United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington DC 20460
Volume 5
Number 3
March 1979
-------
Protecting Public Health
Major environmental health
questions and some of the
activities of EPA's research pro-
gram in protecting people are
reviewed in this issue of the
EPA Journal.
The controversial question
of whether the health danger
from chemicals has been exag-
gerated receives a wide variety
of answers from various author-
ities. Another article discusses
EPA's policy in evaluating can-
cer risks.
Dr. Stephen J. Gage, EPA's
Assistant Administrator for
Research and Development,
explains what the Agency hopes
to do to step up its pursuit of
solutions to a host of questions
about the impact of pollutants
on the human body.
One initiative proposed as part
of EPA's budget for Fiscal Year
1 980 is the creation of a new
Office of Health and Environ-
mental Assessment. EPA will be
recruiting nationwide to find an
outstanding director for this
post.
While most of EPA's research
effort is devoted to environ-
mental problems such as cancer
that afflict so many Americans,
the magazine also takes a look
at some of the more unusual
research projects, including
some in the Great Smoky Mount-
ains National Park, India,
and Egypt.
Much of the information
obtained in Egypt and India is
expected to help EPA in eval-
uating health risks to the U.S.
population
Dr Philip Handler, president
of the National Academy of
Sciences, emphasizes in an inter-
lew with the Journal that there
should be more studies of the
riddle of how cancer varies
around the world among differ-
ent peoples.
Labor's stake in the clean up of
pollution in the steel industry
is reviewed by Lloyd McBride,
President of the United Steel-
workers of America, in another
interview with EPA Journal.
The development of pollution
monitoring devices, which can
be worn as personal jewelry
such as bracelets or necklaces,
is also the subject of an article.
These personal monitors could
be especially useful to people
with lung or heart problems who
need to know promptly about
air pollutants.
Researchers using portable
monitors have found that ped-
estrians in some city neigbor-
hoods are often breathing
pollutants at levels far higher
than reported by the nearest
stationary monitor machines.
-------
United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Office of
Public Awareness (A-107)
Washington DC 20460
Volume 5
Number 3
March 1979
SEPA JOURNAL
Douglas M. Costle, Administrator
Joan Martin Nicholson, Director, Office of Public Awareness
Charles D. Pierce, Editor
Truman Temple, Associate Editor
John Heritage, Chris Perham, Assistant Editors
L'Tanya White, Staff Support
Articles
EPA is charged by Congress to
protect the Nation's land, air and
water systems. Under a mandate
of national environmental laws
focused on air and water quali-
ty, solid waste management and
the control of toxic substances,
pesticides, noise and radiation,
the Agency strives to formulate
and implement actions which
lead to a compatible balance be-
tween human activities and the
ability,of natural systems to sup-
port and nurture life.
Protecting
Public Health
Administrator Costle explains EPA's
role in safeguarding public health.
Chemicals and
Health
Responses from leading authorities
on whether the health dangers from
chemicals are exaggerated.
Cancer Risk
An interview with EPA's Dr
Elizabeth Anderson.
Monitoring in
India
A report on a project to check the
impact of pollution in Bombay.
New Research
Directions
An interview with Stephen J. Gage,
EPA's Assistant Administrator for
Research and Development.
Departments
The Team Leaders
and Laboratories
A report on the key leaders and main
laboratories in EPA's research
program.
Research,
Environment, and
Health
An interview with Dr Philip
Handler, President of the National
Academy of Sciences.
Personal Pollution
Monitoring
An article about the use of port-
able devices to check for air
pollution.
Lending a Hand
in Egypt
An article by Truman Temple about
EPA's programs in helping this
ancient country.
Hunting
Pollution in the
Great Smokies
A report on a monitoring project in
a national park.
The New
Environmentalists
Administrator Costle welcomes
fresh support for the environmental
movement.
Labor's Stake in
Steel Cleanup
An interview with Lloyd McBride,
President. United Steelworkers of
America.
Almanac
Update 34
People
News Briefs
Nation
37
Front cover: Newborn babies being
cared for in a hospital nursery
Opposite: EPA and National Park
Service scientists cross a log bridge
in Great Smoky Mountains National
Park en route to a monitoring pro-
ject. Photo by Nick Karanikas.
\ Journal ii
monthly, w '
July-August
U,S Environmental
P rot (.•<.<••
print':.
V'tl l)v th.
Photo credits: Ginger French, Nick
Karanikas, Ernest Bucci, Burt Glinn/
Magnum, Els Benjamin, Ray
Witlin/World Bank, Doug Moore/
Kent State University News Service.
Design Credits: Robert Flanagan.
Donna Kazaniwsky and Ron Farrah
Vio1'.'.
tnbutions a .
S W
illH) Oil
S10CV
•'
-------
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Protecting Public Health
M
ator
CI D/\ is pushing with new vigor the
LI f\ goal of protecting public health
from thousands of new pollutants, many of
them invisible, spawned by modern tech-
nology.
The highlight of EPA's research and de-
velopment budget for Fiscal Year 1 980 is
a major initiative in preventive public health
research. We are devoting $37 million for
an integrated research program to provide
us with a better data base on which to make
our crucial regulatory decisions.
We will focus on three critical research
and development activities. They are:
• development of screening tests which
will permit rapid, inexpensive detection of
chemicals which may pose a serious health
throat,
• use of new techniques to predict the con-
centration of these chemicals as they reach
man in various ways; and
• conduct of studies which validate and
improve the ability of our animal tests and
other techniques to predict health effects.
The proposed new effort would dramat-
ically expand research support for chemical
regulation under three Acts administered
by EPA—the Toxic Substances Control
Act, the Safe Drinking Water Act, and the
Clean Air Act. With Congressional support,
we will have in FY 1980 the largest health
research budget in EPA's history—$113
million—an increase of $34 million over
FY 1979.
Now that the Agency is shifting the focus
from the so-called conventional pollutants
—such as sulfur dioxide and carbon mon-
oxide—to toxic chemicals, we're going
throughachangethatlthinkwillputtoa
severe test our ability to understand and
apply scientific knowledge effectively.
The current state of knowledge about the
lasting environmental or health effects of
the chemical revolution can be described
as something like a block of swiss cheese
—there is a fair amount of substance, but
there are a lot of holes.
Even as our knowledge expands, it is
fragmentary, a phenomenon with which
scientists are comfortably familiar, but
which can cause public policy makers to
have fitful and sleepless nights.
Something that John Gardner said re-
cently describes the problem exactly:
"When you get into the world of action, you
find that people have to act day in and day
out without conclusive proof of the right-
ness of their actions."
EPA operates in a tension-filled atmos-
phere—not just political tension, not just
tension between environmental and indus-
trial interests—but tension between good
science and good regulatory policies as
well.
Good science and good regulatory pol-
icy—the two are not mutually exclusive,
but neither are they necessarily synony-
mous. The regulators cannot wait until the
scientists provide all the answers, for there
will almost always be some degree of un-
certainty in some part of that data. In the
face of threats to public health, we must
act, and not duck behind a cloud of uncer-
tainty. Yet acting without an adequate sci-
entific understanding is irresponsible.
Until very recently much of EPA's focus
—both scientific and regulatory—has been
on the waste products of our industrial
society and on the application of science
and technology to controlling residuals.
But with the passage of the Toxic Sub-
stances Control Act (TSCA), EPA is shift-
ing its attention to the potential adverse
effects of otherwise socially beneficial
products.
As it was put by one person recently,
instead of regulating the inadvertent by-
products of the industrial engine, the gov-
ernment is now being asked to regulate the
moving parts of the engine itself, and that's
quitea different thing.
Congress recognized the difference, and
gave us a stiffer legal test to pass before we
can act. That test is "unreasonable risk."
Making the "unreasonable risk" deter-
mination is, I think, going to intensify the
tension between good science and good
regulatory policy as never before in EPA's
experience.
To make such a determination requires
three steps. First, assessment of the risks
of a chemical; second, assessment of the
benefits of the chemical; and third, the
weighing of risks and benefits in a final
regulatory judgment.
We are relying heavily on the scientific
community to help us in the first step, that
is, risk assessment. Yet we will have to
make many decisions with less than perfect
scientific knowledge.
If I can elaborate a bit—we don't even
know yet how many chemical substances
are in commerce. For most substances, we
know little if anything about how they are
used, what health or environmental effects
they may cause, who gets exposed to them
and how, and what is the result, both short-
term and long-term, of such exposure.
Although we will use TSCA's powerful
testing and information tools to narrow
those gaps, we will never be able to answer
every question to everybody's satisfaction.
Even though we must grapple with all
too much scientific uncertainty today, I be-
lieve that in the longer term, one of
TSCA's major contributions will be to
extend our body of scientific knowledge on
chemicals and their behavior in the human
environment. TSCA will push the-state-
of-the-art:
• In detection and monitoring. How
does the chemical get into the environment,
how does it change, where does it go, and
who does it affect?
• In testing. How can we predict more
accurately, rapidly, and cheaply the chronic
effects of chemicals in health and environ-
ment?
• In health effects. Which chemicals
cause cancer, birth defects, gene muta-
tions, neurological degeneration? What
are the biological mechanisms?
• In ecological effects. Which chemicals
affect the relationships between living sys-
tems, and what is the potential long-term
result of subtle changes or damages?
The government response in recent years
to the chemical revolution of the last sev-
eral decades has been relatively compre-
hensive. The rising cancer rate, and its
association with chemicals, is particularly
disconcerting and has sparked the Con-
gress to pass a variety of laws regulating
chemical exposure in the environment.
The Congress, the Administration, and
the public have come to define our mission
more broadly as one of protecting public
health as well as protecting the environ-
ment. D
MARCH 1979
-------
U.S. Rep. George E.
Brown, Jr. (D-Calif.)
The simple, honest answer to
your question is, we don't know.
The numerous cases of docu-
mented hazards from new and
old chemical compounds are
cause for genuine concern. The
Congress, largely in response to
these real hazards, has enacted
a variety of laws aimed at iden-
tifying existing hazards, and
preventing future chemical dis-
asters from occurring.
The danger may very well be
exaggerated, especially in the
minds of individuals. On the
other hand, we may only be see-
ing the tip of the iceberg of
the adverse effects of the chem-
ical revolution. We can't afford
to be complacent in any case,
and prudence dictates that we
approach this subject with the
worst case situation in mind.
The Federal Government has
a clear responsibility to guaran-
tee the health and safety of the
American people with all the
authority at its disposal. It
further has the responsibility to
identify what the nature of
those threats to our Nation are.
The chemical threat is one area
when.' the Federal Government
has generally done too little, too
late.
My colleagues in the Con-
gress and I will be watching
the implementation of the
basic environmental laws very
carefully. We all hope that the
chemical threat is exaggerated,
and future disasters will be non-
existent. Until we know if that
state of perfection has arrived,
much more information must be
gathered and much more work
will need to be done.
Michael Halberstam, M.D.
IV.ishintri
Of course, some people and
some groups sometimes exag-
gerate the danger of some
chemicals. Examples of this
are the on-again, off-again
status of DDT as a carcinogen,
as well as the general, unques-
Chemicals
and
Health
Are health dangers from chemicals being
exaggerated?
EPA Journal has asked observers and participants
in the national debate now under way about these
crucial concerns.
The same question was asked of each person:
More and more chemicals are being
labelled hazardous to health. Is the
danger being exaggerated?
tioning {but unjustified) accept-
ance of the notion that 70 to 90
percent of cancer is "environ-
mental" in origin.
Exaggeration occurs and de-
nial occurs. This is because
health hazards are less and less
either a medical or a personal
issue, and more and more a
political problem. Political de-
bate is carried out under differ-
ent ground rules than scientific
debate—exaggeration is as
normal to the politician as
breathing, while in scientific
endeavor it is, to say the least,
frowned upon. What is con-
fusing is that the same people
frequently play under both sets
of rules—a scientist may be
properly tentative in presenting
his findings to colleagues, but
become an impassioned advo-
cate when presenting in front
of a Congressional hearing or a
TV camera.
This is done in the name of
"concerned scientists" or "acti-
vist science" or whatever. I've
never been happy about it, but
now I'm sure. It stinks. It stinks
because it trades upon the
public's basic belief in science
as impartial for a temporary
political advantage that may be
forgotten in five or 10 years. It
stinks because lying in the
public's interest is still lying,
and "the public's interest" is
usually defined by the person
doing the lying. Read Sissela
Bok's "Lying" for a nice ap-
proach to this.
In a recent issue of this jour-
nal Paul Samuelson, speaking
of environmental policy, said
"In order to sell, sometimes you
have to oversell." I respect
Professor Samuelson, but I
don't think this is true, because
overselling means exaggerating
and exaggerating means lying
and/or concealing. When you
oversell, you burn out the
public's faith in your message,
and you become the laughing-
stock of Johnny Carson and
Bob Hope ("This is the only
country in the world that's about
to ban saccharin and legalize
marijuana"). EPA has been
relatively good in this regard,
and I hope it stays so. The way
in which data are presented
should be as honest as the
data itself. The public wants
protection by EPA, and it wants
concerned scientists, but even
more it wants the simple, un-
exaggerated truth—and it
deserves it.
Dr. Barry Commoner
Director, Center lor the Biology
of /Vcir and
University Professor of
Environmental Science,
•tington University
To answer this question it is
useful to start with the facts.
The evidence in support of
claims of health hazards from
synthetic chemicals is clear-cut.
In recent years research has
considerably improved the test-
ing of chemicals for toxicity,
and the resulting data have been
carefully collected and re-
viewed. For example, the Inter-
national Agency for Research
on Cancer in Lyon, France, pub-
lishes carefully analyzed sum-
maries of the data about the
carcinogenicity of chemicals.
These data show that the num
ber of synthetic organic chem-
icals that have been identified
as carcinogens is rising rapidly:
between 1950 and 1960, 17
new such carcinogens were
identified; between 1960 and
1970, 38 new carcinogens were
identified. These and similar
data establish quite clearly that
the widely-held impression that
we are learning about increasing
numbers of hazardous chemi-
cals is based on solid fact.
Is there any factual evidence
to support the idea that claims
about such hazards are being
exaggerated? Such evidence
would be, for example, scien-
tific data which show that sub-
stances previously identified as
hazardous, on being studied
further, have been shown to be
not hazardous. To my knowl-
edge a list of such substances
which have been downgraded
with respect to toxicity has not
been compiled, but it must be
very small. For example, re-
examination of a number of
suspected substances which
have b-3en the subject of con-
troversy has, in fact, confirmed
their carcinogenicity: saccharin,
TRIS, vinyl chloride and various
hair dyes. There is, therefore,
no scientific evidence to sup-
port the notion that such claims
have been "exaggerated."
In the face of this evidence it
is important to ask why the
question of exaggeration should
a rise at all. What has hap-
pened to encourage such an
unsubstantiated response to the
EPAJOURNAL
-------
solid evidence of increasing
numbers of toxic chemicals?
My own answer is that in the
last few years the public knowl-
edge about toxic chemicals has
begun to affect certain groups
where they really hurt—in their
pocketbooks.
For example, in the last few
years, as a result of evidence
regarding environmental or
health hazards, several major
chemical products have been
forced off the market: fluoro-
carbons, propellents extensively
used in a wide range of prod-
ucts, have been replaced by
finger-pumps; plastic soda bot-
tles—developed at a reported
cost of $50,000,000—were
abandoned because of evidence
that acrylonitrile leached out of
them; PCB's, once produced at
the rate of 40,000 tons per year,
have been withdrawn, following
evidence that they have become
very widespread in all living
things. It is therefore not sur-
prising that chemical compa-
nies have recently begun a
massive public relations cam-
paign against what they call
"chemophobia"—irrational
fear of chemicals. They are, of
course, entitled to their opinion,
but the scientific factual evi-
dence tells us that increasing
numbers of hazardous chem-
icals are, in fact, being de-
tected, and that the dangers
have by no means been
exaggerated.
Dr. Elizabeth M. Whelan
Research Associate. Harvard
School of Public Health:
Executive Director, American
Council on Science ,ind Health
In many instances, the health
hazards posed by chemicals are
overstated to the point where
many people apparently believe
that we are living in a sea of
toxic and carcinogenic sub-
stances, paying for the benefits
of technology with poor health.
Today, even the word "chem-
ical" conjures up a negative
image. The average consumer
has a poor understanding of
chemicals as fundamental units
of life, and hears substantially
more about the relatively few
cases of chemical-related trag-
edies than he does about the
essential and beneficial chem-
icals occurring in the natural
food supply and in the forms of
food additives, pesticides,
drugs, in the occupational set-
ting and general environment.
The fact that some chemicals
in the environment have caused
illness and death in unique cir-
cumstances should not mean
that all chemicals are suspect
or that there are no ways of
using potentially unsafe mate-
rials. Our goal in regulating the
chemicals around us and indeed
in making judgments about all
aspects of our environment, is
to minimize the potential for
harm and maximize technologi-
cal and cultural advances and
the quality of life for our
country.
For example, in assessing
the use of a potentially cancer-
causing chemical in the produc-
tion of a useful product, we
should be guided by reasonable
judgments, setting levels of
exposure which pose no known
hazards to workers yet still
allow efficient production of this
product. If the scientific consen-
sus is that workers can be pro-
tected from the effects of the
chemical in question by means
of an efficient ventilation sys-
tem costing $5,000, there is no
purpose in exaggerating the risk
to the point that $2,000,000 is
spent to totally redesign the
workplace in an effort to reach
the same end, and it becomes
no longer cost-efficient for the
plant to operate.
In making judgments of this
type, we are not saying, "If you
want a product you must as-
sume that people will die."
(Indeed that is exactly the type
of tradeoff we willingly make
using automobiles, airplanes
and swimming pools.) It is pos-
sible to set levels of chemical
exposure which according to
all scientific evidence do not
significantly raise anyone's dis-
ease probability.
Recent overstatements on
risks posed by environmental
chemicals have served only to
distract Americans from real
environmental health threats
like cigarette smoking, have led
to bannings of items that make
our life easier and more pleas-
urable, and have contributed to
higher prices for those goods
and services that do remain.
Eula Bingham
i
Health
No. Death can never be exag-
gerated. And death is exactly
what the question is all about.
No one knows the exact extent
of death caused by workplace
exposures to the thousands of
toxic substances in common
industrial use today. But we do
know the toll is in the thousands
—perhaps more than a hun-
dred thousand per year
becoming ill.
Those are people—not just
numbers. They are our friends,
brothers, uncles, cousins, moth-
ers and fathers. Their loss is too
real to too many of us to be
concealed behind phony argu-
ments that it costs too much to
control the hazards that caused
such tragedy.
Paradoxically, it seems that
there isn't enough exaggeration.
No one realty gets concerned
until a tower collapses and kills
51 men. Or until a pesticide
mokes walking zombies of a
plant full of healthy workers.
Or until a chemical previously
thought to be harmless causes
rare cancers twenty to forty
years after exposure.
Total national concern about
all harmful exposures, not just
sporadic attention in a few iso-
lated instances, is what will
finally provide the impetus—
and resources—needed to
apply our collective effort to
guarantee safe and healthful
workplaces for all Americans.
Bruce W. Karrh, M.D.
Yes. Some chemicals—a rela-
tively low percentage of all the
natural and synthetic chemicals
we use—possess properties
which under certain conditions
can represent potentially seri-
ous health hazards. As new in-
formation of this type becomes
available, appropriate steps to
reduce the risks to human
health must be and are being
taken. But exaggeration fre-
quently begins where our real
scientific knowledge ends. A
welcome growth in recent years
in our knowledge of chemical
hazards has, perhaps predict-
ably, generated some irrational
fears.
The new knowledge—much
of it developed by the chemical
industry—has principally to do
with chronic health effects from
long-term, low-level exposures
to a limited number of chemical
compounds. The new findings
have aroused widespread public
fears that synthetic chemicals
as such are responsible for a
variety of diseases, notably
cancer. This is perhaps under-
standable, for there is often a
tendency to overreact to new
scientific knowledge, particu-
larly when it is widely and
rapidly disseminated without
proper scientific evaluation to
a very large audience, most of
which lacks the training and
experience to differentiate
between potential hazards and
natural risks.
An assessment of true risk is
best arrived at by scientific eval-
uation. In the case of cancer,
for example, the most reliable
epidemiological and statistical
evidence indicates that perhaps
as much as 85 to 90 percent of
cases are indeed caused by
environmental factors—diet,
alcohol, tobacco, sunlight; the
totality of our environment and
not just exposure to synthetic
chemicals. Human exposure to
synthetic chemicals may ac-
count for 1 to 10 percent of all
cancers. The recently discov-
ered carcinogenicity of certain
synthetic chemicals is signifi-
cant and must be considered in
enabling us to prevent future
cancers. It is not likely to lead to
the cause of all cancers.
There is a community of in-
terests in identifying haz-
ards, and controlling the risks.
All parties also share the re-
sponsibility to avoid unfounded
allegations, or inaccurate inter-
pretations that can lead to un-
necessary alarm, ill advised
programs, and diversion from
higher priority, beneficial health
programs.
Dr. Samuel S. Epstein
'
Cancer/' n/id Prufi-
Occupational,
Environmental Medi.
University of Illinois School
of Public Health
Exaggeration, no! Belated rec-
ognition of the problem, yes!
The recent identification of a
MARCH 1 979
•>
-------
wide range of hazardous chem-
icals reflects the fact that orig-
inally they were improperly or
prematurely introduced into
commerce. This occurred
either without pre-testing or
on the basis of test data, much
of which has since been shown
to be inadequate, manipulated,
or suppressed.
Data on the costs of compli-
ance have also been grossly
distorted. Meanwhile, the fact
has been overlooked that the
full price tag for failure to reg-
ulate is far higher than the cost
of regulation itself. The chem-
ical industry for years blocked
the passage of toxic substances
legislation, which when it be-
came law in 1976 finally gave
the EPA Administrator a discre-
tionary right to require pre-
market testing. Even in 1979
the industry still refuses to dis-
close the identity of toxic and
carcinogenic chemicals in trade
name products to which work
ers are exposed.
Such policies of the chemical
industry have been directly re-
sponsible for an ever-growing
litany of disasters. Consider the
respiratory disease and cancer
toll of asbestos workers which
is anticipated to claim more
than 50,000 annual victims
over the next few decades.
Industry had much evidence of
these hazards as long ago as the
1930's which it suppressed and
failed to act on. Or consider the
neurological crippling of work-
ers exposed to Leptophos at the
Velsicol Plant in Bayport Tex.
Information on the neurotox-
icity of Leptophos had been
withheld from exposed workers
and Federal agencies. Or look
at the neurological and other
diseases induced in Life Sci-
ences Product Corp. workers
by Kepone in the early 1970's.
