generated opposition from physicians and drug companies as it has become clear that FDA is interested in a much larger variety of drugs, "especially those that are taken chronically in out-patient situations,,, he says. Food advertisments—including television commercials—are essen tially an extension of labeling, he says, and should be brought under the same regulations. He adds that FDA is consulting with the Federal Trade Commission on possible approaches that would protect children and oth ers against the "nutritional misinformation" present in many of these ads. Π
OSHA sued over walk-around ruling The U.S. Chamber of Commerce took the Occupational Safety & Health Administration to court last week. It is challenging a recent ruling by OSHA that says an employer's failure to pay employees for time spent on a "walk-around" with safety inspectors is per se discrimination under the occupational safety and health law. In a suit filed in the U.S. District Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., the Chamber of Commerce says the OSHA ruling is "an unwarranted intrusion of the collective bargaining process" and violates the U.S. Con stitution, the Occupational Safety & Health Act, and prior court deci sions. Pay guarantees for employees who exercise their right to accompany OSHA safety and health officers on a plant inspection are negotiated in many union contracts. However, OSHA ruled in 1972 that a refusal to pay did not constitute grounds for a job complaint of discrimination. The same appeals court in which the Chamber of Commerce filed suit up held the agency's position in a 1975 ruling. But last August at the Oil Chemical & Atomic Workers International Union convention, OSHA adminis trator Eula Bingham said that the agency had reversed its earlier stand and workers must now be paid for walk-around time. The ruling was published in the Sept. 20 Federal Register and became effective the same day. The chamber says it is not con testing an employee's right to ac company a safety inspector on a plant inspection. But it does "strenuously object to OSHA's decree that an em ployer has no alternative but to pay, despite the fact that such inspections can consume several weeks and in volve many workers." It estimates
1978. Even allowing for inflation, this represents a real annual growth rate of 3.9%. Latest figures from the National Science Foundation show that all areas of science have benefited from the increased funding. Defense, as might be expected, absorbed the largest part of the increase. Following an essentially no-growth period be tween fiscal 1969 and fiscal 1974, 1978 R&D funding hike when R&D spending rose 7%, or $621 million, to reach $17.4 billion, na to benefit all science tional defense R&D funding will have Between 1969 and 1974, federal R&D risen 43.8% from 1974 to $3.9 billion funding grew so slightly, by only $1.8 in fiscal 1978. billion, that it represented a decline Energy is another big winner. in real terms, considering inflation. Federal R&D spending in this area The trend, however, appears to have increased only $277 million between been reversed. Assuming budget re 1969 and 1974 to $605 million, and quests for the current 1978 fiscal year almost 60% of that increase came are the minimum that will be spent, after the 1973 oil embargo. In the federal spending for R&D will have following four years, however, energy grown at an average annual rate of R&D spending will have more than 10.9% since 1974, rising $8.9 billion to quadrupled to $2.8 billion in fiscal an estimated $26.3 billion in fiscal 1978. Percentage increases in envithat the cost to employers nationwide could amount to several million dol lars per year. "Even more objection able," the chamber says, "is the manner in which OSHA summarily reversed itself with such a cavalier disregard for those who will be most affected." D
Computer directs tablet making at new plant The pharmaceutical industry saw tablet manufacturing come under computer control on a large scale last week, as Merck Sharp & Dohme dedicated its new facility in Elkton, Va. The plant turns out Aldomet (methyldopa), a prescription drug for hypertension. A process oper ator monitors the control room (above), while a Control Data Corp. System 17 calls the shots on blending, granulating, drying, tablet compressing, and tablet film coating. Film coating at the plant (left) takes a new approach to the op eration, eliminating the pans and sol vent-based coatings normally used. Tablets drop into a large acrylic column, where they are fluidized by air streams and swept up through the column's center to meet a computer-directed spray of aqueous coating solution.
Oct. 31, 1977C&EN
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