action is unprecedented for a local government in the U.S. Previous prohibitions on detergents have been based on the phosphate builders, not the surfactants (C&EN, Oct. 19, page 3 5 ) . A spokesman for the Soap and Detergent Association (SDA) in New York City states the Suffolk County law "is treating a symptom, not the problem itself." The real problem, he states, is the lack of sewage treatment facilities for 95% of the county. SDA has no current plans for legal or other action against the new law. Barring bootlegged detergents from across the county line, all that will specifically be allowed for housewives to use in Suffolk County are cationic surface-active agents (for disinfecting purposes), sucrose esters, and soaps. The law does not mention nonionic surfactants other than sucrose esters and does not concern itself with detergent builders. Still, clarification is needed on allowable cleaning products. Such clarification will be forthcoming this winter from the Suffolk County Department of Health. After anticipated signing by the county executive, the new law takes effect March 1, 1971. Dr. I. A. Eldib of Eldib Engineering and Research, Newark, N.J., longtime specialist in detergents, states the new law "will have an astounding impact on the benzene and normal paraffins market offering a tremendous boost to natural and synthetic fatty acids as well as nonionics. Following Suffolk County, we predict that there will be similar laws introduced in Florida, the Gulf Coast, most of the West Coast, and Hawaii." LAS, he says, "may be outlawed for its proven contamination to ground water in geographical regions with sandy soil."
FOREIGN AID:
TFI Against Reforms President Nixon's plans to unravel the current U.S. foreign aid program, including splitting up the Agency for International Development and loosening strings on AID-financed commodity purchases, has run afoul of the U.S. fertilizer industry. Edwin M. Wheeler, president of The Fertilizer Institute, last week made public a lengthy letter outlining the industry's strong and early opposition to the Administration's proposals in which T F I vows to do what it can to defeat the proposals if they go to Capitol Hill as presently formulated. The White House two months ago announced plans for six major reforms and a string of proposals to change foreign aid in the 1970's. What stirs
ASTRONOMY:
HCOOH in Sagittarius
Fertilizer Institute's Wheeler Opposition to AID reforms
TFI up, however, are plans to partially—perhaps sometime in the future completely—"untie" foreign aid procurement from restrictions on buying goods and services from the U.S. Currently, some 99% of AID-financed commodity purchases benefit U.S. firms. There is a legal requirement that 50% of such shipments be transported in U.S. vessels. This 50% requirement results in nations turning down AID fertilizer loans, he says, as well as amounting to a hidden subsidy to American shipping which he suggests should be identified and paid out of general revenues. The condition of the U.S. fertilizer industry also aggravates the situation. In 1969, 31 major companies in T F I reported sales of $1.5 billion (out of sales of nearly $2 billion a year for the entire U.S. industry) with a net loss of $70 million. Nearly every one of major T F I members has had severe employment cutbacks, Mr. Wheeler writes, and he suggests that if Congress adopts the Nixon plan, "further severe employment cutbacks are going to occur." AID-financed shipments of fertilizer have been dipping sharply over the past several years. TVA staff economist John R. Douglas, Jr., recently gave AgChem Marketing Research Association members an assessment of the situation (C&EN, Oct. 19, page 2 5 ) . By his estimates shipments through the AID program dropped from $200 million in 1968, to $125 million in 1969, to $60 million in 1970. TFI, in its letter to the White House, reports shipment values of $110 million in 1969 and $61 million in 1970 under the AID program. And whatever the arguments for reasons behind the sharp drop—dried up AID funds, high costs for shipping in U.S. vessels, increased foreign competition are some —the outlook for the coming years is gloomy for the foreign aid sector of the fertilizer export market.
Discovery of formic acid in the constellation Sagittarius raises the number of identified molecules in the interstellar medium to 14, half of them discovered in 1970. The discoverers of formic acid are Dr. Benjamin Zuckerman of the University of Maryland, Dr. John Ball and Dr. Carl Gottlieb of Harvard, and Dr. Harrison Radford of the Smithsonian Institution. The discovery was made at the National Radio Astronomy Observatory in Green Bank, W.Va. After establishing the characteristic radio frequency of formic acid in the laboratory, the investigators trained the radio telescope toward the center of the galaxy where methyl alcohol and formaldehyde had previously been discovered. Because of the chemical similarities involved they expected to find formic acid as well. Their efforts were rewarded with reception of the signal emitted by formic acid. To even speculate about the significance of the discoveries is probably premature. Dr. Zuckerman tells C&EN that the principal reasons for the search were simply to understand the structure of the universe and to collect evidence that will eventually permit piecing together the history of the galaxy and the universe. The puzzle of the origin of life doesn't seem to be of any great interest in itself to the astronomers. They are more interested in how rather large organic molecules are formed and maintained in an interstellar medium where the average density is about 10~30 gram per ce. and the principal mechanism for energy transfer is gas cloud radiation. These conditions are unique as far as the experience of earth-bound chemists is concerned. The most complex molecule yet discovered is cyanoacetylene with a molecular weight of 51. Dr. Zuckerman expects that increasing attention will be paid to astrochemistry in coming years, particularly the search for amino acids and aromatic compounds. The U.S. has been in the forefront of astrochemistry thus far, but Dr. Zuckerman doesn't expect it to maintain that position because of research cuts that have drastically curtailed construction of radio telescopes. One of the most popular puzzles among radio astronomers and astrochemists at the moment is the identity of X-ogen. X-ogen is a compound that has been detected in several places about the galaxy but has yet to be positively identified, perhaps because it doesn't exist on earth. The detection of X-ogen emphasizes the potential of interstellar gas clouds as sources for exotic species of molecules. NOV. 16, 1970 C&EN 15
