Chemical Companies

Beating the chemical industry to the buyout, Baltimore has begun acquiring a handful of remaining homes in the neighborhood of Fairfield, in effect extending the public purchase of Wagner's Point to all the communities on the Fairfield peninsula.Two large chemical plants in southern Baltimore -- detergent ingredient maker Condea Vista and herbicide producer FMC Corp. -- offered to buy the same homes this month in a "neighborly" gesture intended to ward off potential lawsuits over environmental exposure.

Chemical company W.R. Grace & Co. said Thursday that third-quarter earnings increased 23.6 percent as the company continued to target emerging regions. The Columbia company reported net income of $54.9 million, or 74 cents a share, for the quarter that ended Sept. 30, up from $44.4 million, or 61 cents a share, for the same period a year ago. Sales fell 9.5 percent to $682.1 million, compared with $753.6 million in the third quarter a year ago. Last year's figure included $72.4 million from a joint venture the company dissolved in December.

The city of Baltimore has failed to take steps required by law to prepare for a chemical or industrial accident, says a group of local residents and environmentalists that has filed written warnings that it intends to sue seven big chemical companies here.The proposed lawsuit is aimed at forcing the companies to comply with a federal law that requires manufacturers to tell local governments about the hazardous chemicals they use so that the governments can prepare emergency plans.Otherwise, the city can't prepare for an explosion, fire or leak at a chemical plant, the community activists said.

W.R. Grace & Co. has opened a new manufacturing facility in Vietnam as part of its strategy to expand in emerging markets. The new facility was opened by the company's construction products division in the city of Hai Duong, near Hanoi. Grace celebrated the grand opening of the plant Wednesday. The 30,000-square-foot facility will manufacture cement additives and concrete admixtures. It will also house a sales and technical service office and a quality-control lab. Columbia-based Grace has also recently opened manufacturing plants in Chongqing, China, and Dammam, Saudi Arabia.

Mayor Martin O'Malley has signed a bill that compels local chemical companies to comply with industry safety standards for preventing terrorism. In a ceremony Monday at City Hall, O'Malley said the ordinance gives the Fire Department the power to inspect chemical companies' plants and revoke their operating permits if they do not follow safety plans they submit to the city. Fire Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. said the ordinance should not require the city's approximately 10 chemical companies to take any new steps or incur any additional expense because they have put anti-terrorism safeguards in place.

Mayor Martin O'Malley has signed a bill that compels local chemical companies to comply with industry safety standards for preventing terrorism. In a ceremony Monday at City Hall, O'Malley said the ordinance gives the Fire Department the power to inspect chemical companies' plants and revoke their operating permits if they don't follow safety plans they submit to the city. Fire Chief William J. Goodwin Jr. said the ordinance should not require the city's approximately 10 chemical companies to take any new steps or incur any additional expense because they have already put in place safeguards to protect themselves from terrorism.

When James "Jimbo" Smith drove away from Leo Street for the last time, he left his front door swinging wide open. It was a signal to let everyone know that the last resident had left Wagner's Point for good, and that one of Baltimore's most isolated communities - where Martin Wagner established his food-packing business in 1896 and where later generations lived in the shadows of oil tanks and chemical fumes - was finally history. "I'm just glad to be gone," said Smith, 35, who lived his entire life in this patch of a neighborhood at the tip of southern Baltimore's chemical belt.

The two southern Baltimore chemical plants that have offered to buy out Fairfield peninsula residents want to resell those properties to the city at taxpayer expense.The two chemical companies -- FMC Corp., which makes herbicides, and Condea Vista, which makes detergent ingredients -- announced last week that they are offering to pay an appraised value plus up to $22,500 for each of the dozen or so remaining homes in two tiny neighborhoods near their plants. Both companies said the offer is a neighborly, generous effort to assist with relocation.

South Baltimore's chemical companies attempted to shed their image as polluters yesterday by releasing a report saying they are responsible for less than 1 percent of their area's cancer risk from air pollution.Curtis Bay and Brooklyn residents have long complained that they are the exposed to high levels of cancer-causing chemicals because of their proximity to South Baltimore's industrial area, which includes 11 chemical plants.But the companies said the largest exposure to airborne carcinogens comes not from chemical plants but from car exhaust and gasoline vapors, and a smaller portion comes from dry cleaners and other small businesses.

