Newscripts by Κ. Μ. Reese

How to rod a 10-inch conduit J. E. Garrett of Western Electric, stimulated belatedly by Felicia the tube-cleaning ferret (C&EN, Nov. 8, 1971, page 44), has sent along a paper by N. J. Dunlop of British Columbia Telephone Co. Mr. Dunlop's topic was practices and standards in install­ing and maintaining underground conduit:

"In 1964, we saw our first installa­tion of approximately 4000 trench feet of 10-inch diameter concrete pipe. . . . We encountered, however, a major problem during construction—how to rod a large diameter pipe. The poly­propylene rope placed in the pipe run during construction was pulled out by neighborhood children just prior to completion of the installation. Hand rodding. failed after approximately 200 feet. Mechanical rodding reached ap-

Letters Vitamin C and health

SIRS: Your headline, "Vitamin C doubted as remedy for common cold" (C&EN, Nov. 15, 1971, page 80) unfor­tunately discourages many of your readers from trying it.

Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Hornick's small-scale study did not deserve the publicity received from you. An intranasal in­oculation of rhinovirus is not a fair test. It is well known that a massive infection overwhelms the defense potential of an organism.

If a man sneezes, tiny droplets are spread in space as far as 100 yards. It is a great difference if such a droplet or an artificial inoculation is introduced into our upper respiratory tract. Besides, 21 cases hardly consist of a significant num­ber to draw conclusions.

If Dr. Schwartz and Dr. Hornick want to make a significant study they should give to 1000 students 5 grams of ascorbic acid daily, placebos to a control of an­other 1000, and compare these two groups with 1000 who receive nothing.

As a lifelong sufferer from frequent and severe bouts with the common cold I am very grateful to Dr. Linus Pauling for having drawn my attention to vita­min C. At the first sign of a cold I take massive doses (5 X 5 grams a day), which suppress my colds without fail. Although I took such large doses many times I have experienced no undesirable side reactions whatsoever. Quite a num­ber of my critical and unbelieving friends had similar experiences.

Andrew A. Recsei, Ph.D. Santa Barbara, Calif.

SIRS: The article on vitamin C and the common cold prompts me to offer my advice to anyone who cares.

I believe that colds are quite unneces­sary, and can be readily avoided by most people. In my 75th year I no longer catch cold at all, though I had a long

proximately 400 feet. We even made an at tempt at firing a rocket through the pipe which resulted in a near dis­aster: the rocket exhaust singed the hair and eyebrows of the person ig­niting the rocket in the manhole. The pipe was finally rodded by securing a line to a large rubber ball and driving the ball through with a fire hose. . . .

"Following the first mishap, several different approaches were taken in an at tempt to solve the rodding prob­lem. One . . . involved the use of a ferret. A light string was tied to the ferret's body and a tasty piece of properly aged liver was held as a re­ward at the pipe opening in the next manhole. When released, the ferret took off with a bound down the pipe, trailing the string for several minutes, but then stopped . . . no amount of shouting or whistling could encourage him to move in either direction. A little while later, he quietly retraced his path back to the starting point still trailing the string behind him.

life-history of the most miserable and frequent colds.

The means are cheap and simple: merely avoid sugar.

In my case, this blessing is incidental to my quest for relief from rheumatism and arthritis. At ages 55-60 I was suf­fering more frequent attacks of crippling rheumatism. Believe me! There are no "minor pains of arthritis/' They are ex­cruciating!

Experimenting with the advice of J. I. Rodale and Ε. Μ. Abrahamson, I found much relief through the simple expedient of shunning white sugar altogether and minimizing my intake of the natural sweets. In view of the benefits, this is no hardship at all.

I admire the campaign of Dr. John Yudkin (Queens College, London) pub­licizing the evils of sugar:

Whenever I visit the numerous stores that exhibit vast. shelves, loaded with sterile and devitalizing baked goods, all sugar coated; the endless stacks of sugar candies; rows and rows of com­mercial cheat-foods; etc., I wonder how this nation can ever endure.

