reinsurance and `captive* insurance companies," according to Neill Hoi- lensnead, vice president of Research Group. Captive insurance companies Nuclear power plant construction may bo are organized by a manufacturer or threatened by crucial court decision group of manufacturers to insure risks of their companies. Such com in 1957 and renewed in 1975, requires bined ventures have been proposed nuclear power companies to make for chemical companies. payments into a federally held in surance fund that would be used to pay damages in the event of a nuclear Nuclear industry may lose liability limit accident. Many, including judge McMillian, consider the act to be crucial to nuclear development by rivate industry. "Without the The problem-plagued nuclear power rice-Anderson Act, regardless of the industry received what may be an desires of the nuclear power industry, other major setback late last month. power companies probably would not It came as a federal district court de Be able to obtain the necessary fi cision declaring the Price-Anderson nancing, supplies, and architectural Act, which set up a federally admin skills to build nuclear power plants istered liability insurance program for and to maintain them once con nuclear facilities, unconstitutional. struction was complete," he says in The act, according to judge James B. his opinion. McMillian of the District Court for Segments of the nuclear industry, Western North Carolina, violates the at least in their public statements, do equal protection and due process not see the act as essential to contin firovisions of the Fifth Amendment ued nuclear power development. "We >y setting a maximum liability ceiling see no nationwide shutdown of nu for a single nuclear accident of $560 clear facilities (because of the court million. decision), and we do not plan to The suit was brought against Duke change our schedule on our existing Power Co. and the Nuclear Regula construction sites," says Carl Horn tory Commission by a group of citi Jr., chief executive officer of Duke zens living near Duke Power's Ca Power Co. If the decision is upheld by tawba nuclear station and the site of the Supreme Court, which Horn says its proposed McGuire nuclear station, he thinks is unlikely, other forms of now under construction, both near insurance coverage could be devel Charlotte, N.C. In finding for these oped, he says. people, judge McMillian stated that the act violates the Constitution "because it allows the destruction of the property or the lives of those af fected by nuclear catastrophe without FDA proposes lower PCB levels in foods reasonable certainty that the victims will be justly compensated." The act The Food & Drug Administration is also encourages irresponsibility in taking steps to reduce the amount of matters of safety and environmental polycnlorinated biphenyls (PCB's) protaction by setting an unrealisti allowed in certain food, including cally low ceiling on the accountability milk, poultry, and fish. of developers, the opinion states. The According to the agency, recent decision will almost certainly be ap studies indicate that PCB's fed in pealed, either to the circuit court of high doses to test animals cause liver appeals in Washington, D.C., or di tumors. The substances also have rectly to the Supreme Court. been associated with increased skin The Price-Anderson Act, adopted and pancreatic cancers among K&D and refinery workers exposed U> I 'Cl 1 mixtures for five or six years. Human ingestion of extremely high levels of the substances, about 35 mg per day. can result in acnelike skin eruptions, darkening of skin and nails, excessive discharge from the eyes, and swelling of the eyelids. PCB's have been of concern since the early 1970's when they were found to persist and accumulate in the en vironment. Legal limits for PCB's were first formally established by FDA in 1973. Since that time most of the major uses of PCB's, such as in carbonless copy paper, fire-resistant hydraulic fluids, plasticizers, and paints, have been phased out. The remaining major use of PCB in elec trical equipment will be phased out by July 1977, and Monsanto, the only U.S. producer of PCB's, plans to withdraw completely from the market later this year. Under FDA's proposal, the legal limit or tolerance level for PCB's would be lowered from 2.5 ppm to 1.5 ppm in the fat of milk and dairy products; from 5 ppm to 3 ppm in the fat of poultry; from 0.5 ppm to 0.3 ppm in eggs; and from 5 ppm to 2 ppm in fish and shellfish. FDA explains that it is not pro posing a ban on the products because the Delaney clause, which prohibits the addition to food of any substance that causes cancer in man or test an imals, does not apply to substances such as PCB's, which are not inten tionally added to food, but enter food because of their presence in the en vironment. Interested persons have until June 1 to comment on the pro posed tolerance levels. O NAS forum urges use of coal despite problems "Uncertainty" was the message at the kickoff session of last week's National Academy ofSciences forum on coaluncertainty and a warning. The warning was a matter of simple arithmetic. Without a rapid increase in the use of coal, the U.S. will be facing a disastrous energy shortage. Dr. Arthur M. Bueche, vice president of R&D for General Electric, esti mated the shortfall to be about 26 quads (quadrillion Btu) by the year 2000, even making very optimistic assumptions about rates of growth and conservation measures (see page 5). By contrast, the 1973 oil embargo cost the U.S. about 1 quad. Without coal, "1 am not ruling outthe very real possibility of social upheaval and revolution," Bueche says. Fortunately, however, the U.S. does have coal, some 10 to 30 quin- HONS 000688 April 11, 1977 C&EN 7 tillion Btu of it. And none of the forum speakers foresaw any techno logical problem in getting it out of the ground. But they