CHEMICAL & ENGINEERING

NEWS VOLUME 4i, NUMBER 20 The Chemical Wor ld This Week MAY 20, 1963

Pesticide Report Stresses Research Need Long-awaited White House report has ominous overtones for pesticide producers, but is not as tough as many feared

President Kennedy last week released the long-awaited pesticides report of his Science Advisory Committee. Chemical producers, who feared that it would call for sweeping new govern­ment controls on pesticides, may be in for a surprise. More research on the effects of pesticides and better coor­dination of existing federal pesticide programs, rather than new controls, are the primary needs at this time, the committee feels.

But the report sounds one very ominous note for chemical producers. It calls for an "orderly reduction" in the use of persistant pesticides—DDT and other stable chlorinated hydrocar­bons in particular—with the eventual goal of totally eliminating the use of persisting toxic pesticides. It says that federal agencies should "exert their leadership" to induce the states to take similar action.

Five-Point Program. The report sets forth a five-point program which the committee says is aimed at assess­ing the levels of pesticides in man and his environment, augmenting the safety of current practices, developing safer and more specific pest control methods, strengthening federal pes­ticide laws, and educating the public on the good as well as the bad of pesticides.

Specifically, the panel recommends that the Department of Health, Edu­cation and Welfare develop a com­prehensive data-gathering program to determine the levels of pesticides in people who work with them, those repeatedly exposed to them, and a sampling of the general population.

H E W should cooperate with other government departments to develop a continuing network to monitor the

Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner More research, better coordination

levels of pesticide residues in air, water, soil, man, wildlife, and fish, the report goes on. The Food and Drug Administration's total diet studies on chlorinated hydrocarbons should be expanded to include data on organo-phosphates, herbicides, and the car­bamates in populated areas where they are widely used.

The committee, headed by President Kennedy's Special Assistant for Sci­ence and Technology, Dr. Jerome B. Wiesner, recommends that HEW select a special panel from nominations of the National Academy of Sciences to go over toxicological data on pres­ently used pesticides to determine which, if any, current residue toler­ances should be changed. According to the committee, attention should be directed first to heptachlor, methoxy-chlor, dieldrin, aldrin, chlordane, lindane, and parathion.

Existing federal advisory and coor­

dinating mechanisms are inadequate, says the committee. They should be revamped to "provide clear assign­ments of responsibility for control of pesticide use." The committee feels that some sort of continuing system should be set up to review, among other things, present and proposed federal control and eradication pro­grams to see if they should be changed or halted; coordinate the research pro­grams of federal agencies concerned with pesticides; review pesticide uses and, after evaluating the hazard, re­strict or disapprove for use on a basis of "reasonable doubt" of safety; and provide a forum for appeal by inter­ested parties.

Technical Issues. The committee also wants the National Academy of Sciences to look into the technical issues involved in the concepts of "zero tolerance" and "no residue" with "the purpose of suggesting legislative changes."

Agriculture, Interior, and HEW should "review and define their roles in registering pesticides that are not present in food, but may impinge on fish and wildlife, or come into intimate contact with the public," according to the committee.

As things stand, FDA is responsible only for setting tolerances on pesticides which remain on foods. Decisions on all other uses of these compounds and registration for all other compounds are Agriculture's responsibility. This means that US DA passes on uses that bring pesticides into intimate contact with people.

The committee feels that decisions on registration, "clearly related to health," should be the responsibility of HEW. Similarly it feels that the

MAY 2 0, 1963 C&EN 33

Secretary of Interior should have a say in registrations that may affect fish and wildlife.

On the research side, the committee recommends that government-spon­sored programs continue to shift their emphasis from broad spectrum chemi­cals to selectively toxic chemicals, non-persistent chemicals, selective methods of applications, and nonchemical con­trol methods. It feels that toxicity data upon which registration and tolerances are based should be more complete and of higher quality. It wants Interior to do more work on the toxic effects of pesticides on wild vertebrates and invertebrates.

The report calls for a new program of federal training grants, basic re­search grants, and contracts to meet these increased research needs.

The committee also recommends a number of relatively minor changes in the federal pesticide laws. It would eliminate the "protest registration , , by which a company can now register a new pesticide candidate even though Agriculture has turned down the regis­tration application for lack of adequate data.