Allied Chemical Co., the parent
corporation, had information of
such effects in the early 1950's.
There are innumerable other
such examples. Consider the
sterility in Dow Chemical Co.
workers exposed to DBCP.
Such toxicological effects had
been recognized in the early
1950's without parallel protec-
tive measures. Or consider the
administration of DES to preg-
nant women in clinical trials in
the early 1950's. These women
were told by their obstetricans,
reflecting advice from the
pharmaceutical industry, that
there was no evidence that DES
was harmful, although its car-
cinogenicity had been experi-
mentally established by 1940.
Finally, consider the recent
epidemic of uterine cancer in
post-menopausal women given
Premarin or other estrogen re-
placement therapy, particularly
at high doses and for long pe-
riods. In spite of this the Phar-
maceutical Manufacturers
Association and the American
College of Obstetricians and
Gynecologists have filed an
unsuccessful suit against the
FDA requirement that women
should be warned of such dam-
ages by appropriate labelling.
There is little doubt that we
will experience a growing and
ever wider range of such dis-
asters. In all iikelihood, they
will impact most heavily on
workers in the petrochemical
and certain mining and process-
ing industries. They will also
impact, though to a lesser ex-
tent, on those living in the vicin-
ity of such industries or their
hazardous waste disposal sites
scattered irresponsibly and ran-
domly across the Nation and
on a wide range of other con-
sumer groups who have become
unknowing participants in mass
human carcinogenicity tests as
involuntary tradeoffs for im-
proper marketing of hazardous
but profitable chemicals.
Irving J. Selikoff, M.D.
Directot of the Environmental
Sciences Laboratory, Mount
Sinoi School o! Medicin<
llnivarxiiy ui /Vrnv York
It is presently impossible to
answer the question with con-
fidence, simply because we
have little information about
many of these chemicals, even
about their acute or subacute
effects. It is dismaying to realize
that for the large majority, we
know virtually nothing of the
long term hazards.
What to do ? The best we
can, actively, vigorously. This
speaks against stopping the
world because we want to get
off or for modern chemical
Luddites. Chemicals are a broad
class, good and bad. It is not
beyond us to sort them out.
recognizing that costly misjudg-
ments can occur.
The Toxic Substances Con-
trol Act (TSCA) reflects this,
even if it doesn't solve it. In-
formation is sought so evalua-
tion can be made. (How can
there be valid judgments other-
wise? } For the first time, the
commandment is stated: "Thou
shalt not expose workers, or
others, or our world to un-
studied chemicals."
TSCA, industry, labor, and
government agencies need help
since it has been precisely the
absence of needed information
that led us to the Act, and to the
question you've posed. Simply
engraving the Commandment
on a Congressional Tablet
doesn't provide an answer. It
merely adds a link in the un-
broken circle. Only information
—pertinent research—will
break this circle.
Finally, what to do until the
information comes? Again, the
best we can—use the most re-
liable information available.
Regulation and control will not
wait. All of which points to the
urgency of our responsibilities
—and opportunities.
Sidney M. Wolfe, M.D.
Director. Public.
Citizen's Health
Research Group
Industry's past negligence in
testing chemicals is the main
reason for the large number of
hazardous substances being
discovered in current tests.
Since the most highly suspi-
cious chemicals were the first
ones cranked into the testing
apparatus, it is not surprising
that many are turning out to
show toxicity. As testing con-
tinues, and chemicals with a
much lower index of suspicion
are tested, fewer will be shown
to cause cancer or other types
of toxicity. The list will grow,
but not at the frightening rate of
today.
There are at least two major
reasons why the dangers of
these chemicals may, if any-
thing, be underestimated rather
than exaggerated.
First is the problem of spe-
cies differences. A chemical
which is not very potent in one
kind of animal may be very
toxic to humans. Thalidomide
is one such unfortunate example
where animal tests greatly un-
derestimated the danger of this
drug which caused hundreds of
deformed babies.
Another reason for perhaps
thinking chemicals are less
dangerous than they are is
because positive animal tests
usually involve only one chem-
ical. Hurnans breathe, smoke,
eat, or absorb through the skin
many chemicals whose com-
bined effects are considerably
greater than that of just one
component.
When the age-adjusted rate
of cancer deaths in this country
starts declining instead of in-
creasing, it will be because the
public has taken individual and
collective action to reduce ex-
posure to the hazards we are
learning about.
Ronald A. Lang
Executive Director
American Industrial Health
Council
There is no question but that
the scientific community today
is much more sophisticated
than heretofore in its ability to
test for and to detect physiolog-
ical changes in test animals or
cell cultures which might indi-
cate a potential hazard to man.
Thousands of substances, both
natural and synthetic, have been
shown to cause such effects in
selectively designed experi-
ments and with highly imagina-
tive routes of dosing.
The real problem starts
once the tests have been com-
pleted in that it takes experi-
enced scientific judgment in all
but the most clear-cut cases to
accurately extrapolate from
such tests to a potential human
hazard. At least two Federal
agencies have proposed doing
away with this careful scientific
judgment by adopting simplistic
rules for "identifying" potential
human carcinogens—with the
result that hundreds, if not
thousands, of substances coufd
be mislabeled. There is too
much at stake for this to be
allowed to happen for the sake
of expediency.
It is clear that both industry
and government are concerned
that there still exist some chem-
icals whose chronic hazards
EPAJOURNAL
-------
have not yet been identified.
The American Industrial Health
Council was organized specif-
ically to work with government
and other interested parties in
attempting to develop a sound
scientific method of identifying
any such substances and finding
methods of minimizing their
hazards. But, another concern
is that unsound regulations will
result in those few real hazards
being mixed in with hundreds
of mislabeled ones to where the
public attitude becomes 'Since
everything causes cancer, why
be concerned about anything?1
Such public cynicism would be
a national calamity—and yet
we are edging ever closer to it.
Dr. John Higginson
Director, International
Agency for Research on
Cancer, Lyon, France
No simple and correct answer
can be given to this question,
as circumstances vary from
country to country. Chemicals
shown to be toxic or carcino-
genic to animals naturally
cause concern as to their po-
tential dangers to man.
The necessity to evaluate and
control human exposures to
demonstrated or suspected
carcinogens is generally accept-
ed, although available cancer
data provide no evidence of a
new cancer epidemic, apart
from tobacco-related tumors.
Evaluation, however, of poten-
tial carcinogenic risks based
on in vitro (test tube) or in vivo
(living animal) systems is sub-
jective since no biological
method exists permitting either
quantitative or qualitative extra-
polation to man. Thus potential
carcinogens generate greater
emotive reactions and concern
among the public and scientific
community than real or known
risks.
Such concern becomes ex-
aggerated when:
i) it leads to excessive emphasis
on minor risks, with neglect of
major risks and resultant dis-
tortion of public health priori-
ties or cancer control strategies;
moreover, over-regulation of
trivia may cause a public back-
lash against desirable control
measures;
-------
Cancer
Risk
An interview with
Dr. Elizabeth Anderson
Executive Director,
Carcinogen
Assessment Group
Is there a cancer risk policy
for EPA?
EPA was the first Federal reg-
ulatory agency to adopt a policy
for performing risk assessments
as a part of the regulatory proc-
ess. This policy statement was
published as interim guide-
lines. Public comment was in-
vited. These interim guidelines
provide the Agency's approach
for the evaluation of carcino-
genesis data. This approach as
stated in the preamble, provides
for a two-step process. The first
step is to decide what, if any,
risk is associated with exposure
to a pollutant and the impact of
this exposure on public health;
a scientific risk assessment, to
be performed independent of
social and economic assess-
ments. In the second step, the
regulator uses the health risk
assessment in conjunction with
other considerations of benefits,
to the extent mandated by the
particular statute, to determine
whether or not regulatory action
is necessary and if so what level
of regulation is appropriate.
The health risk assessment
guidelines provide for two
determinations, a qualitative
statement regarding the likeli-
hood that an agent is a car-
cinogen and a quantitative
statement of the public health
burden if the agent goes unreg-
ulated. With regards to the first,
since only rarely do we know
for sure that an agent is a human
carcinogen, it is necessary to
describe the strength of the cer-
tainty—or weight of the evi-
dence that supports a conclu-
sion that a particular chemical
is a carcinogen. Human epide-
miology backed up by confirm-
ing animal data is the strongest
evidence. Most often, this
assessment is based on animal
bioassay studies alone or sup-
ported by short-term tests. The
weight of evidence approach
acknowledges the differences in
data types — that is human-
epidemiology versus animal
bioassay data versus short term,
in vitro (test tube (tests—the
array of data, and the adequacy
of the studies involved. Then,
on the assumption that the risk
exists, a quantitative risk as-
sessment is made to describe
the impact on public health if
the agent goes unregulated or
is regulated to some prescribed
level. Because of uncertainties
in the extrapolation from high
doses to low doses and in cross-
species extrapolation, these
are best used as
rough indicators of increased
risk on an individual basis as
estimates of impacts on the
exposed population.
Is the second step part of
EPA's R&D program?
Are we actually doing
some quantitative risk as-
sessments now?
The Carcinogen Assessment
Group actually has done this for
quite a few pollutants for the
Agency's regulatory programs,
including the Office of Pesticide
Programs and the Office of Air
Programs. In addition, at least
one risk assessment, for chlor-
dane/heptachlor, was sub-
mitted in hearings before the
administrative law judge, and
we have completed a number of
risk assessments for Regional
Offices. These involve localized
problems such as the risk asso-
ciated with exposure to chemi-
cals coming from the Love
Canal in Region 2.
Would it be safe to say
that pesticides are a
major concern?
Pesticides certainly have re-
ceived a good deal of Agency
attention. This is largely be-
cause of the requirement under
the law that the Agency review
all 30,000 or so pesticides in
our files. Under the review
process EPA issues a notice of
rebuttable presumption against
registration for pesticides ex-
hibiting a possible health prob-
lem, including of course carcin-
ogens. Therefore, special atten-
tion has been focused on pesti-
cides largely because of the
process, not because pesticides
necessarily contribute to a
greater cancer threat than other
pollutants, although pesticides
are unique in that they are in-
tentionally released into the
environment. It is true, how-
ever, that we are probably look-
ing at more pesticides right now
than other pollutants.
Are we doing the same
thing under the Safe
Drinking Water, Air, and
Toxic Substances Acts?
In a way, yes. However the
Congress has not imposed the
same prescription because the
situation is entirely different.
The EPA registers the pesti-
cides used, they are on our
books and we know precisely
which ones we should go back
and review. In the case of air
pollution and water pollution,
there is no such listing because
the EPA has not given a license
to release particular pollutants
into the environment in the first
place. It's a little harder to get a
clear idea as to which sub-
stances need reviewing. Such a
determination is based on ex-
posure patterns and the degree
of hazard but it's a little harder
to do that kind of homework.
Are we setting any kind
of agenda for things to
look at or will the Cancer
Assessment Group pick
toxic substances as they
appear?
The Assessment Group does
not look at any particular chem-
ical unless asked to do so by
one of our program offices. It is
the program office that must set
priorities. For instance, the
Office of Air, Noise, and Radia-
tion is prioritizing chemicals
based on exposure and degree
of hazard. Each program office
has criteria for prioritizing
chemicals for review based on
its knowledge of the media,
sources, levels, and exposure.
The interim guidelines pro-
vide for the Assessment Group
to function either as an opera-
tional group, if necessary, or to
act as a health oversight com-
mittee to assist or to review risk
assessments performed by an
individual program office. This
function ensures technical com-
petency and consistency of risk
assessments throughout the
Agency. Thus far, it has largely
been doing all the risk assess-
ments for the Agency since no
program office has established
this capability. The Office of
Toxic Substances is the only
program office, to date, making
plans to do some of their own
assessments.
EPA JOURNAL
-------
Is it reasonable to think
that any of the other pro-
grams in EPA could ac-
tually do that?
I think we have to recognize a
certain handicap in the expert
resource category. For example,
Dr. Albert's willingness to serve
as Chairman of the Assessment
Group while holding his post at
New York University Medical
School is unique in the Federal
Government, so far as I know,
and it is rare that someone of
his caliber is available to regu-
latory agencies to fill such a
role. In addition, it is difficult to
assemble even one or two
groups of adequately trained
individuals to fully assess these
data. It would be highly unlikely
that the Agency could set up a
half dozen independent risk
assessment committees. How-
ever, to date the Cancer Assess-
ment Group has been com-
pletely understaffed to carry the
Agency's full workload of can-
cer risk assessments. Therefore
it makes some sense to decen-
tralize some of the routine risk
assessment work to the extent
possible and free some time for
the primary health oversight
committee to explore areas
requiring more detailed guid-
ance. I believe the Agency is
attempting to achieve this by
creating an assessment group in
the Office of Toxic Substances.
We've seen a number of
studies that point to en-
vironmental factors as a
leading cause of cancer.
Would you say the work
that's done bears out that
conclusion?
I think generally it's recognized
that 60 to 90 percent of current
cancer rates is attributable to
environmental causes. These
figures include dietary, smok-
ing, and other habits that are
not controlled by EPA's laws.
Nevertheless, I think there is
substantial evidence that can-
cer arises from a combination
of factors. So it's not possible
to slice the pie of environmen-
tally-caused cancer and come
out with some prescribed pro-
portion that is caused by air
pollution, water pollution, and
so forth. I think there is certainly
a good reason to think that we
can improve the situation by
limiting exposure to carcino-
genic pollutants.
When was the Carcinogen
Assessment Group
formed, and what is its
purpose?
The Carcinogen Assessment
Group was formed in July,
1 976, as a consequence of the
Agency's publication of interim
guidelines for assessing the risk
associated with suspect car-
cinogens. (Federal Register 41:
21402 (May 25} 1976.) Dr. Roy
Albert, Deputy Director of the
Institute of Environmental Med-
icine at New York University
Medical School, has served as
Chairman of the Cancer Assess-
ment Group since that time. The
members of the group are civil
servants but the Group also
draws heavily on expert con-
sultants and advisors from vari-
ous Federal agencies and the
private sector. In addition the
Assessment Group conducts in-
dependent analysis of data, as
necessary, to make recommen-
dations to the lead program
office or Regional Office con-
cerning the risks associated
with exposure to carcinogens.
The purpose of the Group, as
articulated in the guidelines, is
to provide health oversight with
regards to the scientific review
of carcinogens for the entire
agency. Such assessments are
independent of economic im-
pact analyses. The Group also
reviews the final risk assess-
ment portion of regulatory
packages relevant to cancer
prevention.
How do we choose partic-
ipants from outside the
Federal Government?
Various people have been
asked to participate because of
their recognized expertise on
particular issues. These individ-
uals have been identified by
their publications as well as by
our colleagues in other parts of
the Federal Government, par-
ticularly the National Cancer
Institute. For example, epidemi-
ologists from the Dow Chemical
Company met with the Assess-
ment Groupand epidemiologists
from the Institute to present
unpublished data on ethylene
dibromide. The Assessment
Group recently has asked a
panel of pathologists from the
University of Chicago, recom-
mended by the director of the
National Cancer Institute, to
participate in the review of
the histopathology from an im-
portant animal bioassay study.
This kind of external participa-
tion is routine for much of our
work.
How does the work of the
Carcinogen Assessment
Group mesh with the
mission of EPA?
I think EPA has become in-
creasingly committed to the
protection of public health as
well as to the environment. EPA
has been given an enormous
responsibility for public health
protection by the Congress in
an impressive array of legal
authorities covering air, water,
drinking water, pesticides, radi-
ation, solid waste, and toxic
substances. In setting regula-
tory controls under these stat-
utes, it is extremely useful to
know which agents pose a pos-
sible cancer risk and the impact
these exposures may have on
public health. This information
is provided by the Cancer As-
sessment Group in a scientific
risk assessment document.
How does the question of
exposure assessment fit
into EPA's programs,
and how can you put it to
use? Does the Cancer
Assessment Group have a
policy towards the use of
exposure assessment
from monitoring or
modeling?
That's an interesting question.
I think the answer is that the
EPA really has not adopted
guidelines for exposure assess-
ment. Obviously, this is the
underpinning for any quantita-
tive statement in the risk as-
sessment regarding the impact
on public health from exposure
to a particular pollutant. In rec-
ognizing this, the Agency has
now moved to set up a group to
ensure that consistent guide-
lines are adopted to improve our
exposure assessment capabil-
ities. Certainly the Agency is
active in this area. Of necessity,
each program office must assess
exposure in some way. This is
particularly true for all the pesti-
cides and air pollutants which
the Assessment Group is now
reviewing. Exposure assess-
ment is not a new art. It is, how-
ever, an area that requires a lot
of homework. Most often we do
not have monitoring data to pre-
cisely describe human expo-
sure, for example. Models are
being used to predict these ex-
posure patterns but no standard
process for making these pre-
dictions has been established. I
think this new committee being
established as a counterpart of
the Carcinogen Assessment
Group will be useful in estab-
lishing useful approaches to
exposure assessment.
On the question of ex-
posure assessment it
seems that there are tools
we haven't quite learned
how to use. If you look
into it the thing that's
most obvious is how much
we don't know about the
routes that various
chemicals take to get into
the body.
Yes. You're addressing one of
the finer points, that is, exactly
how people are exposed, to
what levels, and what really is
the effective dose? Then we
have the broader problem of
describing populations at risk.
Once we can identify sub-popu-
lation groups at risk, then we
can talk about individual expo-
sure patterns. It's a very big
problem. I think EPA has a great
deal of experience in this area
but we must put it all together,
and make it accessible to the
entire Agency.
Do we need to distinguish
between benign and
malignant tumors?
The position taken in the interim
guidelines is that the Agency
will consider both benign and
malignant tumors equally as in-
dications that an agent may pre-
sent a cancer risk to humans.
Most often this question comes
up with regards to evaluation
of animal bioassay data. The
guidelines say that even benign
tumors, which are generally
recognized as not progressing
to malignancy and which are
not life-shortening, are re-
garded as suggestive evidence
of a carcinogenic effect. We
recognize that cancer pro-
gresses most often from early
lesions through a series of steps
to final malignancy. For this
Continued to page 40
MARCH 1979
-------
Monitoring
in India
10
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Most of the world's health effects
studies have bsen done primarily in
developed countries where people have
good nutrition, acceptable living standards,
and their health is relatively good.
But how does pollution affect people in
developing countries who do not have good
nutrition or. acceptable living standards,
and who may be afflicted with disease and
parasites?
The World Health Organization has
initiated a study to determine if the effect
of environmental pollution on people living
under conditions prevalent in developing
countries is greater than or different from
the effect on people in developed countries.
George B. Morgan, Director of the U.S.
Environmental Protection Agency's Envi-
ronmental Monitoring and Support Labora-
tory in Las Vegas, Nev., was selected by the
World Health Organization as a member of
the team to develop the study protocol.
The laboratory he directs has been actively
involved in the development of the inte-
grated exposure assessment monitoring
methodology—the approach to be used in
the study.
Experts from six nations are participating
in developing the study—Great Britain,
The Netherlands, Yugoslavia, Egypt, India,
and the United States. At the first planning
meeting, held in Geneva, Switzerland, in
May, 1978, the study area was selected
and a written plan developed to establish
the administrative framework and technical
specifications to carry out the study.
Bombay, India, was selected as the site
of the 5-year "Epidemiological Study of the
Environmental Conditions in Developing
Areas." Epidemiology is the science deal-
ing with the incidence, distribution, and
control of disease in a population. Findings
from the study will be compared to findings
from health effects studies conducted in
Europe and the United States.
Bombay was selected because favorable
study conditions are present. The popula-
tion of Bombay is estimated to be about
8 million, with as many as 800 people per
day migrating there from other parts of
India in search of work. More than half the
people have no permanent shelter. Sixteen
sewage treatment plants exist, but only two
are operating. Bombay is the import center
of India with as much as 75 to 80 percent of
all imports to India coming through Bom-
bay. It is industrialized to some extent.
There are few environmental regulations
and little enforcement of those which do
exist.
Another important reason for selecting
Bombay was the willingness of the Indian
government to cooperate. In fact, the Indian
Council of Medical Research is already
conducting studies, which can be incorpo-
rated in the World Health Organization
study.
Bombay is a beautiful old city, but very
much in need of environmental improve-
ments. This study, in addition to providing
information on health effects of environ-
mental pollution, will identify the problems
of Bombay and provide the city and the
Indian government data needed to develop
control strategies.
This is to be an exposure monitoring
study in which not just one pollutant is
measured, but the effect of the total envi-
ronment upon the health of specific
people will be studied. It will use an inte-
grated exposure assessment monitoring
approach to determine the extent of the
effect various sources of pollution have on
the health of the participants.
Integrated exposure assessment monitor-
ing is the coordination of environmental
monitoring networks to obtain pollutant
exposure data for 3,000 Bombay families.
In other words, it is the systematic collec-
tion and coordination of pollution data in
air, water, land, and food. The basic objec-
tive of this systems approach is to provide
the data required for strategic control of
critical sources of pollutants, which cause
major problems or threats.
The concept of an integrated exposure
assessment monitoring system was devel-
oped in order to coordinate a large amount
of information about the complex relation-
ships among pollutants, critical sources,
and critical receptors such as a particular
group of human beings. This approach con-
siders many aspects of the problem simul-
taneously and it defines, quantifies and
compares specific information relative to
each pollutant or combination thereof.
More specifically it assesses the total
exposure to a pollutant or combination of
pollutants.
What is being studied is the total expo-
sure to environmental pollutants such as
heavy metals, sulfur dioxide, carbon mon-
oxide, ozone, and nitrogen oxides. To use
this approach, the air in the area and the
water supplies used by the 3,000 Bombay
families must be sampled and tested, actual
samples of the families' food will be taken,
household dust will be measured, and sam-
ples of blood, hair, and fingernails will be
taken from the participants. Periodically,
perhaps as often as monthly, this sampling
will be repeated.
Previous studies of pollution-related
health effects in urban areas did not en-
compass all of the factors and environmen-
tal conditions this study will.
In October, Morgan met with interna-
tional representatives in India to deter-
mine the scope and methodology of the
study and the facilities, manpower and
budget needed. The representatives toured
Bombay to see some of its environmental
problems and visit areas where study
groups will be located.
A feasibility study is underway with the
complete full-scale study to begin in about
1 8 months. The field work is being done by
natives under the direct supervision of the
Indian Council of Medical Research. D
Indians ynther to do laundry at s community Writer source.
MARCH 1979
11
-------
New
Research
Directions
An interview with
Stephen A. Gage,
EPA Assistant Ad-
ministrator for
Research and
Development
Will preventive health
research be an important
part of the Agency's
R&D in the future?
