March 27, 1985

Officers of major chemical companies, reversing their longtime position, joined members of Congress today in calling for stricter Government controls over toxic air pollutants. The calls for controls were made at a Congressional hearing to examine the extent of toxic air pollution in this country in light of the poison gas leak at a Union Carbide plant in Bhopal, India, last December that killed more than 2,000 people. At the hearing, Warren M. Anderson, chief operating officer of the Union Carbide Corporation, called for amendments to the Clean Air Act ''to improve regulatory control over hazardous air pollutants.'' Uniform Standards Proposed He also urged Congress to provide ''uniform, nationwide and coordinated standards'' to assure the right of communities to know what chemicals used in their vicinity might endanger residents' safety and health.

A Washington dispatch yesterday, on evidence that Iraq recently used chemical weapons, at one point misidentified the nation cited in American accusations last March. The officials said Iraq had been using nerve gas and that it was developing a capacity for full-scale chemical warfare attacks.

Bernhard H. Goetz, after days of conflicting statements by his lawyers about whether he would appear before a grand jury, refused yesterday to testify. As the grand jury considered bringing new charges in Mr. Goetz's shooting of four young men on a subway train in December after one of them asked him for money, his lawyers negotiated for two weeks with the Manhattan District Attorney's office over whether and when he would testify. Because he would have been testifying voluntarily, Mr. Goetz would have had to do so without the immunity ordinarily granted to witnesses called by the prosecutor. On Sunday his lawyers said he would, and at 8:30 yesterday morning Mr. Goetz arrived at the District Attorney's office with one of his lawyers, Barry I. Slotnick. But he emerged two hours later in a crush of reporters, photographers and television crews.

Reagan Administration officials said today that they planned to continue negotiations on improving relations with the Soviet Union despite the slaying of an Army major in East Germany by a Soviet soldier. Taking their lead from President Reagan, the officials said the shooting on Sunday of Maj. Arthur D. Nicholson Jr., who was on patrol in East Germany, should not be permitted to become a new obstacle to progress in the various negotiations now taking place between Moscow and Washington. On Monday, Mr. Reagan was asked if the shooting, which Washington said was ''totally unjustified,'' would lead him to drop his hopes for an early meeting with Mikhail S. Gorbachev, the new Soviet leader. ''No,'' he replied. ''It would make me more anxious to go to one.''

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 1985 International Improved U.S.-Soviet ties will continue to be sought by Reagan Administration officials, they said, despite the slaying Sunday of an American Army major in East Germany by a Soviet soldier. (Page A1, Column 1.) A speedy pullout from Lebanon is planned by Israel, according to Defense Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Prime Minister Shimon Peres said the withdrawal might occur ''a lot faster'' than most people think. (A1:4.)