News in brief

Degussa has signed a letter of intent to buy DuPont's hydrogen peroxide business, which operates in the US and Canada, with joint-venture interests in New Zealand and Indonesia. The companies did not disclose a price, although the deal coincides with DuPont's acquisition of Degussa's 1,3-propanediol technology. Degussa already operates H2O2 businesses in the US, as well as Brazil, Germany, Belgium and Austria.

* HSE unveils safety statistics

Headline statistics for workplace injuries from April 1996 to March 1997 are 'disappointing and give cause for concern,' according to Health and Safety Executive director general Jenny Bacon. Workplace fatalities rose from 258 last year to 302 this. 'We don't know if this is a tragic "blip" or the start of an upward drift,' says Bacon. 'Nor can we make well-informed guesses about reasons for the increases.'

* Castrol rejigs specialities

Burmah Castrol has sold part of its adhesives business, Columbia Cement, for $23million, and bought a coatings and resins group, SMC, for DM68million from a Dynamit Nobel subsidiary. The company is in the process of exiting adhesives.

* UK engineering, foreign accents

Foreign companies have increased their level of investment in British engineering firms, according to deal advisor KPMG Corporate Finance. In the first six months of 1997, the value of overseas takeovers of British firms was up by about a quarter, to $1.4billion. UK investment in overseas engineering firms dropped sharply over the same period, from over $2billion last year to barely $900million.

* Dome and despondency

The British Plastics Federation has responded angrily to Greenpeace's claims of environmental hazards from the PVCto be used in the Millennium Dome. 'PVC production has trebled in Europe over the past 20 years and during the same period the level of dioxins in the environment has fallen by 50 per cent,' says BPF communications director Simon James. 'There is no evidence to support the allegation that the use of PVC in the Dome will cause harm.'