A trade association of Maryland chemical manufacturers is launching its first billboard campaign this week with signs designed to "improve community outreach" to South Baltimore neighborhoods near industrial plants.The Chemical Industry Council of Maryland will post signs in seven locations along roads in Curtis Bay, Brooklyn and Fairfield that lead to Wagner's Point. Residents of that tiny south city section, surrounded by chemical companies and oil tank farms, have argued that chemical pollution and spills have made the neighborhood unacceptably dangerous.

Beginning in 1971, the President's Cancer Panel has been at the forefront of providing critical information on the status of cancer. For the first time in its nearly 40-year history, the panel has focused on environmentally induced cancers, meaning those that result from exposure to chemicals and pollution. The members concluded in this year's report that "the true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated" and recommended significant changes to better protect people from cancer-causing chemicals.

An international chemical company with operations in the Baltimore area plans to indefinitely halt production and lay off as many as 100 employees from its Hawkins Point plant because of decreased demand, a spokeswoman said yesterday. Millennium Inorganic Chemicals, a division of Cristal Global, will stop producing titanium dioxide at the plant near Key Bridge at the end of March, spokeswoman Amy Drusano said. "Some of our biggest customers are paint makers, and they rely heavily on the automotive and home sales markets," she said.

Lyondell Chemical Co. might sell its Hawkins Point plant, which makes white pigment for everything from printer paper to the writing on M&Ms, as part of a restructuring of its inorganic chemicals business. A decision is to be made "in the coming weeks," Chief Financial Officer T. Kevin DeNicola said during a conference call with analysts yesterday to discuss fourth-quarter and year-end financial results. "We continue to consider all our options to be open," he said, and those might include a sale, a joint venture or continued ownership.

LIBBY, Mont.-- --Lloyd Arlt was breathing hard when he reached his roadside mailbox 100 feet from his front door. Even though oxygen flowed from a tank strapped to his back, he was forced to pause, trying to catch his breath. As he shuffled back to his mobile home, he pulled two envelopes from Health Network America from the mail. One letter was addressed to his wife, the other to him. "I got halfway down the first page and broke out laughing," said Arlt, a 79-year-old former heavy equipment operator.

Frank L. Cummings, a retired founder and former owner of a Baltimore chemical and container company who served as a World War II naval officer aboard destroyers in the Atlantic and Pacific, died in his sleep June 7 at Charlestown Retirement Community. He was 90. Born and raised in Baltimore, he was a son of the owner of the old Melvale Distillery, producer of Maryland rye whiskey. "He was the seventh of eight children and was born right on the kitchen table at his family's home at 15 W. Mulberry St.," said his son, the Rev. Carl F. Cummings, pastor of St. Agnes Roman Catholic Church in Catonsville.

William V. Markiewicz, a former minor-league baseball player and retired chemical company manager, died of cancer Dec. 8 at his home in Cleveland, Tenn. He was 70. Mr. Markiewicz was born and raised in Canton and was a 1950 graduate of Mount St. Joseph High School. After high school, he played baseball for two years in the St. Louis Cardinal's farm system before being drafted into the Army. During his Army service, he married Maryanne Arthur, a Baltimore native, in 1953. Upon his honorable discharge, Mr. Markiewicz attended the University of Maryland, College Park and graduated in 1960.

Beginning in 1971, the President's Cancer Panel has been at the forefront of providing critical information on the status of cancer. For the first time in its nearly 40-year history, the panel has focused on environmentally induced cancers, meaning those that result from exposure to chemicals and pollution. The members concluded in this year's report that "the true burden of environmentally induced cancers has been grossly underestimated" and recommended significant changes to better protect people from cancer-causing chemicals.

At a community meeting last night in Fairfield, the city's civil defense agency offered to train residents there and in Wagners Point in how to respond to an industrial accident, such as an explosion or chemical spill.Residents of the heavily industrialized South Baltimore communities organized the spirited meeting at the Fairfield firehouse after a chemical explosion at an FMC Corp. plant in December injured six workers. Residents complained at the time that they were not properly prepared for emergencies and did not know what kinds of hazardous materials were stored in their neighborhood.

Martin J. Tierney Sr., who worked during World War II to develop synthetic rubber and later retired as president of Rubicon Chemicals Inc., died Tuesday of complications after gall bladder surgery at the Charlestown Retirement Community in Catonsville. He was 88 and had settled in Maryland in 1998. Born in Waterbury, Conn., Mr. Tierney earned a bachelor of science degree at Middlebury College in 1936 and was employed in the U.S. Rubber Co. chemical division in Naugatuck, Conn. In 1939, he was studying for a doctorate in chemistry in Stuttgart, Germany, when war broke out, and he returned home.