It is not surprising that we have young men collapsing before they can educate their children; athletes fading away pre­maturely; and young soldiers evidencing hardening of the arteries. We have sinned, and there is scant health in us.

We have developed radio-transmitted cardiographs, computerized for instant analysis, Wonderful! But why not try natural health instead?

Scientifically speaking, we are so­phisticated fools. We cannot see the forest because our vision is obscured by the trees.

Many of us seem to feel that we should attempt to conquer nature; much better we should adapt to the requirements of nature.

R. Conway Knapp Grabill, Ind.

SIRS: Please count me among sci­entists who prefer old-fashioned farm foods to modern factory foods: Why?

Later, the man who conducted this trial . . . suggested that the bait be changed from liver to a cooperative female ferret . . . there is no record as to whether this was ever attempted.

"Rodding is no longer a serious problem since we began employing the services of a ventilation and air clean­ing company. This company can pro­vide a 15,000 cubic feet per min­ute gasoline powered suction unit mounted on a truck. A plastic bag filled with light material and secured to a trailing rope can be easily drawn through the pipe."

Department of obscure information

• Catfish feed usually costs more than $100 per ton.

• The U.S. produced about 700 mil­lion pounds of peanut butter in 1968.

• At the end of 1969, 73.4% of the families in Holland owned at least one camera.

1. Here's an experiment you can check very easily. Birds and wildlife, being more sensitive as a rule to necessary and to toxic constituents, spurn samples of many store foods such as ready-to-eat cereals and other convenience foods. A popular white bread doesn't even sup­port the growth of molds. So, "If in doubt, set it out." (See my notes in the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, October 1968 and January 1969.)

2. Another experiment is being con­ducted on the population: Which prod­ucts will have to carry warning labels: "Eating may be hazardous to your health"? Recently saccharin has been demonstrated to be a bladder carcinogen [G. T. Bryan, Arch. Environ. Health, 23, 6 (1971)]. Industrialized countries gen­erally have higher rates of cancer of the digestive tract than countries with tradi­tional food production methods; for ex­ample, we have 40 times the death rate from colon cancer of Nicaragua [E. Silverberg and A. I. Holleg, Ca, 21, 26 (1971); Ruth Harmer, "Unfit for Human Consumption/' 1971].

3. A twin in my research, "given a year to live," emptied his medicine chest and went on natural foods, regained his health and hair color and could be distinguished from his twin—until the twin followed suit. Both are well over 16 years later {Nutrition Today, May-June 1971). It is possible and practical to grow everything needed nutritionally. I have done just that, as a hobby. Seeds or nuts can furnish the essential amino acids and wild yeast from the air (for bread or wine) can supply vitamin B12 (UCLA Bruin, page 6, Nov. 3, 1971). Another scientist on our block also has grown a hundred or more foods: Can you guess what field both of us are in?

Dr. Charlotte C. Taylor Malibu, Calif.

SIRS: Although I have no opinion one way or the other on the usefulness of vitamin C in cold therapy, experiments such as those of Schwartz et al. do

Continued on page 23

32 C&EN JAN. 24, 1972

Letters

Continued from page 32

nothing to settle the issue. Since all 21 subjects exposed to rhino virus 44 caught cold, the experimental dosage was much too high. Suppose, however, that in spite of the overdosage, treatment with vitamin C reduced the probability of catching cold to 0.90. There was still a 0.31 probability that all 11 subjects treated with vitamin C would catch cold. Dr. Schwartz remarks that "People who think that vitamin C cures colds will continue to use it, re­gardless of the scientific data." In view of the inconclusiveness of Dr. Schwartz's experiment, his remark is somewhat less than appropriate.

I would also advise the residents of the Maryland House of Correction to refrain from volunteering the next time Dr. Schwartz appears. All they will accom­plish by volunteering is to catch bad colds.

