I
Aluminum-urethane roofing panels
teristics as light weight, structural strength and rigidity, and excellent insulating properties. Some applications of the material include roofing for large open space, columnfree warehouses, maintenance shops, or airplane hangers. Mobile home construction is another potential outlet for the large panels, Kaiser says. At the heart of the process, which Kaiser says it will license to others, are mixing units and fixed-in-place spray heads developed by Kaiser. These come with nozzles specially designed to ensure correct and even distribution of the urethane formulation onto the substrate sheet that moves beneath the spray heads. Then, the second flexible sheet unrolls into place at a preset distance above the substrate sheet. As the panel moves through a curing oven, foaming develops, filling the space between the upper and lower sheets. As in many other Kaiser ventures, the Dolton operation provides an outlet for other Kaiser materials. The nonflammable urethane foam, for instance, is made from isocyanate and fluorocarbon blowing compounds shipped from Kaiser Chemicals' Gramercy, La., plant. (The third major ingredient, polyol, is bought on the open market.) Aluminum sheet comes from Kaiser Aluminum's mills in Toledo, Ohio, or in Ravenswood, W.Va. ENVIRONMENT:
Manpower crisis The U.S. is in the midst of an environmental science crisis, the National Science Foundation's National Science Board warns. At present, the board says in a report to President Nixon, environmental science is unable to provide quantitative information, interpretation, and prediction to match the needs of society. Existing data and theoretical models are inadequate, the board says, adding that environmental science can offer little more than qualitative interpretations or 10
C&EN JULY 5, 1971
suggestions of environmental change that might occur in response to specific actions. The primary reasons behind this state of affairs are a severe shortage of environmental science manpower and the complexity of environmental problems. The critical resource, however, is manpower—and existing manpower is spread exceedingly thin. For example, as recently as 1968 there was a median of 20 doctorates in 87 environmental science specialties in the U.S. However, the manpower situation is improving. A 1970 study of 66 of the 87 specialties in environmental science showed an 18% gain in doctorates. For the 1970's, the board says that neither the manpower nor the level of support can confidently be expected to increase by a large factor. So better organization—one of the board's five recommendations— emerges as the primary means for significant progress. To this end, the board recommends, among other things, expanding multidisciplinary efforts at academic institutions; combining industry, government, and universities in new types of research organizations; and fully coordinating the federal effort. Other board recommendations on environmental science include developing a comprehensive national program, matching priorities to scientific and engineering manpower, providing continuity of funding, and providing supplementary education in environmental science for scientific personnel. Even if all of the board's recommendations to remedy the situation are followed to the letter, "only gradual progress can be anticipated." The board—a 25-member policy-making body of NSF chaired by Dr. H. E. Carter of the University of Illinois—"strongly supports" current pollution control efforts and takes the position that all actions to improve or protect the environment should not be deferred until everything is understood. POLLUTION:
Urban air kills About 12% of deaths occurring in New York City during a six-year period (1963-68) are attributable to air pollution, according to a study by H. Schimmel and L. Greenburg, of Albert Einstein College of Medicine, and disclosed at the annual meeting of the Air Pollution Control
Association in Atlantic City, N.J., last week. Other research disclosed at the meeting, however, indicates that the specific culprit may not be sulfur dioxide and particulate combinations, which health authorities have long suspected to be the main pollution problem in urban areas. If there had been no pollution on the day of deaths or on immediately preceding days, about 10,000 persons would not have died at the time they did, according to the Albert Einstein study. The study indicates that pollution may have been an especially critical factor for people suffering from heart or respiratory disease. There has been some controversy about the hazard in sulfur dioxide pollution, but little harm has been attributed to the gas itself. In fact, some laboratory animals seem to get along well breathing air containing 5 to 10 p.p.m. sulfur dioxide. Hazleton Laboratories, Inc., Falls Church, Va., has found that guinea pigs live as well in air with 5 p.p.m. sulfur dioxide as they do in pure air (C&EN, Dec. 15, 1969, page 15), and at the APCA meeting Hazleton scientists disclosed that investigations on monkeys exposed for two years to sulfur dioxide levels up to 10 p.p.m. and in combination with particulate matter showed no detrimental effect, even though the levels were far higher than those found in urban atmospheres. Meanwhile, University of Minnesota research indicates that sulfur dioxide is not a significant factor in asthma attacks on the campus. Onset of attacks, however, does have a high correlation with level of particulate fallout. At the APCA meeting, Arthur J. Muir of Sonic Development Corp., Yonkers, N.Y., described technology which he says is capable of eliminating gaseous and particulate emissions resulting from incomplete combustion of petroleum-based fuels. The technology involves atomizing liquid fuels by high-frequency sound vibrations created by a simple whistle device which uses compressed air or steam and produces an extremely powerful sonic shock wave. Mr. Muir told APCA members that his firm's Sonicore fuel atomizer has eliminated smoke from more than 300 large oil burners in the New York City area and reduced particulate emissions by about 1600 tons a year.
