Chemical Industry Weekly News Round-Up, October 28

Editor's note: I'll be out of the office tomorrow, so here's an early round-up.

This Week on CW:

The big guns reported this week. Dow's earnings nearly doubled, while BASF raised its sales guidance and ExxonMobil Chemical saw a 40% rise in profits.

At K-Show 2010, Sabic told CW that it is planning to enter the polyurethanes business. Also at K-Show, Styron will take Dow's stake in a polycarbonate j.v. with Sumitomo, and Chemtura is rebranding its flame retardants business with a familiar name.

A new study of Chinese factory workers is the first to find proof of BPA exposure adversely impacting humans.

Mitsui and Sinopec are launching a 50-50 j.v. for an EPT plant in China.

Around the Web:

Researchers have found that hydraulic fracking, the form of natural gas drilling needed in much of the Marcellus shale, releases trapped uranium, in Science Daily.

A new survey by the Civil Society Institute, a U.S. think tank, finds that the Tea Party members favor inaction on climate change – but other groups don't.

The Obama administration has approved the largest-ever solar project on federal lands, in southern California, the Associated Press reports.