OTHER NEWS - May 8, 1992

Aerosol Firm, Former Manager Indicted: U.S. Atty. Lourdes G. Baird said a federal grand jury has returned a seven-count indictment--one of the first criminal indictments brought under the federal Hazardous Material Transportation Act--against a former plant manager of Aeron International Corp., previously known as Diversified CPC International Inc. of Anaheim. Steven Louis Sanchez, the former manager, is accused of telling an employee to label a package “valve” when it in fact contained ethyl mercaptan, the noxious material used to give a warning stench to such otherwise odorless gases as natural gas and propane. The package leaked at the Ontario Airport facility of United Parcel Service shortly before it was to be loaded on an airplane. Sanchez faces a maximum of 30 years in prison and a $1.5-million fine. The company faces possible fines of $3.5 million.