Urea-formaldehyde foam insulation banned The Consumer Product Safety Com mission voted four-to-one last week to ban all further installation of ureaformaldehyde foam insulation. Bas ing much of its decision on the be lief that formaldehyde fumes from the insulation could cause cancer, CPSC rejected pleas from the indus try that a mandatory product stand ard be set for urea-formaldehyde foam use. Voting for the ban were CPSC chairman Nancy Harvey Steorts and commissioners R. David Pittle, Edith Barksdale Sloan, and Sam Zagoria. Dissenting was commissioner Stuart M. Statler, who believes that a man datory standard with warning labels and consumer protection agreements would be enough. In a statement explaining her de cision, Steorts says, "I am convinced urea-formaldehyde foam insulation presents an unreasonable risk of in jury to consumers because of acute and chronic toxicity of formaldehyde gas." She says no voluntary indus try standard can protect consumers from faulty installations or provide timely remedy of the problem if the installation is bad. The Formaldehyde Institute, re presenting industrial users of form aldehyde, calls the CPSC ban "an abuse of regulatory power and con trary to the intent of Congress and the best interest of the consumer."
Last month, the National Insulation Certification Institute charged that CPSC staff deliberately had with held data from CPSC commission ers and Congress that showed that the formaldehyde problem was very minor. Industry representatives have said they will try to get a Congres sional veto of the ban or take the matter to court. The ban already has been chal lenged in court in Massachusetts, where the use of urea-formaldehyde foam insulation has been banned by state law, as it has been in Connect icut and Canada. In Massachusetts, judge John T. Rohan overturned the ban, saying there was no rational basis for concluding that a signifi cant number of persons would be harmed by the insulation if it were properly used. That decision is being appealed. Since CPSC began its investiga tion of urea-formaldehyde foam in 1977, the industry has all but dis appeared. From an estimated 2000 installers in early 1980, there were only about 200 at the end of last year. The insulation has been in stalled in more than 500,000 homes, mostly before 1980. There were about 8000 installations in 1981. In dustry figures show a 95% drop in installations since CPSC regulatory activity began. The ban will become effective 130 days after it is published in the Fed eral Register. If Congress decides to act, it will have 90 days to veto the agency's decision. D
P&G hosts rare meeting with security analysts
Smale: countless cost-saving projects
applied research into areas the com pany is already in, or which it is entering—but which others have al ready established." And the company will put increas ing emphasis on plant modernization and cost-saving projects. These cover what Smale says are a "countless number" of various projects, rang ing from such prosaic measures as using shrinkwrap film to wrap prod ucts, rather than corrugated card board packaging in all applications, to replacing oil- and gas-fired boil ers at plants in Staten Island, N.Y., and Long Beach, Calif., with woodburning boilers fueled with waste wood currently going into landfills. During the next three years, he says, cost-saving projects wil account for 25% of total capital spending, up from 11% in the previous three-year period. Π
As a news-generating occasion, it was I Nor was there much quantitative a nonhappening. But as an indus data. Smale skipped over his com trial gathering, it was an Event. pany's recent financial performance, Procter & Gamble, the elusive $11.4 such as, for the first half of fiscal Livermore fusion work billion marketer of consumer goods 1982 (which ends June 30), sales were and industrial chemicals, late last $5.9 billion, up 4% from first-half gets Japanese funding month made its first appearance in 1981, and earnings were $414 mil five years before security analysts, lion, up 21%. And he didn't mention A recently concluded exchange of and its first in 20 years in its home that fiscal 1981 earnings of $668 mil letters between the Department of town of Cincinnati. It also gave the lion, on sales of $11.4 billion, were Energy and the Japanese Ministry nearly 250 analysts a rare tour of its reduced by a $75 million reserve set of Education, Science & Culture will Sharon Woods, Ohio, technical cen aside to cover removal of Rely tam provide about $2 million per year ter before the official meeting. pons from the market. In fact, that for five years from the Japanese for the operation of the Rotating Tar It was billed basically as a "get subject wasn't mentioned at all. ting to know you" meeting, and Despite the generality of Smale's get Neutron Source (RTNS-II) lo that's what the session—a 25-minute remarks, however, he did indicate cated at Lawrence Livermore Na speech by P&G president and chief some directions that the company is tional Laboratory. The Japanese con executive officer John G. Smale, fol taking. For example, it is putting tribution will amount to about half lowed by about 30 minutes of ques increased emphasis on its interna of the facility's expected operating tions and answers—turned out to tional operations, which last year budget. Two to four Japanese phys be. No major announcements, Smale contributed $130 million in earnings. icists involved in fusion research will said first thing, hewing to the tradi P&G will continue its heavy R&D join U.S. physicists working at tion of a company for whom "we funding, which last year totaled $253 RTNS-II. can't comment on that" is a credo. I million. For P&G, that tends to be RTNS-II is the world's most inMarchl, 1982C&EN
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