question for a technological society: the biological consequences of an increasingly synthetic environment. For the moment, however, Dr. Ripley's new department of ecology, under Dr. Helmut Buchner, is still making plans. Meanwhile, Dr. Ripley intends to add vigor to the institution's fellowship and residency program, oceanography work, radiobiology research, and its efforts to document research in the physical and biological sciences.
Dow Plans Huge Vinyl Chloride Expansion The huge new vinyl chloride unit planned by Dow Chemical is the latest in a rash of expansions, planned or building, that would raise U.S. capacity for the monomer to about 4 billion pounds per year by 1968, less whatever old and inefficient capacity closes down by then. The Dow plant will go on stream by early 1968 at an existing company site—either Plaquemine, La., or Freeport, Tex. Expansion now under way will raise Dow's annual capacity from 350 million pounds to 500 million by late next year. The new plant will push company capacity above 1 billion pounds. Domestic vinyl chloride output will be close to 2 billion pounds this year. Production of polyvinyl chloride, the monomer's only outlet, will be about 1.8 billion pounds. The PVC market has been growing at about 15% per year, and producers look for 10% annual growth in the foreseeable future. Last summer, B. F. Goodrich completed its 4 million pound-per-year vinyl chloride plant at Calvert City, Ky. Monochem will complete a 120 million pound-per-year expansion this fall at Geismar, La. And these additional construction plans have been revealed for the monomer: • American Can/Skelly-150 million pounds per year, Clinton, Iowa. • American Chemical ( Stauffer/ Richfield O i l ) - 1 0 0 million pounds per year, Long Beach, Calif. • Ethyl Corp.—increasing capacity to about 420 million pounds per year, Baton Rouge, La., Houston, Tex. • Wyandotte—a unit of "competitive size," Geismar, La. • Stauffer/Continental Oil-400 to 500 million pounds per year, Lake Charles, La. For many in the vinyl business, the name of the game is vertical integration. Dow, for example, has chlorine, ethylene, and a small PVC plant at Midland, Mich. The company says that its monomer expansion heralds "extensive . . . growth in lower-cost PVC by . . . Dow and its customers." Diamond Alkali and Monsanto also are integrated from raw materials through the polymer. Ethyl Coip. is just starting up its first PVC plant in an integration move. Allied Chemical, another vinyl chloride producer, plans a 100 million pound-per-year PVC plant at Painesville, Ohio. 28
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APhA Blasts Oregon Drug Endorsement Deal
The President with Smithsonian head S. Dillon Ripley at ceremonies feting 200th birthday of James Smithson
Smithsonian to Study Environmental Biology The Smithsonian Institution, which just marked with full academic pomp its founder's 200th birthday, is planning a scientific future that could have relevance to the chemical community. Black-robed scholars from 80 nations sweltered under late summer Washington heat to fete the memory of James Smithson, illegitimate son of an English duke and one of the leading chemists of the 18th century. While Smithson's museum along the Mall will continue to fatten its historical, biological, and technological treasurehouse, it is bent on giving more of a 20th century tinge to its research program. Secretary S. Dillon Ripley aims to establish the Smithsonian as the nation's prime research center on ecology—or environmental biology. "There are graduate students today who are going into various abstract phases of molecular biology," he told some 800 international scholars, "because it is safe, because they can get a job, by refining segments of past discoveries, while the vast, unformed, incomprehensible truths of environmental biology elude us for lack of enough people willing to get their hands dirty." Thus the Smithsonian could some day help give some answers to a key
"A professional society should not compromise its reputation and integrity by 'selling' its endorsement of specific firms or their products." Thus does Dr. William S. Apple, executive director of the American Pharmaceutical Association, criticize the Oregon State Pharmaceutical Association for its products endorsement agreement with Don Hall Laboratories of Portland, Ore. The agreement calls for Hall to make and market both generic prescription and over-the-counter products bearing the association's seal. In return, Hall will pay the association 10% of sales from products that carry the Don Hall label and 5% of sales of private store-labeled items that bear the seal. At present, Hall offers about 35 generic products and 40 over-thecounter items with the association's seal. Other terms of the agreement give Hall the right to use the association's seal in advertising and to determine the price of the products sold. Further, the association agrees that it will not make similar agreements with other firms until it has negotiated with Hall for 60 days after the end of the present two-year term. Henry A. Speckman, manager of the Oregon State Pharmaceutical Association, says that funds from the agreement will be used to promote the profession of pharmacy in Oregon and to police manufacturing facilities. An independent laboratory will be hired to check the quality control procedures used by Don Hall. The agreement will assure pharmacists of a source of quality merchandise, Mr. Speckman says. It will permit pharmacists to use a quality approach in competing with discount drug chains without compromising professional integrity.
