News of the Week years, with the 25-company demand reaching about 2900 in 1986. Participating companies also were asked which chemical engineering sectors would require the most "future talent." Topping the list at 44% was the chemicals and allied products sector, known for employing most chemical engineers. Next was oil and gas extraction service at 17%, and petroleum refining and related industries with 15%. D
Towns unprepared for chemical emergencies Most U.S. communities are almost totally unprepared to respond to a chemical disaster, according to a four-year study on chemical hazards conducted by sociologist Enrico L. Quarantelli and associates at the Disaster Research Center at Ohio State University. The study, sponsored by the National Science Foundation, finds that although chemical companies themselves are fairly well able to cope with chemical emergencies on their own property, these companies and the communities in which they are located do not cooperate with one another very well to prepare for potential chemical emergencies that start away from the company's property or that spread beyond it. And communities that do not have chemical plants in them but that might still face a chemical hazard—those through which chemicals are transported, for example—are even less well prepared to deal with an accident involving hazardous chemicals.
Many potential resources are available to help communities prepare for chemical emergencies, Quarantelli says, including the Chemical Transportation Emergency Center ( C H E M T R E C ) , operated by the Chemical Manufacturers Association, and the U.S. Coast Guard's National Response Center for oil and chemical accidents and emergencies. However, these resources are unknown to community leaders or not recognized as resources. With about 250,000 shipments of hazardous materials occurring in the U.S. every day, the possibility of a disaster involving chemicals is very real, the report says. A major chemical disaster on the magnitude of the train derailment that occurred in Canada at Mississauga, Ont., in 1979 has never occurred in the U.S., the report says, but "each day probably brings the possibility closer." It is transportation accidents for which communities are the least well prepared, the study finds. "In transportation accidents involving chemicals. . .much effort is spent on trying to define the chemical threat in the situation. This is not always easy to do correctly and there is often delay in realizing that a transportation accident may have the potential for becoming a chemical disaster," according to the report. Although it would cost very little for most communities to begin effective chemical hazards preparedness programs, the report is not optimistic that such planning will occur. "The social climate in most American communities" is not right, the report says. For one thing, "there is a tendency to believe that com-
Hazardous spill specialists clean up spillage from 1979 Indiana train derailment 6
C&EN April 26, 1982
munities could respond to emergencies better than they probably could." Communities do not want to do anything that might "disturb local economic benefits from chemical plants." Also, the report finds "a public unwillingness to spend governmental funds for most anything, including disaster p r e p a r e d n e s s planning." D
Jobless rate rises for chemists Unemployment is up perceptibly among U.S. chemists this year. Preliminary figures from the most recent annual ACS survey of the employment status of its members show that 1.7% of them were not working but seeking employment as of last March 1. That's the highest rate of unemployment among ACS members since 1976, when the rate (again as of March 1) was 1.9%. During the past three years, the jobless rate among ACS members has hovered very close to just 1%. The highest rate ever, since ACS began its survey in 1971, was in 1972, when 3.2% of members were jobless but looking for work. As in the past, joblessness is appreciably higher among women members of ACS than for men. This year's survey, conducted by the ACS Office of Manpower Studies, finds that 3.0% of the women responding were unemployed, double the rate for men. Unemployment for ACS members, nevertheless, remains as in the past far below that for the labor force as a whole. In March, 9% of the U.S. work force was unemployed, a rate matching the post-World War II peak set in May 1975 and up from 7.3% a year earlier, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Unemployment for all professional and technical workers in March was 3.2%, compared to a rate of 2.7% in March 1981. Another sign of the weakening job market for U.S. chemists can be found in declining employment advertising. Although the volume of classified ads for job- openings carried by C&EN tends to fluctuate sharply from week to week, the trend during the past couple of months clearly is downward. In recent weeks, in fact, the volume of such ads has been lower, on average, than at any time in about five years, except for several weeks during the summer of 1980. D
