trolling it. Gallo told the press con ference that prospective studies on donated blood and transfusion re cipients in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control, Atlanta, are being conducted and will be published soon. Obviously, ironclad proof linking HTLV-III with AIDS isn't possible because it would in volve exposing humans to the virus. Gallo pointed out, however, that some people already have been ex posed to the virus under controlled conditions via blood transfusions. The blind, prospective studies at tempt to correlate immunological evidence for HTLV-III in blood with similar evidence in people who have received the blood. Edward N. Brandt Jr., assistant sec retary for health in the Department of Health & Human Services, pre dicted at the press conference that a positive assay for HTLV-III will be available commercially within six months. With such an assay in hand, the threat of AIDS being transmit ted via blood transfusions or bloodderived products can be eliminated. Brandt also predicted that the ability to mass-produce HTLV-III will lead to development of a vac cine against AIDS that will be ready for testing w i t h i n two to three years. These developments do not offer much solace to the current victims of AIDS, who now number more than 4000. They do, however, offer some hope for those people who have already been infected with the virus but who do not yet display its symptoms. The latency period for the virus now appears to be from nine months to five years. Being able to screen people at high risk for the disease will allow clinicians to intervene earlier in the course of the disease and with milder treat ments. It also will allow researchers to follow better how the disease develops. At the press conference, Gallo attempted to lay to rest press re ports of a serious rift between him and a research group headed by Luc Montagnier at the Institut Pasteur in Paris. Last year, the French re searchers reported isolation of a retrovirus similar to the HTLV fami ly of viruses from a pre-AIDS patient. They called the virus lymph-
adenopathy-associated virus (LAV). Evidence now suggests that HTLVIII and LAV are the same virus and reports have suggested a fierce bat tle between the groups over who should be recognized for discover ing the virus. Experiments are under way to de termine if the viruses are, indeed, indentical, and Gallo told the press conference that "there has never
been any controversies between us and the group in France. We are, in fact, collaborators. If what they iden tified a year ago is the same as what we now have, I will certainly say so." Gallo also pointed out that, even if HTLV-III and LAV are the same, the initial LAV report did not estab lish the kind of unequivocal link between the virus and AIDS that the present research does. D
Chemical earnings soar again in first quarter U.S. chemical companies have plen ty to crow about, considering their first-quarter results. The head of steam in earnings they built up dur ing last year's fourth quarter contin ued strongly into this year's first quarter, although with not quite so high a year-to-year gain as the 106% in the fourth quarter. But the re sults mark yet another big step in the industry's recovery from the re cent recession. Spurred by rising production, moderately rising prices, and seem ingly huge gains in production efficiencies, combined first-quarter earnings of 20 large U.S. chemical companies surveyed by C&EN in-
creased almost 80% from first-quarter 1983 to $941 million (excluding n o n r e c u r r i n g and extraordinary items). Combined sales rose a more modest 14% to $16.8 billion. The resulting average profit mar gin for these firms (earnings calcu lated as a percentage of sales) im proved greatly, rising to 5.6% in the first quarter from 3.6% a year earlier. Results of the 20 companies in cluded in this group provide a good indication of the whole chemical industry's performance in the first quarter, because they include all of the major chemical firms that ap pear on C&EN's standard sample of 30 U.S. chemical companies.
First-quarter earnings up substantially at almost all firms % chang·* $ Millions
Air Products American CyanamkJ Celanese Dow Chemical Ethyl Corp.
Sal··
Earning·*
$ 452.1 938.6 837.0 2916.0
$ 36.6 56.5 44.0 122.0
Profit πtargfcic
Sal··
Earning·
19*4
19**'
7% 14 9 15
38% 108 633 126
8.1% 6.0 5.3 4.2
6.3% 3.3 0.8 2.1
418.1
24.7
6
22
5.9
5.1
1497.3 619.0 388.8
31.9 47.0 26.8
11 14 5
177 34 26
2.1 7.6 6.9
0.8 6.4 5.7
62.6 208.7
6.6 16.9
13 13
38 51
10.5 8.1
8.7 6.1
1732.0 541.3
175.0 28.7
17 21
73 23
10.1 5.3
6.8 5.3
747.2 526.5 257.4
28,6 27.2 9.5
27 11 8
91 21 51
3.8 5.2 3.7
2.6 4.8 2.6
PPG Industries
1040.0
74.1
21
69
7.1
5.1
Relchhold Chemicals Rohm & Haas Stauffer Chemical Union Carbide
209.3 548.1 418.8 2393.0
5.5 56.3 16.0 107.0
17 19 15 9
31 67 -5 157
2.6 10.3 3.8 4.5
2.4 7.3 4.6 1.9
W. R. Grace Hercules International Minerals LoctHe Lubrlzol Monsanto Morton Thiokol National Distillers Olln Pennwalt
a After-tax income excluding nonrecurring and extraordinary items, b From first-quarter 1983. c After-tax income excluding nonrecurring and extraordinary items as a percentage of sales.
