Alaskan petrochemical capital costs are high

Facilities

Extraction plant Natural gas liquids pipeline Petrochemicals Methanol/benzene/

Styrofoam Sites and support facilities

TOTAL

$ Billion

$0.9-2.0-3.5-1.0-

1.2-$8.6-

-1.0 -2.4 -3.8 -1.3

-1.5 -10.0

from Alaska in addition to other fa­cilities supplying the market.

As for timing, if the natural gas pipeline project proceeds on schedule, it probably will be built before an NGL project. Building both at the same time would put a severe strain on Alaska's economy. •

OSHA finds flaws in workplace hazard study The Occupational Safety & Health Administration has found serious flaws in a study conducted by the Council on Economic Priorities, which finds that despite decline in injuries and illness since 1972 the chemical industry is still a hazardous place to work.

The study (C&EN, June 29, page 6) analyzed data contained on an OSHA data tape containing records of in­spection of the chemical and allied products industry conducted between 1972-79.

One general flaw mentioned in a memorandum prepared for OSHA director Thome G. Auchter by Ro­land Droitsch, acting deputy admin­istrator for policy evaluation and re­search, is that while the report itself provided a summary of methodolog­ical problems, it proceeded to draw conclusions as if the problems didn't exist.

"The major problem with CEP's analysis of percentages," the memo­randum says, "is that the sum of the percentages must equal 100% and this really does not provide any substan­tive information." For example, it says the fact that a higher percentage of the inspections of the eight largest chemical firms than for the industry as a whole are accident inspections does not imply that these firms ex­perience more accidents per 100 em­ployees or per establishment than the rest of the industry. The percentages should be linked to number of em­ployees or establishments if a useful

conclusion is to be drawn, the mem­orandum points out.

The memorandum goes on to say that, although the CEP study shows that health violations cited in the chemical industry have increased dramatically since 1976, it did not mention the two most likely expla­nations for the increase. One is the increase in the number of industrial hygienists hired as OSHA inspectors since 1976, the other a concerted ef­fort by OSHA beginning in 1977 to reduce the number of so-called "nit­picking" safety violations it cited.

But the most serious fault OSHA finds with the CEP report is that it doesn't even mention that the chem­ical industry's incidence rate of in­juries and illnesses, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, is signif­icantly below the rates of all manu­facturing and total private sectors, indicating that the chemical industry may be far safer than most other in­dustries. •

Robert Henze, ACS staff member, dies Robert E. Henze, 59, director of the American Chemical Society's mem­bership division, died of cancer Sept. 5 at his home after a brief illness.

Henze had been a member of the ACS headquarters staff for 23 years, the past 11 of which he directed the membership division. Before that he served as director of the society's ed­ucational activities and as director of the Petroleum Research Fund grants program.

Robert E. Henze

Born in Detroit, Henze received a bachelor's degree in both chemistry and botany at Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, in 1943 and a Ph.D. in biochemistry at Purdue University in 1951. He remained at Purdue to teach until 1958, when he moved to Wash­ington, D.C., to join the ACS staff. During World War II he was engaged in rocket propellant research with Monsanto in Dayton, Ohio.

In his most recent ACS post, Henze oversaw such diverse society opera­tions as educational activities, meet­ings and divisional activities, chemi­cal expositions, membership activities (such as employment aids and local section activities), professional rela­tions and manpower studies, and re­search grants and awards.

In addition to being a member of ACS, Henze was a member and twice president of the Scientific Manpower Commission (also serving in several other offices with the commission), a member of the National Research Council Board on Human Resources Data & Analysis, and a fellow of the American Association for the Ad­vancement of Science.

An expert amateur photographer, Henze participated in numerous photography shows in the Washing­ton area and won a number of awards for his still-life studies in black and white. He also pursued welding as an art form, producing ornaments from scrap metal and other materials. •

Work continues on sulfur paving material Despite a worldwide tightness in sulfur supplies, research is continuing on ways to replace a substantial part of the asphalt in paving materials or the portland cement in concrete with sulfur. Among the latest develop­ments: licensing of Japan's leading cement producer, Onoda Cement, to have exclusive rights in 16 East Asian countries to the Sudicrete sulfur concrete technology developed by the Sulphur Development Institute of Canada.

The Sudicrete process, invented by a research team at the University of Calgary, uses sulfur and a patented additive in place of portland cement and water to bind aggregate (sand, stone, or crushed rock) into concrete. As part of the 15-year agreement, Onoda Cement will conduct research and commercial development work on the process.

Although much of the initial de­velopment of this material was un-

Sept. 14, 1981 C&EN 7