Charles P. Jamieson Buffalo, N.Y,

SIRS: It is a frequent saying in medicine that one must examine the whole person in diagnosing and treating patients, not just the disease in question. Perhaps this maxim should be applied to medical re­search as well. In this vein I might com­ment on the research results reported by Dr. Andrew R. Schwartz, Dr. Richard B. Hornick, and coworkers on the efficacy of vitamin C in preventing and curing colds. The study was conducted on male prison­ers. It is accepted knowledge, if not actually proved fact, that people tend to be more susceptible to colds at times when they are feeling generally depressed, unwanted, and uncared for. All of the subjects of the test came down with colds. Assuming that the dose of virus injected was not so enormous as to over­whelm any human system, one might strongly suspect that the chemotherapy provided by vitamin C would be a drop in the bucket in preventing and treating the cold symptoms of incarcerated men. In short, the negative results reported might be more convincing had the study been conducted on a more representative cross section of normal society.

Lelia Coyne Department of Chemistry, Princeton, NJ.

SIRS: I have just read about "Vitamin C doubted as remedy for common cold." Although Dr. Andrew R. Schwartz and Dr. Richard B. Hornick and coworkers at the University of Maryland school of medi­cine achieved results indicating that vita­min C was ineffective in preventing the common cold, I believe they may have obtained different results had they used a more "natural" setting. In the natural setting the victims are infected by viruses from the air or perhaps viruses on food, glasses, etc. Originally the viruses enter the patient through the nose or mouth rather than being artificially injected through the skin.

It may be interesting to set up an ex­periment where both vitamin C takers and nontakers are brought into contact with people innoculated with rhinovirus 44.

Michael Pallmer Graduate Chemistry Student, University

of Alaska, College

No blank checks for scientists SIRS: There seems to be a basic flaw in the remarks by Dr. Niels K. Jerne of Basel Institute of Immunology (cited in your

C&EN editorial Oct. 25, 1971): "Scientists should communicate to the public what they are doing . . . through scientific pub­lications. . , . You may say they [the pub­lic] will not understand. Why don't they [scientists] do it in a different way? If others don't understand, that's their problem. You cannot popularize science. You might as well ask Picasso why he doesn't paint differently."

There are hundreds (if not thousands) of would-be Picassos whose works did not gain favor with the public and thus did not lead them to fame and fortune. It may very well be that Picasso did not and does not paint for material gain—his genius is that in "doing his own thing" he has gained widespread public recognition. The same is true for scientists. The real scientific genius can and must be free to follow his own paths and public support and recognition will be provided.

The thousands of good, competent art­ists, scientists, etc., who are not of the very exceptional nature of a Picasso or an Einstein have a somewhat different problem. They require public understand­ing and support to carry out their work. These individuals are very important to society and I do not suggest that they should be neglected, but they cannot make the same (seemingly) arrogant de­mands on society for unquestioned sup­port. This is where we are now in sci­ence support—many good, competent sci­entists whose actual and/or potential con­tributions to science and society are con­siderable but not truly outstanding. It is essential that the public understand the contributions of this group if adequate public support is to be forthcoming and, in general, the scientific community has not devoted significant effort to develop­ing this understanding. The public, with good justification, is not willing to hand out blank checks to all scientists.

A good place to start resolving these problems is the science education pro­vided to nonscience college students. Un­der current fiscal conditions this will re­quire reallocation of present resources with some research resources being re­directed to science education and public understanding of science. If we don't do this the public attitude and support of science will probably decline further, perhaps rightly so, even if this is not to the best long-range interests of society. I suggest that the decline in interest and support of science will continue until the scientific community takes corrective ac­tion itself.

Robert H. Linnell Professor of Chemistry and Director, Of­

fice of Institutional Studies, University of Southern California, Los Angeles

Simon editorial SIRS: I read Miss Simon's guest edi­torial (Oct. 11, 1971) and welcomed it as a refreshing bit of logic in the midst of the present swarm of emotionalism. And then I read the blasts in the Nov. 29 C&EN.

