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ΙΒMA
N-(iso-Butoxymethyl) acrylamide ÇH 3 CH 2 =CH-CONH-CH 2 -0-CH 2 -Ç-CH 3 H
A liquid, cross-linkable vinyl monomer for use in vinyl acetate, vinyl chloride and styrene-butadiene polymers with these exceptional features: • Good solubility in vinyl monomers and organic systems • Reactive with most vinyl monomers • Crosslinks as low as 170° with other functional monomers in presence of catalysts • Imparts good adhesion to metallic surfaces • Improves flexibility to polymer chains IBMA is useful in the manufacture of protective coatings, qdhesives and finishing agents for textiles and leather. As well as a reactive diluent in radiation curing. And if s economical. A monomer with all these exciting properties for you to explore. For more information, please return the coupon below.
•••••••••in American Cyanamid Company Industrial Chemicals Division Chemical Products Department Wayne, New Jersey 07470 • Send me an IBMA brochure • Please have a representative call
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•••••••••••• 74
C&ENSept. 3, 1979
CPSC turns attention to gasoline containers A reassuring aspect of the energy crisis is the manly way in which the U.S. public has reacted to gasoline shortages. Among adults, for example, gasoline poisonings primarily attributable to siphoning were more than 500% higher in May and June than during the same months in 1978, according to something called the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System. There were more than 600 gasoline poisonings in June 1979, "the great majority" of them a result of siphoning, says the Consumer Product Safety Commission. CPSC notes that consumers have been storing and handling gasoline with disregard for and sometimes, apparently, in ignorance of the hazard involved. The agency estimates that, before the recent gasoline crunch, some 45 million U.S. households had one or more gasoline storage containers. Container sales this summer suggest that the number is climbing. A hardware store in San Jose, Calif., reported selling 100 cans an hour until it ran out; a surplus store in Milwaukee reported a similar boom. Last year more than 9600 people were treated in hospitals for burns suffered in gasoline explosions and fires. An estimated 17% of these injuries involved containers, including some not intended by the manufacturers for storing gasoline. CPSC thinks it likely that gasoline-burn cases this year will exceed the level of 1978. The data indicate that containers were involved in 11% of the gasoline burns suffered during the first half of 1979. Under federal law, retailers cannot legally dispense gasoline into consumer containers that do not bear labels warning against flammability and storage hazards. CPSC has suggested to manufacturers that labels also warn specifically against storing gasoline in automobile trunks, where the risk of ignition by electrical spark or a rear-end collision is "acute." Federal regulations do not cover construction or storage of gasoline containers intended for consumers. However, CPSC is considering a petition that asks the agency to require safety devices on all such containers. One available device is a flash-arrester that would be built into the spout to shield the contents from sparks. Another is a spring-loaded cap that would relieve pressure re-
by Κ. Μ. Reese
suiting from a rise in temperature. The petition was filed by a member of the commission's staff in New York. Sounds incestuous, but there it is. The first safety standard proposed by CPSC, it will be remembered, covered swimming-pool slides (C&EN, Sept. 29,1975, page 74). The standard specified in part a low angle of entry into the water. The point of the requirement, the agency said, was to prevent injuries known to have af flicted adults who slid head first at a steep angle into shallow water. A conflict in tomato data; foods in tubes on the way Richard G. Sawyer of Skaneateles Falls, N.Y., has pointed out conflict ing statements that appeared in this column. They are: Almost 90% of all tomatoes harvested in the U.S. are canned (C&EN, July 16, page 44); 40% of the annual tomato harvest is marketed fresh (C&EN, Nov. 6,1972, page 60). (Sawyer, who manages the Optical Scanner Department at Welch Allyn Co., is evidently in the right job.) The 90% figure is the correct one, according to the National Food Pro cessors Association (formerly the National Canners Association). NFPA says also that 90% has been the figure for at least half a dozen years, so that the 40% figure published in 1972 must have been a mistake. Elsewhere on the food front, She;la Gallagher has won the Food in Tubes Contest of the Metal Tube Packaging Council of North America. Gallagher is a food marketing major at St. Jo seph's College in Philadelphia. Her proposal—Pennsylvania Dutch Funnel Cake Batter—"was judged best of all entries for an innovative food product in a collapsible metal tube." Entrants in the contest were stu dents at recognized schools of pack aging. They were asked to submit ideas for food products in a metal tube, each proposal to include a de scription of the product, marketing outlook, size and weight of tube, and estimated selling price. According to the Metal Tube Packaging Council, "Europeans each year consume over 420 million tubes of cheese spreads, mustard, mayon naise, condensed milk, honey, and other foods. Americans may soon have several foods in tubes to choose from." Goody.
