The Chemical World This Week
EMERGENCY STANDARD SET FOR ACRYLONITRILE The Occupational Safety & Health Administration last week announced an emergency temporary standard to curb worker exposure to acrylonitrile sharply. The emergency standard drew a mixed response from the chemical industry. One company, at least, plans to challenge the agency's action in court, whereas another company says it has no quarrel with the standard. OSHA chief Eula Bingham says that effective immediately employee exposure to acrylonitrile must be reduced to 2 ppm in air averaged over an eight-hour period. The previous agency standard permitted a 20-ppm average concentration level. The emergency temporary standard is necessary, Dr. Bingham says, because data from studies of workers previously exposed to the substance and laboratory tests on rats conclusively establish that "exposure to acrylonitrile poses a potential carcinogenic risk to humans." She adds, "As a carcinogen, acrylonitrile can pose its life-threatening danger in a very brief period of exposure. Without this emergency temporary standard, employees would continue to be exposed to this threat during the period of time necessary to complete normal rulemaking procedures." OSHA's position is that no means exists for determining a safe level of exposure to a carcinogen, "but in this case," Bingham says, "a level was chosen to immediately minimize the hazard to the greatest extent possible within the confines of feasibility." Acrylonitrile is a colorless, highly toxic, flammable, and volatile liquid. About 1.6 billion lb of the substance is produced annually in the U.S. About 50% of the output is used to produce acrylic and modacrylic fibers. Other major uses include manufacture of various resins and plastics, nitrile elastomers, and latexes. OSHA estimates that some 10,000 workers in these industries are those most directly exposed to acrylonitrile. The four major U.S. producers of acrylonitrile are Monsanto, Du Pont, Vistron Corp. [a subsidiary of Standard Oil (Ohio)], and American Cyanamid. OSHA is basing its action on studies done by the chemical industry. In March of last year, according to the 4
C&ENJan. 23, 1978
Then in May 1977, Du Pont informed OSHA of preliminary results of an epidemiological study on workers exposed to acrylonitrile at its textile fibers plant in Camden, S.C. Of 470 workers first exposed to acrylonitrile in the polymerization operation between 1950 and 1956, a total of 16 cancer cases occurred between 1969 and 1975, as compared with 5.8 expected, based on Du Pont company rates. Industry reaction to the emergency temporary standard is varied. For example, Vistron charges that OSHA acted "arbitrarily" and ignored industry and other governmental agency recommendations in imposing the standard. According to Vistron, "OSHA's authority to impose an emergency standard should be reBingham: potential carcinogenic risk served only for an extremely serious health crisis that would place workers agency, the Manufacturing Chemists in 'grave danger.' We can demonAssociation reported interim results strate that this is clearly not the case of a study on the chronic toxicity of here." Vistron is preparing to chalingestion of acrylonitrile by rats. lenge OSHA's action in court. On the other hand, a spokesman for Tumors of the central nervous system and ear canal were found among ani- Du Pont says that the company has mals ingesting 100 and 300 ppm of no problem with the standard beacrylonitrile in their drinking water. cause Du Pont, through engineering In April MCA reported similar tu- and other controls, already has remors among rats ingesting 35 ppm of duced exposure for its workers below 2 ppm. D the substance.
Chemical mergers declii îd in 1977 In spite of several highly publicized, large value acquisitions, chemical company merger activity fell 11% in 1977 from 1976, according to W. T. Grimm & Co., Chicago-based merger specialists. In 1977, there were 70 "net" announcements, down from 79 in 1976. Net announcements is figured by subtracting the number of cancellations from total merger announcements. In fourth-quarter 1977, net announcements totaled 16, down from 21 announcements in fourth-quarter 1976. Three chemical-related mergers were among the largest transactions in dollar volume that Grimm reported. Kennecott Copper's $521.1 million cash tender offer for Carborundum was the largest tender proposal in the fourth quarter. Other large deals involving chemical companies in 1977 cited by Grimm were
Gulf Oil's acquisition of Kewanee Industries for $454.3 million and National Distillers & Chemical's $201.7 million cash and stock offer for Emery Industries. The largest single transaction in 1977 was the acquisition by oil-drilling firm J. Ray McDermott of Babcock & Wilcox for more than $700 million in cash and stock. According to Grimm, total merger activity in the U.S. in 1977 was off 2% from 1976. In 1977 there were 2224 net merger announcements; in 1975, there were 2276. Total merger activity accelerated in the second half of 1977, which nearly offset the sluggish first half. Activity in the third quarter was up 22% and in the fourth quarter up 9% from the levels of the previous year. There were 616 mergers in the third quarter and 547 in the fourth. The first two quarters showed declines of
12% and 22% from the previous year's figures. The reason for the decline in total merger activity during 1977, according to Grimm, was a substantial decrease in divestitures. In 1977 sales of divisions and subsidiaries accounted for 1002 transactions, or 45% of total merger activity. In 1976 there were 1204 divestitures, which made up 53% of total merger activity. For the previous three years, sales of subsidiaries and divisions had accounted for 47 to 54% of all merger announcements; thus 1977 was a low point. According to William T. Grimm, president of the company, the upward trend in public takeovers has been stimulated by the rise in corporate liquidity, the high cost of capital asset replacements, and the low stock market value of most companies. Corporate buyers would rather invest their cash in asset-rich companies than in building new facilities, he says. •