Health Probe. Timed to coincide with the release of the report, a Con­gressional investigation of environ­mental health problems got underway last week with pesticides the first topic on the agenda. The probers—Sen. Hubert H. Humphrey's (D.-Minn.) Government Operations Subcommit­tee, headed by Sen. Abraham A. Ribicoff (D.-Conn.), former HEW Secretary—were slated to hear first from Dr. Wiesner on the pesticide re­port.

The chemical industry kicked off its new public relations campaign earlier in the week with the distribution of an authoritative nontechnical book sum­ming up the case for pesticides. Pub­lished by the Manufacturing Chemists' Association and distributed in coopera­tion with the National Agricultural Chemicals Association, the book— "Agricultural Chemicals, What They Are /How They Are Used"—is intended to acquaint people with agricultural chemicals, their contributions, their problems, and the machinery estab­lished by industry and government to ensure their safety and effectiveness.

New Price May Help Polybutadiene Drop of 2.5 cents for tire-grade material could keep production curve rising steeply

The new low price for tire-grade poly­butadiene—25 cents per pound, car­loads, delivered—may help the produc­tion curve for the product continue its steep rise. All U.S. producers, and Polymer Corp. in Canada, are now selling at the new price.

The previous price, set in April 1962, was 27.5 cents. The new price is one or two cents below recent quo­tations for No. 2 or No. 3 smoked sheet. These types of natural rubber are used widely in tires.

Polybutadiene production in the U.S. may pass 140,000 long tons this year. Although this estimate exceeds announced U.S. capacity, talk of ex­pansion is guarded. Only American Rubber & Chemical says it plans defi­nitely to expand, by 10,000 long tons per year.

Some polyisoprene may be used in­stead of polybutadiene this year. Its price is competitive with those of nat­ural and styrene-butadiene rubbers. Shell Chemicars polyisoprene price is 24.1 cents per pound delivered in car­loads. Goodyear, the other U.S. pro­ducer, set its price at 28 cents when it began producing early this year.

Goodyear claims its price is justified because its polyisoprene is a total re­placement for natural rubber.

Production of stereorubbers in 1962 was close to the pnediction of 105,000 long tons (C&EN, March 12, 1962, page 90) . Last year, 92,800 long tons of all stereoelastomers was pro­duced, according to the U.S. Tariff Commission's preliminary figures. Total sales—consumption and exports-are estimated at 82,200 long tons.

Stereorubber output was about 6% of the 1.58 million long tons of syn­thetic rubber produced last year in the U.S. This year it may account for nearly 10%, or an estimated 175,000 long tons.

The rubber trade estimates that polyisoprene accounted for about 20,000 long tons of last year's stereo-rubber production. Polybutadiene, predominantly the cis-1,4 type, made up all but a tiny part of the remainder. Phillips Chemicars trans form is made in very small amounts.

Polyisoprene production is expected to nearly double this year. About 35,000 tons produced for all uses is certainly within expectations.

U.S. and Canadian Stereorubber Capacity Nears Quarter Million Ton Mark

Company

American Rubber & Chemical Firestone Tire & Rubber Goodrich-Gulf Chemical Goodyear Tire & Rubber Phillips Chemical and

General Tire & Rubber Shell Chemical

Polymer Corp.

Location

Louisville, Ky. Orange, Tex. Institute, W.Va. Beaumont, Tex.

Borger, Tex. Torrance, Calif. Marietta, Ohio

Sarnia, Ontario TOTAL

TOTAL

On-St ream Capacity

(long tons per year)

40,000" 30,000* 15,000 40,000c

30,000" 18,000' 36,000

209,000 20,000'

229,000

Next week C&EN will publish the full report on the use of pesti­cides prepared by the President's Science Advisory Committee

a Expansion planned to 50,000 long tons but date unspecified. 6 Expansion expected. c Capacity divided as two units; one makes 20,000 long tons per year of polybutadiene, the other 20,000

long tons per year of polyisoprene. d Exact holdings of General Tire not revealed. Phillips also makes small quantities of trans-polybuta-

diene in another unit at Borger. Specifics on Phillips' Borger plants are cis-polybutadiene at Plains plant, and trans-polybutadiene at Philtex plant, both near Borger, Tex.

e All polyisoprene. f Polymer Corp. included because it is a factor in U.S. market. Plant uses process licensed by Goodrich-

Gulf. Price of polybutadiene in Canada to Canadian outlets is 26 cents per pound because of currency differences.

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