I wonder at the logic of many of the letters, some of which were quite vitriolic in an uncomprehending condemnation of anyone not supporting their belief. Mr. Firestone equates "objective evidence" with "proof of damage" while the degree of difference and time in these is at variance by an order of magnitude.

It was obvious, at least to me, that the editorial dealt, not with new introduc­tions, but with the status quo. Had the detractors stopped to consider this view­point I think their comments would have

been much more reasonable. She urged "intense efforts on the effect of individual pollutants," and nowhere can I find she suggests any introduction of new ones.

Anyone who kept abreast of the phos-phate-DNA contretemps would know im­mediately which type of situation she was referring to in the next to last paragraph.

I can only feel that this rash of letters serves to underline her third sentence and last paragraph, and I urge Messrs. Gib­bon, Firestone, Smith, Lowenheim, Schug, et al. to reread the editorial with an at­tempt to understand it.

Herman J. Seidemann, Jr. Belledune, N.B.

SIRS: The editorial, "Pollution and rea­son," by Dorothy M. Simon has provoked me to reply.

Although only a lay person in the terms of the author's definition, I am a very concerned person when the topic of pollu­tion is raised. No one can disagree that it is the scientists of our country and the world who are responsible for pollution today. The processes used to manufac­ture all the supposed "good things" of life have spoiled the air, water, and a good deal of the land.

The topic of pollution was never really a public issue until recent years, mainly because there is a great deal more pollu­tion today than 30 years ago. Now, it seems that it is mostly John Q. Public who we hear complaining about the bad water and foul air, not the scientists who created all the mess in the first place. Of course, many technically oriented people are now on the bandwagon seeking to clean things up. Dorothy M. Simon sug­gests that no major economic action should be taken until a given substance is determined to be harmful. This is a statement many people would strongly disagree with. The point is the fact that the substance in the air does not have to be harmful to be disagreeable. Its pres­ence, in fact, is disagreeable and I believe all human beings are entitled to breathe clean fresh air, regardless of whether or not it is harmful.

Scientists and engineers devote all their energies to the cheapest, most effective means of manufacturing a product. To­day things are different. Another dimen­sion must be considered in the economics of manufacturing—that of pollution.

Perhaps if some of the company execu­tives, scientists, and technicians and other bureaucrats responsible lived and/or worked in the midst of some of our in­dustries' pollution, they would be a little better able to understand the situation. Just because science and technology created it, does not mean necessarily that life is "more rewarding," easier, or pleas­ant.

The author suggests that the topic of pollution cannot lend itself to rational discussion. The question is, why not? It seems that when air and water are con­taminated from their original natural state, we can discuss the fact or degree rationally. Scientists are the hypocrites themselves because they refrain from be­coming involved because of the expense necessary to clean a situation up.

As the author suggests, chemists "are by experience and training well qualified to bring reason to this situation." It just seems a shame that none of this scientific ability was directed to "preventative maintenance" in the first place.

Ronald N. Jeckel President, Jeckel Industries, Inc., Glens

Falls, N.Y.

JAN. 24, 1972 C&EN 23

SIRS: I was fascinated by the emotional reaction in C&EN of Nov. 29, 1971 (pages 6, 44, and 51). Dorothy Simon is accused of almost everything except opposing women's liberation.

Wauchope does not seem to know what the term "experimental population" means. Several of the letter writers ap­parently read the second sentence of the third paragraph but not the third sen­tence. Firestone, Smith, and Mathews seem to believe what they read about DDT in the newspapers. Schug thinks all his neighbors are men. Phillips says that the quality of life is deteriorating without producing evidence for his statement. I wonder if he ever thinks what life was like 100 years ago. Gibbon and Firestone confuse profits with economics. This is a prevalent error. Economics can mean the difference between life and death for impoverished peoples. Litant says "sus­pected pollutants should be considered harmful until proved harmless." This type of reasoning led to Medvedev being imprisoned because the Soviet officials de­cided to suspect him of schizophrenia.