Yes, without a doubt. During
the FY 1980 budget cycle, the
Office of Research and Develop-
ment developed a major public
health research initiative. The
President's Budget requests
$37 million and 44 positions
for expanding our research both
in health effects of toxicants
and in their environmental
transport, fate, and effects.
The Public Health Research
Initiative is one of the center-
pieces of the Agency's budget
requests. Administrator Costle
and I are going to be pushing
very hard in our Congressional
hearings for this program.
I think that this is a very
important change in the per-
ception of the role of scientific
information in the regulatory
process. There is now a very
clear recognition, by this Ad-
ministration, that we must make
the necessary investments in
good scientific information in
order to avoid future inadequate
regulatory decisions.
Do you anticipate greater
cooperative efforts in the
future with the National
Institute of Environmen-
tal Health Sciences and
the National Cancer Insti-
tute, particularly in the
health-related areas?
Yes, we have quite a number
of cooperative efforts going on
already. I'm proudest of a joint
effort that Donald Kennedy,
Commissioner of the Food and
Drug Administration, and I have
undertaken in establishing a re-
search institute for neurotoxi-
cologicai effects at Research
Triangle Park, N.C. Dr. Ken-
nedy and I have pooled our
resources for this institute to
be located at EPA's research
facility in North Carolina. This
will create a critical mass of
expertise that neither agency
was able to bring together on its
own.
We also are working closely
with the National Cancer Insti-
tute. For the last two years, the
National Cancer Institute has
This interview was conducted
by Charles D. Pierce, Editor,
and Chris Per ham, Assistant
Editor, EPA Journal.
committed $4 million of its
research funding to support
research activities needed by
the Environmental Protection
Agency. In fiscal year 1980, as
part of the Public Health Re-
search Initiative, this institute
will be committing an addi-
tional $15 million in its budget
to support EPA in several areas
where it has the specific exper-
tise that we need.
We also have a number of
other interagency agreements,
through which we work with the
Nationai Institute of Environ-
mental Health Sciences, the
National Institute of Occupa-
tional Health and Safety, and
others. We find that these inter-
agency agreements are very
useful and very supportive
of EPA's work to improve pub-
lic health protection.
Is EPA cutting back on
research in ecological
fields in order to provide
more funds and man-
power for strictly human
health research?
While there have been some
reductions and redirections in
our environmental research, it
will, in fact, be expanding dur-
ing the next fiscal year. We have
had to redirect certain research
from the historical areas of
activity to support toxic chem-
ical control. But this is only
natural, given the general shift
of EPA's concern from the con-
ventional pollutants to the toxic
chemicals.
I'm pleased that we have, in
our Public Health Research Ini-
tiative for FY 1980, a very sub-
stantial increase in research on
environmental transport, fate,
and effects, as such research
relates to reducing the threat of
exposure to humans. We felt it
was critical for EPA with its
unique responsibility to address
the environmental routes of ex-
posure through a substantial
expansion of our efforts in this
area.
Would you describe some
of the assessment groups
now functioning to sup-
port EPA regulatory
actions?
The Agency has just approved
our proposal to establish an
Office of Health and Environ-
mental Assessment, which will
be built around two successful
groups now in operation, name-
ly, the Carcinogen Assessment
Group, and the Environmental
Criteria and Assessment Office
located at Research Triangle
Park.
We will be expanding the
efforts of this new office beyond
carcinogenic assessment and air
quality criteria development,
respectively, to include risk
assessments for other media,
especially water. The new office
will ultimately have a respons-
ibility for reproductive effects,
for chronic effects, and for ex-
posure assessment.
The new health office also
includes a second Environmen-
tal Criteria and Assessment
Office in Cincinnati. That office
will focus primarily on the prep-
aration of water quality criteria
documents, a responsibility that
has grown greatly in the past
year as the Agency has been
attempting to comply with the
consent decree for toxic
pollutants.
Are you recruiting nation-
wide to find somebody to
head this office?
Yes, we will be establishing that
office and all of its components
just as quickly as the Agency's
order is signed, and will be re-
cruiting the best people we can
find.
Isn't exposure assessment
a new tack for the Agency
—a new way of using our
resources? In the past we
have tended to look at
the media such as air or
water just one at a time.
Very much so. I think the
Agency has suffered from taking
a narrow viewpoint. We need to
focus on the overall effects of
a pollutant as it affects humans
in several ways. This compre-
hensive approach is not only
more efficient use of the Agen-
cy's scarce resources—people,
time, and expertise—but also
provides more public health
protection by truly assessing
the total impact of the environ-
mental toxicants on human
beings.
12
EPAJOURNAL
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Would you comment on
your efforts in recent
months to make R&D
more responsive to the
program offices? For ex-
ample, 1 understand you
were recently in Chicago
discussing plans to help
support our enforcement
program.
For the past year we have been
working very hard to develop a
mechanism to provide for joint
planning of the research that we
perform in support of regulatory
activities. We carried out a pilot
study involving the establish-
ment and monitoring of five re-
search committees in substan-
tive research areas—pesticides,
inhalable particulates, mobile
sources, industrial wastewater
control, and drinking water. The
success we had with these five
pilot committees has encour-
aged us to expand this method
of joint planning. The regula-
tory control offices are support-
ing our expansion of the concept
to include all of the research
activities that we conduct for
the Agency.
To support the Agency's en-
forcement efforts, we have
taken a somewhat different
approach. We have established
a task force of some of our key
people, who are working with
the Office of Enforcement and
the Regional Enforcement Of-
fices, in the four highest priority
enforcement areas—power
plants, steel, pulp and paper,
and chemicals. Although this
effort is just getting underway,
we have already given Regions
3 and 5 considerable assistance
in case preparation for the four
key industrial sectors.
How has the Zero Base
Budget process affected
your programs?
Zero Base Budgeting has pro-
vided net benefits for the Office
of Research and Development.
The largest positive impact so
far is the Public Health Re-
search Initiative which I men-
tioned earlier.
On the other hand, there have
been some reductions in certain
programs. The air ecology pro-
gram has been converted from
an in-house program to a pri-
marily extramural program. The
environmental management re-
search program was terminated
through the ZBB process.
Smaller cuts in our water ecol-
ogy program have for the most
part been offset by increases in
the toxic substances ecology
program. So, on balance, over
the last two years we have ben-
efited budgetarily and have
about held our own in person-
nel. Given the high priorities of
the Agency to develop major
efforts in toxic substances and
hazardous waste regulation, I
think that the ZBB process has
dealt fairly with us.
Will the laboratories be
reflecting the changes you
have just mentioned?
Are we going to close
some down and open
others?
No, we have no plans to close
any of the laboratories. We have
to keep looking continually at
how we can effect economies in
the laboratories. It is likely that
there will be some redirection
in some of the laboratories. The
Zero Base Budget process for
FY 1 979 did necessitate some
reductions-in-force at three of
our laboratories. Reductions at
the Robert S. Kerr Laboratory in
Ada, Oklahoma, are essentially
complete, and we will soon be
initiating the reductions in the
Las Vegas and Corvallis lab-
oratories.
But I would say, in all three
cases, the laboratories have not
been substantially harmed by
these reductions. In fact, they
probably have an enhanced abil-
ity to compete for resources in
the future.
With fixed personnel ceilings
for the last five years, we have
not really had the opportunity to
think about establishing new
laboratories. Our concentration
is more on how best to use the
laboratories and the scientists
and engineers that we do have
more efficiently.
Are you satisifed with the
performance of EPA's
laboratories?
In general, yes. We do face
mixed performance. As in any
organization with fifteen quite
different components, we ex-
pect some variation in perform-
ance. We have undertaken seri-
ous efforts to improve perform-
ance through peer review, at the
laboratory level, and program-
matic review by the Deputy
Assistant Administrators and
myself. And I think the combi-
nation of these review tech-
niques will upgrade the general
performance, and bring some of
the less satisfactory perform-
ances up to acceptable levels
within the coming year.
Could you explain what
you mean by peer review,
and how this is a change
in the way things are done
in the R&D program?
Many of our scientists do pub-
lish their work. However, many
reports that we and our contrac-
tors prepare are not published
and do not receive the careful
scrutiny from scientists outside
of the Agency. This is in part
because of the fast timetables
required for much of the re-
search that we conduct in sup-
port of the Program Offices.
However, what has developed
is a massive body of "grey"
literature, which has not been
carefully reviewed by the best
scientists in those areas.
I'm working with our labora-
tory directors to develop ways
in which we can get a larger
fraction of our EPA reports and
papers reviewed by scientists
outside the Agency before pub-
lication. This will be a source of
strength for us in the future,
rather than just another burden
placed upon the researchers.
It's absolutely critical in
terms of improving the credibil-
ity of the Agency, not only to
conduct research, but to take
regulatory decisions based on
those research results.
Do you have any plans for
major reorganization of
the Office of Research
and Development?
My view of organizations is that
they must constantly adapt to
the changing environment—
both external and internal.
There is no more dynamic or-
ganization than the Environmen-
tal Protection Agency, which is
perennially faced with changing
priorities and requirements. We
have made several evolutionary
changes during the past year in
establishing the Office of Re-
search Program Management
and the Office of Health and
Environmental Assessment.
We now have under serious
discussion a proposal made by
some of our laboratory directors
to realign their reporting rela-
tionships to the Deputy Assist-
ant Administrators. Such a re-
alignment would represent, in
my estimation, only a modest
evolution in the organization,
and thus have minimal impact
on morale and productivity. On
the other hand, it should help us
immensely in integrating our
research planning and imple-
mentation in health effects; en-
vironmental transport, fate, and
effects; and environmental con-
trol measures.
Is it possible that our
scientific knowledge of
health and environmental
problems has gotten
ahead of our ability to
solve them? For example,
we have learned to detect
chemicals in parts per
million, although we're
only beginning to learn
how to protect ourselves
from these dangers.
FDA Commissioner Kennedy
has put it very well. He says we
have become embarrassingly
good at identifying chemicals in
the environment and workplace.
I agree with that view. I would,
however, rather know what is
there with the new analytical
techniques that we have devel-
oped in the past decade than
not know. I fully recognize that
it takes time to develop the rest
of the information and. in some
instances, the institutional
framework, so that one can map
out an intelligent regulatory
course.
I do not think that ignorance
is bliss. We are probably going
to be faced in the future with
knowing about a lot of problems
before we are able to devise
and implement solutions.
Is EPA approaching a risk-
benefit formula to use in
dealing with environ-
mental carcinogens?
In the area of carcinogen as-
sessment, we are in fact follow-
ing the Agency's interim guide-
lines, established in 1976,
which stated that we would pro-
vide risk and benefit analyses,
as part of the regulation of car-
cinogenic materials. That's
complicated somewhat by the
fact that we regulate carcino-
gens under at least seven major
MARCH 1979
-------
pieces of legislation, with quite
a wide range of regulatory re-
quirements. For example, Con-
gress did make it explicit that
risk and benefits are to be con-
sidered in regulating pesticides
and toxic substances, namely,
products which supposedly
have beneficial uses in com-
merce.
On the other hand, some
provisions of the Clean Water
Act are driven solely by tech-
nology considerations, and
some provisions of the Clean
Air Act are driven solely by
health protection considera-
tions. We do conduct economic
impact analyses of each of our
regulatory proposals, but are
not always able to calculate the
benefits. Thus, it is difficult to
do a strict economic balancing
of the risk and benefits under all
of our regulations.
What research is EPA
doing in the genetic re-
percussions of environ-
mental contaminants?
As I mentioned, we are estab-
lishing an assessment group on
reproductive effects, as part of
the new office of Health Assess-
ment for genetic effects. We
already have set up a working
group with Dr. Gary Flamm,
who is on loan from the Food
and Drug Administration, to
provide guidelines for muta-
genic risk. We'll be looking at
other aspects of genetic risk in
the future. In addition, we do
have under way in our health
effects laboratories research on
the ways toxic chemicals threat-
en genetic health and on quick
and reliable screening tech-
niques to identify genetic risks.
How much of EPA's R&D
work is in the physical,
hard sciences, and how
much is in the softer
sciences, such as
economics?
At this point nearly all of our
research and development is in
the area of the physical, biolog-
ical, and medical sciences. We
do have a very small research
component oriented towards
attempting to determine the
economic benefits of pollution
control measures, such as the
study we've funded at the Uni-
versity of Wyoming. But the
bulk of the work on economic
impacts of regulation is done in
either the regulatory program
offices, or by the Office of Plan-
ning and Management.
Is there a promising fu-
ture at EPA for young
scientists just getting
out of college?
I would say that a young scien-
tist, who could find a position
with the Environmental Protec-
tion Agency, would have a very
exciting future. We have, how-
ever, few openings for research-
oriented scientists each year in
our research laboratories, be-
cause of the personnel limita-
tions that we have faced for five
years.
There are, of course, a num-
ber of new positions in the toxic
substances area, but those will
be oriented towards regulation,
as opposed to research.
I assume that EPA prob-
ably gets quite a sub-
stantial number of
applications, despite the
difficulties of getting a
position?
Yes, we get many applications.
Each one of the new entry-level
positions are very highly con-
tested. We're able to attract a
high caliber of young scientists
into our laboratories. In many
instances, the new people com-
ing in are carrying a substantial
portion of the workload and are
providing a large fraction of the
new and exciting ideas.
I noticed Secretary of
Energy Schlesinger is
saying now that there
should be more emphasis
on the use of natural gas.
indicating that the coun-
try may slow up a little
bit in converting to coal
as a major source of
power. Does that have an
impact on our research
program?
No, I think that the increased
use of natural gas, within the
United States, will be a fairly
short-lived phenomenon, on the
order of a few tens of years.
Therefore, we must increasingly
turn to other forms of energy
and conserve natural gas. I think
that the use of coal will con-
tinue to expand. This, in turn,
will put a great deal of stress on
the environment if we don't do
everything we can to minimize
the environmental impacts as-
sociated with coal production
and use.
In one of your recent
speeches, you seemed to
be sympathetic to the
soft energy paths, en-
dorsing the uses of wind-
mills, solar energy, and so
on, and I wondered if this
is your personal view, or
official EPA policy?
EPA does not have an official
policy in this area. I can point,
however, to a number of exam-
ples where the Agency's poli-
cies are reflecting what I person-
ally feel is a growing awareness
that large, complicated tech-
nological solutions to society's
problems a re not the only, or
even the best, route that could
be followed.
I think that the new policy
shifts in water pollution control,
emphasizing land application of
sewage sludges and partially
treated municipal wastewater,
are a clear recognition of the
fact that the huge commitment
that society is making to pub-
licly-owned wastewater treat-
ment plants also entails large
future obligations.
These obligations are in the
form of maintenance and oper-
ating expenses which will, in
time, become very burdensome.
The softer paths, to use your
term, such as land application,
can capture the nutrient value
that exists in the sludge or
wastewater, without requiring
large capital and operating
costs. That's an excellent ex-
ample of the softer technology
path.
I focused on the energy alter-
natives in that particular speech
because I was trying to high-
light, from four years of experi-
ence with pilot energy studies
conducted by the Committee on
Challenges of Modern Society
(the civilian arm of the North
Atlantic Treaty Organization),
some lessons which I thought
the representatives of the coun-
tries involved should know. The
pilot studies taught that alter-
native energy systems such as
solar and geothermal could play
a very significant role in the
future of not only the develop-
ing nations but also of the highly
industrialized nations.
We understand that R&D
is starting to look fifteen
and twenty years into the
future, regarding research
needs. With this new per-
spective, what critical
environmental problems
do you see on the horizon?
In our efforts to develop a solid
analytical basis for the Re-
search Outlook—our five-year
research plan—we are attempt-
ing to identify future develop-
ment patterns and their possible
environmental consequences.
We see two types of pressures
which could have great influ-
ence on environmental quality.
The first of these is driven by
both increases in human popu-
lations, and in their expecta-
tions for affluence. This pres-
sure will mean greater demands
for food, housing, energy, min-
erals, etc. These increased de-
mands, around the world, could
hold many implications for the
environment. For example, an
aggressive food production pro-
gram might have to rely even
more heavily than is now the
case on chemical fertilizers and
pesticides. And we're quite
familiar with the environmental
damage they've caused.
Pressure on the biological
resources in the sea could in-
crease to a point where major
ecological balances could be
disturbed. Demand for timber,
for housing, could lead to mas-
sive deforestation and associ-
ated climatic changes, especi-
ally in such sensitive areas as
the Amazon.
The second type of pressure
derives from the development
of new technologies, which are
just now emerging. It's hard to
predict in advance what the
nature of all these technologies
are, of course, and even more
difficult to identify what their
environmental impacts might
be. And I'm speaking of tech-
nologies in a very broad sense
—weather control, deep ocean
mining, advanced energy sys-
tems, or genetic engineering.
In fact, in the area of genetic
research, we could find very
dramatic advances, which could
improve human health, change
industrial processes quite fun-
damentally, or endanger human
health and the basic ecological
14
EPAJOURNAL
-------
systems upon which life
depends.
We're going to have to moni-
tor both of these pressures very
carefully, and attempt to an-
ticipate the nature of the envi-
ronmental problems that we
might face (n the future, rather
than wait until those problems
overtake us, and then react to
them after possible irreversible
damage is done.
When you leave your post
as Assistant Administra-
tor for Research and De-
velopment, some time in
the future, what do you
want to be remembered
for, and what do you hope
to have accomplished?
I'd like to be remembered for
two things. First, improving the
quality of the science and engi-
neering done by the Agency
and, second, building the in-
stitutions which facilitate the
performance of higher quality
work.
I believe fundamentally in the
scientific ethic, which is built
in part on the idea that only
quality science can survive the
scrutiny of the scientific peers.
We have to make that idea one
of the operating principles of
the Office of Research and De-
velopment and of the Agency.
As the research component of a
critical Federal regulatory
agency, we do not have the
option of isolating ourselves
from the broader scientific com-
munity. Quite to the contrary,
we must, in fact, be aggressive
in seeking out the best scien-
tific criticism we can find any-
where. We're making progress
in building our scientific credi-
bility but we still have much
to do.
An important aspect in im-
proving our science is creating
a truly professional environ-
ment throughout the Office of
Research and Development. We
have many laboratories and
specialized instruments, but we
still have much to do in building
our human institutions—we
need a cadre of highly profes-
sional and committed scientific
managers, who are excited
about their work. We have some
outstanding examples of that
type of individual now, but I
would like to leave behind a
stronger heritage of profession-
alism and performance. D
The Team
Leaders
and Laboratories
Dr. Gage has four Deputy As-
sistant Administrators to aid in
the direction of the Office of
Research and Development.
They help manage the Office's
7,752 employees and the $314
million annual budget. The
Office of Research and Devel-
opment has 15 major labora-
tories and numerous field
stations that are devoted to
scientific study. Approximately
one out of every five EPA
employees works in these labs.
Dr. Thomas A. Murphy
Deputy Assistant Administrator
for Air, Land, and Water Use
He is responsible for planning
and evaluating the research and
development program related to
the control of pollution from
community and agricultural
sources; determining the na-
ture, fate, and interaction of
pollutants in air and water;
providing safe drinking water
supplies, and planning and im-
plementing community environ-
mental management systems.
He also oversees development
of incentives for environmental
cleanup, methods for integrated
environmental planning and
analysis, and plans for the dis-
posal and management of haz-
ardous and other waste mate-
rial.
Dr. Murphy joined the Fed-
eral Water Pollution Control
Administration, an EPA prede-
cessor agency, at its Edison,
N.J., laboratory in 1967asa
biologist, later becoming Chief
of the Oil and Hazardous Mate-
rials Research. In 1971 he was
appointed Special Assistant to
the Assistant Commissioner for
Research and Development at
the Federal Water Quality Ad-
ministration. He was Chief of
the Program Development
Branch of EPA's Office of Re-
search and Monitoring in
1972 and 1973, and Director of
the Nonpoint Pollution Control
Division in the Office of Re-
search and Development from
1973 to 1975, when he as-
sumed his present post.
Dr. Murphy received a B.A.
from Knox College, Galesburg,
III.,in 1959,andM.S.and
Ph.D. degrees from Yale Uni-
versity in 1 964. He has taken
law courses at Seton Hall and
George Washington Univer-
sities.
There are four laboratories
attached to the Office of Air,
Land, and Water Use. They are:
Environmental Research
Laboratory, Athens, Ga.
Director: Dr. David W.
Duttweiler
The mission of the lab deals
with identifying and tracing the
movement of pollutants through
soil and water and the subse-
quent changes that take place.
Agricultural and silvicultural
sources of pollution, and en-
vironmental systems to control
them, are studied. The staff de-
velop models to help judge the
environmental consequences if
a contaminant reaches certain
portions of a water-soil system.
They develop management
techniques that could be ap-
plied to an entire river-basin
to achieve water quality objec-
tives. The staff also work on
methods for assessing environ-
mental exposures to toxic
chemicals.
Robert S. Kerr Environ-
mental Research
Laboratory, Ada, Okla.
Director: William C.
Galegar
The staff of the lab conduct re-
search, development, and dem-
onstration activities on ground-
water, natural systems for
treating wastewater, irrigation,
the petrochemical industry, and
the treatment of combined in-
dustrial or mixed industrial and
municipal wastes. This research
provides basic data for the
establishment of guidelines,
standards, and criteria. The lab
personnel also develop social,
economic, and institutional
assessments of technological
developments.
Environmental Sciences
Research Laboratory,
Research Triangle Park,
N.C.
Director: Dr. A. Paul
Altshulier
The mission of the lab is to
determine the effects of air pol-
lution on the atmosphere, and
any subsequent efforts on air
and water quality and land use.
The staff develop techniques,
methods, and instruments to
identify and measure pollutants
and toxic substances in the air,
in addition to studying pollutant
transport and fate, resulting in
air quality simulation models.
The scientists assess the effects
of pollution on weather and cli-
mate, and develop mathemat-
ical models to relate pollution
emissions to air quality and to
forecast potential pollution
crises.
Municipal Environmental
Research Laboratory,
Cincinnati, Ohio
Director: Francis T. Mayo
The lab's mission is to find
ways to prevent, control, and
treat pollutants that affect com-
munities. This includes devel-
oping cost-effective methods of
providing safe drinking water,
community environmental man-
agement, solid and hazardous
waste disposal, and wastewater
treatment. The staff work to
find new and improved technol-
ogy for collection, transporta-
tion, processing, and disposal
of solid and hazardous wastes,
with recovery of valuable re-
sources. They also seek alter-
native solutions for pollutants
that affect several media, such
as air and land or water.
