News of the Week • Edwin M. McMillan of the University of California, Berkeley, for codiscovery of element 93, neptunium. McMillan shared the 1951 Nobel Prize in Chemistry with Glenn Seaborg for discoveries on chemistry of transuranic elements. One winner of the 1990 National Medal of Technology was David B. Pall of Pall Corp, who has patented and commercialized more than 100 filtration and fluid clarification
products. And Du Pont was cited for development and commercialization of man-made polymers, including nylon, neoprene synthetic rubber, Teflon fluorocarbon resin, and a broad spectrum of new fibers, films, and engineering plastics. Du Pont is only the second firm to win the technology medal. The first industrial recipient was AT&T Bell Laboratories, in 1985. Stu Borman
Ohio plant blast costs BASF $1.1 million fine BASF has agreed to pay the Occupational Safety & Health Administration $1.1 million in fines for 133 safety and health violations, as a result of an explosion and fire at its Cincinnati, Ohio, coatings plant in July that killed two workers and injured 80 others, and caused considerable damage in the neighborhood, BASF says that it will not resume manufacturing operations at the 80year-old plant. It has established a $400,000 fund to retrain 96 displaced workers, and will expand resin production at Greenville, Ohio, to make up for lost production. It will continue to maintain 85 administrative, laboratory, and R&D personnel at the Cincinnati site. OSHA area director William Murphy confirms Cincinnati fire chief William A. Miller's original assessment that the fire and explosion occurred because of a pressure seal failure during solvent cleaning of a resin reactor (C&EN, July 30, page 8). The fractured seal filled the atmosphere with a flammable vapor. Murphy says that OSHA traced the ignition to an area near a boiler room, where a gas generator, thermal boiler, or electrical switches could have sparked the initial explosion. J. Larry Jameson, president of BASF's coatings and colorants division, notes that the company's simultaneous investigation found "the accident was caused by a buildup of pressure in reactor number 6 as a direct result of the improper setting of a critical valve on the reactor." OSHA's report criticizes BASF in particular for not equipping kettles in the plant with alarm devices for excessive temperature and pressure, not furnishing kettles with automat6
November 19, 1990 C&EN
ic h i g h - t e m p e r a t u r e a n d h i g h pressure shutdown devices, not requiring that an operator be present continuously during kettle use, and not having written instructions for kettle cleaning. BASF says it is implementing changes at other plants to comply with these criticisms. Remarkably, BASF will not contest OSHA's fines. OSHA based
$1.04 million of the fines on the 104 employees the agency determined were exposed to the hazard of fire and explosion, at a maximum penalty of $10,000 each. Other OSHA investigations into chemical industry accidents have not been concluded so smoothly. For instance, Phillips continues to contest OSHA's $5.7 million in fines stemming from an explosion and fire at its Pasadena, Tex., plant in October 1989. According to a company spokesman, BASF "feels that the most productive use of its time and resources is in establishing and m a i n t a i n i n g a safe workplace, not in contesting or litigating various points it may have at issue with OSHA." BASF says that about 10 lawsuits have been filed as a result of the accident. Its insurance claims office has closed 1493 of 1941 claims. The ultimate cost of settling claims will be several million dollars. Marc Reisch
U.S., Soviets probe market means to protect environment At a conference in Washington, D.C., last week (above), U.S. and Soviet economists, environmentalists, business executives, and government officials explored development of market mechanisms to promote environmental protection in both nations. The meeting was the second sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund, AER*X (a Washington, D.C.-based emission-rights trading firm), and the Soviet Academy of Sciences, following one in Sochi, U.S.S.R., last June. The Soviets included Nicolai Vorontsov, head of the State Committee for Environmental Protection, Goskompriroda. The conferees found both nations share the problem of large, inefficient "command and control" systems for environmental regulation. In a statement, they urge both governments to combine regulation with economic incentives. And they recommend joint projects in environmental economics and natural resource management; joint assessment of use of environmental fees and marketable permits; and exchange of personnel, literature, and data.