also agreed that induRtry and government are plagued with environmental, social, and legal uncertainties. On the production side, it was pointed out that there is no clear federal policy on how fast--and where--coal should be developed. What are to be the standards for the reclamation of strip-mined land? What will be the leasing policy on federal lands? Industry spokesmen in particular complain that the rules keep chang ing. Without a stable body of law and policy, they warn, industry will be very reluctant to make the huge in vestments necessary to expand pro duction. On the consumption side, envi ronmental concerns seem paramount. "Expand coal burning and relax en vironmental cont rols," Rays lister B. Lave, an economist at Carnegie- Mcllon University, "and by 2010 the whole nation will look like Pittsburgh in 1945." Technology exists to overcome the problems. Stack scrubbers can absorb sulfur dioxide in limestone, and physically washing the coal before burning will remove clay that forms sooty particulates. But environmental technologies are expensive, about 10 to 20% of the cost of a new plant. And until controversies over clean air standards are cleared up, few indus tries seem willing to make that in vestment. Ban on flame retardant Trie appears Imminent The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) appears ready to ban the flame retardant Tris, and environmentalists who have been seeking such a ban say it's none too soon. The issue came to a head at Hourc subcommittee hearings last week in Washington, I).C. At press lime, a vote to ban the chemical was expected by week's end. Tris, or tris(2,3-dibromopropyl) phosphate, widely UBed to treat chil dren's sleepwear made from polyester and acetate fibers, imparts the need ed (lame resistance to conform with 1972 federal standards. But labora tory studies have shown that the compound produces kidney cancer in rata, the National Cancer Institute's Dr. Marvin Schnciderman told a House government operations sub committee last- week. Previous in vitro studies using the so-called Ames test also showed the compound to be mutagenic and possibly carcinogenic. Based on these findings, environ mentalists fear that, children could absorb the compound through their Rkin, or swallow some of the material by chewing on their garments. Tris is used at levels from 5 to 10% of the weight of the garment, adding further concern about ingestion. Surface- deposited Tris, however, does wash off with repeated laundering. Rep. Benjamin Rosenthal (D.- N.Y.), chairman of the Commerce, Comsumer & Monetary Subcom mittee, declared that up to 45 million children could be exposed "to the enormously serious risk of developing cancer." Rosenthal also seriously questions CPSC's handling of the Tris safety question. Environmentalists have dogged CPSC for nearly two years to take action on the compound. Robert J. Rauch, a lawyer for the Environ mental Defense Fund, told the sub committee that CPSC "w#fflvare of the potential hazards presented by Tris* since late 1075 but failed to take action. In March 1976, the Environ mental Defense Fund petitioned CPSC to require that labels be placed on garments treated with Tris warn ing consumers to launder garments at least three times before wearing. Commission chairman S. John By- ington told the committee that CPSC didn't act sooner because it couldn't make a case strong enough to stand up in court. Apparel makers, meanwhile, have attempted some last-minute moves to blunt the impact of a ban on the in dustry. The American Apparel Manufacturers Association met with the commission and suggested that the industry be allowed to sell already treated fabric. The Association pre viously had said that industry planned to stop using Tris-treated fabric with this year's spring sales season. Chemical employment picks up strongly There has been a notable pickup in jobs across the board at chemical and related companies in the past few weeks, a number of independent surveys indicate. Professionals as well as production employees are in stronger demand than just a few months ago. The chemicals and allied products industry averaged 10,000 more employees in the first quarter this year than in the final quarter of 1976 and 19,000 more than in the first quarter of 1976, according to prelim inary seasonally adjusted figures from the Labor Department. The March total of 1,046,000 settled back 4000 from the revised February peak. Despite the slight drop in total March employment, (he chemical industry pushed up work hours once again in March for the third straight month. And the chemical work week, though down from the extraordinary pace in February, stayed quite high at 41.9 hours. The Labor Department's workhour data for March support a num ber of company comments that the late winter was an upbeat period lor chemicals (C&EN, April 4, page H). Companies noting the improved tempo include some of the largest U.S. chemical producers, such as Borden, Diamond Shamrock, Hop pers, NL Industries, Olin, Reichhold Chemicals, and Union Carbide. Scientific and technical profes sionals have participated fully in the new hiring wave. The latest demand reading for this group from Deutsrh, Shea & Evans, New York City con sultants, shows a February index of 125.7 (1961 = 100). This level is only a bitlbwcr than the 30*month high of 128.3 in January. In February 1976, the index stood at 93.2. Similar strength in demand for chemists and chemical engineers has shown up this year in C&EN's own classified job advertising. The chemical job thaw this year breaks the frozen state of chemical employment during the business ause in 1976. As in a number of other usiness indicators last year, emloyment went through a curious olding pattern from last spring through the fall. During this time, chemical employment fluctuated between 1,030,000 and 1,040,000. O CAEN April 11. 1977 HONS 000689