MARCH 1979
-------
Dr. William B. Murray,
i Deputy Assistant
A (In i
He is responsible for the re-
search that documents the
health risk to people ancf the
impacts on the ecology of pol-
lutants moving through the
environment. The research con-
ducted adds to the necessary
scientific foundation for health-
protective regulatory decisions.
In order to formulate control
strategies for pollution the
Agency must be informed about
subtle changes in human physi-
ology that may develop into or
worsen illness, as a result of a
contaminant that reached peo-
ple through air, drinking water,
or food.
The ecological effects
research and health effects
research complement one
another; the first investigates
the impact of disturbances and
contaminants on the whole
environment and the second
determines how these ecolog-
ical changes and contaminants
affect people. Since the effects
of pollution can move up
through the food chain to peo-
ple, the ecological research
supports preventive health
studies. The results of these
studies are used in developing
water quality standards, effluent
guide lines for toxic and hazard-
ous materials, ocean discharge
criteria, secondary air quality
standards and dose-response
relationships for pesticides and
other toxicants.
Dr. Murray was most re-
cently Director of the Technical
Services Division in the Office
of Pesticide Programs, a post
he assumed in 1973. He joined
the Agency in 1971 as Staff
Director of the Hazardous Ma-
terials Advisory Committee,
and served as Acting Director
of both the Criteria and Evalua-
tion Division and the Tolerance
Division while in the pesticide
office. Dr. Murray has served in
numerous positions throughout
the Federal Government since
1952, including the President's
Cabinet Committee on the En-
vironment and the Federal
Committee on Pest Control. He
earned a B.S. degreefrom
Juniata College in 1950, and
M.S. and Ph.D. degrees from
the University of Maryland.
There are six laboratories
attached to the Office of Health
and Ecological Effects. They
are:
Health Effects Research
Laboratory, Research
Triangle Park, N.C.
Director: Dr. F. Gordon
Hueter
This laboratory performs
studies of problems in air pol-
lution, non-ionizing radiation,
environmental carcinogenesis,
and the toxic effects of pesti-
cides and chemicals. The staff
develop and revise air quality
criteria documents for pollu-
tants that are governed by exist-
ing or proposed ambient air
quality standards. The research
staff work to identify the health
effects of environmental pollu-
tants. They provide data to
assist in regulatory decisions
on the registration of new pes-
ticides and review of others
now in use. They also conduct
health-related studies of haz-
ardous and toxic materials,
including the biological effects
of microwaves.
Health Effects Research
Laboratory, Cincinnati,
Ohio
Director: Dr. R. John
Garner
The staff conduct field and
laboratory studies of the effects
on human health and welfare of
auto emissions, drinking water
contaminants, pollution in
swimming and shellfish-grow-
ing waters, wastewater treat-
ment plant effluents, land treat-
ment and disposal of waste-
water and sludge, as well as
other pollutants that reach peo-
ple through more than one
media. They develop models
and test systems to predict
mutation and cancer threats.
The research identifies and
describes the harmful effects
possible from exposure to
chemical or biological agents
found in the environment.
Environmental Research
Laboratory, Corvallis, Ore.
Director: James C.
McCarty, Acting
The mission of the laboratory
is to determine the effects of
pollution on terrestrial, fresh-
water, and marine ecosystems
linking air, land, and water, as
a basis for setting criteria and
regulations. Studies include:
air pollution impact on plants,
animals, and ecosystems; the
social and economic effect of
water pollution on aquatic
plants and animals; how best
to restore dying lakes; defining
wetlands and determining the
effects of pollution on them;
assessing the effects of water
pollution from runoff, and find-
ing ways to improve water san-
itation and conservation in re-
mote Alaskan Communities.
Environmental Research
Laboratory, Duluth, Minn.
Director: Dr. Donald I.
Mount
The laboratory staff conduct
research on the biological and
chemical effects of pollution on
freshwater ecosystems, espe-
cially the impact on aquatic life.
They study the effect of toxic
substances on freshwater bio-
logical systems. This lab has
the primary research responsi-
bility for describing the fate and
effects of pollutants that enter
the Great Lakes. The staff also
study the effects that fuel
cycles used to produce energy
can have on freshwater ecosys-
tems.
Environmental Research
Laboratory, Narragan-
sett, R.I.
Director: Dr. Eric D.
Schneider
The laboratory provides a re-
search base for Agency deci-
sions relating to the use of the
oceans, by studying the impact
of pollution on marine ecosys-
tems. The staff study the chemi-
cal and physical behavior of
pollutants in ocean life systems,
and general and specific re-
sponses of marine organisms
to environmental stress. They
find ways to monitor the build-
up and movement of pollutants
in ocean systems, and to deter-
mine the impact of pollution
incidents.
Environmental Research
Laboratory, Gulf Breeze,
Fla.
Director: Dr. Thomas W.
Duke
The staff conduct research on
the exposure-effects relation-
ships of hazardous pollutants
on marine, coastal, and estu-
arine ecosystems. This infor-
mation is used by EPA's pes-
ticide program and by the
Agency in setting water quality
criteria to protect human and
aquatic health in those areas.
They especially study the
coasts and estuaries of the
South Atlantic and Gulf of
Mexico, for the impacts of
petroleum extraction on the
marine populations.
Dr. Steven R. Reznek,
A cling Deputy A ss/sfanf
A dm:'
Minerals, and Industry
He is responsible for directing
research to assess the environ-
mental and socio-economic im-
pacts of energy and mineral
resource extraction, processing,
conversion, and use. The pro-
gram develops and demon-
strates ways to control the
effects of mining, energy pro-
duction, industrial processing,
and manufacturing. He directs
research to identify and evalu-
ate alternative systems for
producing goods and energy,
16
EPAJOURNAL
-------
as well as ways to conserve the
resources that are available.
This office coordinates research
activities within EPA and
among other government agen-
cies relating to the environ-
mental aspects of resource
mining, processing, conserva-
tion, and use.
Dr. Reznekcameto EPA in
1 971 as a staff member in the
Technical Assistance Branch of
the Office of Water Programs,
dealing with groundwater hy-
drology and the transport of
chemicals in water. He worked
in the Office of Research and
Development from 1971 to
1973, planning and managing
the air pollution control pro-
gram and coordinating research
work with the Air Program
Office. He helped create major
EPA regulations on ambient and
stationary source monitoring
equipment, lead content in gas-
oline, and non-deterioration of
air quality. In 1974 he was a
researcher in the Center for
Environmental Studies and lec-
tured on formulation of environ-
mental policies in the Civil and
Geological Engineering Depart-
ment at Princeton University.
From 1974 to 1976 he was Di-
rector of Program Coordination
with the National Commission
on Water Quality.
Dr. Reznek received a B.S.
and Ph.D. in physics from the
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, where he was also
employed as a research associ-
ate in 1968 and 1969. He was
a research fellow at the Univer-
sity of Bristol, England in 1969
and 1970.
There are two labs attached
to the Office of Energy, Min-
erals, and Industry. They are:
Industrial Environmental
Research Laboratory,
Research Triangle Park,
N.C.
Director: Dr. John K.
Burchard
The staff of this lab work to
assess the environmental im-
pact of energy production and
industrial processes. They de-
velop timely and cost-effective
techniques and process modi-
fications that will conserve
energy and help industries to
meet environmental quality
standards for air, water, solid
waste, thermal discharge, and
pesticides. The activities of
the lab staff also support the
Agency's enforcement and
regulatory activities.
Industrial Environmental
Research Laboratory,
Cincinnati, Ohio
Director: Dr. David G.
Stephan
The lab staff is concerned with
finding ways to prevent, con-
trol, or abate the pollution
associated with the extraction,
processing, conversion, and
use of mineral resources, and
general industrial activity. They
work on closed-loop systems to
eliminate waste discharge, and
ways to change industrial proc-
esses so that less waste is pro-
duced. The staff look for cost-
effective techniques for remov-
ing and disposing of pollutants.
The staff seek improved meth-
ods for preventing, containing,
and cleaning up spills of oil and
hazardous materials.
Albert C. Trakowski
Deputy Assistant Admin!
for Monitoring find Technical
Support
He is responsible for Agency
programs in development of
environmental monitoring tech-
nology and systems, and
technical support to the
Agency's operating functions.
This includes the development
of measurement techniques and
equipment as well as the appli-
cation of monitoring systems,
including sample analyses,
which assess the pollution that
people are exposed to.
Trakowski is responsible for
quality control to assure that
Agency data are statistically
valid and legally defensible.
Trakowski served as acting
Assistant Administrator for
Research and Development
from May to December, 1974,
directing and conducting EPA's
research, development, and
demonstration programs. He
joined the Agency in 1971 as
Deputy Assistant Administrator
for R&D Program Operations,
and managed the resources
needed to accomplish environ-
mental research. In 1973, he
was appointed Deputy Assistant
Administrator for Environmen-
tal Engineering, taking over
the research into pollution pre-
vention and control technology.
From 1964 to 1971 Trakow-
ski was Vice-President of the
Wolf Division of EG&G, Inc.,
where he was Director of Cor-
porate Development, Project
Director for the design and
operation of the NASA National
Space Science Data Center, and
directed EG&G's environmental
control program. For 21 years
he was with the U.S. Air Force
as an engineering and scien-
tific officer in geophysical and
environmental technology.
pioneering certain develop-
ments in atmospheric remote
sensing and data analysis
systems.
Trakowski obtained a B.S.
from the Massachusetts Insti-
tute of Technology and
Master's level training from the
Air Force Meteorology School.
He has had extended schooling
in engineering, research, and
management.
There are three laboratories
attached to the Office of
Monitoring and Technical
Support. They are;
Environmental Monitoring
and Support Laboratory,
Research Triangle Park,
N.C.
Director: Dr. Thomas R.
Mauser
This lab provides monitoring
and analytical support to EPA
air programs and other air
pollution control organizations.
The staff operates the quality
assurance program for ambient
air and stationary source meas-
urements and provides
analyses, evaluations, and new
monitoring developments for
air pollution control. It analyzes
samples from air quality moni-
toring networks such as the
National Fuel Surveillance
Network. The lab supplies rapid
response and special tech-
niques of air sampling as
needed for emergency situa-
tions or enforcement actions,
and evaluates commercial air
monitoring equipment. The
laboratory staff conducts the
EPA Fuels and Fuel Additive
Registration Program.
Environmental Monitoring
and Support Laboratory,
Cincinnati, Ohio
Director: Dwight G.
Ballinger
This lab develops tests to iden-
tify and measure major pollu-
tants and quality characteristics
in water. The staff develops
monitoring techniques to detect
viruses and microorganisms of
health significance in drinking
water, ambient waters, and
municipal wastes, as well as
ways to measure the effect of
waste discharges on receiving
waters. It prepares official
test methods and provides ma-
terials to evaluate and main-
tain the quality of water mon-
itoring data from laboratory
testing. The lab provides tech-
nical support of water and
waste monitoring programs at
EPA and other pollution control
agencies.
Environmental Monitoring
and Support Laboratory,
Las Vegas, Nev.
Director: George B.
Morgan
The staff of this lab develop
monitoring methods and sys-
tems that assess human expo-
sure to pollution by studying
the movement of pollutants
through the atmosphere and
their final disposition. The lab
develops sophisticated mon-
itoring and analytical capabil-
ities for lab and field studies,
and conducts quality assurance
for radiation and biological re-
search. It provides aerial sup-
port for the Agency and devel-
ops monitoring systems for
contact and remote sensing,
especially for environmental
emergencies or pollution spills.
The lab also conducts radiolog-
ical surveillance and studies
human exposure to radiation
from past and present nuclear
testing. D
MARCH 1979
17
-------
Research,
Environ-
ment and
Health
An interview with Dr.
Philip Handler, Presi-
dent, National
Academy of Sciences
Dr. Philip Handler has
served as President of
the National Academy of
Sciences since 1969. The
author of more than 200
articles in the field of
biochemistry, he also is
editor of Biology And The
Future of Man and co-
author of Principles of
Biochemistry. He has
served on numerous sci-
entific panels including
the Surgeon General's
Committee on Environ-
mental Health Problems,
the President's Commis-
sion on Heart Disease,
Cancer and Stroke, and
the President's Science
Advisory Committee.
After receiving his Ph.D.
from the University of
Illinois, he taught from
1939 to 1969 at Duke
University School of
Medicine, where he was
Chairman of the Depart-
ment of Biochemistry. He
is the recipient of many
honors here and abroad
for his contributions to
science.
Environmental illness
seems to be partly due to
geography. Stomach
cancer, for example
is common in Japan
but rare among second
generation or Nisei Jap-
anese in this country. Do
you believe there should
be more funding and em-
phasis on unraveling this
puzzle?
My answer is an unqualified
"yes." But let me explain. It is
the conventional wisdom of our
time that perhaps 80 or 90 per-
cent of all cancer is somehow
environmentally related.
Whether that is true is more
than I know.
Ten years ago, it seemed
equally true that much cancer
was due to a form of virus in-
fection—viruses which we
either pick up from the environ-
ment or are with us from birth.
Indeed, that was so firmly be-
lieved that there's a special
building out at NIH which was
built for the isolation of such
viruses.
That belief was just as firmly
held then as the current envi-
ronmental theory is held today.
I don't know what it will be 1 0
years from now. Having stated
that caveat, let me note that
there is little doubt that the pat-
tern of distribution of various
forms of cancer varies greatly
; around the world, and varies,
rather considerably, even inside
the United States.
The best single evidence that
these are not the genetic herit-
ages of the people who have
concentrated in any one region
is the phenomenon that you
mentioned; namely, that there
is a high incidence of gastric
carcinoma in Japan. It's smaller
in Japanese in Hawaii, and
Nisei Japanese are like all the
rest of us here in the United
States. But I remind you that
the incidence of gastric car-
cinoma in the United States in
the 1920'swasashighasitis
in Japan today.
Do they know why?
No sir. We did something right
and we haven't the faintest idea
what it is.
There's something about the
way we live, the way we eat, or
something that is different than
it was in the '20s.
What all that says is that the
prevalence of gastric carcinoma
is determined by something
other than our own inherent bi-
ology. And it's extremely im-
portant to find out what that is.
The incidence of primary
carcinoma of the liver is very
high in Central Africa—higher
than anywhere else in the world,
as far as I know. And it seems
important to find out why be-
cause it is not true of those of
their descendants now living in
the United States.
I know of no reason to be-
lieve that these differences
should be ascribed to the in-
fluence of man-made materials.
The peak incidence of every
form of cancer but carcinoma of
the lung happens somewhere
outside of the United States in
relatively primitive societies.
There is surely no reason to
think that in Central Africa, the
primary cause of liver cancer is
some man-made chemical. It's
due to the environment, using
the word in its broadest sense.
The currently fashionable
thinking is that however cancer
is occasioned, whether there be
a virus or an environmental
chemical that really does it,
once the neoplastic transforma-
tion happens, a genetic change
has occurred in the cells that
are involved. The genetic con-
trols that previously maintained
the cell in its differentiated and
nondividing form have been
lost. The cell de-differentiates
and becomes a relatively prim-
itive cell and grows without
constraint. That's a genetic
effect, if you will, in the life of
that cell.
And it perpetuates itself in
the absence of whatever that
initial insultwas. It is important
to know, someday, both what
the initiating insults are and just
what that transformation is. At
this moment, no one can de-
scribe it in satisfactory terms.
It is of interest, though, that
the initial insult needn't be due
to manmade activity.
When Jim Neil was looking
aroundtheworldforthein-
cidence of chromosomal dam-
age, chromosomal breaks, ab-
normal bizarre chromosomal
structures, the population which
showed the most striking and
most frequent chromosomal
damage was in the Central
Amazon valley—people still
living very close to nature, as
close to the savage state as any-
where on earth at this moment.
They showed more chromo-
somal difficulty than any other
population he found. He has no
idea why. Again, one has reason
to think that it is due to some-
thing in their environment,
using the word "environment"
in its broadest sense, but not
the man-made environment.
And, again, it is imperative
that we learn, one day, what
that is about.
There have been recent
efforts to impose new
Government regulations
on science and medicine
such as prohibiting some
kinds of DNA research.
Do you think these regu-
lations are needed?
I have insisted, from the very
beginning, that no regulation of
research with recombinant DNA
and no legislation was needed,
for several reasons.
The principal one is that the
risks were utterly imaginary.
They were all in the realm of
science fiction without a scrap
of evidence that indicated there
was any reason to believe in
their reality. The people who
called the whole matter into
question were the most knowl-
edgeable scientists so engaged.
It was they who said, "Let's
stop a moment and consider
what we're doing." They did
stop. They did think. And when
they completed their analyses,
they said, "Well, there seems
no basis in reality for our con-
cerns. Those concerns were real
concerns of the moment. But
now that we've thought them
through, we can't see that they
have any substance."
Hundreds of such experi-
ments have been performed in
the United States and else-
where. There's hasn't been a
single untoward incident. It all
seems a bizarre and strange
episode to me.
The organism with which all
this work is done, Escherichia
coli, is about the most helpless,
innocuous organism known to
man. It cannot survive except in
a laboratory under carefully cul-
tured conditions. If you put it in
water, it dies.
I8
EPA JOURNAL
-------
More to the point, we have no
regulations with respect to
guarding what happens every
day in every hospital in the
whole world where doctors,
nurses and technicians minister
to individuals who are, indeed,
infected with genuine, infec-
tious, dangerous organisms,
real pathogens.
Technicians draw blood and
culture it. Nurses and interns,
residents and attending physi-
cians are all in contact with
people who are infected with
genuine, virulent organisms.
And yet their infection is ex-
tremely rare.
The rationality of all this has
been lost on me. And I am de-
lighted that the Congress has
avoided passing legislation to
protect us against hazards that
no one can show to exist.
How do you feel about the
occupational safety regu-
lations further applied to
unrversity laboratories as
compared to industry la-
boratories? Should they
be the same?
I think it's time to study that
question rather than to give you
an answer. It's a legitimate
question. I don't really know
what the answer is at this time.
The OSHA regulations, which
were intended to protect the
workplace, are appropriate, for
example, in a factory that's
making benzene or using ben-
zene as a solvent day after day
after day.
It's rather another thing to try
to understand how best to safe-
guard those who work in a lab-
oratory that never does the
same thing twice. The shelves
of the stockroom in my bio-
chemistry department must
have contained at least 50,000
different chemicals.
We would use some of them
in microgram quantities and
some in gallon quantities. And
we never did the same thing
twice. Prescribing how life
shall be conducted under those
circumstances seems to me to
be a reasonable question but for
which, as yet, I haven't heard
quite acceptable descriptions.
I think what is required first
is a careful examination of
those, with some retrospective
understanding of what hazards
there may have been all the
while. And then ask, "Well,
how can you minimize those
hazards without making it im-
possible to work in those lab-
oratories, or so inordinately
expensive as in effect to make
it impossible?"
You were very successful
when you were in the
Duke University School of
Medicine Department of
Biochemistry in hiring
women for research. Can
you comment on this
latest NAS study of em-
ployment trends for
women and minorities in
science in the 1970's?
Rather briefly, what it says is
that, because of the internal
dynamics of our own country,
the altered aspirations of
women and minorities, ever
larger numbers of women and
minorities are seeking advanced
education in science. And it is
clear that, as they leave school,
they may have an advantage
over a young white male in
getting the first step on the em-
ployment ladder.
As a sociological phenom-
enon, what is clear is that they
get up onto the first rungs of the
ladder easily, but they climb the
rest of the way with much more
difficulty than their white male
colleagues. I have a second
comment which relates to a per-
haps more subtle phenomenon.
The truly important contribu-
tions to science are made by a
relatively small number of peo-
ple. Those who have compiled
'scientific family trees' are al-
ways struck by the fact that with
surprising frequency, the people
who do important science were
trained in the laboratories of
other people who did important
science.
The word science means
many things. The habit of mind,
of taking a broad view, of ask-
ing yourself what is the most
important unsolved problem
which may be amenable to
attack at this moment, is a habit
that must be inculcated young.
It is awfully easy to find all
kinds of other scientific busy
work to do. Useful busy work,
but not great science. It makes
its contribution; it's needful
that it be done. But the great
science is done by those few
people who, when very young,
got into this way of life.
That process is not incul-
cated in graduate school, for-
mally, by going to lectures. It is
not what happens even in the
laboratories of distinguished
scientists, ft happens in the
camaraderie of the laboratory.
It happens at the end of the day,
while drinking a glass of beer.
It's what happens during the
relaxed off-moments, not in for-
mally structured seminars, but
in the informal kind of seminar.
From what I have been able to
see so far, relatively rarely do
the young women in the labora-
tory as easily participate in that
aspect of the life of the labora-
tory as their male peers do.
But it happens. The young
ladies aren't quite as comfort-
able and they aren't quite as
welcome. They are dealing with
male mentors, in the main.
The male mentors, having been
20 years older, or more than
that, have lived a different life.
And they are not quite yet
wholly comfortable with the
young ladies in their shops. In
consequence, the easy give and
take by which, socially, there is
imparted the very best of what
makes for good science is not
quite as available to young
women as to young men even
now.
I don't mean that there are
no important women scien-
tists. Far from it. As a gross
statistic, there is a bridge that
We surely do have
a handful of horror
stories in which
certain chemicals
have been handled
rather cavalierly
and done undis-
puted harm to rel-
atively small
groups of people.
No one has a
license to do that,
or should have.
only a few have crossed. The
process is very subtle. My most
cherished experiences as a
graduate student were in Far-
well's Soda Shop just acrossthe
street from the chemistry build-
ing at the University of Illinois.
In the middle of the morning
and the middle of the afternoon,
the great and the near-great of
the chemistry department could
be found there having a Coca
Cola or coffee.
The banter around those
tables was much more impor-
tant in making me what I be-
came than what happened in the
classrooms. And so there's a
barrier; an invisible but func-
tioning barrier, which is still
there, because of which the
number of women elected to
this Academy will still be a
small fraction of the total for
some years to come.
How would you say the
United States ranks in
scientific research now?
The usual thing that one does in
response to such questions is to
point to the Nobel Prizes; they
are self-evident.
In the aftermath of World
War II, only one nation came
through whole, and that was
ours. With the stimulus of the
atomic bomb and later, the
stimulus of Sputnik, the Amer-
ican people, through their Gov-
ernment, invested in science in
a way no people in the world
had ever previously invested.
And with that, we built the
most remarkable, the most ex-
citing and the most successful
scientific enterprise the world
has ever known. We're still rid-
ing on that crest. There is no
field of science for which I
would say, the quality of such-
and-such of some other country
is decidedly better than the
quality here. There is no such
country, no such field.
