BUSINESS
PRICE-FIXING SETTLEMENTS Crompton reaches pacts with U.S. and Canada on rubber chemical pricing ^ ^
ROMPTON CORP. SAYS IT HAS
1 reached agreements with V ^ the US Justice Department and Canadian authorities regarding criminal charges of price fixing in rubber chemicals. The investigations began in late 2002 in both countries, along with a similar investigation in Europe. The agreement with Justice calls for Crompton to plead guilty to "participating in a combination and conspiracy to suppress and eliminate competition by maintaining and increasing the price ofcertain rubber chemicals sold in the U.S. during the period 1995 to 2001." In Canada, the company
FOOD
agreed to plead guilty to one count of "conspiring to lessen competition" in rubber chemicals. Crompton agreed to pay a $50 million fine in the U.S., payable in six annual installments without interest, beginning this year. It has agreed to a $7 million fine in Canada under similar terms. The agreements must be submitted to courts in the U.S. and Canada for approval before the investigations will be resolved. Crompton says it has completed its own internal investigation, strengthened its training and compliance programs, and taken personnel actions where appropriate.
But the firm is not yet out of the litigation woods. The European Commission continues a civil investigation of price fixing in rubber chemicals in Europe. And there are civil classaction lawsuits pending in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California The firm also is named in civil suits in U.S. federal courts regarding price fixing in ethylene propylene diene monomer (EPDM), plastics additives, and nitrile rubber. It won amnesty from federal prosecution in those cases by cooperating with authorities. Crompton C E O Robert L. Wood says: "The resolution of these investigations and the personnel actions we have taken are major steps in putting these issues behind us and enabling us to concentrate on the future. We continue to work diligently to resolve the pending civil litigation and the EC's rubber chemicals investigation."-WILLI AM ST0RCK
SAFETY
MORE MAIDC0W SURVEILLANCE USDA unveils plan to test more than 200,000 cattle •
N A CHANGE FROM PREVIOUS
1 positions, the Department of 1 Agriculture has unveiled plans to test between 201,000 and 268,000 cattle for mad cow disease within a 12- to 18-month period. The tests will be conducted at a network of state and university laboratories across the country In2003,USDAtested20,000 cattle for mad cow disease, technically known as bovine spongiform encephalopathy (BSE). But under intense pressure from a USDA-appointed international panel and from importers of U.S. beef, USDA has decided to expand the surveillance program to get a better idea of BSE prevalence in U.S. cattle. The new program will have the HTTP://WWW.CEN-ONLINE.ORG
statistical power to find a BSEinfected cow even if the incidence is as low as one in 10 million, says USDA Chief Veterinary Officer W.RonDeHaven. So far, USDAs National Veterinary Services Laboratories (NVSL) in Ames, Iowa, have been doing all BSE testing with only one type of assay—immunohistochemistry — that requires five days for results. In the expanded testing program, rapid assays that produce results in a few hours will be used. "NVSLwill conduct confirmatory tests on any animals found to be suspect in any of the rapid screening tests," DeHaven says. Most of the cattle brains to be sampled will be from downer animals—those that cannot walk.
But about 2 0 , 0 0 0 apparently healthy older cattle will also be tested. Before the surveillance program starts injune, USDAwill license laboratories and specific rapid test kits. Despite expanded surveillance, Japan has not decided to lift its ban on imports of U.S. beef It is still demanding that the U.S. test all cattle intended for export.-BETTEHILEMAN 1 C&EN
/ MARCH
22, 2004
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