Department and EPA to get the language of the MPD weakened. Despite the fact that the MPD cash and the assumption of related was developed to help internationliabilities. The sale is subject to the satisfac- al trade in chemicals by standardiztory resolution of asbestos-related ing testing regulations in all OECD claims against GAF so that Allied countries, CMA believed that a will not be liable for these. Of the strong endorsement of the MPD by $410 million, $50 million will be OECD would lead ultimately to placed in an interest-bearing escrow changes in the U.S. toxics law to account as security for possible require the mandatory premarket testing of all new chemicals. The nonasbestos-related claims. Allied chairman Edward L. Hen- U.S. requires only premanufacture nessy Jr. says that "this acquisition notification of intent to market. CMA h o n c h o on this matter, reinforces Allied's commitment to chemicals and strengthens our posi- George Ingle, contends that TSCA tion within the industry. GAF's prof- evaluates "the real risks in the most itable chemical business meets our cost-effective way. Until that systough acquisition criteria." GAF had tem is found faulty, we would be a direct operating profit from chemi- foolish to change it to buy a system cals in 1982 of about $50 million, [the MPD] that is totally unproven giving it an operating profit mar- and untried." So, acting under this belief and gin of 16.1%. D in its best interests, CMA petitioned the new Administration for a reversal of the U.S. position on MPD. CMA's lobbying effort, a former EPA During the course of its develop- official believes, was "aboveboard," ment within OECD, the MPD had as the organization worked through the backing of the Carter Adminis- proper channels. What may not be so aboveboard tration. According to former EPA administrator Douglas M. Costle, and what may border on improprie"We were anxious to get a basic ty is the undue influence Dow offiagreement because we were con- cials appear to have been able to c e r n e d about b r i n g i n g about a exert on very malleable EPA and harmonization [of chemical regula- State Department officials. In memos tions] for fear that if we didn't, written by Richard Funkhouser, nontariff trade barriers would arise." EPA's head of international activiThe Carter Administration be- ties, to then EPA Administrator lieved that the language of the MPD Anne (Gorsuch) Burford, Dow execas then written was flexible enough utive Donald D. McCollister appears to allow the U.S. to endorse and to have had easy access-to Funkimplement it without having to houser, State Department official amend the Toxic Substances Con- Jack Blanchard, former head of trol Act, which it did not want to EPA's toxics program John A. Toddo. This law governs review of po- hunter, and U.S. Ambassador to tential hazards of new chemicals, OECD Abraham Katz. Dow spokesbasically through a premanufacture man Dean Wakefield says McColnotification (PMN) system that does lister acted properly in his official not specifically require testing. role as an industry representative Late in 1980, the OECD council to OECD. A June 10, 1982 Funkhouser memo endorsed the MPD but adopted proposed language that made the test- has the EPA official encouraging ing system (which until now was McCollister and Blanchard of State essentially a set of guidelines) sound to meet privately with OECD Ammore mandatory and less flexible. bassador Katz to present "the strong When this proposed language was views of industry, EPA, and State circulated to the chemical industry regarding the antics of the Brackenin the spring of 1981, the Chemical Fuller-King (Carter-Costle) axis." Manufacturers Association's Inter- Funkhouser refused to tell C&EN national Affairs Group began to step what he meant by the "antics" of up its lobbying effort at the State this "axis."
Allied to buy GAF chemicals business GAF has dropped the other shoe. After deciding to sell its building products businesses (C&EN, April 18, page 7), it has gone all the way now and plans to liquidate the company by selling its chemicals group to Allied Corp. GAF made these drastic moves in answer to a proxy battle for control of the company waged by dissident shareholder Samuel J. Heyman. GAF stockholders voted in the proxy fight last week at the company's annual meeting. Although results aren't out yet, most observers expect the current management to win. For the moment, GAF and Allied have agreed, and both boards of directors have approved, that Allied will purchase the assets of GAF's chemicals group for $410 million in
Dow role in chemicals testing decision probed A House subcommittee investigation has turned up evidence suggesting that the chemical industry strongly influenced the U.S.'s decision last year to reject an international, uniform system of premarket testing of potentially toxic chemicals. The evidence also suggests that a Dow Chemical official may have exerted undue pressure on personnel matters by impugning the professionalism of career civil servants in several government agencies. The system rejected last November by the U.S. is the so-called MPD or minimum premarket data set of tests for assessing the health and safety risks of new chemicals. From internal Environmental Protection Agency memos unearthed by the House Science & Technology subcommittee on natural resources, any i m p r o p r i e t y , however, may rest more with government officials than with Dow officials, who claim to have been lobbying in their official positions as industry representatives. The MPD had long been under development within the chemicals program of the 24-nation Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development, though the 10-nation European Economic Community had already accepted it (C&EN, Jan. 24, page 35).
