LETTERS
METAL
RECOVERY
BLUEBOOK
SI Units
If you’re faced with meeting current industrial discharge requirements, or are concerned about recovering precious metals from process streams, our new brochure, ”Metal Recovery With Sodium Borohydride,” could provide you with a simple solution. This valuable handbook contains an easy and economical onsite evaluation technique for determining optimum conditions for sodium borohydride (NaBH,) use. A simple flow diagram will help you to adapt the system to your existing equipment, and a uselevel chart for specific metal reduction will enable you to make the most efficient use of sodium borohydride in your process stream. Sodium borohydride has been found to be one of the most effective reducing agents for the recovery of metals such as: cobalt, copper, gold, iridium, lead, mercury, nickel, palladium, platinum, rhodium, and silver in metallic form. Its rapid conversion process has enabled many users to remove troublesome pollutants or recover precious metals, using only NaBH, and simple filtration or decantation techniques. If you’re concerned about these problems and would like to test the sodium borohydride solution for yourself, send for our free brochure, or for immediate assistance call George Medding.
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150 Andover Street Danvers, Massachusetts 01923 (617)774-3100;Telex: 7lO-347-1390 CIRCLE 3 ON READER SERVICE CARD
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Environmental Science & Technology
Dear Sir: Enclosed is a n original poem I wrote in personal response to the notification in reference to authors‘ conversion to SI units by September 1980 (ES& T, August 1979, p 899). SIgh* I for one will far put forth, A SIgh of great relief. When English turns to metric, Without confused beliefs. Exa as in exaggerate, ( 10‘8) Is what metric’s all about. Peta is Mexican gasoline, ( You order way down south. Tera is sweet earth on which, ( Our feet are planted on. Giga is the Irish dance, We do when green we don. Mega is added to the phone, To make us hear it all. Kilo the umpire when he’s wrong The man just dropped the ball. Hecto with everything nonmetric You got to learn new things. A decka is a bunch of cards With jacks and queens and king Deci is Lucy’s husband Who still reruns TV. A centi is a penny, For ltalian parking fees. A milli gram in verse or song, Is what Western Union sends. A micro is the smallest skirt, That’s liked by all of men. Nino nano? You know that. Mork tells Mindy without fail. A pic0 is a picolo, ( That’s just higher on the scale. Femto simply put, of course, (10-15) Is when a girl’s along. Atto boy! You’re catching on (10-18) You know the metric song. ‘Cause if you don’t change with the tide You’re guaranteed be left. You’ll be the only one behind A zero metric, inadept. ( 1 0°) Now there are “acceptable exceptions” To the metric unit stance, But most of these are things obtuse That make an editor rant. W e must learn how to measure things Like mass and length and time, In grams and meters. Thank the Lord, For seconds still sublime.
But other names for other things That we don’t know too well. Like joules and hertz, and lux and watts, Pascals and becquerels. Will anything just stay the same And not be metricated? On pinches, dabs, and span of hand Let liberty be predicated! For fishy stories, baseball lore, And measurements, distaff. Let freedom ring, oh metric ghost Please leave us the last laugh. * Metric units will be mandatory in ACS journals in September 1980. Dr. Stacy L. Daniels Environmental Sciences Research Dow Chemical USA Midland, Mich. 48640
Water chlorination, correction Dr. John Soderberg of Orion Research presented the poster paper a t the Water Chlorination Conference (ES& T , January 1980, p 22) on the HOC1 membrane electrode, not J. Donald Johnson, the original developer, who only co-authored this paper on the new Orion electrode.
Cadmium, correction In the “Monitoring cadmium exposure” article (ES& T, January 1980, p 23), the recent article of Martin Gellender and P. S. Lake appeared in the IUPAC Information Bulletin, not Science as originally stated.
Groundwater Dear Sir: I see your journal from time to time and have always been impressed with its high quality. The article entitled “Safeguards for groundwater” by Julian Josephson ( E S & T , January 1980, p 38) is a n excellent presentation of the strategies being developed by the federal government to stem the tide of increasing
there will be a n opportunit! i'or C U I tural enrichment tlirough t h e c n t h u sinstic desire of tho C'hincsc to shon and share with forcigncrs ;I:, much 01' their countr! as possible. .,Ilthough t h e details o f the institL.tion;il \isits a r e ;is ) e t unknown. the itincrnr) in China has been fivcd to include \ix cities. Beijinp (Peking). \:injing ( Y a n k i n g ) . Chenkiang. Soochou. Shanghai. a n d Kiiangchoiv (Canton). Departure date from \ e n York i h .lul) 15. I O S O . Thcrc a r e still w m c oixriing\ ;I\ xilablc for participants. I f !ou ;ire i n t c m t e d and 14 ish fu r t h e r i ri 1.0 r 111;it i on. pl c;i sc contact: Dr. Leonard Uennisn t { cad. E riv i roil iiic n t,i I C hc in I \ t r!
Division Brookha\en \ationa l.abl.)rator! 5 I Bell .\vc.. Building 176 Lpton. \ .\', I I973 Telcphonc: ( 5 16) 33?~-446'7
'Acid sulfates
Dear Sir: The column.; o f this and other j o u r n a l s . Lind c \ ' c i l of the dail) ne\+spapers. a r c increasingl! devoted to discussions of acid n i n \ and " b u l -
Iites." l ; i m concerned t h a t none 01' the article:, I've read concern thc~i1scl\.e< \ \ i t h the i'olloning. 1 ) Tlic incrcasc in acid rain roughl!, p;irallcl\ EP.1 controls on emissions 01' basic pollutants. e.g.. portland ccnicnt. Since almost ;ill of the evidence t h a t I ,1111 :in%ircof s h w s t h a t t h e liiiic\tonc and b;i>ic calcium compound\ crnittcd b! cement plants a r e hiirmless or bcnclicial ( t h e y ;ire even feeding a i i i e n t to cattle!). perhaps \ \ c have ;;one tilo f a r in air pollution controls. Po\sibl! \+e should temporaril! relax cor?trol\ o n the bkisic poIlutLints u n t i l t h e iicid ones a r c other\+ise successfull! reduced. 2 ) T h e term "hulfate" is n o \ \ used b> niost resca rc hers ;I> .in i ncl iisi i ~ de n i . gra t i ng term. I'm afraid most cvcrSonc i\ going to believe such us:gc before long. W h a t information is there that sa!s g)psum is hariiii'ul (it's our \obrcc of c;iIciuiii i n b r e a d ) . or limestone. dolomite. and calcium phosphate (tlic!'rc "popped" like cand! i n inan! '.iotiwholds)'! Let's restrict mo\t of o u r derogator! comments to t r c ~ i d\ ~ ~ / j i i ~ ~ ~ s . ' \\'illiam
(;,
Hime
Vicc-Prc\idcnt F.,rlin, Hinie \h\oci;itc\ \ or I 11b r 00 k. I1 I . 000 h 2
n. These days, you may not think of Gold as being economical. Yet our Datented Gold-film method Drovides the most simde. accurate and cost-efficient mercu4 detection systems available
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JEROME INSTRUMENT CORPORATION P. 0. Box 336,Jerome, AZ 86331 P.0. Box 455,Concord, NH 03301
(602)634-5908 (603)224-7842
MERCURY ANALYZERS FOR GASES, LIQUIDS AND SOLIDS
CIRCLE 17 ON READER SERVICE CARD Volume 14, Number 3. March 1980
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