hotlink

-- Puddintame (achillesg@hotmail.com), August 09, 1999

Answers

http://biz.yahoo.com/rf/990809/7h.html

Monday August 9, 6:28 pm Eastern Time

Two senators call for Y2K chemical industry summit

WASHINGTON, Aug 9 (Reuters) - Two U.S. senators on Monday urged the White House to hold a special Year 2000 chemical industry summit to increase the readiness of the industry for the end-of-year computer glitch.

Republican Robert Bennett of Utah and Democrat Christopher Dodd of Connecticut said the nation's more than 69,000 hazadous chemical facilities were not necessarily Year 2000-ready despite earlier optimistic assessments by President Clinton's advisers.

``The Y2K bug has the potential to disrupt the operation, transport, maintenance and control activities at chemical facilities,'' the Senators wrote to John Koskinen, chairman of the President's Council on Year 2000 Conversion.

The Senators, who lead the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problems, said Koskinen's recent report on national Y2K readiness used two poorly responded surveys conducted by the Chemical Manufacturers Association and a coalition of seven chemical industry associations representing smaller companies.

A spokesman for Koskinen said the council was reviewing the possibility of holding a round-table for the chemical industry.

The Year 2000 problem, often called the Y2K bug, may cause some computers to mistake the date on Jan. 1 as 1900 instead of 2000 because of an old programming shortcut. Unless fixed, it could disrupt systems from airlines to electrical power grids.

``We are now looking at chemical and other sectors to see how we can best-collect additional information and have an impact on activities going on within the industry,'' said Jack Gribben, spokesman for Koskinen's office.

Like other industries, companies in the chemical industry are highly dependent on telecommunications, electric power and transportation for their operations.

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-- Linkmeister (link@librarian.edu), August 09, 1999.

Snip:

"Two U.S. senators on Monday urged the White House to hold a special Year 2000 chemical industry summit to increase the readiness of the industry for the end-of-year computer glitch."

Let me see if I understand this. It is August 9, 1999 and our two Senators are trying to get the White House to hold a summit for the 69,000 companies to increase the readiness of the industry !!

Maybe we could get Flint and Decker to host the meeting sometime in December.

Ray

-- Ray (ray@totacc.com), August 09, 1999.

Bennett and Dodd obviously have a bad case of INFECTIOUS MEMES. How dare they question the industry's happy-face reports? What proof do they offer that the LATEST reports are not correct, and that the LATEST deadlines will not be met?? So what if lives are on the line, where is the proof, bud?

We better get Hoffy in on this one. These senators are loose cannons that need to be treated to a good statistical debate. And yeah, December is good.

-- King of Spain (madrid@aol.com), August 09, 1999.

Pour yourselves a good, stiff drink and face it...It REALLY is ALL going away in January! I used to live near that concentration of chemical plants in the N. England, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware area. If those plants contain ANYTHING but Pneumatic Analog controls...have any of you been at an exploding refinary or Propane Tank Farm???

It's not pretty

-- K. Stevens (dkstevens@It's ALL going away in January.com), August 09, 1999.

Well for those that haven't been following the Chemical industry here are some definitive links on the subject. We had a recycling plant go in Canada (Calgary) NO idea if it was y2k related but is it a great big ugly or what. Reminded me of a volcano of toxic waste.

Chemical Industry

Yahoo - Two senators call for Y2K chemical industry summit< /A>

Republican Robert Bennett of Utah and Democrat Christopher Dodd of Connecticut said the nation's more than 69,000 hazadous chemical facilities were not necessarily Year2000-ready

OECD's Chemical Accidents Programme and the Y2K Issue

The Working Group established an Electronic Clearing House on Chemical Emergencies - including this web site - on resources which have been made publicly available.

CSB - Governors Urged to Prepare for Possible Y2K-related Hazardous Materials Problems

The Nation's governors have been urged to review and act on Chemical Safety Board (CSB) recommendations designed to avert orminimize the effects of Year 2000 technology problems which may affect industrial chemical safety.

Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board: ChemLinks

Chem links is an online, searchable database containing links to Websites in a variety of categories that are related in some way to industrial chemical safety.

(HTML) Report to the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem

Report to the Senate Special Committee on the Year 2000 Technology Problem Year 2000 Issues Technology Problems and Industrial Chemical Safety March 1999

Field Hearing: "Will Y2K and Chemicals Be A Volatile Mix?"< /A>

An estimated 85 million Americans more than 30 percent of the U.S. population -- live within 5 miles of one of the 66,000 sites that handle hazardous chemicals. That's why any potential Y2K problems at chemical facilities cannot be taken lightly.

National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health NIOSH/Y2K Homepage

Our objective is to prevent occupational disease and injury that may result from Y2K computer and embedded microchip failures by providing resources and a forum for Occupational Safety and Health professionals.

CMA Survey for Rohm and Haas Company Year 2000 Status (PDF) June

Rohm and Haas Company, together with many CMA member companies, isusing the CMA Survey form to report status of Year 2000 activities. This form will be updated on a monthly basis.

-- Brian (imager@home.com), August 10, 1999.

Waaahhhh!!!!! Why are they killing us? Don't they like us?

-- Mara Wayne (MaraWayne@aol.com), August 10, 1999.

A few canned goods and a shotgun just won't cut it for those of you in high population areas. Kamikaze mentality. 'The Stand'.

If you've been given the vision, be heedful. Pinch yourselves, please.

-- Will continue (farming@home.com), August 10, 1999.

Folks:

Even aside from the high risk of injury and/or death from accidents at these many facilities, consider the economic hits we can/will take as we lose an unknown percentage of these plants......

Some very important feedstocks and raw materials are made by only a single or a handful of companies these days...

Dominoes. Links.

Think years.

-- Jon Williamson (jwilliamson003@sprintmail.com), August 10, 1999.