U.S. May Sue to Get Ingredient for Nerve Gas
WASHINGTON — The Commerce Department is considering taking legal action against two chemical companies who have refused to sell an ingredient needed to make poison gas to the Army, Administration officials said today.
“The matter is presently under review within the Administration. No decision has been made at this time,” the Commerce Department said in a statement.
The Occidental Chemical Corp. of Dallas and the Mobay Corp. of Pittsburgh, an American-based subsidiary of the West German firm Bayer A. G., refused to sell the ingredient, thionyl chloride, to the Army because their corporate policies prevent them from assisting in the manufacture of poison gas, officials said.
They are the major American manufacturers of thionyl chloride, which is used to make Sarin, a lethal nerve agent used in the Army’s chemical-filled artillery shells.
The Army needs 160,000 pounds of the ingredient by June to proceed on schedule in the making of new chemical weapons shells, the Pentagon said.
The Commerce Department said it has authority under the Defense Production Act of 1950 to compel defense-related companies to produce defense materials for the government, and that it is considering taking such action.
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