BUSINESS
Ruddy personally believes juries "probably cannot understand the issue of probability/' but he still believes it is "incumbent on scientists and lawyers to explain scientific facts clearly so the jury can comprehend complex issues." Would a blue-ribbon panel of scientists do better at judging science-based issues in perplexing court cases? No, such a panel would "not be appropriate," says Ruddy. "Scientists are no better than a general slice of the population. They are not anointed high priests above venal considerations." The American Medical Association (AMA) is concerned about "experts who are behaving like advocates for those paying their fees," says Martin J. Hatlie, director of the association's department of professional liability. It is, he says, "part of a doctor's ethical responsibility" to provide "expert objective information" for both plaintiff and defense attorneys in court cases. "Fair compensation for doctors' time" is all right, says Hatlie. But contingency fees, which provide a doctor with a bonus payment if the side for which he or she testifies wins, is a "real abuse" of the system. Larry S. Stewart, president of the Association of Trial Lawyers and a partner in the Miami-based firm Stewart, Tilghman, Fox & Bianchi, believes juries are competent to judge experts' opinions. If either a defendant or plaintiff attorney produces "phony baloney witnesses," he says, the opposing attorney could examine such witnesses, and their suspicious testimony would "blow up in their face." He adds, "The junk science movement is part of [corporate America's] effort to make it more difficult to support consumers' claims." Aside from the issue of scientists and doctors who willingly testify in court cases, some scientists are unwillingly drawn into court cases because of scientific studies they have published. In one case, Sherine E. Gabriel faced staggering demands from breast implant plaintiff attorneys for documents supporting a study she and colleagues at the Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn., published in the New England Journal of Medicine [330,1697 (1994)]. The study found that 749 women with silicone breast implants did not have medical problems out of proportion to the general population. Plaintiff attorneys hoped to find the basis of her conclusion and determine if any of the 28
JULY 24,1995 C&EN
study materials could support breast implant recipients' insistence that the implants made them ill. Gabriel declined an interview with C&EN for this article. A spokesman for the Mayo Clinic, however, responded that lawyers, as well as journalists, have put "lots of demands on her time." The situation has compromised her ability to do research and has had a chilling effect on other colleagues who do research on implants. Many think the system for trying disputes in court takes an inordinate toll on the plaintiffs, defendants, expert witnesses, and juries. The "system needs major reform," says Manhattan Institutes' Huber. "The legal profession has become very uncivil," observes Howard J. Rudge, DuPont senior vice president and assistant general counsel. Lawyers today "are consumed in the game of winning," instead of "arguing the facts of the case so a judge or jury can determine the truth and assess liability," he says. Marc Reisch
Praxair aims to cool fluorocarbon dilemma Just as U.S. chlorofluorocarbon production is ramping down to meet the 1996 ban on ozone-depleting chemicals, other fluorinated compounds are being reined in because of their global warming potential. Praxair and Danbury, Conn.-based partner EcoSys have proposed a recovery and recycling system for semiconductor fabrication. Under the climate-change treaty signed at the 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, the U.S. has agreed to return to 1990 emission levels of global warming gases by 2000. DuPont, the major producer of perfluoroethane (C2F6)— one of the most widely used perfluorocarbons in the semiconductor industry— will require that customers emit no more than 20% of the chemical purchased after December 1996. "There's some real concern of what's going to happen," says Praxair Technology Development Manager Patrick A. Taylor. C2F6 is used for etching semiconductor materials and in plasma cleaning of chemical vapor deposition chambers. It has an estimated atmospheric lifetime of 10,000 years and has 12,500 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
DuPont is working with customers to find replacements for C2F6 and ways to cut emissions until replacements are found, says Timothy J. Henry, DuPont business manager for electronic gases. Hydrofluorocarbon (HFQ-125, a shorter lived gas, is one possible replacement for etching semiconductor materials. But etching accounts for merely 10% of the C2F6 sold. Nothing has been found that can clean chambers to semiconductor standards, for which about 90% of the C2F6 is used, says Henry. The answer from Praxair and EcoSys is a gas recovery unit similar to air separation devices used to produce nitrogen and oxygen. "It's like a small onsite unit," says Taylor. The unit would strip out the perfluorocarbons from the nitrogen carrier cryogenically. Emission streams containing C2F6 and other perfluorocarbons would be linked together and sent through a recovery and recycle system—a gauntlet of gas blowers and dryers, a cryogenic concentration and accumulation system, and a separation and purification system. TTie perfluorocarbons would be liquefied and transferred to a holding tank. The fluid PFCs could then be further separated for recycling on site or sent to a reclamation facility. To ensure a clean, dry feed stream to the unit, a pretreatment system removes reactive chemical compounds to a level that would not undermine the cryogenic unit. A wet scrubber removes silicone tetrafluoride and other semiconductor by-products such as fluorine and chlorine compounds. If needed, a chemisorption unit removes silane. And water is removed in adsorbers and dryers. By Taylor's calculations, recovery would be cost-effective for on-site recycling for a semiconductor fabrication facility that uses more than 15,000 lb of the gases per year. A facility that uses 35,000 lb per year of C2F6, with a $1 millionper-year leased recovery system, would see a payback in four months, he says. The only other option in cases where C2F6 must be used, Taylor says, would be to incinerate the emissions. He estimates that incineration would cost $3.7 million per year, including burners and fuel. Praxair and EcoSys are negotiating with potential customers based on their computer model. "We're very confident it will work," says Taylor. Elisabeth Kirschner
