NEWS OF THE WEEK RIGHT-TO-KNOW
EPA WANTS RISK PLANS REVISED CLEANUPA firefighter removes a chemical container from the site of an explosion in a specialty metals facility in New Jersey.
Minus worst-case scenarios, data could be more accessible
C
OMPANIES PLANS ON PRE-
paring for and responding to chemical accidents may become more easily available to the public under a July 31 proposal from EPA. The proposed rule would remove all infor mation on worst-case sce narios for hypothetical chemical accidents from executive summaries of company risk manage ment plans (RMPs). The Clean Air Act requires 15,000 facilities that make or use large quanti ties oftoxic or flammable chemicals to compile RMPs, which provide key information to emer gency planners, fire de partments, and residents. In 1999, fearing that terrorists could use worst-case scenarios to target chemical facilities, Congress restricted access to this informa
HOMOGENEOUS
tion by making it available only in local reading rooms. EPA posted other R M P information on its website but removed it after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. The agency no longer supplies RMP information directly to the public. The data remain available at reading rooms, and a right-toknow group has a website (http:// www.rtk.net) that e-mails sum maries of RMPs on request. Sean Moulton, a senior policy analyst for ΟΜΒ Watch, a group that tracks right-to-know issues, says removal of worst-case-sce nario information could free EPA to supply R M P summaries di rectly to the public, perhaps by mail or via the Internet. Vanessa Rodriguez of EPA's Chemical Emergency Preparedness & Pre vention Office says such a move is within the realm of possibility But, she stresses, EPA has not made a decision on this issue. The D e p a r t m e n t s of Justice and
CATALYSIS
Methane To Acetic Acid In One Step
A
selective, one-step catalytic process that converts two molecules of methane into acetic acid in about 10% yield has been developed by a research team at the University of Southern Califor nia [Science, 301, 8 U (2003)]. "This is new methane chemistry," says team leader Roy A. Periana, an associate professor of chemistry. Although the process is "not commercially viable at this point," he thinks it could be improved. Such a direct, one-step conversion of methane to acetic acid "could be less expensive than the existing multistep processes," he says. Acetic acid is an important industrial chemical that is currently produced from 8
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11. 2003
methane or coal in a three-step process that requires temperatures up to 900 °C, Periana notes. Researchers have report ed more direct methods for generating acetic acid, but none of these has yet been commercialized. Among all the reported methods for con verting methane into acetic acid, the new USC process is unique in that both carbons of the product are derived from methane in one step. The new methane conversion is carried out at 180 °C using sulfuric acid as the sol vent and oxidant, and PdS04 as the soluble catalyst. Periana and coworkers believe that the reaction mechanism involves C-H acti
Homeland Security would be in volved in such a decision. The proposal would also make other changes to RMPs. It would require facilities having a chemi cal accident that causes death, injury, significant property dam age, or evacuation to update their RMPs within six months of the incident. The revised RMP would add the incident to a plant's accident history Under current rules, chemical facilities update their RMPs—and accident his tories —every five years. EPA also proposed that facili ties indicate in an accident histo ry whether a release was due to an uncontrolled or runaway chemical reaction rather than mechanical problems such as a broken pipe. The Chemical Safe ty & Hazard Investigation Board, an independent federal panel, rec ommended this change, saying that reactive chemical accidents are a growing problem. EPA says it may require updat ed RMPs to include data on work place injuries and illness, infor mation facilities already collect for OSHA. Providing this data in RMPs "would greatly facilitate analysis of trends in the U.S. chem ical industry on accidental releas es and the relationship of these, if any to facility safety levels," EPA says.-CHERYLHOGUE
vation of methane by the catalyst to gener ate a Pd-CH 3 species that reacts with a "CO"-containing species derived from a second molecule of methane. In 1998, Periana and coworkers reported New one-step process I CH4
Pd(ll), H 2 S0 4 • CO/H2
I rn
• C H 3 0 H - ^ V CH3C02H
Commercial three-step process Adapted from Science
a platinum(ll)-based system that can con vert methane into methanol in greater than 70% yield. With their newfound knowledge, they hope to redesign that system so that it will generate acetic acid instead of methanol.-RON DAGANI
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