May 2, 1983 C&EN
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News of the Week Funkhouser also writes in his June memo that McCollister was able to meet privately with OECD Ambassador Katz over the objections of Pep Fuller, head of the U.S. delegation, who had asked to be present. Also absent from that private meeting was Environmental Defense Fund attorney Khristine L. Hall, an official U.S. delegate to the June OECD meeting. In a July 9, 1982 memo, Funkhouser writes to Gorsuch-Burford that: "Don [McCollister] repeated his concern that the [James] MacNeillKing-Bracken-Fuller circuit would determine" U.S. negotiating policy at the so-called high-level meeting in November 1982. MacNeill is a Canadian who directs OECD's environmental affairs program. To bypass this "circuit" Funkhouser writes that McCollister "recommended that we get a small group together at an early date to lay the groundwork ourselves." That group apparently was to consist of EPA's Funkhouser and Todhunter, State's Blanchard, and Dow's McCollister. Absent from the memo is the name or hint of active participation of any privateinterest advisers other than McCollister. King, who had been actively involved in developing U.S. policy on the MPD, was shoved aside as his subordinate Blanchard became more heavily involved. King tells C&EN that Blanchard "was obviously more trusted by industry, and even though he reported to me, he didn't keep me informed." Also, shortly after McCollister "reiterated his serious concerns" (Funkhouser's words) about King to Harry Marshall, State's principal deputy assistant secretary for oceans and environment, and King's boss, King, in government parlance, was "detailed" to the World Bank. King believes that according to civil service rules he was removed illegally from his responsibilities at State. A week before the November OECD meeting, Dow's vice president Etcyl H. Blair—McCollister's boss, and chairman of CMA's International Affairs Group—met privately with Gorsuch to discuss "IAG's attitudes toward OECD chemical matters," Dow spokesman Wakefield says. Gorsuch's appointment 8
May 2, 1983 C&EN
calendar shows no similar meeting with other interested private groups. Wakefield says McCollister may have phrased the memos differently from Funkhouser, but he admits that they are not "misrepresentative of McCollister's attitudes," nor do they show any malicious intent on the part of McCollister toward the formerly involved EPA and State officials. Funkhouser, who is rumored to be the next EPA official to be asked to resign, thinks his memos are "pretty well written," and that McCollister's input as an industry representative was "not only proper but essential." He claims, "If Don McCollister had my ear more than [environmental representatives,] it's because he worked harder at it." Apparently, industry's lobbying efforts effectively convinced Gorsuch to attend the November OECD meeting loaded for bear. Compromise language on the MPD that had been painstakingly worked on over
a 17-month period was not suitable to Gorsuch. She, as head of the U.S. delegation, insisted that it be so diluted that each member country could select its own approach to hazardous assessment of new chemicals. The other OECD delegations caved in on this point. But paradoxically, U.S. chemical companies wanting to market in EEC have to meet MPD standards. The U.S. position at the November meeting was perceived by the other OECD member states as a reversal of an earlier endorsement of the testing system concept. A turnaround that Steven Jellinek, former EPA assistant administrator for toxics and now a consultant to industry, says "soured" the relationships between the U.S. government and the member countries of EEC and OECD. "It left a reservoir of mistrust and concern about whether the U.S. role in future OECD matters will be constructive," he says. D
Chemists elected to National Academy of Sciences At its 120th annual meeting in Washington, D.C., last week, the National Academy of Sciences elected 60 new members. Their election brings total academy membership to 1415. Among the new members, chemists and those in chemically related areas include: Edward M. Arnett, R. J. Reynolds Professor of Chemistry, Duke University. Charles J. Arntzen, director, MSUDOE plant research laboratory, Michigan State University. Richard Axel, professor of biochemistry and pathology, Institute of Cancer Research, Columbia University. Gunter Blobel, professor of cell biology, Rockefeller University. Guilio L. Cantoni, chief, laboratory of general and comparative biochemistry, National Institute of Mental Health. Minor J. Coon, chairman, department of biological chemistry, University of Michigan school of medicine. Ronald W. Davis, professor of biochemistry, Stanford University. Michael J. S. Dewar, Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry, University of Texas, Austin. Raymond L. Erikson, professor of
pathology, University of Colorado Health Science Center (moving to Harvard University). Stanley R. Hart, professor of geochemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. William C. Lineberger, professor of chemistry, University of Colorado. Leo A. Paquette, Kimberly Professor of Chemistry, Ohio State University. Murray Rabinowitz, Louis Block Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry, University of Chicago school of medicine. Charles C. Richardson, E. S. Wood Professor of Biological Chemistry, Harvard medical school. Anthony San Pietro, Distinguished Professor of Plant Biochemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington. Phillip A. Sharp, associate professor, Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joan A. Steitz, professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, Yale University. Sherman M. Weissman, professor of medicine and molecular biophysics and biochemistry, Yale University school of medicine.