But there surety is develop-
ing competition. As there
should be. The magnitude, the
number of people and the
amount of money for science in
the totality of western Europe
is now approximately equal to
that of the United States. And
the quality of their work is rising
very, very rapidly.
We know that in the Soviet
Union, they have made an enor-
mous investment in science.
MARCH 1979
19
-------
Their fusion research, for a
while, was ahead of ours. I
doubt that it is any longer. They
are very good at some forms of
chemistry and have done well
at it. They do great mathe-
matics. They have cultivated
mathematics in the Soviet Un-
ion. It's an old tradition which
was never broken. In the whole
of biology and biological sci-
ence, they are still way behind
us and have a long distance to
go. But to get there, they're
making immense investments,
of a kind we never made, in the
ability to do biology tomorrow.
And I assume it will pay, and
that in due time, they will take
their place on the world scien-
tific scene. So far, the return on
their investment is not as good
as the return on ours. We have
a tradition that young scientists
should go as fast as they can
go. They have no such tradition.
They still have large institu-
tions, where the nature and
pace of research is heavily
dominated by their leadership.
We don't do that. They are be-
ginning to understand that
that's a problem for them.
Japan is rather a different
matter. Japan uses its money
differently. The Japanese popu-
lation is one half ours, and they
have the same number of sci-
entists and engineers per mil-
lion that we do. So they have
a scientific engineering labor
force half the size of ours.
But they do no military R&D.
And they don't put nearly as
much money into basic science
as we do because they've been
using our basic science. There-
fore, they have concentrated
their technical force on applied
R&D,—an enterprise which
therefore comes out as big as
ours.
If you discount our basic sci-
ence, and you remove military
R&D, then the size of the re-
search endeavor in this country
isn't much different from that
in Japan, excepting theirs is
largely employed to drive their
domestic economy.
The argument is some-
times made that nature,
itself, is a major pol-
luter: dust from volcanic
eruptions, hydrocarbons
from vegetation, natural
radiation, and so forth.
And therefore we should
keep things in perspective
and accept manmade pol-
lution with more equa-
nimity.
What is your reaction to
that point of view?
It's a half truth. Man has not
simply taken the world as it
was given to him.
ff one drives around Ger-
many, France, Italy, or takes a
boat ride up the Thames, one
is impressed by the beauty of
the landscape and what seems
to be the quality of the natural
surroundings. You must under-
stand that it isn't. That's a man-
made surrounding. The whole
of what one sees has been re-
worked by man's activities. And
we like it rather more. Thus, we
don't have to take nature as
given, in an aesthetic sense, or
for food and timber production
—but on the other hand we
can't control volcanoes.
We can hope to discover
what the natural environmental
contributions to cancer may be,
and minimize those if we can.
I don't know of any Americans
who would decide not to live in
Denver because the radiation
background is twice that of
what it is in Washington.
I am unaware of anybody
who refuses to work in Grand
Central Station because the
radiation background inside is
higher than is permitted on the
outside of a reactor.
Natural radiation?
Yes. The radioactive po-
tassium in the granite. We
accept those hazards. But if
they are responsible for some
fraction of carcinogenesis, we
may never know. It is intrin-
sically extraordinarily difficult
to find that out. For example,
there are no data that say that
people who five in high alti-
tudes have more cancer than
people at low altitudes, except
for suggestive data concerning
skin cancer. Nevertheless, we
don't have to run down into lead
mines to escape, because the
risk, however real, seems very
small. On the other hand, there
is no need to accept unneces-
sary, unwarranted abuse of na-
ture by man.
We, here and everywhere
else in the world, took the
natural environment as what,
in economic terms, is a 'free
good.' And I suppose if we had
it to do all over again, we would
do it all over again. It made
possible the very rapid devel-
opment of our economy with
immense benefit to the quality
of life for the most of us.
My mother was one of nine
siblings in southern New Jer-
sey, all of whom had typhoid at
the same time. That three-holer
was probably the culprit. I see
no reason to accept that as a
state of nature. The natural en-
vironment is hostile.
We have learned how to curb
natural hazards fairly well, and
mold much of the Earth to our
own ends. That makes it pos-
sible for four and a half billion
people to live on the face of the
earth, but it doesn't give us a
license to pollute.
At the bottom
of much current
environmental
concern is the
American phobia
against cancer. Not
because cancer is
an important
statistical cause of
death, but because
of our horror of
this way of dying.
As a scientist, do you
think that total elimina-
tion of pollution, as pro-
posed by some persons,
Is a feasible goal?
It's not feasible, necessary or
even desirable. What is cer-
tainly true is that it would be
extraordinarily expensive.
There is no way to do that
without investing an immense
fraction of our total economy
in the effort.
And I cannot see that there
would be any payoff. In your
first question, you spoke of
"environmental illness." The
magnitude of "environmental
illness" is unknown to me. I
have yet to see any studies that
persuade me that we know what
that magnitude is, not even
'ballpark' figures that one can
trust. I do not know what the
health consequences of air pol-
lution have been. I do not know
whether the people of New York
who have invested heavily in
reducing the level of sulfur
oxides in their ambient air have
bought any health protection
whatever from that action.
Environmental questions
deal with conservation, with
which no one can quarrel,
aesthetic practices to see to
it that the world we live in is
attractive and pleasing to us,
and health protection against
noxious materials. Our height-
ened concern with respect to
manmade chemicals arises
out of the fact that the rate of
introduction of new chemical
species into the economy in the
U.S. since World War II has
been prodigious. Admittedly,
for most of them, we have little
understanding of what the po-
tential for good or ill may be in
the environment.
We surely do have a handful
of horror stories in which cer-
tain chemicals have been han-
dled rather cavalierly and done
undisputed harm to relatively
small groups of people. No one
has a license to do that, or
should have. And so we have
been attempting to achieve
"protection of the environ-
ment," which really means pro-
tection of ourselves, to seek
wise regulatory practices de-
spite a background of ignorance
and lack of raw data for under-
standing.
Given all the attention we
have paid to air pollution and
20
EPAJOURNAL
-------
water pollution in the last dec-
ade, the fact remains that if
you would like to state with
confidence what contamination
of water and air has done to the
American people, you would be
hard put to give numbers in
which anyone has any reason
for confidence.
We can be sure that none of
the pollutants are good for us.
Therefore, minimizing them is
intrinsically good since there is
no excuse for their presence in
a positive sense. But the amount
of effort that should be directed
into reducing that presence, the
goals to be established for that
reduction must reflect, some-
how, the magnitude of risk to
which we've been exposed and
how far we would like to reduce
it.
Unhappily, matters become
murky at that point. And we are
unable to formulate that prob-
lem very well, largely for lack
of data. Until recently, we had
no motivation for gathering
such information and nobody
would either pa yforor dothe
necessary research.
Secondly, the scientific prob-
lems haven't held great intellec-
tual attraction. This was epit-
omized by a friend, whom I
shall not name, at a meeting of
the President's Science Advi-
sory Committee about 10 years
ago, who said, "I've been look-
ing at the stars too long to start
looking down sewers now."
That more or less character-
izes the attitudes of our most
talented scientists. Environ-
mental pollution was not a
natural lure for the scientific
mind and society was unwill-
ing to put money into such
research until recently.
But we will have to justify
the actions necessary with re-
spect to those pollutants that
will require great expenditures,
and not on a merely one-time
basis. And that can only be done
by expanding the data base,
which means spending enough
money to acquire reliable data
that might help.
At the bottom of much cur-
rent environmental concern is
the American phobia against
cancer. Not because cancer is
an important statistical cause
of death, but because of our
horror of this way of dying. If
cancer were to be abolished to-
morrow, the increase in life
expectancy of Americans would
be rather small—the statistical
increased life expectancy.
Why is that?
Because it's a disease of older
people even now. The number
of young people who die of can-
cer is very small.
We would like to reduce the
incidence of cancer. That's a
clear national goal; it's been
expressed again and again, not
only in expenditures through
EPA and OSHA but through the
National Institutes of Health,
one-half of whose budget goes
to the cancer program, deliber-
ately thrust upon the NIH by the
Congress and several Presi-
dents.
That's what the American
people want. Therefore, we
should assist them in getting
it. And to do that, it becomes
imperative to understand the
low dose end of the dose-
response curve for carcin-
ogens. The problem is not can-
cer due to inadvertent acci-
dental large-scale exposure to
carcinogens, it is chronic expo-
sure to very low dose levels,
the consequence of which is
not known.
It is surely time we explored
the low level end of that dose
response curve with experi-
ments done on a large enough
scale to know what to believe.
Usually we test 50 or 100
rats at the maximum dosage
that will not kill them acutely,
and then we reason from the
results. Then, the argument
holds that chemicals are rather
like radiation. A single ionizing
event happens to hit the right
cell in the right place and trig-
gers off the neoplastic transfor-
mation. And for radiation, that
seems true.
If you irradiate enough ani-
mals, there will be some for
which a single ionizing event
will have done it. And maybe
that's responsible for part of
the background rate of cancer
which Americans have always
known.
If you examine a list of a
half a dozen carcinogens and
look at their chemistry, arsenic,
butter yellow, methylcholan-
threne, vinyl chloride, saccharin
if it's true—chemically, they
are so different, it is fantastic
to think that they operate by
doing the same thing.
Butter yellow is a
carcinogen?
Yes, sure. Butter yellow isn't
used anymore to color butter,
but it used to be. It caused liver
tumors; that was discovered in
the '30s.
But I cannot imagine that
these diverse compounds oper-
ate by an identical molecular
mechanism by which they
cause whatever they cause.
Cancer is the ultimate expres-
sion of what must be many dif-
ferent cellular reaction mech-
anisms. If that be true, it does
not follow that necessarily, for
all of them, the dose response
curve goes through the origin.
We are surely aware, now,
that all cells contain very effec-
tive mechanisms for repairing
damage to the DNA, such as
the enzyme that Arthur Korn-
berg discovered.
If we have DNA repair mech-
anisms, and if carcinogenesis
is the result of a mutagenetic
change in DNA, presumably
we can compensate for some
amount of mutagenesis. If so,
very low doses would have no
untoward consequences. I
would like to know for at least
a few chemicals, once and for
all, and stop the argument.
What's your reaction to
the argument that if pol-
lution controls become
too strict, major in-
dustries will move from
America to some devel-
oping country?
I guess it's a half-truth, again.
There are other countries anx-
ious for such development, all
too eager to repeat our mis-
takes. In a country where mean
life expectancy is below 45,
repeating our mistakes may
look charming.
That there are such places, I
wouldn't doubt. That American
companies will walk away from
large investments here and seek
that opportunity abroad, re-
mains to be demonstrated. I'm
a little skeptical.
This interview w
-------
Personal
Pollution
Monitoring
This silver pendant contains a photocell
that senses air pollution and alerts wearer
with an electronically triggered sound
device. The monitor also contains a small
oxygen mask and a W-minute supply of
oxygen to allow the wearer to escape to
safety.
D/\ scientists are evaluating the
L I /"\ usefulness of personal air pol-
lution monitors, some of which can be worn
as necklaces or wrist bands.
The Agency recently held a symposium
on portable monitors at Chapel Hill, N.C.
Purpose of the symposium was to acquaint
environmental managers and researchers
with the advantages of using personal air
monitors as supplements to fixed-station
monitors such as those placed along streets
or attached to buildings.
Approximately 35 reports dealing with
the development and capability of personal
physiological and air pollution monitors
were presented at the meeting by repre-
sentatives of the Federal and State Govern-
ments, private industry and research firms.
Congressman George E. Brown, Jr.,
Chairman of the House Subcommittee on
Environment and the Atmosphere, told the
conference that the demand "for personal
monitors is going to skyrocket and the tech-
nology is going to have to respond to meet
that demand."
He said that while the rate of advance in
the technology of monitoring devices has
been swift, "this is a technological initiative
which has not reached its peak." He called
for the development of wrist monitors that
measure the amount of any pollutant in the
air and then store the information.
The Congressman said there is a need to
determine more precisely at what point
pollutants affect human health. He added
that personal monitors might help solve
this problem.
Dr. David Magee, senior scientific ad-
visor at EPA's Environmental Monitoring
and Support Laboratory at Research Tri-
angle Park, N.C., said that "numerous
studies have called attention to the need
for greater use of personal monitors.
"In downtown San Jose, Calif., for ex-
ample, researchers have found that pedes-
trians breathe carbon monoxide at levels
60 percent higher than levels shown on the
nearest fixed monitors.
"On the other side of the country, in
Boston, pedestrians were exposed to levels
about 40 percent higher than those re-
corded at fixed stations."
He noted that in similar studies people
in both urban areas and small towns in
South Carolina and Connecticut received
higher exposures to particulates (mainly
because of indoor pollution) than those
recorded at fixed locations.
"All of this points out the need for a
device capable of accompanying people on
their daily rounds and sampling the air in
their own immediate breathing zones."
Some of the personal monitors now
available were displayed at the symposium.
Most of the devices use sensors which re-
spond to environmental conditions.
Among the environmental jewelry dis-
played at the workshop was a pendant
which senses polluted air, warns the wearer
with a buzzer and includes a mask and 10-
minute supply of oxygen.
Speakers at the meeting noted that these
devices could be especially useful to peo-
ple with a variety of lung or heart problems
who need to know when they are in danger
so they can seek prompt medical help.
Cost of these monitors ranges "any-
where from a dollar up," according to Dr.
Magee. The cheapest devices are small tubes
with chemical absorbents.
Among those making a presentation on
the more developed devices were Dr.
George S. Malindzak, chairman of the De-
partment of Physiology at Northeastern
Ohio Universities' College of Medicine and
Mary Ann Scherr, Professor of Art at Kent
State University. Mrs. Scherr is a designer
of jewelry containing personal monitors.
The symposium was sponsored by two
EPA laboratories at Research Triangle
Park, N.C., the Health Effects Research
Laboratory and the Environmental Monitor-
ing and Support Laboratory.
These laboratories conduct monitoring,
human studies and biological research to
determine the health effects of exposure to
air pollutants, pesticides, toxic substances,
and non-ionizing radiation. D
22
EPAJOURNAL
-------
-------
**f
Nearly a dozen major environmental
research and development projects in
Egypt are being supported by EPA under its
Scientific Activities Overseas (SAO) Pro-
gram. Since 1973, the Agency has obligated
more than $7.2 million in helping Egypt deal
with its many environmental problems while
allowing EPA scientists to learn from unique
environmental or pollutant exposure
situations.
EPA's projects in Egypt have so inter-
ested the International Communication
Agency (formerly known as the U.S. Infor-
Lending a Hand
in Egypt
By Truman Temple
mation Agency), that it dispatched a film
crew there in January. The team, headed
by Robert Butler, producer and director of
ICA's TV and Film Service, will be inter-
viewing scientists in environmental proj-
ects including those dealing with phosphate
mines near Luxor, reuse of process water at
a poultry processing plant in Alexandria,
the Aswan dam, and studies of wastewater
treatment at the Moharrem-Bey Industrial
Complex in Alexandria.
The EPA projects in Egypt are funded by
credits built up over the years in Egyptian
currency, chiefly from United States ex-
ports of agricultural products under the
Public Law 480 program. At one time EPA
was assisting half a dozen countries in en-
vironmental research under this type of
funding, but the work is now concentrated
in Egypt, Pakistan and India. Interestingly,
two other nations, Poland and Yugoslavia,
24
EPAJOURNAL
-------
found the programs formerly financed by
this type of funding so valuable that they
have created special funds of their own to
carry on the work.
The program in Egypt is directed by
EPA's Office of International Activities,
headed by Alice B. Popkin, Associate Ad-
ministrator. Individual projects are super-
vised by staff members of the Office of
Research and Development, the Office of
Air, Noise and Radiation, and several
Regions.
"I'm encouraged by the usefulness of
this program in Egypt," declared Mrs. Pop-
kin. "Not only are these scientific studies
of local conditions of direct concern to the
Egyptian people, but they also are broaden-
ing our own knowledge of similar environ-
mental problems we encounter in the
United States."
If one looks at a map of Egypt, it is im-
mediately obvious that the EPA-sponsored
research extends throughout the length of
the land. Several projects are under way in
the north along the shores of the Mediter-
ranean. One study has been analyzing
desert ecosystems since 1 975. Its overall
purpose is to improve land management in
areas now hard-pressed to produce food,
fiber, and basic minerals, according to Dr.
Norman R. Glass, EPA project officer. Sev-
enteen staff members of five Egyptian uni-
versities, aided by 40 research scientists,
are involved.
Dr. Victor J. Cabelli, of EPA's Health
Effects Research Laboratory in West Kings
ton, R.I., is project officer for additional
studies at Alexandria looking into illnesses
associated with swimming at polluted
beaches there. Thousands of individuals
have been interviewed by public health and
social workers to correlate information on
their exposure and any subsequent illness.
Scientists also have tested water quality,
and the collected data are being used by
the Egyptian government in the design of a
new sewage disposal system for the city.
The results of this study, when added to
similar ones in the United States, are being
used to develop water quality criteria which
may have world-wide applications.
Population and industrial growth have
made increasing demands on scarce water
resources in Egypt. A study of the potential
for water recycling and reuse is under way
in Alexandria at a modern poultry proc-
essing plant. The EPA project officer, Jack
L. Witherow of the Ada, Okla. Research
Laboratory, explains that the poultry indus-
try in Egypt is encountering a unique prob-
lem because new plants and farms will be
located in remote areas as part of an overall
plan to renew the deserts. The shortage of
water and the need for large amounts of it
in this industry make the study of pressing
importance. Scientists at Alexandria Uni-
Truman Temple is A ssociate Editor of
EPA Journal
Doctors check an Egyptian girl for signs ofschtstosomiasis. a disease carried by water snails.
versity are evaluating the process water
characteristics and will focus on a multiple
water reuse system.
August Curley of EPA's Health Effects
Research Laboratory at Research Triangle
Park, N.C. is project officer for three stud-
ies. In one, researchers at Alexandria Uni-
versity are seeking to determine the safe
use of insecticides and to study their
effects on animals, fish, poultry, insects
and plants. Another study by the Regional
Radioisotope Center in Cairo is investigat-
ing the health hazards of pesticides that are
important to both Egypt and EPA. The third,
being carried out by the Plant Protection
Institute in Cairo, is monitoring levels of
various toxicants in the environment such
as water, soil, and agricultural products
before and after aerial and ground applica-
tion of pesticides.
Curley, who helped organize an interna-
tional symposium last November in Egypt
on the hazards of pesticides to the environ-
ment and human health, said there is an
increasing use of chemical pesticides in
that country to protect crops. "Coupled
with this trend," he added, "are reported
instances of indiscriminate use of pesti-
cides, leading to contamination of food
crops and the immediate environment. In
Egypt, as in our country, there is a growing
and continuing concern about the hazards
of pesticides to human health, not only to
field workers and pesticide applicators, but
also to the health of the people generally
exposed through contaminated food, water
and air."
The rapid growth of industry in Egypt in
recent times has made air pollution an im-
portant public health concern. Taking ad-
vantage of 13 air monitoring stations
already in operation in Alexandria, a team
of researchers under direction of the Egyp-
tian Department of Occupational Health
.. -' - '~*«r . -. • •- •. .- — - ^ v-t>«-J.*
Two Egyptian farmers land a pnck animal near n modern water pumping station in the
Nile Delta.
MARCH 1979
25
-------
has been sampling ambient air pollutants
and examining persons suffering from
chronic respiratory diseases. Or. Carl G.
Hayes of EPA's Health Effects Research
Laboratory in Research Triangle Park is
project officer. The purpose of the investi-
gation is to help define the relationship
between the pollutants and disease. Since
Alexandria is the second largest city in
Egypt and contains about a third of all in-
dustry in that country, the project is of spe-
cial significance in public health.
During the past decade, fish production
in Lake Mariut, which lies just southeast of
Alexandria, has declined by about 75 per-
cent, due primarily to the discharge of in-
dustrial wastewaters from the adjacent
Moharrem Bey Industrial Complex. In addi-
tion the lake has ceased to be an important
recreation area because of its offensive
odors and unsightly algal growth. The lake
is economically Important as a source of
food, and Egyptian scientists and engineers
now are investigating a number of alterna-
tives for treating the industrial wastewater
pouring into the lake. According to Dr.
James D. Gallup of the Effluent Guidelines
Division, the EPA project officer, the
industries include food oil and fat produc-
tion, paper reprocessing, textile finishing,
yeast and starch production, and other
facilities. The alternatives under study in-
clude pretreatment of effluent before dis-
charge to the lake; in-plant modifications,
and combined treatment of both industrial
and municipal wastes in the city's sewage
treatment plant. The study thus is laying the
foundations for a comprehensive and far-
reaching restoration of an essential
resource.
The rapid rate of industrialization and
agricultural development in Egypt to pro-
vide her millions with food, jobs and con-
sumer goods ironically has polluted some
of those very sources of food. Inland,
changes in Nile River drainage patterns
have led to salinization of lakes that for-
merly produced high yields of freshwater
fish. Under this program, Egyptian scien-
tists are now investigating the impact of
pollutants on saline waters to determine
how marine life is being affected. The proj-
ect officer, Dr. Gerald E. Walsh of EPA's
Environmental Research Laboratory at Gulf
Breeze, Fla., describes three geograph-
ically distinct study areas in the project,
each with its own laboratory for research
into specific problems.
The first includes Lake Quarun and Wadi
EI-Rayan in the Western Desert about 65
miles southwest of Cairo. "Lake Quarun,
the world's oldest artificial impoundment,
was begun over 5,000 years ago by shunt-
ing of Nile River water to a large natural
depression," Walsh explains.
"At that time, its impounded water was
used to irrigate crops during the dry sea-
son. Lush vegetation grew in the newly-
watered area, and the site was used as a
vacation resort by the pharaohs. Now, the
lake is as saline as the ocean and cannot
be used for crop irrigation, but marine fish
and shrimp, introduced from the Mediter-
ranean, grow in it." The current project is
aimed at increasing the yield of fish by
application of sound fisheries management
practices. It also is investigating the effects
of pesticides that enter the water as agri-
cultural runoff.
The second area is a fishing village on
the Red Sea named AI-Ghardaga. A labora-
tory there is studying the effects of pollut-
ants on marine biota and also the ecology
of reefs. Data obtained will be used to esti-
mate the impact of pollutants on marine
life, and also to set water quality standards.
The third area embraces the Mediterranean
coast of Egypt, where a branch of the Insti-
tute of Oceanography and Fisheries is mon-
itoring and analyzing water conditions and
relating them to marine life.
