The Chemical World This Week
WESTERN DROUGHT TROUBLES INDUSTRY T h e drought t h a t is hitting the West is starting to cause some problems for that area's chemical producers. But so far the effects are spotty, seeming to depend primarily on the power company t h a t is serving a particular chemical plant. Because more than 80% of power supplies in the Northwest depend on hydropower, many of the companies whose contracts call for uninterruptible power are finding t h a t production may vary from week to week and even from day to day. A spot check of chemical producers in the West and Northwest shows that in cases where they have not felt the pinch of reduced power they are worried a b o u t next year if the weather doesn't improve. T h e hardest hit in the Northwest seem to be aluminum producers. So far 530 employees have been laid off out of a total of about 12,000 aluminum workers in 10 primary reduction plants in Washington, Oregon, and Montana. Every one of the six companies t h a t make up the Western Aluminum Producers Association (WAPA) has laid off some employees. However, each one has limited layoffs to only one plant.
One of the largest of these layoffs occurred at Kaiser Aluminum & Chemical's Mead, Wash., plant, where 200 employees were affected. The plant also has had to reduce output about 25% because of Bonneville Power Administration's inability to supply needed power. The plant has an annual rated capacity of 55,000 tons. Anaconda Co. also has had to cut back, but not as much as Kaiser. Anaconda's Columbia Falls, Mont., plant is operating at 85% of capacity and has laid off 25 employees. The Northwest plants produce more than 30% of the nation's total aluminum supply, according to WAPA, so that a 25% reduction in output would mean a 7.5% shortage in U.S. production. However, the association believes t h a t there may be curtailments elsewhere causing even further problems. A much less damaging water shortage in the Northwest in 1973 caused 10% unemployment with 40 potlines closed in the industry, and the drought this year is seen as much worse with potential for even greater damage. Robert Ferrie, of Intalco Aluminum and chairman of the Bonneville Power Administration's industrial
customers committee, said last week that the 530 layoffs are just a taste of what is to come. Addressing Rep. Lloyd Meads' (D.-Wash.) Subcommittee on Power & Water Resources, Ferrie said that "by the end of March there will be 1000 jobless aluminum workers in the Pacific Northwest and 5800 other people unemployed in that region as a result of the lost aluminum industry jobs." In other industries in the West the situation is mixed. Elemental phosphorus production in Idaho is suffering because of decreased power supplies. FMC's Pocatello, Idaho, plant is operating under a 40% power reduction. There have been no layoffs so far but the company says t h a t there may be some this summer when the situation is expected to worsen. A Fertilizer Institute spokesman says that he knows of no curtailment in t h a t industry. However, fertilizer producers are worried t h a t t h e drought will force farmers to cut back on planting, reducing sales of fertilizer this year. Soda ash production in the West seems to be holding its own, b u t industry executives are expressing concern over next year's production if the drought continues through next winter. D
New drua lowers blood cholesterol levels
Reynolds' aluminum plant at Longview, Wash., is one of several hit by drought 6
C&EN March 14, 1977
After a 13-year development effort involving tests with more than 1100 patients, Dow Chemical U.S.A.'s pharmaceuticals group has brought to market a new drug for lowering high blood cholesterol levels. The oral drug is tradenamed Lorelco (an acronym for lower elevated serum cholesterol) with the generic name of probucol. The chemical name for the new drug is appropriate to the intricate course of its development: 4,4'-(isopropylidenedithio)bis(2,6- di- tertbutylphenol). This molecule has two substituted aromatic rings linked by a sulfur-carbon-sulfur bridge. It is clearly different from any other agent being used to control cholesterol, says Dr. B. L. Martz, medical director of the pharmaceuticals group. Martz says t h a t clinical studies over more than eight years have shown Lorelco "remarkably free" of side effects in a dosage of 1 gram per day. T h e most common of these side
effects are gastrointestinal disturbances, such as diarrhea. An example of the clinical trials on Lorelco is a long-term study involving 55 patients who took the drug for more than five and a half years. The study was described at a press conference in New York City earlier this month by Dr. Donald McCaughan, assistant chief of cardiology at the Veterans Administration Hospital in West Roxbury, Mass., and a member of the Harvard medical school faculty. When these patients went on a regimen of diet and new medication, blood cholesterol levels were reduced an average 20%. These patients had a relatively high average cholesterol of 300 mg per 100 ml of serum. Another controlled study involving 30 patients in a crossover, doubleblind trial with subgroups alternately on placebos and Lorelco was reported by Dr. Jean Davignon of the Clinical Research Institute of Montreal, as-
sociated with the University of Montreal. Davignon said that this trial shows that the new drug is effective in most hypercholesteremic patients, is safe, and produces a further cholesterol-lowering effect after serum lipid levels have been reduced by a diet low in saturated fat. Dow's new drug puts the company in a $35 million U.S. market dominated by clofibrate, a substance structurally related to estrogen first reported by Imperial Chemical Industries in the U.K. in 1962. Lorelco's own discovery in 1964 came out of a screening program by Dow on compounds from Consolidation Coal, now a division of Continental Oil. D
