deposits suggests supplies will last more than 35 years if used at the rate of about 10 million tons a year—the rate the units will require when fully operating. Construction of the major parts of the power plant is anticipated to begin in about two years.

In the meantime, Dow expects to push ahead with its crude oil unit near Freeport. This unit is designed to produce both feedstocks for mak­ing chemicals and fuel for power generation from crude oil.

This crude oil unit also is designed to reduce Dow's dependence on nat­ural gas as a fuel for power generation. The Dow plants at Freeport require large amounts of electric power for both process equipment operation and electrochemical manufacture of chlorine, caustic soda, and magne­sium. D

Delaney forum covers little new ground One of the most important negative health implications of the Delaney philosophy, Monsanto toxicologist John J. Frawley told a conference last week, is that it forces so many toxi-cologists to attend conferences where they restate their own positions and chanee no one's opinion. Their time could be better spent, he said, in the laboratory doing "more mundane" toxicology. Although said largely in jest, Dr. Frawley's remarks fairly well summarized the feeling at a confer­ence in Washington, D.C., last week on the scientific basis for interpreting the Delaney clause—the law that prohibits use in food of any substance that causes cancer in animal tests.

The conference, sponsored by the International Academy ôf Environ­mental Safety, included many of the more prominent voices that challenge the scientific rationale of the Delaney clause. Supporters of the clause, though less numerous, were also rep­resented.

The real issue involved in the De­laney debate is how to fashion public policy to provide the most protection from the risk of carcinogens in food, said Washington-based lawyer Peter B. Hutt. Food that is completely risk-free is impossible, he says, so policy must be established to elimi­nate the most serious risks, warn about moderate ones, and ignore the rest. Rep. James G. Martin (R.-N.C.) explained his efforts in Congress to modify the Delaney clause so that the benefits to the public of allowing use of a substance in food would have to be weighed against its risks before the substance could be banned. On the other side of the argument is Dr.

8 CAEN Feb. 13. 1978

William Lijinsky of Fredrick Cancer Research Center. Lijinsky argues that animal tests historically have signaled important cancer hazards and to ig­nore their findings would be to endanger public heâth (C&EN, June 27,1977, page 24).

A new look at the distinction be­tween substances that initiate cancer and those that promote it was pre­sented by Dr. Dennis V. Parke of the University of Surrey in England. Parke believes that in many cancers a mutation takes place in a cell's DNA (initiation) and cell processes that replicate that DNA and synthesis of proteins from it are speeded up so that the cell is transformed into a malignant one before the DNA is re­paired (promotion).

Many weak carcinogens, notably many organohalogen compounds, are promoters rather than initiators of carcinogenesis, Parke maintains. They work in two ways. They de­crease the amount of rough endo­plasmic reticulum in the cell that causes the cell to shift from producing glycoproteins for export to proteins for internal use. Promoters also con­vert cytochrome P-450, an important oxidizing enzyme, to cytochrome P-448, another oxidizing enzyme, but one that is less efficient in detoxifying "foreign" chemicals in the cell. D

Europe makes gains in reinforced plastics Although their own good fortunes in the U.S. dominated the annual conference of the Reinforced Plas­tics/Composites Institute in Wash­ington, D.C., last week (see page 11), [>roducers of materials and finished aminates heard of considerable

progress by reinforced plastics in Europe. Although the market there is less than half as developed as in the U.S., Europeans are at the forefront in some of the newer strides in rein­forced plastics, such as automated processing and use of reinforced thermoplastics. Also, European use of these materials in automobiles, one of the strongest potential growth mar­kets—although hot as important as in the U.S.—is due for a doubling over the next five years.

These are major conclusions re­sulting from a broad-scale survey of European reinforced plastics markets given at the conference by two exec­utives of U.S.-based Owens-Corning Fiberglas—N. Stirling Johnson, marketing manager of the interna­tional division, and Jean Delville, commercial director of European operations. They estimate that the overall market of reinforced thermo- I

West Germany leads EC reinforced plastics output Belgium, Luxembourg &

the Netherlands 6.2%

1977 total; 371,200 metric tons

set plastics in the European Com­munities has grown to 371,200 metric tons (817 million lb) in 1977 from 260,500 tons (573 million lb) in 1971 for a compound growth rate of 7% per year. In 1977 a relatively high 60,000 metric tons (132 million lb) of rein­forced thermoplastics were pro­duced.

However, during these years, rein­forced plastics growth in Europe was hit hard, as it was in the U.S., by the materials shortages of 1974 and the recession in 1975. Renewed growth and stabilization occurred in 1976, as it did in the first half of 1977. But after mid-1977, various industrial operations began working short days in West Germany, the largest Euro­pean reinforced plastics market. And the Owens-Corning officials expect anti-inflation moves to slow French activity in reinforced plastics.

Among EC countries, West Ger­many is the leading thermoset rein­forced plastic producer, with 118,700 metric tons (261 million lb) in 1977. However, growth in Germany is the lowest among the six countries in the Owens-Corning survey at 30% all told between 1971 and 1977.

The growth leader among EC countries in reinforced plastics is France, where reinforced plastic production increased 63.5% over these years to 89,900 metric tons (198 million lb) in 1977. In the surveyed EC countries, reinforced plastics production grew 38.5% during this period in the U.K. and Ireland to reach 73,500 tons (162 million lb); 44.0% in Italy to 56,100 tons (123 million lb); 53.0% in the Benelux countries to 23,000 tons (51 million lb); and 33.0% in Denmark to 10,000 tons (22 million lb). G

Denmark ' 2.7%