Almost all the letters show evidence of irrational emotion, the existence of which was the subject of the editorial, so the point was proved quite well.

Thomas H. Jukes Space Sciences Laboratory, University of

California, Berkeley

Solving population problem SIRS: Concerning Zero Population Growth, I would like to point out that this concept most likely was discussed in

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the caves along the Jordan River as early as 5000 years ago, when it was noted that crawl space in the caves became scarce. Being confronted with a series of drastic measures, some of the cave dwellers used their heads and invented the hut.

Translated to our modern world, this means that there are hardly boundaries for human innovation, and that perhaps we will find saner solutions to the popu­lation problem than those propagated by some fanatics. How about making part of the less inhabited area of the world more inhabitable?

Dr. Henri Ulrich Northford, Conn.

Self-made men SIRS: The letter "Union for chemists" by Lawrence Lancaster (C&EN, Nov. 15, 1971, page 5) really shook me up. I started as an industrial chemist more than 50 years ago and I have in my time been both an employee and an employer. There are certain truths which were true many years ago and are still true today. Here are some of them:

(1) The right to quit a job is a great right. It is at least equal to the right of the employer to fire an employee.

(2) I have never known two chemists who would be willing to agree that they were of equal ability and entitled to the same remuneration. Chemists, down in their hearts, are egoists and believe that they can shake a test tube better than any other person.

(3) The idea of a closed shop for chem­ists should be repugnant to chemists of ability although it may be desired by "weak sisters."

(4) The idea of keeping individuals out of the profession unless they hold a de­gree from a "certified" institution causes me to chuckle. For example, in my opinion, the three most outstanding past chairmen of the ACS Cincinnati Section were John Uri Lloyd, George D. Mc­Laughlin, and A. B. Davis. Not one of these men ever earned a degree in chem­istry or any other subject. John Uri Lloyd was in his day an outstanding phar­maceutical chemist and pioneer in colloid chemistry. He was a cofounder of Lloyd Brothers Pharmacists, Inc.; a founder of the Lloyd Library, one of the great li­braries of chemistry, pharmacy, and botany; and an author of popular novels. He held these honorary degrees: M.S., ScD., Ph.D., LL.D., Pharm.D., and M.D.

George D. McLaughlin was possibly the outstanding leather chemist of his day and the first director of the Leather Re­search Laboratory at the University of Cincinnati. He held an honorary M.S.

A. B. Davis was chairman of the In­dianapolis Section before moving to Cin­cinnati. He was an exceedingly skillful organic chemist, a glass-blower of pro­fessional ability, and a superlative sales­man and business5 executive. He was at one time chief chemist for Ault & Wiborg Co. of Cincinnati (now Inmont Corp:) and with Robert W. Hilton founded Hilton-Davis Co., now a division of Sterling Drug.

Imagine a setup which would keep these three men out of the profession.

William H. Bell Avon Park, Fla.

ASSET SIRS: Let me add my voice in support of Lawrence Lancaster's proposal for a union of scientists, engineers, and tech­nicians, similar to APST in England, though not of all of his proposed specifics.

The term "union," however, is anath­ema to many technical people, especially those who have arisen from less educated family backgrounds. To overcome this obstacle, we could do as that most emi­nent professional union, ΑΜΑ, has done-call ourselves by another name that "smells more sweet."

Besides, American Society of Scientists, Engineers, and Technicians would pro­duce a most attractive acronym.

U. L. Upson Northwest Environmental and Preventive

Health Services, Richland, Wash.

Nontoxic food additives SIRS: Dr. Solomon Zaromb argues (C&EN, Dec. 6, 1971, page 5) against al­teration of flavor of food by additives, be­cause it is "a device to fool the taste buds and thus remove the protection against poisoning which primates have developed through millions of years of evolution" and against preservatives because "If preservatives are harmful to bacteria, how good are they for human cells?"