Technology data free to least-developed nations One of the world's largest computerized data banks of licensable technology is being thrown open for free use by governments and industries in any of those 43 countries designated by the United Nations as "least-developed nations." At a reception in Washington, D.C., David S. Devor, New York representative of Dr. Dvorkovitz & Associates, explained to a group of developing country ambassadors that his firm's data bank contains more than 20,000 items of technology that currently are in production and are available for license. Users in industrialized countries normally would pay up to $100,000 to search the bank, he says. In addition to running the data base, the Ormond Beach, Fla.-based consulting firm organizes an annual World's Fair of Technology Exchange (C&EN, Feb. 9,1976, page 5), which is also open free to developing nations. The data base can be tapped from anywhere in the world through a telephone terminal, and can be scanned for up to three key words simultaneously. Each abstract indicates the source, a description of the technology, and its license terms. Abstracts are stored in up to five languages. Users from the least-developed nations also will be able to enter their specific needs into the data base, Devor says. Interested persons from industrialized nations thus can search
a number of earnings drops. And beneath the overall gains in this group reporting so far, there are admissions of continuing problems in overall volume growth and in important individual products, including chlorine, caustic soda, and fluorocarbons. In view of these countercurrents, forecasts still are quite tempered for performance in 1978. Stauffer Chemical has grabbed the earnings spotlight so far. At its headquarters in Westport, Conn., chairman H. Barclay Morley told security analysts and the press that the company ended 1977 with a full-year earnings gain of 3% to $116.0 million on a sales increase of 12% to $1.23 First fourth-quarter billion. The 1977 earnings increase is the company's sixth straight. The results mostly good 1977 gain had been in some doubt Hopes did not run high for fourth- earlier in the year as the company ran quarter 1977 profits in the U.S. basic into a spate of unusual problems inchemical industry. A new business volving weather, plant breakdowns, pause seemed to be hanging on, dat- and foreign currency shifts. However, in the fourth quarter ing back to early summer. This slack would only exacerbate profit- Stauffer was in its accustomed growth squeezing conditions the industry pattern sooner than many analysts labored through earlier in the year— expected. Morley attributes the large bulging capacity well known to cus- earnings gain in the quarter to imtomers, weak prices, and slower vol- proved operating profits based on ume growth than expected when higher volume, higher prices, and cost plants were planned a few years reduction programs in U.S. operaago. tions. Equity earnings in nonconsolIn view of such modest expecta- idated operations also were up, and tions, initial fourth-quarter earnings Eastern European and Latin Amerireported last week by large basic can agricultural chemicals sales were chemical producers are a mildly strong in the quarter. pleasant surprise. Most companies For 1978, Morley conveys confireporting so far are showing moderate dence that Stauffer can push up sales and earnings improvements over earnings another 10%. This gain asthe fourth quarter of 1976. Calendar sumes a 4 to 4.5% real-dollar upswing fourth-quarter earnings were up 16% in U.S. gross national product and at Air Products, 16% at Diamond inflation at 6 to 6.5%. Morley also Shamrock, 12% at Ethyl Corp., 5% at expects that Stauffer's product pricOlin, 32% at Pennwalt, and an unex- ing can recover cost increases. pected 33% at Stauffer Chemical. Among other company success Of course, none of these early re- stories, Ethyl Corp.'s final quarter ports are in the giant multinational resulted in full-year gains of 13% in category where results still may show sales to $1.28 billion and 13% in earnings to $78.0 million. Despite uncertainties in the gasoline market for lead additives, company chairman F. D. Gottwald Jr. says that sales were strong in all business areas. For Air Products, the 16% fourthquarter earnings increase came on a sales pickup of 8%. This quarter is the first in the company's new fiscal year ending in September. At Pennwalt, the big fourth-quarter earnings increase capped a year in which earnings rose 20% to $41.7 million and sales increased 7% to $834.9 million. Diamond Shamrock scored records all around in 1977. Earnings rose 16% to $162 million, and sales went up 13% to $1.54 billion. At Olin, full-year earnings increased 8% to $78.1 million on a 7% gain in sales to $1.47 billion. Both companies mention weakness in Morley: sixth straight earnings gain some chemical operations. D
for potential markets, again free of charge. "There's absolutely no way we're going to make any money on this," Devor insists. No one ever pays a fee to list in the data base; the cost of the least-developed nations program will be borne entirely by Dr. Dvorkovitz & Associates. He also denies knowledge of any tax advantage to be gained through the program. "We sincerely believe that innovation and the pioneering spirit is the essence of self-reliance," he says. "We want to nurture that spirit." D
Jan. 23, 1978 C&EN
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