Further to the south, an EPA project is
looking into another environmental ques-
tion involving radiation from phosphate
mining and manufacturing. The project offi-
cer, Richard J. Guimond of EPA's Office of
Radiation Programs, explains the situation
this way:
"Historically, the Egyptian phosphate in-
dustry was quite small because of the great
fertilizing effect of the Nile floods. How-
ever, the halt to the annual flood increased
the country's need for fertilizer. Further,
fertilizer is considered a good export prod-
uct for the country. As a consequence, the
industry is growing in Egypt."
Phosphate mines are located along the
Nile near Luxor, known as the Valley of the
Kings; along the Red Sea to the east, and in
the central desert west of the Nile. Manu-
facturing facilities are located around Cairo
and Alexandria. Egyptian scientists are
especially interested in studying operations
because phosphate is radioactive, environ-
mental controls now in use are poor, the
facilities are near heavily populated areas,
many workers are employed in the indus-
try, and phosphate production is expected
to increase. Guimond also noted that infor-
mation acquired on the exposure of thou-
sands of Egyptian workers could help EPA
in evaluating health risks to the U.S. popu-
lation from phosphate.
Near Egypt's southern border where the
Nile encounters the famous and controver-
sial Aswan Dam, EPA is sponsoring a broad
study of how the dam has affected the
region, for ill and for good. The project
officer. Dr. Walter M. Sanders of the EPA
Environmental Research Laboratory in
Athens, Ga., explains that the study is
examining the effects of the Aswan project
"along the lines of hydrology, water qual-
ity, aquatic ecology, public health, agricul-
ture, and social implications."
The Aswan is a major force in Egypt's
life. It has created one of the largest reser-
voirs in the world. It provides about half of
the nation's electric power. It causes 100
million metric tons of silt to be deposited
annually in Lake Nasser Reservoir. Because
the dam is in an arid region, evaporation
losses cause the Nile to increase about 10
percent in salinity as it passes through the
reservoir. Lake Nasser Reservoir shows a
high rate of algal production. At the same
time, food fish production has increased
there from 750 metric tons in 1966 to
20,600 tons in 1978. The city of Aswan a
few miles north of the dam has mush-
roomed from 30,000 to 620,000 between
1960 and 1976. The impact of industrial
and domestic waste discharge and farm-
land drainage have become evident not
only in the main river but in its irrigation
canals and drains.
Egyptian scientists in the EPA project
are studying how the Nile's ecology is
changing. They are determining water qual-
ity characteristics above and below the lake
and comparing them with earlier data be-
fore the dam was built. Researchers also
are developing a water resources model,
and seeking to predict future trends in
water quality and how they will affect the
region. Later they will propose a compre-
hensive river plan on how to manage this
vast water resource most effectively.
The public health survey completed by
the project staff of over 15,000 rural Egyp-
tians located in 41 villages from Aswan to
the Mediterranean showed an average drop
of about 50 percent in the overall preva-
lence of schistosomiasis (snail fever dis-
ease) since 1937. The current prevalence
in the north central delta is 42.1 percent,
in upper middle Egypt 26.7 percent, and in
the Aswan region 4.1 percent. The survey
showed that infections were significantly
lower in populations obtaining their do-
mestic water from protected sources.
The Aswan Dam has regulated the water
flow in the river so that there is a continual
supply of irrigation water year-round. The
agricultural studies have found that this
increase in use of water has caused the
water table to rise. Where the table once
lay about 250 centimeters or more than
eight feet below the Earth's surface, it now
lies only 40 to 70 centimeters down (about
16 to 28 inches) in large areas where tile
drains have not been installed. These un-
drained soils are increasing both in salinity
and alkalinity, causing a decrease in crop
productivity.
From Alexandria south to Aswan, from
the Western Desert eastward to the shores
of the Red Sea, EPA scientists have joined
with their colleagues in Egypt to help that
nation cope with its many environmental
and health-related questions. There is no
question that both countries are finding un-
expected rewards in the experience, both
in environmental knowledge and in inter-
national cooperation.D
26
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Hunting
Pollution in the
Great Smokies
By Charles D. Pierce
"A few steps or a three-mile round trip on an easy-graded surface will take you away from the sights, sounds,
and smelts of your everyday world, along one of America's loveliest streams. You will be walking into one of
the last great wilderness areas remaining in the East. ..."
So reads a National Park Service sign
as one enters the Ramsey Cascade
area of the Little Pigeon River in the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park.
A small group of scientists from EPA
and the National Park Service trod this path
last spring on their way to key monitoring
tests, one step in a global effort to find the
impact of pollution on the relatively iso-
lated areas of the world.
This quest was part of an international
effort known as the Man and Biosphere
> • ^
Amy Cross, nn
MARCH 1979
27
-------
Dr. Bruce Wiersnt;i ot EPA 's Environmental Monitoring and Support Laboratory fit
Vf (/;>:>. Nov.. r.ets up monitoring equipment.
Program, established by the U.N. Educa-
tional Scientific and Cultural Organization
in 1971.
Under this program the Great Smoky
Mountains National Park was designated
as one of 11 7 biosphere reserve sites, pris-
tine areas which have been designated at
various locations around the world.
An important goal is to use these re-
serves as a record of the environment in its
natural state and to monitor these areas to
measure global pollution fallout that might
be masked in more heavily polluted areas.
Monitoring and sampling performed by
the EPA-National Park Service team last
springandonapreliminaryvisitin1977
have discovered evidence of relatively high
concentrations of lead in the park.
While the source of this lead has not
been determined so far, EPA scientists be-
lieve there are two main possibilities:
The lead particles were borne by wind
from either the heavy auto traffic in the
park or industrial and urban sources out-
side the Great Smokies.
Pierce, Editor of EPA Journal, accom-
panied the scientific team on their journey
into the Great Smoky Mountains National
Park.
Some lead is also found from natural
sources. The results of testing for other
types of pollutants are still being analyzed
and assessed. Additional monitoring in the
park will be undertaken this spring.
The scientific team investigating the
health of the Great Smoky Mountains
National Park carried heavy monitoring
equipment by back pack because even
horses or burros couldn't climb the
heavily forested 60-degree slopes that led
to some of the isolated sampling sites.
The team members, led by Dr. G. Bruce
Wiersma of EPA's Environmental Monitor-
ing and Support Laboratory at Las Vegas,
Nev., were often drenched in sweat as they
climbed up root- and rock-studded trails
and steep banks.
However, occasional torrents of rain
helped cool the climbers. At some points
the downpour was so heavy that the group
had to huddle under tarpaulins, wait till the
storm passed and then slog on along trails
which had been transformed by rain run-off
into swiftly flowing rivulets.
It is water vapor from the frequent rains
and natural emissions from vegetation that
give the park the haze responsible for its
name. Great Smoky.
The group crossed and re-crossed the
roaring and foaming Little Pigeon River on
crude log bridges as they scrambled their
way to the monitoring sites under a drip-
ping canopy of towering trees.
In addition to giant hemlock and tulip
poplars and a rich variety of other trees,
the park has a wealth of shrubs and wild
flowers. Waves of Wake Robin (red tril-
lium) bloomed in shady areas.
The animal life includes salamanders
in many different sizes, shapes, and colors;
a dazzling variety of warblers and other
song birds, wild boars and black bears.
The air pollution monitoring equipment
set up in the park by the team at exposed
sites was placed in a tepee-like construc-
tion of steel rods specially rigged with
barbed wire to discourage intrusion by the
inquisitive bears.
Drinking water taken from the park's
swift flowing streams had to be treated to
kill the bacteria left by the wild boars which
wallow in the headwaters. The boars in-
vaded the park after escaping from a near-
by hunting preserve.
The team of scientists visited 10 re-
search blocks in the park, each about one
square kilometer in area, where they took
multiple samples of air, water, vegetation,
soil, and forest floor litter. Approximately
1,200 samples were taken.
The soil, forest floor litter, and vegeta-
tion samples were placed in plastic bags
and carried out in back packs. The re-
searchers used plastic gloves to avoid
contaminating the leaves and other plant
material collected.
Plants gathered included such varieties
as New York fern, witch hazel, asters,
moss, mountain laurel, dogwood, and
rhododendron. In some cases the moss
was gathered from the logs of huge Amer-
ican chestnut trees, which had been killed
by a blight many years ago and are still rot-
ting on the forest floor.
In addition to bottling samples of the
water from the park streams for later anal-
ysis, the team left rain gauges at some of
the sampling sites to compare findings with
those obtained from air filters.
At most of the air sampling sites, filters
were tied around trees and air was drawn
through them by battery-operated pumps.
Four filters were used at each site.
In order to dete.'mine the size, distribu-
tion, and composition of metallic air-borne
particles in the park, the monitoring plan
provided for one filter to be analyzed
by scanning electron microscopy at the
University of Iowa, one by conventional
atomic absorption methods at the "clean"
laboratory facilities at Carnegie-Mellon
University in Pittsburgh, and one by x-ray
fluorescent spectrometry at the Environ-
mental Monitoring and Support Laboratory
at Las Vegas. The fourth filter was provided
in case of damage or loss to one of the
continued to inside back cover
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Environmental Almanac: March 1979 ;>{;
is a weed? A plant
whose virtues have not yet
been discovered."
—Emerson.
' I n the Washington area now
' comes the time of the dan-
delion, a doughty little plant
you can eat, drink, curse as a
weed, andadmireasawild-
flower.
It will soon be lifting its
golden head on lawns across
America. This will prompt many
horrified home owners to rush
out and buy more herbicides to
rid their property of what they
consider to be a weed.
Millions of dollars will be
spent to slay dandelions be-
cause homeowners have been
brainwashed into thinking that
their outdoor lawn carpets
should run from driveway to
driveway without any distract-
ing flecks of gold.
In their fierce desire to pre-
sent a front to the world of
monotonous green they will
spend hours digging up any
dandelions that may survive the
herbicide dousing. Even if the
lawn owner recognizes the
basic beauty and utility of the
dandelion he or she is often so
intimidated by frowning neigh-
bors that they join the mad dan-
delion purge.
While they are out buying
fresh supplies of herbicide to
kill the dandelions, they often
stop by the drug store to pick up
minerals and vitamins that they
could obtain without charge by
eating dandelion greens.
Tests have shown that dan-
delions beat spinach hands
down in food energy, proteins
and many vitamins, according
to the Wise Encyclopedia of
Cookery.
The narrow green leaves with
jagged edges which can be used
in salads gave the plant its
French name of "dent-de-lion"
or "lion's tooth" and we long
ago took over this name in mod-
ified form.
Some people grow dande-
lions as a crop for sale which
A Glimpse of the Natural World We Help Protect
they have raise.d from packets
of "improved" dandelion seeds
sold at garden stores.
Dandelion roots kept in a
basket of dirt will provide a
supply of pale greens all winter
long. Many people prefer
leaves produced in such semi-
darkness as they are tender and
milder.
The young leaves can be
boiled as a pot herb. A rather
pungent tea can be made by
boiling mature leaves. The roots
can be used to make a coffee
substitute. Wine can be pre-
pared from the fermentation of
the blossoms.
Apart from these useful
functions, the dandelion, one of
the most widespread and best
known flowers in the world, also
provides beauty.
Children are attracted by
their feathery seed spheres and
blow on them to find their for-
tunes. The seeds are often car-
ried on the breeze by small
downy parachutes to neighbors'
lawns.
The dandelion was brought
to America by colonists who
were eager for its early greens
after a long winter with no fresh
vegetables. It was also culti-
vated for its roots which could
be dried and used as a bitter
tonic and laxative.
In a world of an increasing
number of "don'ts," the dande-
lion also provides a wildflower
that can be picked with
impunity.
If it had no other virtues, the
dandelion would be recognized
as one of the heralds of spring,
a reminder of that time of year
when in the words of Swinburne:
"Winter's rains and ruins are
over
* * » * »
And time remembered is grief
forgotten
And frosts are slain and flowers
begotten
And in green underwood and
cover
Blossom by blossom the spring
begins."
—C.D.P.
MARCH 1979
29
-------
The New
Environmentalists
By Administrator
Douglas M. Costle
The fervor of the late sixties and early
seventies has evolved into the environ-
mental institutions of the seventies and
eighties. Environmentalists today carry
calculators instead of picket signs. Demon-
strating housewives are now Presidents of
the Lung Association or the League of
Women Voters. Law students wearing
sweatshirts and sneakers now carry legal
briefs in fine leather cases—and those
briefs have established a truly astounding
docket of precedent setting environmental
decisions.
Perhaps most significant, the street lead-
ers on Earth Day have become the institu-
tional leaders of today. In fact, many of
them are now EPA administrators wonder-
ing why the environmentalists are shouting
at them.
The reason is simple. We have become a
permanent part of the political value sys-
tem. Environmental courses are taught at
every major university. Most companies
have environmental departments. And
grassroots organizations—-"of the kind that
organize letter writing campaigns, par-
ticipate in government hearings, and lobby
EPAJOURNAL
-------
political officials—abound throughout this
country. They have provided strong intel-
lectual leadership on a wide range of
issues.
So it's no surprise to me that public opin-
ion polls show that support for environmen-
tal programs is broadly based. The differ-
ences in support between Republicans and
Democrats are negligible. Support among
those with a high school education or less
has grown until it approaches the level of
those with college education. Support
among blacks for more government spend-
ing on the environment jumped from 33
percent in 1969 to 65 percent today.
A new Resources for the Future poll
shows that 53 percent of those polled be-
lieve that protecting the environment is so
important that requirements and standards
cannot be too high, and continuing improve-
ments must be made regardless of cost.
These are attitudes born of experience—
of having seen one environmental forecast
after another proved to be right, of having
seen technical products made better by
environmental concern, of having seen
cleaner air and water.
Those who scorned Rachel Carson's
"Sile'ht Spring" have seen the chemical
disasters with names like Kepone, Love
Canal, and RGB's. They have also seen the
return of birds and wildlife to estuaries no
longer threatened by DDT.
Those who castigated environmentalists
for holding up the Alaska Pipeline must ad-
mit that it's a better, safer line today than
it would have been without their protests.
And there are plenty of oil men who share
that recognition—at least on an off-the-
record basis.
Nationally, sulfur oxides are down 27
percent. Dirt and smoke are down 12 per-
cent. Carbon monoxide is going down at a
rate of 5 percent a year. And most impor-
tantly, there are people in Los Angeles who
can see the mountains for the first time—in
spite of continuing high levels of smog.
Their eyes still may water from the effort,
but progress is being made.
However, even these successes do not
fully explain the masses of people—two
out of three according to a Harris poll last
year—who consider themselves concerned
about the environment. So what is it that
has attracted blue collar workers, inner city
residents, sophisticated suburbanites,
farmers, and merchants alike to make this
claim?
Certainly, the basic principles of ecology
provide worthy answers. Whether articu-
lated by Rene Dubos, or Jacques Cousteau,
or any other environmentalist, the prin-
ciple remains valid that all elements of life
are connected to each other in a fabric of
cause and effect relationships. We all know
that if even one strand is cut, a basic
strength of the system is diminished. This
understanding has nurtured the environ-
mental movement throughout its existence.
James Michener in his new book
Chesapeake, which fictionally describes the
history of the Chesapeake Bay area, chron-
icles once again ecological destruction that
occurs when this principle is ignored.
Certainly this bed-rock environmental-
ism is one explanation for the polls. But
I believe that in the last decade, two other
broad groups of like-minded people have
formed—those who find stability in lasting
environmental values and those who have
come to respect the environment for its
impact on their health and livelihood. These
are the new environmentalists, the people
who have discovered a source of strength
in nature and a new understanding of the
fragility of human life. Perhaps they are
drawn to this discovery through the gen-
eral frustrations of a highly technical and
complex society: of products that don't
work, governments that don't respond,
services that aren't rendered, and promises
that aren't kept. In the environment they
find a sense of order, a permanence in the
life cycle of nature, and genuine hope in
the age-old renewal of life that regenerates
the world. These are values that transcend
the daily onslaught of society's
breakdowns.
These new friends spent $5.1 billion
dollars last year on campers and vans.
They purchased back packs by the millions.
They lined up for marathon races by the
thousands. They appreciate clean air and
clean water.
Some people fear that these environ-
mentalists will destroy the sanctuaries they
seek. And preservation is a necessary vigil.
But they present a tremendous opportunity
for the environmental movement in terms
of mass support.
The second group of new environmental-
ists are those who have felt the adverse
impact of degradation on their lives and
livelihoods.
The Washington Post ran a story last
month with this lead paragraph:
I quote:
"Wearing quilted jackets, string ties and
suspenders, the dairy farmers who sat in a
Frederick County courtroom last week are
not anyone's image of political activitists.
But they are part of a new group of environ-
mentalists: those who claim that industrial
pollution damages their livelihoods as well
as the quality of their lives."
These are people who have been harmed
by environmental carelessness, or callous-
ness or disregard. They are fishermen fight-
ing Kepone in the James River. They are
oystermen and crabbers concerned about
thermal discharges from nuclear plants, or
oil spills from petroleum refineries. They
are farmers worried about reduced milk
production or damaged trees and crops.
They understand that a clean, healthy
environment is in their own economic self-
interest. And when economic self-interest
reinforces a sound environmental ethic.
the combination is just about unbeatable.
Certainly we have come to understand in
the last few years that there is an economic
cost associated with using up clean air,
clean water and other natural resources.
When our forefathers strode mightily
across this country, land was their most
valuable resource. Land determined voting
rights, personal profits, individual stature
and physical freedom. To a degree, many of
those qualities are still associated with
the land.
But for the 80 percent of our population
which lives on 20 percent of the land—in
our urban areas—the values are changing.
There is no more land to take. Natural
resources are limited. But the land has
taken on a new value—its quality. This
includes the quality of the air above it and
the land's proximity to other human en-
deavors. The elite today live in environ-
mentally rich areas. Smog is heaviest in
poor areas. And real estate values can be
measured in the color of the sky and how
far you can see. A recent study found that
people living in the Four Corners area of
the Southwest said that they would pay an
average of $850 a year to avoid having
visibility reduced from 75 to 25 miles.
People are beginning to realize that their
quality of life depends on how others use
the water and the land. A smokestack on
one side of town influences property values
on the other side of town. A chemical plant
in the next State may contaminate fish in
far away waters. It's a pocketbook issue
that will continue to swell the ranks of the
environmental movement.
People today also can clearly see the
connection between the environment and
their health—their ability to work and live
with the promise of a full life. The symp-
toms of many new environmentally related
diseases are now becoming visible. Air
pollution that destroys the lung and weak-
ens the heart is too often casually described
as the source of stinging eyes or a little
congestion. But only an ostrich can ignore
the miscarriages, nervous conditions,
sterility, and death associated with environ-
mental exposure to certain chemical sub-
stances—many of them cancer causing.
One cannot think of Kepone, PCB's, PBB's,
and Love Canal without also thinking: the
environmentalists were right.
John B. Oakes wrote on the editorial
pages of the New York Times a couple of
years ago, "The environmental cause is
neither amorphous nor elitist; it is a com-
bination of pragmatism and ethics. It is
summed up in the practical conviction
that man cannot survive as a civilized being
unless he reaches an accommodation with
his natural surroundings; and in the ethical
view that if he fails to do so, his survival in
such a world will be worthless." D
(Excerpts from a speech by Costle Dec. 13,
1978, before the National Wildlife
Federation, Washington, D.C.)
MARCH 1979
31
-------
Labor's
Stake in
Steel
Cleanup
An Interview With
Lloyd Me Bride,
President, United
Steelworkers of
America
One steel company in 1978
published a full-page ad-
vertisement saying that
less rigid environmental
rules can save steel-
worker jobs. Do you
agree with this view?
No. The key to jobs in the steel
industry is a healthy economy.
There has to be enough busi-
ness for the companies to gen-
erate the cash flow that will
enable them to meet their obli-
gations. It's not a question of
EPA or Occupational Safety
and Health Administration
(OSHA) regulations.
Also, projections have been
made that between now and
1985 the steel industry will
spend $40 billion to expand,
modernize, and increase pro-
duction capability. Only four
billion dollars will need to be
spent on environmental im-
provement facilities. That's
onlyabout 10 percent of the
modernization total.
The industry's future and
jobs depend on such spending,
not only for cleanup but for
expansion and other activities.
Steel companies can't remain
viable without modernization.
They can't remain viable with-
out meeting their obligations
in terms of being good citizens,
environmentally and occupa-
tional safety and healthwise.
There is another factor. EPA
is tailoring its programs, in
some instances at least, to be
coordinated with steel mil!
expansion. This way environ-
mental measures can be effec-
tively built in during the expan-
sion or improvement of the
facility.
!n short, ! don't think that ad
campaign really presented the
situation in its true light. There
are important reasons why
weaker environmental rules
wouldn't help steel worker jobs.
This interview was conducted
by John Heritage, Assistant
Editor of EPA Journal.
Some of the most pol-
luting steel industry jobs
pay the highest salaries.
Are workers wilting to
take health risks for more
pay?
Money can't compensate for
health risks. It's not a viable
concept. It's particularly faulty
when you consider that some
of the health problems may not
appear for years. If there is a
long delay from exposure to the
pollutant to an illness, the idea
of paying money for the risk is
just ridiculous. No one should
be forced to gamble between
higher wages now, and the
risk of contracting cancer some-
time in the future.
Do you believe pollution
cleanup requirements
could ever cause steel
mills to move overseas?
No. Pollution cleanup rules
would be a bigger factor regard-
ing where to locate within our
country. That problem requires
uniform controls so there's no
particular advantage to a com-
pany, environmentally or occu-
pational safety and healthwise,
to locate in one part of the
country versus another.
But overseas flight from anti-
pollution regulations is not a
realistic possibility for our steel
mills. The international trade
problems of steel really are
more related to over-capacity,
unfair competition, and the ex-
tensive use of social protection
programs in other countries that
help them maintain full employ-
ment even during economic
downturns. As trade unionists
we can appreciate and in some
cases envy these social pro-
grams. But they do impact inter-
national trade and we feel that
we're making some progress in
terms of calling to everyone's
attention some of these effects.
We see a chance of some im-
provements in taking the effects
into account for shaping our
trade policies.
Looking at the full trade sit-
uation, I have some very serious
doubts about the viability of
our steel industry operating in
other parts of the world and
then trying to ship back here.
Our problem will continue to be
one of whether we should have
a self- sufficiency in our ability
to provide our own country with
steel.
A 1978 report by the
Council on Economic
Priorities found that the
steel industry still lags in
pollution control. Is this
inevitable due to the in-
dustry's economic
problems?
