Chemical & Engineering

NEWS APRIL 27, 1970

CHEMICAL FIRMS PLAY EARTH DAY ROLES And I brought you into a plentiful country, to eat its fruit, and its goodness, but when ye entered, ye de­filed my land, and made mine heritage an abomination. Jeremiah, 2:7 Millions of people were expected to participate in protests against their polluted heritage as the much heralded and politically popular environmental movement picked up steam last week and culminated Wednesday in Earth Day. Across the nation, politicians eagerly preached the perils of pollu­tion at Earth Day rallies, environ­mentalists warned of impending doom, industry spokesmen informed com­munity groups of policies, colleges and universities sponsored teach-ins on various aspects of ecology, and civic groups focused their attention on local pollution problems.

"Environment is the most beautiful issue at the dance and everyone wants to waltz with it," says Denis Hayes, the 25-year-old national coordinator of Washington-based Environmental Ac­tion, the nearest thing to a clearing­house for Earth Day. Early in the week, Mr. Hayes estimated that some 12,000 public schools, 2000 colleges and universities, and 2000 community groups would be involved in Earth Week activities.

Long considered by the public to be at the top of the list of polluters, many chemical companies sought to ameliorate public opinion through participation in the week-long activi­ties. In the Midwest the most active chemical company was Dow Chemi­cal. Some 40 Dow people were slated to speak at college, high school, and civic teach-ins. In a prelude to Earth Week, Dow Chemical board chairman Carl Gerstacker told participants at the Pittsburgh Chemical Day dinner that he sees "the environmental imperative as a positive opportunity, not as a negative factor for the chemical indus-try." Meanwhile, a protest march on Dovv's New York City offices fizzled Monday in a cold drizzling rain when only 12 people showed up.

In New York City, where some 20% of the population was expected to be involved on Earth Day, Union Square was the scene of Union Carbide's dis­play of its Lin de process for oxygena­tion of waste water. W. R. Grace sent environmental specialist J. J. Combes to participate in panel dis­cussions on the chemical industry and the environment held by Lower Man­hattan's Environment Council (LMEC) at the treasury building in Manhattan on Earth Day. Active

Denis Hayes Do I hear a waltz?

with LMEC before Earth Day, Grace says it plans to support it beyond Wednesday's activities.

A notable exception among chem­ical companies participating in Earth Day activities was Celanese, which planned no participation and offered no explanation. However, a company spokesman pointed out that since 1953 Celanese has had a high-ranking cor­porate executive who advises manage­ment on maintaining the environment.

A few companies were only too delighted to supply speakers for Earth Day teach-ins. Georgia Pacific's di­rector of environmental control has been involved in speaking engage­ments for some weeks. Says a spokes­man from the Portland, Ore., com­pany, "Up until now, nobody was pay­ing much attention, even though we have been spending a lot of time and money on air and water pollution con­trol." In Palo Alto, Calif., Envirotech Corp.'s Frank Sabastian planned to ad­dress an Earth Day rally at Stanford University and a rally at California State College, Long Beach.

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ΕARTΗ APRIL 22,

1970 DAY

THE CHEMICAL WORLD THIS WEEK

Some companies, on the other hand, faced the week wary of protests. Members of HOPE (Health Organiza­tion to Preserve the Environment) scheduled a demonstration at Abbott Laboratories in North Chicago. The organization, comprised of medical, dental, and nursing students from Uni­versity of Illinois medical school, selected Abbott as its target because the Illinois attorney general is suing the company for pollution violations. Abbott says it isn't guilty of the charges. Kaiser Industries in Oak­land, Calif., also expected picketing.

In other developments, ACS in Washington, D.C., held two days of teach-ins. Richard A. Carpenter, chief of the environmental policy di­vision of the Legislative Reference Service, Library of Congress, spoke about Congressional response to anti­pollution legislation. Local sections of the American Institute of Chemical Engineers supplied many speakers to teach-ins across the country.

Several companies as well as other groups seized Earth Day as a con­venient time to introduce new pro­grams, in moves that Denis Hayes characterizes as tokenism. Eli Lilly announced that it will open its Clin­ton, Ind., laboratories using a new pol­lution control system (page 12). American Cyanamid president Clif­ford D. Siverd said Cyanamid will spend an additional $2.5 million on pollution control for its plants within the next few weeks. Chicago's Com­monwealth Edison formed an environ­mental advisory council comprised of doctors, educators, and scientists. New York Governor Nelson Rocke­feller officially established a New York environment department. The Na­tional Science Foundation said it plans to start a program to support research initiated, planned, and directed by students and aimed at solving prob­lems in the general area of environ­ment. Called the Student Originated Studies, the program's funding is still uncertain.

