ently remains free on bond pending appeal. Distler was president of a waste disposal company. Around March 1977, according to a federal grand jury indictment, the firm dumped several tons of toxic chemicals (hexaand octachlorocyclopentadiene) down a manhole into a large Louisville sewer main (C&EN, June 13, 1977, page 8). The contamination became known when workers at the central sewagetreatment plant began suffering skin and eye irritation, and when a foulsmelling blue haze formed over the plant's sedimentation tanks. The plant had to be shut down. Although it was returned to service within a few months, the job of cleaning contaminated sludge out of interceptors and main sewer lines wasn't finished until last month. In the meantime, it was necessary to divert millions of gallons
per day of untreated sewage to the Ohio River. Officials estimate that the costs of cleaning up the sewers and investigating the case amount to about $3 million. The investigative trail led to Distler's firm, Kentucky Liquid Recycling Inc., of New Albany, Ind., just across the Ohio River from Louisville. Traces of chemicals found in the sewer matched samples taken from the firm's waste storage vats, according to gas chromatographic and mass spectrometric analyses. The job of cleaning out the sewer lines was undertaken by volunteer workers from the Louisville Metropolitan Sanitary District. The workers wore protective clothing and were supplied with air from outside. Blood and urine samples were taken and analyzed weekly. Apparently, none of the workers were contaminated during the cleanup process. D
OSHA seminar spotlights job-related illness "Lost in the workplace: Is there an I occupational disease epidemic?" That was the title of a seminar, aimed at the news media, sponsored by the Occupational Safety & Health Administration and held recently in Chicago. Somehow one knew, even before the meeting, that the official answer was going to be "Yes." But the decision was not unanimous. The avowed purpose of the event, according to OSHA head Eula Bingham, was to stir up publicity for the cause. Occupational disease costs at least 100,000 American lives a year, she alleged. Yet, "despite the efforts of labor, industry, and government, many workers have little or no idea of the dangers that threaten their lives."
Bingham: workers do not know dangers 8
C&EN Sept. 24, 1979
Labor Secretary Ray Marshall noted the "long and illustrious history of writers and journalists exposing unhealthful conditions of work." He pointed out that the field of occupational disease offered "an almost limitless opportunity for exploration." At a "media workshop," reporters who had written articles or books on occupational disease shared their experiences and made suggestions for better coverage of the subject. Nothing really new came out of the meeting, but all the old accusations and their counter-arguments were trotted out again. Among the betterknown speakers were John Froines, deputy director of the National Institute for Occupational Safety & Health; Irving Selikoff, environmental medicine specialist; Samuel Epstein, author of "The Politics of Cancer"; Anthony Mazzocchi, vice president of the Oil, Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union; and Barry Commoner, Washington University biologist. At one luncheon session, workers from various industries gave personal testimony about their work-related illnesses. Before the meeting began there were charges that the program was designed to support the OSHA premise that there was indeed an occupational disease epidemic, with little time allowed for dissenting views. Of the 30 or so speakers listed on the preliminary program, only two (from Du Pont and Johns-Manville) spoke for industry. After complaints by the American Industrial Health Council (an industry organization) and others, more
speakers were added to the program, including AIHC executive director Ronald A. Lang, St. Louis University biochemist Robert Olson, and representatives from Exxon, Shell, and Monsanto. AIHC also saw fit to run its own press room at the seminar, in competition with the official OSHA press room, to present "the other side." •
Urea crystals extend laser range Crystals of the simple organic substance, urea, can convert laser-generated visible light into shorterwavelength ultraviolet light efficiently and at ordinary temperatures, according to researchers at Cornell University's Material Science Center. The material might prove useful in laser-based spectroscopy. Urea crystals, which only recently have been grown to sizes and with qualities suited for optical uses, are more efficient than other crystalline materials being tested in similar laser devices, according to Jean-Marc Halbout. He, William Donaldson, and Samuel Blit are part of a group of electrical engineers, led by Chung L. Tang, evaluating organic materials in laser applications. The urea crystals are used as a target for laser light. The high-energy incident light develops within the crystals a polarization having "nonlinear terms," Halbout says. Some of the light radiated out of the crystals emerges at just half the incident wavelength. For example, green light from an argon laser coming in at 5145 A exits at 2572 A. The efficiency for such conversion has been as high as about 30%, Halbout says. Urea has proved workable for several reasons, he continues. The material is cheap and surprisingly stable, provided the crystals are kept free of water. Crystals are also easily polished for optical uses and withstand the wear and tear of a high-energy laser pulsing away at their surfaces. Moreover, urea crystals are transparent to a broad spectrum, extending down to light of about 2100 A. Also, urea crystals can be phase matched with argon laser light at room temperatures. Other crystals, such as potassium dihydrogenphosphate, must be cooled below 0° C. So far, the Cornell team has succeeded in growing crystals of about 1 cm by manipulating temperatures of methanol-based solutions of urea. To achieve efficiencies that will look attractive commercially, still larger crystals of perhaps 5 cm along one axis are desirable, Halbout says. D
