filled in 1978, only a 1.2% increase from 1977. In particular, the "per fume and personal deodorant" mar ket remained depressed, although there were signs of a turnaround toward the end of the year. Household products remained the second largest category. Fillings of room deodorants, cleaners, and laundry adjuncts amounted to 628.5 million, up 4.7% from 1977. Coatings and finishes, in third place, declined 6.6% to 309.2 million units. Automotive product fillings totaled 151.1 million units, a 25.8% increase from 1977. They've been growing an average 23% annually since 1975, and they've overtaken foods and insecti cides to become the fourth largest category. Still, food products, including cook ware sprays, grew 14.4% to 143.1 million units. And production of in sect sprays rose 9.9% to 132.1 million units, despite a shortage of pyrethrins. Another fast-growing field is in dustrial products, which include lu bricants, mold releases, solvents, and adhesives. Fillings amounted to 124.1 million units, a 12.7% increase from 1977. However, the animal products category was down 16.9%, with total fillings of 15.0 million units. In January, aerosol production was running 24.9% ahead of January 1978 levels, and industry spokesmen ex pect continuing growth during 1979. One aerosol expert predicts total fillings of 2.40 billion units this year and 2.62 billion by 1981. * G
Spending for pollution control to rise in 1979 U.S. industries plan to increase spending for new plant and equip ment to abate air, water, and solid waste pollution 6% to $7.3 billion in 1979, according to a survey conducted by the Department of Commerce. Spending on pollution control by the chemical industry will be up 2.6% to $580 million. However, in terms of real dollars, the Commerce Department notes that spending for pollution abate ment actually will be down in 1979 as it was in 1978, when it decreased 7% after being adjusted for inflation. If prices increase this year at the same 7% rate as last year, Commerce says that real abatement spending will decline 1% in 1979. The 1978 and 1979 decreases, ac cording to Commerce, are consistent with industry's having no major fed eral regulatory deadlines to meet for air and water pollution abatement in those two years. However, it says that 6
C&ENMay 21, 1979
Antipollution outlays by chemical companies rising again $ Millions
Water Air Solid waste TOTAL
1979 a
1978
1977
1976
1975
$298 232 50 $580
$286 236 42 $564
$414 249 38 $701
$433 287 45 $765
$394 250 40 ftfiftd
a Planned. Source: Department of Commerce
"major deadlines for stationary sources have been set for the early 1980's and could affect antipollution capital spending in those years." The chemical industry may be looking ahead to those deadlines and putting in equipment to meet them. The current dollar increase for 1979 is a reversal of the recent trend in antipollution spending by the chem ical industry, which peaked in 1976 at $765 million and declined in each of the past two years. In its increased spending for pol lution control equipment, the chem ical industry also is out of step with the pattern set by the total of all U.S. industries. For example, the chemical industry plans to decrease its spend ing for air pollution control equip ment 2% this year to $232 million, whereas all U.S. industries are plan
ning to increase such spending 8.5% to $3.9 billion. The chemical industry will increase spending for solid waste control 19% to $50 million, while the increase for all industries is expected to be 8.2% to $543 million. And the chemical in dustry plans a smaller increase, 4% to $298 million, for waste pollution control spending than does the total industry sector, which plans an 8.2% increase to $2.85 billion. Of the industries planning to spend $100 million or more in current dol lars for pollution abatement in 1979, the largest planned increases are for paper, 24%; steel, 22%; electrical ma chinery, 18%; and food and beverage, 12%. The largest decreases planned are for machinery, except electrical, 40%; nonferrous metals, 26%; and mining, 11%. D
New technique for trace air pollutants A method for detecting sulfuric acid vapor at the level of at least 10 part per trillion—10 8 molecules per cc—has been developed by chemistry professor Howard Reiss and his^students at the University of California, Los Angeles. Their technique, which also can be applied to many other chemical species, could find broad application in the study of very slow reactions. For example, pollution researchers looking at such reactions as the photooxidation of sulfur dioxide often must collect the reaction products for several hours before they can detect them by conventional means. Reiss and his students developed their technique in the course of studying nucleation processes in the supersaturated atmosphere of a dif fusion cloud chamber. Sulfur trioxide, being extremely hydrophilic, is an excellent nucleation center. Reiss' student William Shugard developed a theory predicting that sulfuric acid droplets would begin, to form when sulfur trioxide levels reached about 108 molecules per cc. This figure was subsequently confirmed by calibration tests based on introducing known rates of the gas into the chamber. The micrometer-size droplets are counted as they fall through a laser
beam. Raising the sulfur trioxide concentration increases only the number of droplets; their diameter is essentially constant. Unfortunately, although the cloud chamber method is highly sensitive to static trace concentrations, its reso lution is relatively poor, says Dean C. Marvin, a former student of Reiss who is now at the IBM Research Laboratory in San Jose, Calif. The system achieves its best results with measurement of reaction rates. Marvin, for example, studied the ultraviolet photooxidation of sulfur dioxide to sulfur trioxide. He found that he could measure production rates of 108 molecules of sulfur triox ide per cc per second. Another student, A. W. Gertler, studied the ultraviolet photolysis of nitrogen dioxide to nitric oxide and oxygen radicals as a function of wave length. He found that the quantum efficiency curve of this process could be reproduced very reliably from the observed rates of droplet produc tion. This latter reaction illustrates the general usefulness of the cloud chamber technique, says Marvin. All that is required is that the products be more hydrophilic—and therefore better nucleation centers—than the reactants. Π
