introduced, general directions taken, committee makeup, and overall tenor of the new Congress. One Congressional observer estimates that the general election along with retirements and primary losses by incumbents has resulted in a loss of more than 1000 years of Congressional member experience. And it's experience and seniority that get things done in Congress. This has chemical industry officials worried in that, among other things, they'll have to work with freshman members, who wield virtually no clout and will require a massive education on complex problems, both governmental and chemical. In general, the new Congress will be more liberal, younger, perhaps more generous toward R&D funding, less pro business, more pro consumer, pro environment, and activist. Democrats will gain additional seats on committees at the expense of Republicans, space and science matters may get more attention from potential Presidential aspirant and Senator-elect Glenn, a general overhaul of the total federal science apparatus—not just at the White House—may be legislated, few major committee chairmanships will change hands, and there will be some new members in a much more powerful House Science and Technology Committee.
Water chlorination, cancer link found Chlorination of water, long used for sanitation purposes, may be producing an unexpected result, according to the federal government; formation of suspected carcinogens in drinking water. But the Environmental Protection Agency, which brought the concern into focus last week, urges caution in assessing the problem. EPA says it doesn't believe at this time that ''there's any need for general alarm," and "in no case are we urging that the chlorination process be stopped." Concern about water chlorination primarily stems from EPA studies of drinking water in Cincinnati and New Orleans, where concentrations of chloroform and carbon tetrachloride in the parts-per-billion range were detected in municipal drinking water. These compounds, according to EPA, have shown carcinogenic potential in animals, but their effects in humans have not been demonstrated. EPA will conduct a broad nationwide drinking water study to assess
the extent of the chemical contribution of chlorination to drinking water. For one thing, government scientists aren't sure that chlorination is the only source of chlorinated organics in drinking water. EPA found, for example, about 60 as yet undisclosed organic compounds in the New Orleans water, many of them chlorinated. As far as the carcinogenicity of chloroform and carbon tetrachloride is concerned, one industrial toxicologist contacted by C&EN seriously doubts that the compounds produce cancer. He cites a distinct paucity of references in the literature concerning the carcinogenic potential of the two compounds, both of which have undergone extensive, acute, and chronic toxicology testing.
BFG to cut vinyl chloride exposure B. F. Goodrich plans to spend about $42 million over the next three to four years to reduce ambient vinyl chloride concentrations "to the lowest levels attainable with currently feasible technology," the firm says in its third-quarter report. "And that figure doesn't include any shipping docks or bicycles," a Goodrich spokesman adds. The capital expenditures will be made at Goodrich's five polyvinyl chloride plants in Louisville and at its vinyl chloride plant in Calvert City, Ky. But with present technology, Goodrich says, even that massive outlay won't enable it to meet the 1 and 5 ppm "permanent" standards prescribed by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration and now set to go into effect Jan. 1. Thus, unless court action forces revisions (suits challenging the OSHA standards are pending), workers in certain areas will have to use respirators. Using respirators would decrease productivity, Goodrich says, but expansions now under way would offset any capacity reduction caused by the decreases in productivity. Meanwhile, the Society of the Plastics Industry, acting for a group of its members, has petitioned OSHA to postpone enforcement of the new vinyl chloride standards. SPI contends that sufficient supplies of approved respirators won't be available to industry by the Jan. 1 deadline. Unless relief is granted, SPI warns, "large segments" of the industry will be forced to shut down after Dec. 31. And in Painesville, Ohio, 300
workers struck Uniroyal's PVC plant there last week. The United Rubber Workers had asked for a 75 cent-an-hour increase as "vinyl chloride hazard pay" and as a costof-living adjustment. However, the walkout—which closed the plant—came after company and union officials couldn't agree on "changes in working conditions related to vinyl chloride," according to a Uniroyal spokesman.
Rise forecast for chemical shipments Shipments of chemical products will rise at an above-average rate next year, according to government business analysts, but will show somewhat less growth than they did this year. The value of shipments will total $89 billion in 1975, a gain of 13%, the Department of Commerce projects in its annual industrial outlook study. This year's output is estimated at $79 billion, 18% above 1973's level. Growth during the previous six-year span had been at an 8%-a-year clip. Shipments are expected to be higher throughout the industry in 1975. Setting the pace will be nitrogen fertilizers, with shipments up 35% following a 48% increase this year, and phosphate fertilizers, up 22% on the heels of 1974's 25% gain. For both products, higher prices largely are responsible for these increases. Shipments of plastics and resins are forecast to rise 15% to $7.5 billion, following a 19% gain in 1974, with physical volume up about 10% to 32.9 billion lb. Industrial gas shipments also will increase about 15% to just over $1 billion, compared to a gain of 24% this year. Shipments of chlorine and alkalies will be 13% higher than this year. The Commerce Department analysts look for shipments of industrial organic chemicals to grow only 5% (compared to 15% this year) to $15.2 billion in 1975, on the other hand, with only "meager increases in physical volume." The Commerce projections for chemicals have tended to be conservative—a year ago the department projected that chemical shipments would increase only 8% to $68.2 billion. And this year's estimates, made last summer, may prove no exception, if only because price increases have been greater than expected. The study looked for the wholesale price index for all chemicals "to be close to 150" by year's end, a level the index had topped by August. Nov. 11, 1974 C&EN
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