The fallacy of these arguments is too enormous to be left unchallenged on the pages of a chemical journal. We face a tragic fate if we start to rely on our taste buds for differentiation between toxic and nontoxic substances, since there is a great amount of good tasting sweet poison (lead salts are one example). A similar fate awaits us if we stop using substances harmful to bacteria, such as antibiotics and other anti-infective agents developed in this century.

Incidentally, preservatives very often do not even have to harm the precious bacteria; the rancidity is often prevented by antioxidants, which merely prevent free radical reactions.

The cave man did rely on his taste buds and never consciously harmed a single bacterium, but I wonder whether he should be our teacher in matters of health preservation.

Dr. Jacob Rosin Maplewood, N.J.

TCDD facts SIRS: Michael J. Prival's letter (C&EN, Nov. 15, 1971, pages 6 and 7) prompts us to cite some of the known facts about TCDD up to and including the Symposium on the Origin and Fate of the Chloro-dioxins held during the recent ACS na­tional meeting: TCDD does not move in soil by leaching; it is degraded by expo­sure to ultraviolet light; uptake from soil by food plants is not significant and is not translocated within plants from foliar application; it is degraded in soil; it is not "created" by action of soil, photo­synthesis, or pyrolysis; its solubility in animal and plant fats is 1/2000 of that of DDT, indicating biomagnification is un­likely; it is not detectable at a level of 50 p.p.b. in tissues of eagles, representa­tive of the top of the aquatic food chain, whereas DDT (including metabolites) and PCB's are reported in the p.p.m. range; the ability of mammals to excrete TCDD has been shown by the disappearance of 14C activity from liver and fat of rats fed a severely toxic dose of 14C-TCDD. All of these facts convince us that TCDD is not accumulated.

Rice is the only food crop grown for human consumption that is sprayed with any significant quantity of 2,4,5-T. The amount applied is 1.25 lb ./acre several weeks prior to heading. Assuming that the herbicide contained 0.1 p.p.m. TCDD

Continued on page 31

24 C&EN JAN. 24, 1972

INDEX TO ADVERTISERS IN THIS ISSUE

Alberene Stone, Div. of Georgia Marble Co. 10

Lowe & Stevens Advertising American Cyanamid Company 18

Pampel & Associates, Inc. ARCO Chemical Company, Petro­

chemical Dept. . . . — IFC Lennen & Newell, Inc.

*BASF Wyandotte Corporation . . . . IBC Ross Roy Inc.

Derwent Publications Ltd ? Evans Chemetics Inc. 24

Daniel H. Price, Inc. The Upjohn Company, Polymer

Chemicals Div OBC Langeler-Stevens, Inc.

DIRECTORIES Chemicals Exchange. 31 Classified Advertising .25-30 Technical Services. 31

Advertising management for the American Chemical Society Publications

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Communications Corp.) Edward P. Blanchard, Jr., President; Thomas N. J. Koerwer, Executive Vice President. 142 East Ave., Norwalk, Conn. 06851. (Area Code 203) 853-4488

ADVERTISING SALES MANAGER Edward P. Blanchard, Jr.

SALES REPRESENTATIVES Chicago 60601 . . . Richard Birdsong, CENTCOM,

LTD., 307 North Michigan Avenue, (Area Code 312) 641-0890

Cleveland 44113. . . Donald Hanson, CENTCOM, LTD., 75 Public Square Ohio, (Area Code 216)523-1930

Dallas 75207 . . . Parker Harris, George Thomp­son, Roy McDonald Assoc., 714 Stemmons Tower West, (Area Code 214) 637-2444

Denver 80203 . . . Robert H. Heidersbach, Bud Poster, Roy McDonald Assoc , Inc., 846 Lincoln Street, (Area Code 303) 825-3325

Houston 77006 . . Frank N. Vickrey, Richard Clothier, Roy McDonald Assoc , Inc., 3130 Southwest Freeway, (Area Code 713) 529-6711