There's no question that the
industry's economic problems
in the past have had an effect by
straining companies' supply of
capital. The industry has been
forced to compete under unfair
conditions to retain the domes-
tic market. That's had the effect
of depressing steel's opportu-
nity to earn. I think the basic
problem then is one of having
the wherewithal! to clean up.
Of course, historically,
worldwide, the steel industry
has been a big offender in terms
of pollution. It's the nature of
the industry. The raw materials,
the technology, all have been
ones that contributed to
pollution.
But also, there's evidence
that the steel industry has been
recalcitrant in accepting pollu-
tion cleanup regulations. One
problem brings on the other.
If the industry doesn't have the
money to clean up perhaps that
forces them to take a defensive
attitude with respect to their
obligations.
Their defensive attitude has
compounded their problems,
though. Not one steel mill in the
U. S. is now in total compliance
and all of the mills are in areas
not yet attaining air quality
standards. The steel mills are
now required to clean up their
act and are starting from way
behind other industries. Their
recalcitrance, then, has led to
the need to catch up, and may
lead to sizable noncompliance
penalties.
But I believe that as the in-
dustry can cope with its eco-
nomic problems, then it will no
doubt speed up its cleanup ef-
fort. We have seen a very en-
couraging change in attitude on
the part of most of the steel
companies in the past year.
They finally are sitting down
with EPA and seriously work-
ing out compliance plans. The
speedup has begun, I believe,
because they see that their need
to modernize fits in with the
cleanup requirements.
V
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Is the steel Industry
overregulated by pollu-
tion cleanup require-
ments?
No. My own reaction is that the
steel industry has the same
obligation as everyone else to
be good citizens. They have no
more right to pollute our air and
our water than anyone else. And
so whatever regulations are ap-
plicable have to be applied
across the board in an even-
handed way.
The fact that the steel indus-
try has a bigger cleanup prob-
lem accentuates their need to
be in a healthy economic situa-
tion so they can comply. But
1 don't think the steel industry
has any more right to pollute or
to conduct themselves in any
other fashion in terms of re-
sponsibilities than any citizen.
Is the steel industry in
any other country that
you know of doing a
better job than the
U.S. in pollution control?
I have seen examples of a
cleaner coke oven operation in
Japan and Russia. With these
very few instances, I can say
that I'm convinced that there's
a better way to do it. I don't
think the Japanese and the Rus-
sians were operating their coke
ovens this way across the
board. I believe we were shown
the best that they have. But the
best that they have, if it were
utilized across our steel indus-
try, would result in a much
cleaner operation.
To your knowledge, have
any American steel mills
closed for environmental
reasons and what's the
danger of this happening?
I don't think that any steel mills
have closed for environmental
reasons alone. There may have
been some reference to environ-
mental requirements as a con-
tributing factor. But the real
cause is economic pressures
that have built up over time.
At least in two instances
I know of, the facilities that
were closed were confronted
with a loss of their market for
certain product lines to foreign
imports. A third closing resulted
from a kind of planned obsole-
scence where a company over
a long period of time just did
not make any expenditures to
keep a particular mill modern
and competitive. As it became
obsolete, then it was closed.
Environmental requirements
may have been one of the things
that caused it not to be profit-
able. But had the mill been mod-
ernized along the line, and
money been spent to improve
facilities, to change the tech-
nology, to update it in the va-
rious ways, then I think that mill
would still be viable.
So, I can't see that environ-
mental reasons alone would
close any mill.
What's th.9 significance
of the pollution cleanup
agreement between Re-
public Steel Corp. and
the EPA?
There's a distinct advantage
and a great significance to the
type of agreement and the plan-
ning that was worked out in the
Republic Steel case. It shows
that EPA is coordinating their
enforcement timing with com-
pany-wide investment plans
and capabilities. And it also
shows the need for the union to
be aware of these types of plans
in advance so that we can make
plans too. Then we can avoid
job disruption. We also can
avoid last minute opposition to
the control plans as they're
implemented.
What is having the biggest
economic impact on the
American steel industry—
pollution control, mod-
ernization, or the overall
economy?
The key is the economy. I don't
think it's the EPA or OSHA
regulations. I don't think it's
pollution control.
What specific protec-
tions do Federal pollution
cleanup laws now pro-
vide for workers?
There are some very distinct
ones, and I'm proud to say that
our union was instrumental in
developing these protections as
part of the environmental laws
so that workers can feel free to
get involved. For instance, it is
now illegal for employers to
retaliate against workers who
tell EPA about a violation, or
who testify at a public hearing.
In the past some of our mem-
bers have felt this type of retali-
ation, and it has a very chilling
effect on other workers who
otherwise would like to be more
environmentally active.
in a similar vein, there are
now provisions to discourage
what we call environmental
blackmail—cases where em-
ployers whip up emotional op-
position to environmental regu-
lations by making irresponsible
job-loss claims. In these cases
now, we can get public hearings
and EPA can subpoena com-
pany books to find out what the
real impact is.
We also have some wage
protection for workers in indus-
tries where the companies con-
trol their pollution by slowing
down, or shutting down produc-
tion every once in a while. This
mainly helps workers in the
copper, lead, and zinc smellers.
What it means is that the smelt-
ers can't shift the cost of control
to the people who work in the
plant.
There is a gap, however.
I think we also need a worker
assistance arrangement in the
few cases where a dislocation
does result from the cleanup
laws. Especially in a one-com-
pany town the effect of a shut-
down is devastating. I think the
government has a responsibility
to help ease the disruption in
that kind of situation.
The State Implementa-
tion Plans under the
Clean Air Act are the key
means to achieve air
quality standards. Do you
see any other objectives
that the plans should
stress for industry and
workers?
First they represent a planning
exercise, a planning program,
and that's extremely important.
The process calls for company
expansion plans to be revealed,
as well as company departure
intentions. Community plans
for air, water, and resource
allocation all come into focus
as a part of the planning
exercise.
There's a need for unions to
take greater advantage of this
planning information and a
need to be more involved than
perhaps we are.
Environmental planning for
the State clean air implementa-
tion plans tends to promote job
security. It leads to rational
economic growth that does not
face the uncertainty of possibly
having to be undone in the
future because of environmental
overloading.
We're convinced that in very
few instances will a shut-down
of a facility have to take place.
In any event, by this planning
process we would not have to
deal with after-the-fact situa-
tions. We would have an oppor-
tunity to deal with the problem
before it really hits us.
Is cost-benefit analysis a
good enough yardstick to
decide the value of a
healthy environment in a
steel mill?
I can't accept the idea that you
can have cost-benefit analysis
as an acceptable tool in health
regulation. I think it's impos-
sible to place a value on human
life and health. It's probably
impossible to evaluate or place
a value upon damage to our
ecology, damage to vegetation,
deterioration of buildings, and
such things that result from
pollution.
This whole concept of cost-
benefit analysis is leading us in
the wrong direction. It seems to
me we should talk about cost-
effectiveness or least-cost with
respect to specific control meth-
ods. But we should not have to
rely upon cost-benefit analysis
to justify that healthful levels of
control be required. We can't
afford to get into trade-offs. If
we've got conditions that are
unhealthful, we just have to
correct them. D
MARCH 1979
33
-------
Update
Chemicals and Health
Continued from page 7.
Roy E. Albert, M.D.
Chairman, EPA Carcinogen
Assessment Croup; Professor
and Deputy Director, Institute
of Environmental Medicine,
New York University Medical
Center
My remarks are directed toward
carcinogens since my experi-
ence from a research and regu-
latory standpoint is greatest
with them. I don't believe it is
an exaggeration to say that we
need some form of regulatory
control on all agents that show
substantial evidence of carcino-
genic action either by animal
bioassay or on the basis of
epidemiological studies. How-
ever, I do believe it would be an
exaggerated response to the
danger of carcinogens to require
virtually zero exposure for all
such agents.
What we need, and do not yet
have, is an overall Federal reg-
ulating strategy that would seek
to maximize the chances of
reducing the heavy public
health burden of cancer which
currently kills one of every five
of us. There is evidence that
environmental agents play a
causal role in a large proportion
of cancers and that there are
hundreds of carcinogens and
carcinogenic cofactors in the
environment that may act in-
dividually or in concert to
produce cancer.
I think the regulatory strategy
that would have the best chance
of success is one that would
seek to control carcinogens
wherever they occur but only to
a reasonably low level of expo-
sure rather than to virtually zero
exposure. Also, particular atten-
tion ought to be paid to elimi-
nating pockets of high level
exposure whether they occur in
the occupational or environ-
mental setting.
In short, I suggest that we
ought to think in terms of eas-
ing the stringency of controls
for individual carcinogens as a
trade-off for getting controls in
place for as large a number of
carcinogens as possible. I think
this is the direction that would
gain the biggest public health
returns for the regulatory
investment.
Paul G. Rogers
Former Congressman and
former Chairman, House
Subcommittee on Health and
the Environment
The question is deceptively
straightforward. The problem is
that we don't really have a sim-
ple answer. Our experience
with some very specific chem-
ical substances—for example,
PCB's, vinyl chloride, and DDT
—has awakened our concern
about the whole spectrum of
chemicals. This concern is
heightened when we realize the
breadth of possible human ex-
posure—that there are close to
four million chemical sub-
stances known to man and that
some 70,000 of these are now in
commercial use. With as many
as 400 new substances entering
the market each year our past
experience means that we do
know that what we don't know
is legitimate cause for concern.
We do know that we need a
system capable of examining
the safety of these substances.
We do know that we need to
expand upon our present knowl-
edge and attempt to answer
some of the very difficult scien-
tific questions concerning the
possible hazards of long-term,
low-level exposures, of latency
periods and the complex issue
of synergistic effects.
We also know that there are
indications that a substantial
number of cancers, as well as
birth defects and other serious
health problems, are related to
occupational and environmental
exposures to chemical sub-
stances. In terms of possible
threats to human health and
well-being the unanswered
questions are not academic
ones, but quite personal in their
impact on our daily lives.
I believe that with the pas-
sage of legislation such as the
Toxic Substances Control Act,
with new efforts in basic re-
search, and with improved sys-
tems of data and information
gathering we will be able to
strike a balanced, reasoned ap-
proach to the problem. Although
we do not intend to ignore the
possibility of harmful effects
from some chemical sub-
stances, neither do we intend to
go too far in the other direction
and indiscriminately paint all
chemical substances as sus-
pect. It appears that finding
answers to the broad questions
that face us lies not in a sim-
plistic, generic approach but
rather through an approach
which recognizes the specific
facts surrounding each sub-
stance. I believe that this is
precisely the approach which
we have chosen.
Arthur C. Upton, M.D.
Director, National Cancer
Institute. National Cancer
Program
Since the recognition of scrotal
cancer as an occupational
disease of chimney sweeps
over 200 years ago, more than
20 chemicals have since been
implicated as causing various
forms of cancer in other types
of workers. Environmental
chemicals have also come to
be linked with certain forms of
cancer in the population at
large. These observations, con-
sidered in the light of the grow-
ing number of new chemicals
being introduced into com-
mercial use each year, make it
increasingly important to eval-
uate suspected substances in
order to minimize any potential
hazards that they may pose.
Although proof that a chem-
ical can cause cancer in humans
rests only on the demonstration
of such an effect in human
beings themselves, the high
correlation between carcino-
genicity in humans and carcino-
genicity in animals makes it
possible to utilize animal tests
as a means of identifying pre-
sumptive carcinogens and
thereby instituting prudent
safeguards for the protection
of human populations. This
method for the evaluation of
environmental hazards consti-
tutes an essential approach
toward the prevention of can-
cer, which must be reflected in
modern public health policy. D
A review of recent major
EPA activities and devel-
opments in the pollution
control program areas.
AIR
New Rules Proposed
For Diesel Autos,
Light-duty Trucks
EPA has proposed new
standards for the control
of particulate exhaust
emissions from diesel-
fueled cars and light-duty
trucks.
The proposed standard
would take effect in model
year 1981 with a tighter
reduction scheduled for
1983 and later model
years. The standard for
the 1981 and 1982 model
years would be 0.6 grams
per mile. This would be
reduced to 0.2 grams per
mile for 1983 and later
models.
Douglas M. Costle,
EPA Administrator, said,
"Diesel cars emit between
30 to 70 times as many
particulates as catalyst-
equipped gasoline-pow-
ered cars. The expected
increase in diesel auto
production during the
next several years would
add to the difficulty of
cleaning up air pollution
in most cities."
Costle also said, "Par-
ticulates emitted from
diesel cars are small in
size and can penetrate
deeply into the lungs. We
are conducting health
effects research to deter-
mine if this pollutant can
cause cancer. However,
the standards being pro-
posed now are not based
on any such effect."
EPA Aid For
Urban Quality
In a new initiative toward
meeting President Car-
ter's goals to revitalize and
improve environmental
quality in urban America,
Administrator Douglas M.
Costle has announced
changes in the Agency's
pollution offset policy to
help cities avoid increases
in air pollution while at-
tracting business and
industry.
34
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Last March President
Carter announced pro^
posals for a comprehen-
sive national policy to
make America's cities
better places in which to
live and work, Costle ex-
plained. As part of this
innovative policy, he said,
the President promised
that EPA would amend
part of its air pollution
policy to more easily ac-
commodate new econom-
ic development in dirty air
areas, whilestill assuring
progress in meeting clean
air goals. EPA's recent
action addresses that
commitment.
The major EPA change
would permit localities to
"bank" reductions in pol-
lution beyond what is
presently required, includ-
ing reductions which re-
su It from firms going out
of business, Costle said.
These reductions, or clean
air credits, could later be
transferred to new firms
locating in the commu-
nity. This change would
encourage new industry
to locate in urban areas.
PESTICIDES
Agency Proposes
Use with Limits
EPA has proposed that
uses of the pesticide pro-
namide, marketed as
KERB, be allowed to con-
tinue as currently used on
lettuce, alfalfa, berries,
turf, commerciai nursery
plantings, and sugarbeet
seed, but with additional
precautions to reduce po-
tential risks to human
health.
The risks associated
with the use of pronamide
were weighed against its
benefits in a full-scale re-
view by the Agency before
final decisions were pro-
posed. Public review be-
gan in May, 1977, based
on data showing prona-
mide caused cancer in
mice. This data was con-
firmed during the review.
To reduce potential
risks to the general popu-
lation from pronamide
residues on lettuce, EPA
would reduce the amount
of residue allowed before
it is marketed, said EPA
Assistant Administrator
Steven D. Jellinek. To re-
duce potential risk to
applicators of pronamide.
EPA would require that
the use of the pesticide be
restricted to trained appli-
cators wearing protective
clothing, and that pro-
namide be marketed only
in water soluble packag-
ing to keep down dust
emissions when mixing.
Pesticide Proposal
EPA has proposed condi-
tional approval of the new
pesticide amitraz for use
on pears in the U.S. with
certain restrictions to re-
duce potential risks to
human health.
Conditional approval
means the use on pears
would be allowed for four
years pending completion
of additional laboratory
tests by the manufacturer.
Then EPA will consider
permanent registration of
the pesticide.
EPA's proposal follows
a full-scale review of the
risks vs. benefits of using
amitraz on pears. There is
some evidence amitraz
may cause tumors in lab-
oratory animals, and,
therefore, might present
a small risk of cancer to
humans. However, the
EPA would significantly
reduce these risks by im-
posing certain safeguards.
Specifically, EPA would
require application only
by trained users wearing
protective clothing. To
reduce residue levels on
the fruit before it is mar-
keted, EPA would require
longer periods from the
time a crop is sprayed to
the time it is harvested.
WATER
Symposium On
Estuary Pollution
An international sympo-
sium on the effects of
nutrient enrichment in
estuaries will be held May
29-31 in Williamsburg,
Va. The conference is
being organized by the
Chesapeake Research
Consortium and spon-
sored by EPA. For more
information, contact Dr.
Bruce J. Neilson, Virginia
Institute of Marine Sci-
ence, Gloucester Point,
Va. 23062.Phone: 804-
642-2111.
Water Cleanup
Seminar
Participants in the Water
Pollution Control Federa-
tion's 13th annual Gov-
ernment Affairs Seminar
will include Thomas C.
Jorling, EPA's Assistant
Administrator for Water
and Waste Management,
as well as representatives
from other Federal and
local government agen-
cies, private industry, and
the Federation.
The seminar is set ior
March 20 at the May-
flower Hotel, Washington,
D.C. The topic will be
"Actions and Interactions:
Toward the Implementa-
tion of the Clean Water
Act." For further informa-
tion, contact the Federa-
tion at 2626 Pennsylvania
Ave., N.W., Washington,
D.C. 20037, or call (202)
337-2500.
AGENCY WIDE
EPA Budget Increase
President Carter has
proposed for the EPA a
fiscal year 1980 budget
that increases last year's
operating budget by $76.6
million and 247 people.
Under the proposal, the
Agency's total budget
would be $5.1 billion,
$3.8 billion of this for
constructing sewage treat-
ment plants, and $1.3 bil-
lion for the Agency's
operating program. EPA's
permanent workforce will
grow to 10,945.
"While the total Fed-
eral budget for 1980 re-
flects an overall reduction
in Federal employment
and a major effort to re-
duce the annual Federal
deficit, the President has
increased EPA's operating
budget," said EPA Assist-
ant Administrator William
Drayton. "The President
has once again recognized
the growing complexity of
environmental and pre-
ventive public health
problems and demon-
strated his commitment
to solving them."
The largest increases in
the 1980 budget are:
• $44.4 million and
167 people to center on
the testing of toxic chem-
icals and the review of
new compounds before
they are marketed.
• $37.0 million and 46
people to further research
the connection between
pollution and human ill-
ness.
• $37.3 million in
grants to the States for air
pollution control, drinking
water improvement, haz-
ardous waste control, and
consolidating State envi-
ronmental programs.
• $1 5 million to ex-
tend air pollution controls
to new industrial plants,
called "new source per-
formance standards," for
all major industrial cate-
gories by 1982.
Economic Impact
Report
The costs of air and pollu-
tion cleanup required by
Federal legislation will
add no more than 0.1 to
0.2 percentage points to
the average annual infla-
tion rate over the next
eight years, says a new
study of the economic
effects of pollution con-
trols. It also shows that
the unemployment rate
will drop an average of
0.2 to 0.3 percentage
points during the same
period due to the exist-
ence of Federal cleanup
programs.
These findings are con-
tained in a new study
titled "The Macroeco-
nomic Impact of Federal
Pollution Control Pro-
grams: 1978 Assess-
ment," which was re-
cently released by the
EPA and the Council on
Environmental Quality.
The study does not, how-
ever, take into account the
many health and other
benefits that result to so-
ciety from cleaning up
pollution.
"Over the last year or
so government regulation
has been subject to with-
ering criticism for its in-
flationary effects. This
study shows that environ-
mental quality programs
will add very little to in-
flation over the next few
years, while at the same
time reducing the unem-
ployment rate," said
Council Chairman Charles
Warren.
"This study confirms
previous findings that en-
vironmental regulations
have some positive effects
on employment," said
EPA Administrator Doug-
las M . Costle. "Even with-
out taking into account
the benefits of regulation,
the study shows inflation-
ary impacts that are rela-
tively small. We must
continue to be vigilant in
reducing the costs of in-
dividual regulations, but
this study indicates that
the total impacts are with-
in reason."
The 51 -page report was
prepared by Data Re-
sources, Inc., a Cam-
bridge, Mass.. firm. It cov-
ers the period 1970-1986.
EPA, Agriculture
Cooperation Pact
EPA and the U.S. Depart-
ment of Agriculture re-
cently renewed an agree-
ment to share employees,
funds, and facilities to
clean up rural waterways,
protect important farm
and forest land from de-
velopment, create sound
pest control programs,
and cooperate in other
areas of mutual interest.
Agriculture Secretary
Bob Bergland and EPA
Administrator Douglas M.
Costle have signed a five-
year "memorandum of
understanding" to pursue
"common objectives, in-
terest, and statutory re-
quirements, and to avoid
duplication of effort."
The new agreement re-
places a 1974 cooperative
pact.D
MARCH 1979
35
-------
People
Andrew J. Young, Jr., U.S. Am-
bassador to the United Nations,
spoke at the opening ceremony
of EPA's Black History Week
Celebration. Young told the
assembly at the Arena stage
that, "Growing up black in the
South we had no need for a
black history week. We always
knew who we were because
there was a constant struggle
for identity." He noted that in
this country, "we have seen
progress we never expected
possible." Young said that the
work of Dr. Martin Luther King,
Jr., and the civil rights move-
William N. Hedeman, Jr.
He is the new Director of EPA's
Office of Federal Activities.
Hedeman began his career with
the U.S. Army Corps of Engi-
neers in 1968 at its Baltimore
District following graduation
from the University of Maryland
School of Law. In 1971, he was
nominated by the Corps to par-
ticipate in its Fellowship Pro-
gram in Water Resources and
Environmental Law, which is
sponsored by the Corps in con-
junction with the National Law
Center, George Washington
University. He received a Mas-
ters in Environmental Law from
ment in America gave form and
substance to the rising tide of
aspirations of people all over
the globe. He emphasized that
all forms of segregation limit
and deprive us, and that the
most powerful idea loose in the
world is that "all people are
somebody." Agency employees
heard presentations by numer-
ous speakers throughout the
week on the culture, history,
and accomplishments of black
Americans.
George Washington University
in 1972 and transferred to the
Office of the Chief of Engineers
as Counsel for its regulatory
programs. In this position,
Hedeman served as the prin-
cipal legal adviser to the Chief
of Engineers on the Corps' reg-
ulatory programs administered
under the River and Harbor Act
of 1 899 and Section 404 of the
Clean Water Act. In 1977,
Hedeman became legal adviser
to the Chief of Engineers for all
of the environmental programs
administered by his office.
Hedeman is also a mem-
ber of the faculty at the Na-
tional Law Center, George
Washington University, where
he instructs the course in Water
Resources Law. He earned a
B.A. degree from Gettysburg
College in 1964 and is the
author of several articles
related to wetlands.
EPA Update News, a taped TV
program about Agency activi-
ties, is now playing on screens
at Headquarters and the Agen-
cy's Regional Offices and lab-
oratories. The environmental
news format is patterned on
employee communication tech-
niques widely used in industry
and in Government. The pro-
gram has been commended by
EPA's leadership as an excel-
lent way to inform employees
about Agency developments.
William F. Gallogly, Chief of
the EPA Audiovisual Support
Branch and producer of the Up-
date series, has stated that "as
long as Update News has the
help and support of all employ-
ees, it can revolutionize infor-
mation distribution at the
Agency." In the photograph
above of the Update News pro-
gram set are (from left) camera-
man Harold Rice, anchorman
Scott Berdine, and Gallogly.
