Retailers bear too much blame for tobacco, alcohol sales to underaged consumers, American drug store executives tell Administration officials. Retailers come under increased scrutiny in wake of proposed $368.5 billion tobacco industry liability case, instances of sales of alcoholic beverages to underaged consumers. In meeting with Donna E. Shalala, Secretary of Health and Human Services, White House Domestic Policy Adviser Bruce Reed, National Association of Chain Drug Stores (NACD) officials propose penalizing underaged buyers by taking away drivers' licenses for tobacco, alcohol purchases.

In ongoing effort to bolster polyester business, DuPont Co. (NYSE DD), Wilmington, DE, is acquiring1,3 propanediol (PDO) technology to make polyester manufacture from Degussa Corp., Fairfield Park, NJ. In exchange, DuPont will sell its hydrogen peroxide business to Degussa. PDO is used to make 3GT, polymer combining nylonlike resilience with stain, static characteristics of polyester.

Sale of closure, dispenser, plastic bottlemaker Kerr Group, Inc., Lancaster, PA, to San Franciscobased equity fund Fremont Partners, is running into pension problems like those which delayed sale of bankrupt Anchor Glass Containers to Consumers Packaging earlier this year. Pension Benefit Guaranty Corp. (PBGC), Washington, DC, is asking US District Court of Eastern Pennsylvania to terminate Kerr's pension plan as of last Friday, August 1.

Box USA, corrugated box production subsidiary of Four M Corp., Valhalla, NY, reports Q2/97 net sales of $116.1 million on volume of 3.0 billion square feet vs. $74.7 million on volume of 1.5 billion square feet for Q2/96.

Through French subsidiary Cascades SA, Paperboard Industries International, Inc. (PI), Montreal, Quebec, Canada, acquires Stora recycled fiberbased coated boxboard mill in Arnsberg, Germany. Purchase makes PI third largest producer of recycled fiberbased coated boxboard in Europe with 275,000 ton/year capacity… Amoco Chemical (Europe), will build paraxylene line in Geel, Belgium, with annual capacity of 420,000 tons by 2001. Amoco is currently building third purified terephthalic acid stream in Geel, boosting site capacity from 350,000 to 850,000 tons/year next year.

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