The next several months will show whether Earth Day was the high-water mark of another short-lived protest movement or the manifestation of a new political coalition that must be reckoned with for years to come. Denis Hayes says that his group and other local groups will continue after Earth Week is over. Environmental Action relinquished its tax-exempt sta­tus last week, so that it can be politi­cally active. Says Mr. Hayes, "We in­tend to become far more aggressive." As illustrations of the tactics his group will employ, he mentions stock proxy fights, lawsuits, demonstrations, re­search, and partisan political activity.

DRUG ABUSE:

Mandate for Industry There is no evidence that drug abuse is currently a problem in industry, but it almost certainly will be if prevailing patterns of increasing drug use con­tinue, Dr. Donald B. Louria told a symposium on drug abuse at the American industrial health conference in Chicago.

In a rare move to lock the bam door before the horse is stolen—or in this case before the use of horse ( heroin ), LSD, marijuana, and other drugs be­come a problem in industry—Dr. Louria told the assembled industrial physicians and nurses that industry is sure to be affected as drug use spreads and stressed that companies should de­velop strategies to minimize it.

The chronology of drug abuse is moving into both the older and younger age groups, Dr. Louria says, from its starting point among 18- to 25-year-olds. Now, drug abuse among people in their late twenties, thirties, and forties is increasingly common. As more older people turn on, Dr. Louria notes, industry is sure to be increasingly affected.

Citing hedonism, social unrest, and disrespect for law as important con­tributing factors, Dr. Louria estimates that there are 8 million drug users in the U.S. today.

The problem is far more serious than advocates of legalizing marijuana use would have the public believe, Dr. Louria adds. For example, most LSD users began with marijuana, he says, with one study indicating that 82r/c of daily marijuana smokers move up to LSD. When marijuana was used once a week or once a month, the in­cidence of LSD use was 49% and 22%, respectively.

In dealing with drug users on the job, companies may need a variety of approaches depending on the back­ground of the employee in question and frequency of use. All drugs im­pair reactions and can lead to acci­dents, Dr. Louria says, and every in­dustry has the right to dismiss drug users. As with alcoholism, however, special consideration for those under­going rehabilitation may be desirable.

Treatment with methadone—the ad­dictive but relatively harmless heroin substitute that FDA is about to clear for prescription by physicians—will fail, Dr. Louria says, unless incorpo­rated in a closely controlled program and administered to highly motivated volunteers. The British have tried methadone and are dropping it, he notes, just as the U.S. seems intent on repeating the unsuccessful experiment.

Industry has a moral mandate to get young people committed to the prob­lems that face society, Dr. Louria says.

Protest is not commitment, he notes, but unless the "stupid polemics" of the drug debate are dropped and viable alternatives to drug use offered, he­donism may soon triumph over value> that stress productivity and goals.

ENVIRONMENT:

Maximum Treatment In perhaps the most far-reaching com­mitment to a clean environment yet made by a U.S. industrial concern Eli Lilly and Co. has pledged itself to pro­vide "maximum—not just acceptable-control of wastes/' In the first step in its corporate wide goal, Lilly will open its Clinton, Ind., laboratories in July equipped with a pollution control sys­tem that will render effluent 99.4' pure before it is discharged to the nearby Wabash River. At low flow on the Wabash, Lilly will be adding only 0.3 p.p.m. biological oxygen demand (BOD) to the river, and at average flow this will drop to 0.5 p.p.m.

To produce these results while avoiding air and thermal pollution as well, the Clinton plant will feature six pollution control subsystems that will be constantly monitored at a central control facility. In addition seven au­tomatic tests will be run on liquid ef­fluents with read-out from these tests to be made available to Indiana pol­lution authorities. By installing mul­tiple pollution control facilities, Lilly will isolate wastes as concentrates at their sources, thereby avoiding the complex problem of treating diluted mixed wastes at the end of the line.

The subsystems at the Clinton plant, which will produce fermentation prod­ucts including antibiotics, industrial chemicals, and possibly agricultural chemicals, will include:

• Two incinerator systems for burn­ing mixed concentrated organic and

Lilly's cooling towers

No thermal pollution for Wabash

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