Deputy Administrator Barbara
Blum met recently with EPA's
Presidential Management in-
terns. They are part of an exec-
utive program to attract into
Federal service men and women
with exceptional potential and
training in planningand manage-
ment of public programs. Panels
of Federal, State, and local
government officials annually
choose 250 interns from over
1,000 graduate students nom-
inated by the Deans of public
management or business admin-
istration schools across the
Nation. Interns receive two-year
special appointments to Federal
agencies. At the end of the intern-
ship they can be converted to
permanent employees. As part
of the program EPA's interns
take supplementary training and
project assignments to broaden
their knowledge of the functions
of the Agency. EPA's interns
shown above with Deputy Ad-
ministrator Blum are (I. to r.)
Nancy Ventrone, Kathy Ken-
worthy, Julie Erickson, Elizabeth
LaPointe, Kirk Johnson and
Georgia Callahan. Other interns
in this program at EPA not in this
photo are Doris Sanders, Ed
Milch, and Laura Yoshii.
EPAJOURNAL
-------
News Briefs
Cancer Report
Issued
Cleaner Air
EPA and three other Federal agencies have joined
in issuing a report that describes their scientific
approach to deciding whether a compound could cause
cancer, and methods for estimating the risk such a
substance poses to people. EPA took this step with the
Food and Drug Administration, the Consumer Product Safety
Commission, and the Occupational Safety and Health Admi-
nistration to help provide consistent evaluation of
carcinogens in foods, consumer goods, workplaces, and the
environment. Administrator Costle cautioned that the
document, "Scientific Bases for Identifying Potential
Carcinogens and Estimating Their Risks," is not a state-
ment of uniform cancer policy. "The regulatory decisions
that each agency makes still will be determined by the
requirements and flexibility of the agencies' individual
statutes," he said. Scientists and the general public will
be encouraged to review the report and submit comments.
Single copies of the report may be obtained from the
Executive Assistant, Interagency Regulatory Liaison
Group (IRLG), Room 500, 1111 18th St, NW, Washington,
D.C. 20207.
EPA Administrator Douglas M. Costle recently released
data showing that although America has made significant
progress in cleaning up its air from 1972-1977, much
remains to be done. Citing figures from a new EPA
report, Costle pointed out that from 1972 to 1977:
—Sulfur dioxide levels dropped 17 percent.
--Carbon monoxide levels were cut 20 percent.
—Particulates (smoke and dust) decreased 8
percent, resulting in an estimated 18 million fewer
people being exposed to levels violating health
standards in 1977 than in 1972.
--Ozone levels showed little change, despite
a 30 percent increase in motor vehicle miles
traveled. (Ozone is indicative of photochemical
oxidants or smog.)
--Mitrogen dioxide levels increased.
While America's air has gotten cleaner, Costle
said, "We're still a long way from having healthy
air throughout the country. The problem of urban
smog is among the most difficult before us." The
new report is the National Air Quality, Monitoring
and Emissions Trends Report, 1977.
States Served by EPA Regions Region 1 (Boston)
Region 2 (New York
City)
Is:..
R'.'tjion 3
Region 4 (Atlanta)
Region 5 (Chicagol
Region 6 (Dallas)
Hegiori 7 (K.
City]
Regions (Dem >
Francisco)
Region 10 (Seattle)
MARCH 1979
37
-------
Around the Nation
Environmental
Appointments
Gov. Edward J. King of
the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts recently
made two key environ-
mental appointments.
Named were John A.
Bewick, to he Secretary of
Environmental Affairs,
and Anthony D. Cortese
as Commissioner of En-
vironmental Quality Engi-
neering.
In his post Bewick
will direct all of Massa-
chusetts' environmental
activities such as air,
water, and noise pollution
control, and solid and
hazardous waste manage-
ment. Prior to his appoint-
ment Bewick was with the
Cabot Corporation, a land
development company,
whore he was develop-
ment manager for the
firm's energy group. He
has served with tho U.S.
Atomic Energy Commis-
sion and the New York
City Environmental Pro-
tection Administration.
He received a B.S. in
engineering from Cornell
University,andanM.B.A
and D.B.A. in managerial
economics from the Har-
vard Graduate School of
Business Administration.
Cortese has served
since 1976 as Director
of the Department's Air
and Hazardous Materials
Division, where he set
policy for and directed
air and noise pollution
control and solid and haz-
ardous waste programs
for the Commonwealth.
Before joining the depart-
ment Cortese was with
EPA's Office of Planning
and Evaluation in Wash-
ington and the Air Branch
in Boston. He has also
served with the U.S. Pub-
lic Health Service. Cor-
tese received a B.S. in
civil engineering, an M.S.
in environmental engi-
neering from Tufts Uni-
versity, and a Ph.D. from
the Harvard School of
Public Health.
NY Receives Grants
Region 2 has awarded
two grants to New York
State's Department of
Environmental Conserva-
tion. Under the Resource
Conservation and Recov-
ery Act EPA gave the
State $1.7 million to ex-
pand and improve the
hazardous waste and
solid waste management
programs in New York.
The grant is designed to
halt improper disposal of
wastes, which could ad-
versely affect ground-
water. The second grant
was for $9.5 million un-
der the Cleveland-Wright
Amendment of the Clean
Water Act, which per-
mits the State to have
increased responsibility
for the construction
grants program. Regional
Administrator Chris Beck
and former NY Dept. of
Environmental Conserva-
tion Commissioner Peter
A. A. Berle had signed a
Delegation Agreement,
which cleared the fast
obstacles in the award of
funds to finance the
State's administration of
its own construction
grants for a period of two
years.
National Steel
Penalty Set
The National Steel Cor-
poration has agreed to pay
$3.5 million in civil pen-
alties and to take neces-
sary steps to clean up
water pollution caused by
wastewater discharges at
its Weirton, W. Va., facil-
ity. The agreement calls
for National to install
approximately $21.6 mil-
lion in water pollution
control equipment there
to improve the water qual
ity of Harmon Creek and
the Ohio River. The fine
willbeheldin escrow for
one year and some of the
money could be returned
to the company based on
provisions of EPA's Civil
Penalty Policy, if National
submits additional plans
tocleanupairand water
pollution during that time.
Any remaining funds plus
interest will go to the U.S.
Treasury.
West Penn Agrees to
Scrubber
West Penn Power Com-
pany agreed to install a
scrubber at its Mitchell
Generating Station Unit
-3 near Monongahela,
Pa., to reduce harmful
sulfur dioxide emissions
from burning coal. The
agreement resolves a suit
filed by the Justice De-
partment on behalf of EPA
in 1977. The scrubber
must be installed and
operating in compliance
by September 21, 1982.
The company also agreed
to meet more stringent
pollution control require-
ments for 18 months fol-
lowing construction of the
scrubber in order to avoid
paying civil penalties.
During scrubber construc-
tion the company will burn
lower sulfur coal to mini-
mize sulfur dioxide
emissions.
Toxic Cleanup
Underway
An Environmental Emer-
gency Response Team
from Region 4 recently
directed the cleanup of
drums of toxic and flam-
mable hazardous waste,
which threatened a tribu-
tary of the Ohio River near
Louisville. During an epi-
sode of flooding on the
Ohio hundreds of drums
containing wastes from
chemical and pesticide
manufacturing plants
were washed from their
storage on an open farm
field. When flood waters
receded the drums were
found scattered on the
flood plain, caught in trees,
and floating in Stump
Gap Creek, a tributary
of the Ohio. Some drums
were oozing chemical
wastes onto the ground
and into the stream. Ken-
tucky Governor Julian
Carroll called on Presi-
dent Carter for Federal
assistance, citing the im-
mediate threat to four
public water supply wells
and a water supply well
on the Fort Knox Reserva-
tion. EPA responded with
$ 100,000 in emergency
clean-up funds. A contract
firm removed the drums
from the creek and flood-
plain to higher ground to
minimize the threat of
contamination to drinking
water supplies. The farm
where the wastes were
stored belongs to the
parents of Donald E.
Distler. president of Ken-
tucky Liquid Recycling,
Inc. Last December Distler
was found guilty by a Fed-
eral judge of criminally
discharging toxics into
the Louisville municipal
sewer system. During the
emergency clean-up work-
ers also discovered at
least three other sites
where drums containing
hazardous wastes were
buried just below the sur-
face. One of those sites is
owned by Distler. State
and EPA officials are
working together to deter-
mine final remedies for
the area. EPA's Response
Team continued to moni-
tor drinking water sup-
plies to ensure safety.
Scott Agrees to Fines
Scott Paper Company in
Wisconsin agreed recent-
ly to pay $1 million in
pollution control fines in
settlement of numerous
civil and criminal viola-
tions cited by both Federal
and State governments.
In addition, Scott has
agreed to enter a plea of
nocontestto 10 criminal
violations of the Federal
Clean Water Act. In an
unusual settlement, the
company will place
$600,000 of the fine in
a trust fund to help restore
Wisconsin environmental
quality.
Air Pollution Suits
Filed
EPA has filed lawsuits
against Bethlehem Steel,
U.S. Steel, and American
Brick, charging them with
violations of the particu-
late regulations of the
Clean Air Act. In all the
suits the Agency is ask-
ing the court to order a
clean-up schedule in addi-
tion to civil penalties of
$25,000 per day. The
fines would be retroactive
to August, 1977, the ef-
fective date of the Clean
Air Act. Two coke bat-
teries at Bethlehem's
mill in Burn's Harbor,
Ind., emit more than
2,200 tons of particulates
per year, more than four
38
EPA JOURNAL
-------
times the allowed amount.
EPA charges that the level
of particles in the area
around the U.S. Steel mill
in Gary, Ind., has been
seriously in excess of na-
tional health standards for
years. The mili itself is
said to emit three times
the allowed amount of
pollution. American Brick
plants in Dolton, III., are
also in areas that do not
meet health standards
according to the Agency,
and emit more than five
times the allowed amount
of particles.
[&M Seminar Held
Region 6 sponsored a
seminar for Texas State
and business leaders in
Phoenix, Ariz., on the In-
spection and Maintenance
program for motor ve-
hicles, which is mandated
by the Clean Air Act for
areas where the health
standard for hydrocar-
bons cannot be met. The
visitors from Texas saw
the Arizona program in
action and learned how it
has gained public support,
has been proved cost-
effective, and has reduced
automobile-related air
pollution. The program,
which is operated by a
private contractor, costs
the State nothing and re-
turns part of the fees col-
lected to the State to
cover administrative ex-
penses. The inspection
fee is $5 and repair costs
for vehicles that fail the
inspection have averaged
$23. Cars 13 years old or
older are exempt from the
inspection. Regional Ad-
ministrator Adlene Harri-
son commented, "Wheth-
erthe Texas Legislature
will pass the necessary
I&M legislation is uncer-
tain; but now the officials
have the facts on the in-
spection and maintenance
program. They've seen a
successful program in ac-
tion and know that it is an
alternative for achieving
clean air."
Penalty Proposed
EPA has proposed a civil
penalty of $5,000 against
theVelsicol Chemical
Corporation for alleged
violation of the Federal
Insecticide, Fungicide,
and Rodenticide Act. The
Agency alleges that Vel-
sicol added claims and
directions for use of the
product "Weedmaster
Herbicide" that were not
covered in the product
registration.
Hazardous Spill
Creates Ghost Town
Nearly 1,000 residents
were evacuated from
Sturgeon, Mo., in bitterly
cold, early morning hours
recently. Shortly before
midnight a railroad tank
car derailed at the edge of
town, ruptured, and
spilled 20,000 gallons
of chlorophenol, a type
of carbolic acid, over a
1,000-yard area before
the train came to a stop.
Police and firemen went
from door to door, advis-
ing residents to leave their
homes because of a possi-
ble health threat. The odor
of the chemical is ex-
tremely offensive and can
cause respiratory prob-
lems if there are large
concentrations in the at-
mosphere. It is most dan-
gerous when skin contact
is made. The evacuated
residents were taken to
schools and churches in
nearby communities. Em-
ployees of a local bus
company evacuated a
nursing home, carrying
the elderly to the buses.
The Salvation Army pro-
vided hot meals to the
evacuated residents and
the work crews in Stur-
geon. An EPA Emergency
Response Team inspected
the spilf site and deter-
mined there was very little
danger of the chemical
reaching surface or
groundwater due to a
heavy cover of ice and
snow on the ground. The
EPA staff set up air sam-
pling equipment to deter-
mine if the chemical was
concentrated enough in
the air to create a hazard.
The air samples were re-
turned to the EPA lab in
Kansas City, analyzed,
and given to a Kansas
University Medical Cen-
ter lexicologist for a med-
ical opinion. Thirty-six
hours after Sturgeon resi-
dents had left their
homes, EPA was able to
tell them it was safe to
return even though the
odor was still objection-
able. Emergency response
personnel remained on
the scene until the clean-
up was completed.
books in Spanish and Eng-
lish on pesticides. Work-
ers at the booth gave away
8,000 balloons reading
"Pesticides: Read the
Label." Some 60,000
people passed through
the building housing the
exhibit.
plans to assess a civil
penalty against the Bay
Area Rapid Transit sys-
tem, which is now moving
to remedy the situation.
Exhibit Emphasizes
the Label
An exhibit developed by
the Region 8 pesticide
program in cooperation
with the State Vocational-
Agriculture Program told
visitors to the National
Western Stockshow in
Denver recently about the
importance of reading the
label on pesticide prod-
ucts. The exhibit featured
a visual display comple-
mented by a continuous
slide-tape presentation.
A poster explaining how
pesticides affect bees ac-
companied a demonstra-
tion bee hive from the
National Bee Research
Laboratory in Laramie,
Wyo. The exhibit also dis-
played a teacher's packet
complete with puzzles,
glossary, and coloring
Chemical Misuse
Investigated
As a result of recent San
Francisco newspaper re-
ports, inspectors from Re-
gion 9 have been investi-
gating how the Bay Area
Rapid Transit system han-
dles, stores, and disposes
of polychlorinated bi-
phenyls (PCB's). The
papers said that transit
workers were not wearing
protective gloves or
masks when handling the
toxic materials. Reports
also alleged that blown-
out electrical capacitors
from the trains were being
shipped uncovered and
unlabeled to the Bay Area
Rapid Transit yard for
cleaning. Wastes contain-
ing PCB's were stored in
55-gallon drums, some
uncovered and exposed to
the elements. One drum
had been knocked over
and spilled approximately
25 galions of waste liquid
into the soil. The inspec-
tors found additional
problems, which they
brought to the attention
of transit officials. Drums
with removable lids and
no bung holes were stored
outside on a cement slab.
The date, nature, or quan-
tity of the contents were
not marked on the con-
tainers, and no records on
their disposition had been
developed. Although the
soil and water samples
taken around the transit
yard contained low PCB
levels, analysis showed
the materials in the drums
contained high PCB lev-
els. The Regional Office
Bunker Hill
Shutdown
A lead and zinc smelter
complex in Kellogg, Idaho
owned by the Bunker Hill
Co. shut down during a
period of air stagnation in
early January, in accord-
ance with its clean air
plan. The company chose
some time ago to install
less stringent emission
controls and to cut back
operations when air be-
came stagnant, rather
than installing more strin-
gent and costly controls
that would have allowed
it to remain in operation at
such times. In this case
the stagnant air coincided
with a cold spell that froze
water pipes and kept the
smelter shut down even
after winds cleared up thn
bad air. Congress noted
that employees and com-
munities might suffer eco-
nomic injury because of
corporate decisions to
choose the supplementary
control plan option. As a
result, the Clean Air Act
Amendments of 1977 re-
quired that new State
Clean Air plans include a
provision that "thn owner
or operator of such a
source may not temporar-
ily reduce the pay of any
employee by reason of the
use of such supplemont.il
or intermittent or other
dispersion-dependent
control system." EPA in-
terprets this clause to
mean that the new Idaho
State Clean Air Plan will
include a provision to
guarantee that smelter
employees will not suffer
pay losses if another shut-
down becomes necessary
after the State plan is
approved. FJ
MARCH 1979
39
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Cancer Risk
Co'itini/i.-f/ f/om p;ir;t> '.)
reason, we think it is necessary
to take all tumor types and
lesions into account in evaluat-
ing the likelihood that the agent
may pose a cancer risk to hu-
mans based on the response in
animal bioassay tests.
Do you think that the
Ames test or certain in
vitro tests will become
more important in rela-
tion to animal testing as
we get further into risk
assessment?
Hopefully. One of the handi-
caps of long-term animal bio-
assay tests of course is that the
test system is a very compli-
cated one, and the results are
sometimes very difficult to
interpret. Of course these tests
are also very costly to conduct
and interpretation requires ex-
perts often short in supply. In
implementing our various laws,
wo are necessarily relying on
the long-term bioassay testing
and there is a concern about the
cost as well as the available re-
sources for conducting all the
tests necessary to ensure hu-
man safety. Obviously there is
a good deal of interest in
shorter-term tests. To date,
I think that the only thing that
can be said is that there is in-
creasing knowledge about the
correlation between results in
the shorter-term tests, for both
in vitro and in vivo vs. the
longer-term bioassay tests.
However, these tests are not
regarded as adequate tools for
predicting carcinogenicity.
These tests best serve, at pres-
ent, as supportive or suggestive
evidence of carcinogenicity and
may be very useful in screening
and in setting priorities for
further testing. However, I think
there is hope that over the next
five years or so, these tests
can become more useful in
predicting of carcinogenic
effects.
Do we have a problem
with animal testing, in
that people choose in
some cases not to believe
that the substances will
affect them in the same
respect that it will a
mouse or hamster?
Yes. This is a very difficult con-
cept and one of the obvious
public concerns judging by the
correspondence we receive.
The basis for using !ong term
bioassay data to predict human
carcinogenicity is that, of the
25 or so known human carcino-
gens, all but one has been
shown to respond similarly in
rodents. This is obviously a
limited body of data; neverthe-
less, it is extremely difficult to
conduct human epidemiology
studies. Reliance on animal
data is obviously preferable to
testing in humans or to regulat-
ing only those substances that
have been demonstrated to
cause cancer in humans. Along
these lines, it is important to
note that, of those chemicals
tested both by the National
Cancer Institute as well as
those reported in the interna-
tional literature, only a small
percentage have actually
caused cancer in animals.
Therefore it is clear that not
everything causes cancer.
I think that somewhere in the
neighborhood of 17 to 20 per-
cent of all the chemicals that
have been tested have actually
shown tumor responses. And
this is fairly low considering
that the selection of chemicals
for this costly testing is biased
toward chemicals that might be
carcinogens.
Another facet, which is rarely
clear, is the matter of degree.
Some agents may be weak act-
ing carcinogens, which at low
levels may pose a relatively low
risk of cancer. But the message
that comes across to the public
is often in black and white
terms, either something causes
cancer or it doesn't. That's un-
fortunate because the probabil-
ity of any one person getting
cancer from exposure to a carci-
nogen is dependent on a series
of factors including individual
susceptibility, the levels of ex-
posure, and the carcinogenic
strength of the agent. Therefore,
the probability of an individual
getting cancer from exposure to
chemical carcinogens can be
reduced by reducing the levels
of exposure.
It is hard to get across to the
general public that we are deal-
ing with differing levels of prob-
abilities and not absolute cer-
tainties when we are talking
about an agent being a carcino-
gen, in the absence of human
epidemiology data.
Is there anything that's
important about the
cancer work we're doing
that may need to be
called to people's
attention?
Yes, the Agency is actually reg-
ulating carcinogenic substances
under seven major pieces of
legislation covering air, water,
drinking water, pesticides, solid
waste, radiation, and toxic
substances.
While the Agency thus far
has not articulated an across-
the-board policy for the regula-
tion of all carcinogens, largely
because our laws are so differ-
ent, we do have a consistent
basis for assessing the risk as-
sociated with carcinogens. Also
EPA as a whole is concentrating
on the evaluation of data for a
large number of suspected car-
cinogens. For example, to date
the Carcinogen Assessment
Group has reviewed data for 13
air pollutants, 31 pesticides,
and 24 water pollutants thought
to be carcinogenic. In addition
we are completing the review of
an additional 43 air pollutants
and 30 water pollutants in
1979. Regulatory policy is tend-
ing toward the regulation of the
greatest health hazards first, to
the extent that these can be
identified and toward overall
reduction in exposure to as
many carcinogens as possible.
I believe this goal is realistic
and is likely to achieve the
greatest improvement in public
health. The EPA is definitely
active in the area of cancer
prevention. [~]
•I • '
EPAJOURNAL
-------
Pollution Hunting in the
Great Smokies
Continued from page 28
other three or in case a more extensive
analytical examination was required.
Water samples were analyzed at EPA's
Environmental Research Laboratory in
Athens, Ga.
Of the 10 sampling sites chosen, four
were on the north slope (Tennessee side) of
the mountain range at various high and low
altitudes in mixed hardwood forests. An
additional four were on the south slope
(North Carolina side) at corresponding ele-
vations and in the same type of vegetation
as tnose on the north exposure.
The final two sites were high elevations,
one on a mountain top and one in a natur-
ally cleared area known as a "bald."
All of the sampling areas were at least
three miles from the nearest heavily trav-
eled roads.
Although the high altitude air sampling
sites were protected with barbed wire, EPA
scientists found that a bear cub had gotten
through the wire at one location and turned
over the batteries and pump. However,
even in this overturned position, the equip-
ment continued to function properly for an
eight-hour period.
In addition to Dr. Wiersma, members of
the science team participating in the Great
Smoky Mountains monitoring expeditions
were Kenneth Brown and Amy Cross, both
of the EPA Environmental Monitoring and
Support Laboratory at Las Vegas, Dr. Sue
Bratton, a Park Service ecologist stationed
at the park, and Don Kilgore, a Park Service
seasonal technician.
While the project is being conducted
under an interagency agreement with the
National Park Service, a number of other
organizations are also contributing consul-
tation and analytical support.
Biosphere Reserves such as the Great
Smoky Mountains National Park were iden-
tified to: provide a permanent record of the
natural state of the environment; ensure
undisturbed areas from which background
data on pollutant levels could be obtained;
serve as early warning sites for more dan-
gerous buildups in higher impact areas,
and provide repositories for natural
sources of genetic pools of animal and
plant species.
These reserves will be key units in the
Global Environmental Monitoring System
now being set up as a result of proposals
by the U.N. and several other international
groups. D
EPA scientists set up air monitoring device
in the Great Smoky Mountains.
Back cover: Early flowering heath, (Erica
curnea "Springwood pink" ), blooming in
the snow at Brookside Gardens in Wheaton,
Md.
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