Los Angeles 90045 . . .Clay S. Holden, CENT­COM, LTD., 8820 S. Sepulveda Blvd., Suite 215, (Area Code 213) 776-0552

New York 10017 . . . Richard M. Bohan, Dan O'Leary, Ralph Frakes, CENTCOM, LTD., 60 East 42nd Street, (Area Code 212) 972-9660

Norwalk 06851 . . . Robert E. Kelchner, CENT­COM, LTD., 142 East Avenue, (Area Code 203) 853-4488

Philadelphia 19034 . . . Benjamin W. Jones, CENTCOM, LTD., 535 Pennsylvania Avenue, Fort Washington, Pa., (Area Code 215) 643-2586

Great Britain and Western Europe . . .Bray to η Nichols, The American Magazine Group, 27 Maddox Street, London, W.1. , England, Tele­phone—499-0180

Japan . . . Sumio Oka, International Media Rep­resentatives, Ltd., 1, Shibe-Kotohiracho, Minatoku, Tokyo

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*Annual Reports available directly from these firms upon request on your company letterhead.

Letters • Continued frontpage 24 ™

(the level stated as acceptable to the President's Scientific Advisory Committee on 2,4,5-T and the EPA Advisory Commit­tee on 2,4,5-T), the amount of TCDD to be present as a residue in thé 2000 kg. of rice produced per acre, but making the ex­treme and unreal assumption should all of it end up in rice grain, the residue would be 0.029 p.p.b. An intake of 300 grams of this rice per day by a 60-kg. human female would amount to ingestion of 0.000012 microgram of TCDD per kg. of her body weight/day.

Compared to the no-effect level of 0.03 microgram/kg./day in the tests for effects on fetuses, this is an adequate margin of safety by standards generally recognized by toxicologists. Eight of nine members of the EPA Advisory Committee on 2,4,5-T arrived at this same conclusion of lack of hazard to human reproduction in their report to the administrator of EPA.

George E. Lynn Dow Chemical Co., Midland, Mich.

SIRS: . . . Michael J. Privai has revealed to us that: "Experiments have shown that if a guinea pig is fed a dose of TCDD [tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin] of only 1 microgram/kg. [his emphasis] the guinea pig will die."

If true, this is an almost incredible new discovery in toxicology. On a molecule-for^moleçule basis, it makes TCDD five powers of 10 more toxic than any other polychloro compound, and fully a power of 1Q more toxic than the most infamous organic poisons hitherto known, such as phalloidine, aconitine, or the cardiac ste­roids. The only near competitor appears to be batrachotoxin.

In view of the drarnatic novelty of this new observation, don't you think the ob­server deserves some better identification than "experiments have shown. . . ."? And has anyone cabled the Nobel Prize committee?

Richard E. Powell Professor of Chemistry, University of Cal­

ifornia, Berkeley

Will cause water pollution SIR$: I read with interest your article on "water-soluble" bottles (C&EN, Nov. 29,1971, page 34).

Please remind Ilikon that they are literally "washing away" our solid waste problem into our water resources. The effect of large quantities of a water-soluble hydroxypropyl cellulose thermo­plastic on waste water treatment plant operation and on receiving waters is largely unknown and the cure might just be worse than the disease! It seems to me that we are merely changing a solid waste problem into a water pollution problem.

Hend Gorchev Winchester, Mass.

Against Playboy antics SIRS: Having had a good deal of respect for the American Chemical Society and C&EN, I now write of my disappointment to see this magazine allow its pages to become sex polluted by the Playboy antics of the advertising industry (Nov. 29, 1971, page 26). Admitted they pay for the space, but there are certain character components of life that should not be sold for any price.

Bryant L. Adams Research Chemist, Western Fish Nutrition

Laboratory, Cook, Wash.

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VT NÎASS SPIROMETRY j l f ORGANICS Τ FAST, RELIABLE | l II Structure elucidation I ANALYSIS I I Il M.W. and formula IGases, liquids, solids • • ||^ Isotopic analysis ^ Trace contaminants ! •