FDA bans bottle made of acrylonitrile As it promised, the Food & Drug Administration last week banned the use of plastic beverage containers made with acrylonitrile. Monsanto, the largest U.S. maker of the bottles, promptly sued the federal government seeking removal of the ban. At the same time the agency announced that it will change its regulations for other acrylonitrile-based plastic food packaging to reduce the amount of the monomer that gets into foods such as margarine, vegetable oil, and other nonbeverage products. FDA previously justified its action by citing industry-supplied data that showed that when fed to animals in large doses, acrylonitrile caused toxic effects and pathological changes (C&EN, Feb. 21, page 8). Coca-Cola is the only U.S. soft drink maker to use the Monsanto bottle, called Cycle-Safe. Another firm, Musselman Fruit Products, has sold its fruit juices in acrylonitrilebased containers made by BorgWarner Corp. The Monsanto bottle is made from an acrylonitrile-styrene copolymer called Lopac. In announcing its ban, FDA said that it would not recall Coke bottles already on grocery shelves, since the bottles are not yet in widespread use, and because animal studies only showed toxicity at dose levels that "exceeded by far the amount to which any consumer would be exposed." Coca-Cola has marketed its 32-oz plastic bottle in 11 states. Three weeks ago, in the wake of FDA's promise of a ban, Monsanto closed its three bottle-making plants and one plastic resin plant. Monsanto executive vice president E. S. Bauer calls the FDA action "regrettable and unwarranted for a number of reasons." In its petition to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the
District of Columbia, the firm objected on scientific grounds that FDA has not established that there is any migration of acrylonitrile into beverages. Bauer also declared that "if we had any question about the safety of these bottles, we would have voluntarily stopped making and selling them." Ironically, almost at the same time that FDA announced its ban on the bottles, Canadian health officials
approved the use of acrylonitrile in containers for everything except alcoholic beverages. In Atlanta, a Coca-Cola spokesman says that the firm has ordered all its plants to stop using the Cycle-Safe bottle, even though the company says that "all evidence is that this bottle . . . is totally safe." Coca-Cola says it doesn't know if it will resume using the bottles even if the Monsanto suit succeeds. D
Academy forum airs DNA research dilemmas Like a typical March, last week's three-day National Academy of Sciences forum on research with recombinant DNA, held in Washington, D.C., began on a blustery note. The forum—the fifth in a series designed to aid in resolving dilemmas in science—invited scientists, government officials, and a variety of interested citizens to join in discussions that included formal lectures, case history presentations, and open workshops. Critics jumped quickly into the fray, demanding that the forum agenda be "totally redirected toward the basic social and moral issues of recombinant DNA." Cochairman David A. Hamburg, president of the academy's Institute of Medicine, pointed out that major last-minute changes in the agenda were not feasible, but the program's workshops permitted unusual flexibility. Though the meeting threatened to deteriorate into banner waving and cat-calling, Hamburg's patience under fire helped calm the opening session. The forum's workshops and freewheeling discussions did prove to be open and flexible. Most speakers responded to a demand that they specify their sources of support—only to prove that no illicit sources of income beyond grants and occasional retirement benefits were available to the majority of recombinant DNA scientists. More serious discussions ranged widely—from the effectiveness of physical and biological containment, for example, to the ethical and moral issues at stake. The question of continuing any recombinant DNA research is pivotal to critics. For example, a new group called the Coalition for Responsible Genetic Research held its own news conference last week to call for an "immediate, international moratorium on all research that would produce novel genetic combinations between distant organisms." Members of the group, such as Harvard biologist George Wald, say the big question is whether scientists should follow this line of research at all.
Hamburg: patience under fire
Eîut there is no accord on stopping the research. Those engaged in recombinant DNA research now permitted under NIH guidelines say that doubts cannot be resolved until further information is obtained. To do that, research should continue, under the guidelines. It seems increasingly clear, however, that recombinant DNA techniques will be under continued and growing scrutiny. Indeed, many scientists, including several industrial spokesmen, are beginning to welcome federal regulations as inevitable, and preferable to a series of fragmented local statutes. Congressional hearings, which begin this week, will look into federal regulation of recombinant DNA research. D
Dow details costs of federal regulations Dow Chemical has added some specifics to its complaints of overregulation of business activities by the federal government. In what appears as a consequence of various company conflicts with regulatory agencies, Dow has estimated details of costs it incurred during 1975 in dealing with March 14, 1977 C&EN
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