Chemicals

Fear still lingers in this once-peaceful village near the foot of Mt. Fuji. But six years of open conflict between the secretive Aum Supreme Truth religious sect and local farmers terrified by its activities is finally ending in victory for the locals. As police conducted successive raids on sect buildings Wednesday, Thursday and today, discovering huge caches of suspicious chemicals, a mood approaching jubilation remained just below the surface among village residents.

A chemical compound that looks like toothpaste but hardens into artificial bone within hours is streamlining the treatment of fractured limbs and offers new hope for aged, fragile bones. The compound, now in experimental trials at 12 U.S. hospitals, is used to hold splintered bones in place, to fill voids caused by osteoporosis and to replace some of the metal plates and screws that have been used to repair shattered hips, wrists and ankles.

As police raids on the secretive religious sect Aum Supreme Truth continued to turn up huge caches of chemicals Friday, police warned that anonymous leaflets had threatened further toxic gas attacks in Tokyo. Police said they have confiscated several hundred tons of chemical agents, including ingredients for dynamite, in three days of raids on facilities of the cult.

A Santa Monica hospital emergency room was evacuated Thursday after a patient and three hospital staff members complained of respiratory difficulties apparently brought on by unidentified chemicals on the patient's clothing. Two registration clerks and a medical technician at St. Johns Hospital & Health Center began coughing after assisting a patient who said he had chemicals on the jacket he was wearing, a hospital official said. Julius Norman had arrived at the St.

Plans to return former Harbor Gateway residents to a DDT-contaminated neighborhood have been scrapped until at least next year. The 33 families, who were evacuated from their homes on West 204th Street last April, are demanding that the EPA deem the area unsafe for habitation. The decision to postpone excavation of the landfill was prompted by Rep. Jane Harman (D-Torrance), who said she was surprised to learn a few weeks ago that the residents were expected to reoccupy the homes.

A tank car imploded at a paper mill Monday, sending a huge pinkish-yellow cloud of poisonous gas into the sky and forcing a widespread evacuation. More than half the town's 16,000 residents live in the evacuation area. While some fled to towns and hospitals as far as 20 miles away, others stayed home with their windows tightly closed. Hundreds of people went to hospitals to be treated for burning eyes and throats.

For nearly 40 years, the Gas Co.'s plant on Rosemead Boulevard in Pico Rivera has been an innocuous part of the landscape. Surrounded by an elementary school, neat rows of homes and a smattering of industrial facilities, the 30 acres occupied by the Gas Co. are well-kept for an area zoned industrial and residential. Appearances can be deceiving.

Fifty-one natural gas processing companies have agreed to pay nearly $1 million in fines for failing to disclose toxic chemical inventories. As part of a settlement, in which the Environmental Protection Agency sharply reduced the financial penalties, the companies agreed to provide statistics on how much toxic chemicals were produced and stored at 249 locations in 1986 and 1990, and make the required reports in the future.

Neighbors of a former IBM Corp. plant in New York state sued the company, claiming that it released chemicals into the air, ground and water that caused birth defects and cancer. About 90 residents of the upstate New York towns of Endicott and Union say that from 1924 to 2002, IBM dumped chemicals including trichloroethylene and tetrachloroethylene near the Endicott plant where the computer giant was born. They seek unspecified damages, according to the suit filed in Broome County Superior Court.

In an effort to reduce industry's reliance on toxic compounds, state environmental officials today will lay out a framework for transforming California into a leader in the development and use of "green" chemicals.