trial R&D spending will rise 4.4% next year. And 26% of respondents expect R&D-related capital spending to grow 5% or more, while 22% expect a decrease of similar size. However, just 12% of respondents expect to boost hiring of new graduates more than 5% next year, versus 30% of respondents last year. The National Science Foundation projects that U.S. R&D expenditures this year will total $247 billion, a rise of about 7% over 1998 after adjusting for inflation, reported John E. Jankowski, director of the agency's R&D statistics program. Approximately $150 billion goes into development, $40 billion goes into basic research, and the remainder is spent on applied research. In 1997, the latest year for which firm data are available, about 22% of company funds spent on basic research went into drugs and medicines, while 9% went to chemicals. Dollars aren't the only part of the equation. Parry M. Norling, IRI president and corporate technology adviser for DuPont, cited a study that indicates it takes 3,000 raw ideas to generate one commercial success. But this shouldn't deter those in the lab. "Research itself is cheap on a relative basis," Norling said. The key is to "kill off projects early on but scout a lot of ideas and push the good ones forward." Sophie Wilkinson
CMA's focus on Capitol Hill pays off The Chemical Manufacturers Association took steps this year to involve itself more in the congressional budget process, and now reports some success in getting chemical industry concerns addressed. "I feel good about these results because they are a result" of the restructuring CMA put in place in January, CMA President Frederick L. Webber told reporters last week. "Most trade associations don't go near the appropriations process, but we really wanted to engage in the process. We think the changes will save money and enhance environmental protection as well." Most of CMA's attention was devoted to the fiscal 2000 Veteran Affairs, Housing & Urban Development & Independent Agencies appropriations bill, recently signed by President Clinton. This bill funds several agencies that support research, including the National Science Foundation, the National
Aeronautics & Space Administration, and the Environmental Protection Agency (see page 17). CMA specifically targeted several EPArelated items. The association was successful in obtaining a congressional directive for a 10-year independent study of the "true" costs of the Superfund law that will be conducted by the Washington, D.C.-based think tank Resources for the Future. CMA's efforts to ensure EPA will be more, not less, protective of confidential business information also paid off, despite the desire of environmental activist Webber groups for more openness. Another example: Congress directed EPA and its science advisory board to review the quality of the information contained in EPA's Integrated Risk Information System, a database on human health
effects that may result from exposure to hundreds of industrial chemicals. CMA also successfully lobbied for additional funding for several EPA programs. These include an additional $5 million—for a total of $12.7 million—for validation of tests under the Endocrine Disrupter Screening Program, $10.1 million to handle the avalanche of data expected under the agency's high-productionvolume chemical testing initiative, and an $8 million fiscal 2000 budget for the Chemical Safety & Hazard Investigation Board. Webber emphasized that CMA's goal was ensuring a good science underpinning for EPA regulatory decisions: "We want the government to make its decisions based on science and facts," he said. David Hanson
Risk assessment of chic pyrifos panned A preliminary risk assessment of the insecticide chlorpyrifos released by the Environmental Protection Agency last week is arousing intense controversy. Dow AgroSciences, the primary manufacturer of chlorpyrifos, claims the assessment vastly overestimates the risks of the insecticide, while some environmental groups say it understates the likely harm. Since 1965, chlorpyrifos, commonly known as Dursban, has been one of the most widely used insecticides in the U.S. It is the active ingredient in more than 800 products, including Spectracide's Dursban granules. Twenty mil-
Chlorpyrifos
lion to 24 million lb are applied annually to kill termites, fleas, ants, cockroaches, and other insects in schools and commercial buildings and in at least 20 million homes and gardens. It also has extensive agricultural uses. Like other organophosphate pesticides, chlorpyrifos inhibits cholinesterase, an enzyme that regulates nerve transmission.
EPA is concerned about risks posed by the use of chlorpyrifos in residential settings as well as risks to commercial applicators. Eleven of the 15 potential occupational exposure scenarios EPA examined exceeded the agency's level of concern. Eight of nine home exposure scenarios also were judged to be excessive risks. For example, the agency points out that a child playing on a lawn following an application of chlorpyrifos granules could ingest or absorb much more than what the agency considers a safe close—on the order of milligrams per kilogram of body weight per day. Because it is in the process of establishing a policy on what constitutes valid and ethical use of human data, EPA based its assessment solely on animal toxicity studies, excluding three human studies that have been conducted. "Our review of this preliminary assessment has found both numerous errors and omissions of critical data which skew the assessment's findings and artificially inflate its estimates of risk," says Dow AgroSciences spokesman Patrick J. Donnelly. If the agency had looked at human studies, the risk estimates would have been much lower, says another Dow AgroSciences spokesman, Garry L. Hamlin. Furthermore, the agency has considered NOVKMBKR8, 1999 C&KN
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