News of the Week effects on biological life or materials. Such a synthesis chapter will be included in the report presented to EPA's Clean Air Science Advisory Committee in December and will be part of the final report delivered to the Federal Interagency Task Force on Acid Precipitation next March. Until that chapter is written, assistant EPA administrator for air Kathleen M. Bennett says, "Any attempt to draw integrated conclusions from the various chapters at this point is scientifically unsupportable." Then, in her press release, she proceeds to excerpt statements from the report to support the Administration's position that more research is needed before control strategies are implemented. Despite Bennett's remarks, scientists involved with the report concede that even a cursory review of the chapter summaries can make a case for the linkage between mahmade emissions in the Midwest to dead or dying lakes, aquatic life and forests, and to materials damage, and to the potential harm to human health in the eastern U.S. and southeastern Canada. But as Peter Hobbs, atmospheric scientist and one of the
report's authors, points out, the state of the science does not allow a quantification of the contribution of Midwest emissions to the acid rain problem in affected areas. Nor does present knowledge indicate how much an ameliorating effect a given percentage reduction in such emissions will have, Hobbs says. Hobbs contends that a "proper, coordinated research effort" could answer those questions in a short time. "I don't see such a comprehensive program being mounted by the utilities or by the federal government. The interagency task force is not adequate to the task," he claims. Indeed, other scientists tell C&EN that the interagency group is degenerating into internecine warfare, with each agency battling to protect its own budget. Canada's environmental counsellor George Rejohn reads EPA's draft document as a "confirmation of other reports—such as the National Academy of Science's recent report— which link emissions to deposition." He adds that "EPA's report is accurate and confirms that we do know enough to design mitigating strategies." D
Ph.D. chemists among top-paid Ph.D. scientists Doctoral chemists are better paid than most other Ph.D. scientists and have about the same rate of unemployment, according to the National Research Council's latest biennial survey of doctorates in the U.S. The survey finds that 88% of the chemists are employed full time, although not necessarily in chemistry. Of the rest, 3.0% are in postdoctoral appointments, 2.2% work part time, 5.0% are retired, and 0.7% are seeking employment. This pattern is much the same as that for all scien-
Median salary for Ph.D. chemists exceeded $36,000 in 1981 Field of doctorate
Chemistry Agriculture Biology Computer science Earth science Mathematics Physics and astronomy All fields
All graduates Men Women ($ Thousands)
$36.9 33.1 32.5 34.8 34.9 31.8 36.9 34.8
$37.4 33.3 33.7 35.3 35.3 32.3 37.0 35.7
$29.5 24.9 26.6 30.8 29.4 27.0 30.8 27.1
Note: Median salaries are for February 1981. Source: National Research Council
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C&EN Nov. 8, 1982
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tists and engineers, where 89% are employed full time and 0.7% are seeking employment. Salaries, however, are slightly higher for Ph.D. chemists than for other scientists. Their median annual salary is $36,900, which is matched by physicists and astronomers (which the survey lumps together). This value is higher than the median salary of any other type of scientist and 6% above the median of $34,800 for all scientists and engineers. Engineers as a group are paid better—their median annual salary is $40,200. In every field surveyed, women Ph.D.s were paid, on average, less well than men. For chemistry, this difference amounts to 27% of the women's salaries, a little less than the 32% differential for scientists and engineers overall. However, for chemistry, as for most other fields, the difference in salaries for recent Ph.D. recipients is much less. Copies of "Science, Engineering & Humanities Doctorates in the U.S.: 1981 Profile" are available free from the Office of Scientific & Engineering Personnel, National Research Council, 2101 Constitution Ave., Washington, D.C. 20418. D
Petrochemical reshuffle inches along in Italy A wholesale redrawing of who owns what in Italian petrochemicals has moved another notch toward completion. Ultimately, U.S. interests will have a large hand in running these operations. In the early hours of Oct. 30, representatives of Ente Nazionale Idrocarburi, Italy's state-owned hydrocarbons concern, and Montedison, the country's largest private chemical company, signed an outline agreement in Rome that is expected to lead to transfer of complete segments of petrochemical operations from one to the other. Such a restructuring is complex by its very nature. But the issue is confused even further by the fact that Enoxy Chemical, in which ENI and Occidental Petroleum are equal partners, is the company that ultimately will run the plants derived from Montedison and market the products. So why wasn't Enoxy a party to the just-signed agreement? According to Enoxy, nothing sinister is implied. It still is very much in the picture of the restructuring. Timing was a major factor that forced the recent turn of events. A letter of intent, outlining the broad areas of discussion leading toward the transfers and signed by Enoxy and Montedison in mid-July, set a deadline of Oct. 29 for drawing up the next essential document. However, though substantial progress was made during that period, the participants hadn't reached the stage where they could enter an agreement in principle before the deadline passed. Rather than allowing the deal to lapse completely, the Italian government prodded ENI and Montedison into taking the action they did. Enoxy remains confident that a final agreement putting a seal to the transfers will be made by the end of December, and that Enoxy will be a signatory to that agreement. If, as expected, the deal with Montedison reaches fruition, Enoxy would transfer its polypropylene and polystyrene operations to Montedison, at the same time acquiring the latter's acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene, HDPE, LDPE, PVC, and synthetic rubber facilities, and would service Montedison's existing customers for these products. The move could raise Enoxy Chemical's annual sales to about $1.7 billion from the current $1 billion or so level. D