April 30, 1984 C&EN
7
News of the Week The first-quarter performance of the 20 companies compared to the previous quarter also was impressive. Combined earnings were 22% higher on a sales increase of just 2% from fourth-quarter 1983. And the 5.6% profit margin in the first quarter was almost a full percentage point more than the 4.7% for the same companies in the previous quarter. The largest year-to-year earnings gain of the 20 firms was by Celanese, whose net income climbed 633% from a year earlier to $44 million.
W. R. Grace also posted a strong 177% gain, to $31.9 million. Other companies that more than doubled their earnings in the period include Union Carbide with a 157% increase; Dow Chemical, up 126%; and American Cyanamid, up 108%. Of Dow's results, president and chief executive officer Paul F. Oreffice says, "The results for the quarter are the best in more than two years for the company's operations. However, we must continue our efforts to achieve a better rate of return." D
Badische to market engineering plastics in U.S. Badische Corp. plans to enter the U.S. market for engineering plastics. Initially, the Williamsburg, Va., firm will import nylon, acetal, and polyester resins from its parent, BASF of Ludwigshafen, West Germany. Badische plans to produce these products eventually at its Freeport, Tex., facility. Roger F. Jones, managing director of Badische's newly formed engineering resins and polymers group, will open sales and technical service offices at Bridgeport, N.J., at the beginning of May. Jones says he will start up a compounding plant somewhere in the northeastern U.S. within three years. His later plans also include a research and development laboratory in the U.S. First offerings from Badische will include injection-molding grades of Ultramid polyhexamethylene azalamide (nylon 69) and sebacamide (nylon 610). Among these, the company will sell colored nylon compounds, in which Jones says BASF technology excels. He also sees a bright future for the company's phosphorus-based fire-retarded nylons. Jones is looking to develop U.S. markets for nylon products so far limited to Europe—for example, glass fiber-reinforced nylon automotive wheel covers and radiators. Other products to be sold initially include BASF's Ultraform acetal copolymer resins, for which Jones says the firm has developed a unique stabilization technology, and Ultradur polytetramethylene terephthalate. At a later date, Badische will market polyether sulfones and a 8
April 30, 1984 C&EN
nylon 6 resin system for reaction injection molding. The company already sells extrusion grades of nylon 6 in the U.S. Jones also hopes to develop electrical devices made from all these thermoplastics that are not yet approved by domestic code authorities but that are permitted in Europe, as well as develop such nontraditional processing techniques as rotational molding. D
Veto likely on ocean burning of toxic wastes Chemical Waste Management likely will not be allowed to dispose of 80 million gal of hazardous waste by ocean incineration in the Gulf of Mexico. Steven Schatzow, director of the Environmental Protection Agency's Office of Water Regulations and Standards, has recommended that EPA refuse to issue the necessary burning permit. Ocean incineration of toxic wastes has been under study for some time, and EPA has authorized test burns as far back as 1974. However, Schatzow says, the agency still is not convinced of the need for or complete safety of ocean incineration. Neither is the public. As Schatzow notes, burning of waste has received intense opposition at public meetings in Brownsville, Tex. (where more than 6000 people showed up), and Mobile, Ala., where the issues of transporting the waste safely to the burn site and what advantages ocean incineration has over land incinera-
Incinerator ship Vulcanus during test burn in Gulf of Mexico in 1974 tion were hotly debated. To resolve these questions, EPA probably will give Chemical Waste Management research permits for four test burns. Any further permits, however, depend on a decision by Alabama on whether ocean incineration is consistent with its coastal zone management program. There is a slight question as to whether Alabama has the authority to hold up any EPAapproved ocean burns, but the agency will wait for the state's decision. If Alabama says ocean incineration is inconsistent with its coastal zone management, Chemical Waste Management can appeal the case to the Secretary of Commerce. The EPA recommendation came as no surprise to the company. Still, it sees the decision to recommend the research permits as a positive development. The permits are designed to demonstrate whether both the incinerator ships, Vulcanus Î and Vulcanus 7J, are able to destroy 99.9999% of polychlorinated biphenyls in wastes and compare the shipboard results with EPA's results from land-based facilities. EPA also wants to do a more complete analysis of incinerator emissions and measure more precisely the effects any emissions would have on the marine environment. •
