Dow Chemical vs. ‘Coercive Utopians’: Constructing the Contested Ground of Science and Government Regulation in 1970s America

In 1979, the Dow Chemical Company published an excerpt from a speech by H. Peter Metzger that announced an emerging conflict in American ideals and public policy. He stated that a new kind of individual inhabited Washington, people from the counterculture who were “coercive utopians” because they sought to achieve their agenda through covert actions and hoped to end the American free market economy. Following the 1962 publication of Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring and the subsequent banning of DDT in 1972, Dow and other chemical manufacturers fought to keep the regulatory climate favorable to industry. Dow found itself defending the phenoxy herbicide 2,4,5-T in particular for almost the entire decade of the 1970s. Using Dow Chemical Company records, trial transcripts, scientific journals, and writings by environmental activists, it becomes possible to see the contested landscape of scientific knowledge and chemical regulation. This essay argues that Metzger\u27s “coercive utopians” challenged the assumed scientific basis of chemical safety and used the regulatory powers of the state to reassess the safety of everyday chemicals. This established a pattern of contested knowledge and ideological conflict that continues to form the core of debate between public safety and free-market prerogative

The University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study: Methods for an Environmental Exposure Study of Polychlorinated Dioxins, Furans, and Biphenyls

Background: The University of Michigan Dioxin Exposure Study (UMDES) was undertaken in response to concerns that the discharge of dioxin-like compounds from the Dow Chemical Company facilities in Midland, Michigan, resulted in contamination of soils in the Tittabawassee River floodplain and areas of the city of Midland, leading to an increase in residents’ body burdens of polychlorinated dibenzodioxins and polychlorinated dibenzofurans. Objectives: The UMDES is a hypothesis-driven study designed to answer important questions about human exposure to dioxins in the environment of Midland, where the Dow Chemical Company has operated for \u3e 100 years, and in neighboring Saginaw, Michigan. In addition, the UMDES includes a referent population from an area of Michigan in which there are no unusual sources of dioxin exposure and from which inferences regarding the general Michigan population can be derived. A central goal of the study is to determine which factors explain variation in serum dioxin levels and to quantify how much variation each factor explains. Conclusions: In this article we describe the study design and methods for a large population-based study of dioxin contamination and its relationship to blood dioxin levels. The study collected questionnaire, blood, dust, and soil samples on 731 people. This study provides a foundation for understanding the exposure pathways by which dioxins in soils, sediments, fish and game, and homegrown produce lead to increased body burdens of these compounds

Dow Chemical Company: Assessment Leads to Steam System Energy Savings in a Petrochemical Plant

This DOE Save Energy Now case study describes how Dow Chemical Company saves 272,000 MMBtu and $1.9 million annually after increasing the steam system energy efficiency of a plant in Louisiana

Federal Asbestos Legislation: The Winners Are ...

Under the guise of providing aid to victims of asbestos-related illnesses, a small group of companies has lobbied for and won relief from their liability worth tens of billions of dollars in the Senate's asbestos trust fund bill, according to this Public Citizen report.Their success in protecting their corporate interests, however, will sharply reduce the funds under the legislation that will be available to asbestos victims, the report finds. Meanwhile, some of the nation's largest financial investment firms have spent millions of dollars in lobbying and campaign contributions to position themselves to score big rewards should the legislation pass.The big winners in the legislation, S. 852, include a handful of Fortune 500 companies -- Dow Chemical, Ford, General Electric, General Motors, Honeywell, Pfizer and Viacom -- and at least 10 asbestos makers that have filed for bankruptcy.Public Citizen found an intense Capitol Hill lobbying campaign on behalf of the Fortune 500 companies to win the financial concession was spearheaded by a relatively unknown entity called the Asbestos Study Group (ASG), which refuses to make its full membership list public

Torsional modulus of rupture of thick-walled magnesium alloy FS-1 tubing

Magnesium is taking a more prominent position in the structure of aircraft, and because of this, it is important that the mechanical properties of the material be understood more fully. In the high speeds of today, the tendency is toward the use of thick-walled tubing instead of the thin-walled tubing with stiffening structures. For this reason, it is of interest to note the characteristics of thick-walled tubing when subjected to torsion. This thesis was first suggested by a circular letter on proposed thesis titles from the Commanding General, Air Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Dayton, Ohio. When interest was expressed in the thesis subject on modulus of rupture, the Air Force responded by suggesting the investigation of the torsional properties of magnesium alloys in low D/t ratios. Since there is very little published in the periodicals on the subject, a copy of Munitions Board publication was forwarded, which publication was helpful as a reference. On further correspondence, the Air Force was of assistance in obtaining a classified bulletin from the National Bureau of Standards, and also information was forthcoming on the size of the specimens that could be used. It was suggested that the material tested be either Dow Chemical Company\u27s 0-1 HTA or FS-1 alloy. The Dow Chemical Company was then contacted and generously furnished the material for the tests, as well as data on the mechanical properties of magnesium alloys in the form of company bulletins --Introduction, pages 2-3

CHEMICAL PLANT SAFETY AND LOSS PREVENTION (Papers Presented at the International Symposium on Safety Control and Risk Management, SCRM)

Increased emphasis on safety and loss prevention over the last 50 years has engrained safety as one of the core values of The Dow Chemical Company. The safety emphasis starts at the very top, with the Environment, Health and Safety Committee of the Boar

A Review of the Aquatic Environmental Fate of Triclopyr and its Major Metabolites

The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of the aquatic environmental fate of triclopyr and its major metabolites, TCP and TMP. This review is primarily based on results of laboratory and field studies conducted by various Federal Agencies and the registrant to support the US aquatic registration for triclopyr TEA

Wind tunnel site analysis of Dow Chemical Facility at Rocky Flats, Colorado

CER71-72RNM-FC-451.May 1972.Prepared for Research and Ecology, Rocky Flats Division, Dow Chemical Company.Includes bibliographical references.Tests were conducted on a model of the Dow Chemical Company plutonium recovery facility, Rocky Flats Division, and the surrounding topography to determine the dispersal and trajectories of potential effluents. Profiles of wind and turbulence over the facility were adjusted to forms expected for the given terrain. Dispersion and trajectory characteristics were determined by releasing a krypton-85 tracer gas from specific sources and sampling the plume downwind. Results suggest that the plumes depart only modestly from behavior suggested by the Pasquill-Gifford prediction methods. All results are tabulated and/or presented in a dimensionless manner suitable for prototype site evaluation

Encouraging Corporate Innovation for Our Homeland During the Best of Times for the Worst of Times: Extending Safety Act Protections to Natural Disasters’

This article first analyzes the innovative tort reform of the SAFETY Act and then argues for expansion of SAFETY Act type risk protection to natural disasters such as hurricanes, earthquakes and wildfires. The SAFETY Act was drafted to stimulate the development and deployment of technologies that combat terrorism by providing liability protection. Applying the same type of legislation to natural disasters will provide a commensurate benefit of encouraging preparedness and development of technologies that could mitigate harms resulting from natural disasters. The Department of Homeland Security voiced a desire to increase the use of the SAFETY Act by private industry. This article argues that one way to increase the utility of the SAFETY Act and provide more value for the American public is for Congress to extend SAFETY Act protections, by amendment or new legislation, to cover risk related to national catastrophes