linkup with other Canadian partners, but it claims its proposals to GCOS are farthest advanced. A letter of intent to carry out a project evaluation is the immediate aim of talks among GCOS and the three Japanese firms currently involved—Mitsubishi Corp. (Japan's largest trading firm), Mitsubishi Metal Industries, and Mitsubishi Petrochemical Co. GCOS parent firm Sun Oil has yet to join directly in the talks, but the feeling in Tokyo is that a letter of intent may be a matter of weeks away. GCOS denies, however, that any deal is iminent now. Although it is negotiating with Mitsubishi, as it is with several other companies, it says, the negotiations are only at a beginning stage and, in any event, are only concerned with the possible sale of its oil sands technology. Mitsubishi's proposed package has Mitsubishi Petrochemical handling the chemicals plan, starting with production of 300,000 to 500,000 metric tons a year of ethylene. Mitsubishi Metal Industries, a major copper smelting firm in Japan, would concentrate on mining methods. GCOS would supply its conversion plant at Fort McMurray, Alta. The plant has a rated capacity of 45,000 barrels of oil a day, produced from sands excavated by surface mining, but it has been producing slightly more than 50,000 barrels a day on the average for the past couple of years. GCOS is considering plans to expand the plant to a 65,000 barrela-day capacity. A sizable part of the Athabasca deposits, though, lies too deep for such operations. Other techniques, such as fire-flood displacement, have been considered by other firms to get at deeper deposits. But Mitsubishi rates them as essentially uneconomical. In part, GCOS has attracted Mitsubishi's attention as a prospective partner by its size. As a subsidiary of a medium-sized, independent U.S. oil firm, it is viewed in Tokyo as "a reasonably sized firm to deal with." Hardly less important is GCOS's existing technology for tar sand conversion and its operation since 1967 of a commercial plant. The feasibility study would take at least a year's time, Mitsubishi Petrochemical tells C&EN, insisting that it's too early to estimate project costs. But the firm feels that tar sand-derived feedstock by the mid-1980's will be fully competitive with alternative petrochemical feeds. The bulk of the chemicals produced would likely be sold in the U.S.
Government lifts spray adhesive bans Bans on 13 brands of aerosol spray adhesives finally will be withdrawn on March 1, the Consumer Product Safety Commission has decided. Long expected, the agency's reversal stems from research and further review of a single scientist's findings of alleged genetic damage that prompted the marketing curbs (C&EN, Aug. 27, 1973, page 2). CPSC's panel of researchers "overwhelmingly," it says, supported lifting the curbs. But because of unfavorable "economics," Borden Co. will not reintroduce its two products. Yearly sales were about 100,000 cans up to the ban. 3M Co., the other firm involved, plans to resume marketing "as quickly as we can," a spokesman says. Voluntarily held off the market in Canada, the sprays were cleared by government officials there days before CPSC acted. A major use of the sprays was in a "foil art" hobby. "While the loss has been extensive to 3M and to many other firms, both large and small," Raymond H. Herzog, 3M president and chief operating officer, says, "right now the important thing is that millions of persons who have been understandably concerned about possible health effects will have those worries ended." The CPSC action may also lead to dismissal of five lawsuits asking a total of $15.2 million in damages from the firm. CPSC chief Richard O. Simpson says the agency is not "embarrassed" by the reversal. But "with 20-20 hindsight," he adds, the agency feels it may have been too hasty. For its first major step against any chemical, CPSC has been privately and publicly criticized by industry and government officials. Much publicity attended the bans. CPSC was flooded with phone calls, so much so that a sort of "hot line" was set up. And at one point it urged couples to consider delaySimpson: may have been too hasty
ing pregnancies and consult physicians and genetic counseling centers. But the evidence against any link between the adhesives and genetic damage began to emerge in the fall. Early in November, a study by the Government's Center for Disease Control, which included epidemiological data, held that there was no confirmation of a cause-effect relationship, "at least a link of major proportions." CDC concluded that it "seems reasonable . . . to discount the hypothesis that use of spray adhesives represents any substantial risk for pregnant women." Now that conclusion has been affirmed by CPSC.
Foreign investment curbs scrapped In the wake of the dollar's renewed strength on world money markets and a favorable trade balance for the first time in three years, the Commerce Department has eliminated its five-year-old controls on direct foreign investment by U.S. companies—controls that forced them to borrow abroad for foreign expansion rather than send U.S. dollars overseas. Included in the three-part Nixon Administration package are the elimination by the President of the interest equalization tax on the purchase of foreign securities by Americans, and the ending of the Federal Reserve Board's restrictions on overseas lending by U.S. banks. This latest government action is the finalization of steps taken in January to relax foreign investment and lending rules (C&EN, Jan. 7, page 6). Chemical industry reaction to the government move appears favorable. Du Pont, for example, says, "We have advocated removal of controls on investment outflow ever since they were established. We are now pleased to see that they have been removed, and applaud the action of the U.S. Government." Union Carbide also is happy with the idea, but, according to Carbide treasurer S. E. Nightingale, "We do not anticipate that the removal of these curbs will alter our overseas investment plans." Mr. Nightingale adds, "We will, however, now examine the desirability of paying off from here, as they become due, certain Eurocurrency borrowings made in Europe in order to comply with the former [Commerce Department] regulation." Feb. 4, 1974 C&EN
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