n e w s of t h e
week
Confusion rife as chemical accident plans come due "Risk management plans" from some 50,000 companies that make or use large quantities of toxic or flammable chemicals are due to be filed with the Environmental Protection Agency by to day, June 21. The plans must outline how compa nies plan to respond to an accident, how they have prepared for such emergen cies, their accident histories, and how great an impact a bad plant accident would have on the surrounding area. EPA staff estimate that about 2,000 plans had been received as of late last week and say they will soon be posted on the Internet. All the plans will be available on EPA's Envirofacts web site (http:// www.epa.gov/enviro) sometime this fall. However, public availability of the ac cident impact information—particularly worst-case scenarios—has created quite a fight among members of Congress, community groups, states, the Chemical Manufacturers Association (CMA), and others, one that is expected to continue. Thefighthas centered on public access to the worst-case scenarios and whether they should be available on the Internet along with the rest of the plan material. CMA, joined by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other security agen cies, says no, believing this information will then become available to terrorists. Community and environmental groups say yes, arguing that release of this "rightto-know" information is fundamental for national comparisons among companies and will drive companies to reduce quanti ties and use of dangerous chemicals. EPA and the Department of Justice agreed with CMA and others on the de sirability of both keeping scenarios off the Internet and blocking their release via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests and told Congress how to ac complish that goal. EPA spokeswoman Carole L. Macko estimates that at least a half-dozen com munity and environmental groups and newspaper publishers are queued up to file FOIA requests with the intention of placing the scenarios on the Internet or publishing them. Over the past month, House and Sen ate staff labored to craft legislation that would block public access but allow lo cal emergency planners and community 10 JUNE 21,1999 C&EN
members to have such data but only for nearby plants. But then state legislators and attor neys general, publishers, and local emer gency planners cried foul, charging that the provisions restrict their authority. As C&EN went to press, it was un clear if Congress would be able to enact legislation acceptable to all these inter ests before the June 21 deadline. If no legislation passes, Macko notes that EPA still has 30 days to respond to a FOIA request, and during that time, Congress and the agency might be able to come up with an acceptable measure. Meanwhile, the plans' impending re lease has triggered a wide range of dis cussions on ways to reduce accidents and the reality of a terrorist threat to the chemical industry.
Last week, the U.S. Public Interest Research Group and other organiza tions released a survey of 175 chemical companies that found that only two had established goals and a time line to reduce accident risk, an aim of the plans. CMA officials took issue with the survey, noting that the chemical in dustry is working continuously to cut accidents. And although no U.S. chemical company has ever been attacked by terrorists, the Agency for Toxic Sub stances & Disease Registry recently conducted an examination of some 50 U.S. chemical plants and found lax se curity at most companies and almost no security at transfer stations, espe cially for rail-to-truck transfers. Jeffjohnson
Crowded complexes make mighty reducers The discovery that a sterically crowded tris-ligand lanthanide complex can be have like a reducing agent, even though its metal lacks the requisite oxidation state, could open up a new world of "tun able" reductive lanthanide (Ln) inorgan ic chemistry, scientists report. Not long ago, William J. Evans, chemistry professor at the University of California, Irvine, and colleagues dis covered that the trivalent samarium complex [C5(CH3)5]3Sm had unexpect ed one-electron reducing abilities. Until then, it had been thought that a divalent state was required for this type of sys tem—like that of the well-studied, strongly reducing [C5(CH3)5]2Sm. They hypothesized that the reduc-
Trivalent neodymium complex acts as one-electron reductant
