Document 8O2jpLb1Z07yvqpz7dZ4MJY3o

NATIONAL OBSERVER SILVER springs, MD. W 500.000 PLAINTIFF'S EXHIBIT JUL 12 '^7l . . Report 'From Mr. Kretchmer Watchman, What of`Environment? It's Beset--and So Is the Watchman By Nina Totenberg Kko.m Nr.w Yoke City Jerome Kretchmer is a muslached young lawyer who was put in charge of cleaning up New York City's environment 14 months ago. By now, he feels he has been abused by business and industry. His experiences to date have taught him to distrust the makers of baby powder and electric power alike, he told a panel at the American Bar Association's annua! _____ ... ... meeting here last " ' " ' l. s week. New York may have a dirtier environment than most cities, and Mr. Kretchmer may he more politically am bitious ilian most environment watch men; but his ex periences ns admin istrator of the city's environmental pro tection administra Mr. Kretchmer tion perhaps are typical of the frus trations faced by local environment officials. Mr. Kretchmer cited some particular incidents. During the week of Earth Day lf<70. as Mr. Kretchmer prepared to take office, he learned that building contractors at the World Trade Center were about to spray 1,200,000 pounds of asbestos as in sulation on the beams and girders of two towers. The contractors "knew that as bestos spraying in the open air sends out clouds of fine, indestructible particles that when breathed . . . cling to the lung per manently, leading to an extraordinarily high rate of lung cancer" and other dis eases. Mr. Kretchmer told the Bar As sociation, Presto'. A Substitute The contractors insisted they had no choice but to spray, and Mr. Kretchiner's agency issued an order setting severe re strictions on the spraying. The next day, he said, the contractors "magically dis covered a.subsiiiute existed." Other con tractors agreed also to use the substitute or to follow the restrictions. But, he said, most of them "consistently violated both their agreement and the legal commission er's order" during the rest of 1970 unless an inspector was on the scene. Another unresolved asbestos contro versy involves talcum powder--baby powder--declared Mr. Kretchmer, Talc occurs in nature along with asbestos. So the city asked researchers at Mt. Sinai Hospital to lest two brands of talcum pow der; they found that the powders contained from 5 to 25 per cent pure asbestos that can be readily inhaled by users and Uieir infants, he said. The New York environ ment. agency then asked the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to run the sou of ex haustive tests that Mt. Sinai is not equip ped to run. Local newspapers declined to publish the city's preliminary findings because the brands were not named, Mr. Kretchmer said. But the manufacturer of one of the two brands, according to Mr. Kretchmer, told lire press that its products were "total ly asbestos-free," a statement that Mr. tfwiriiwv rated as "totally truth-free." Nest-archers at Mt. Sinai Hospital, how ever. said the tests they conducted were limited and inconclusive. But they sug gested that people use other materials, such .ns corn starch, instead of talcum until the preliminary results that show a polem ial hazard can be clarified. X'ocs Aplenty Mr. Kretchmer also had unkind words for other segments of business and in dustry: the real-estate managers who fought air-pollution laws that affected apartment-house incinerators; manufac turers who balked at using recycled ma terials; clectric-power officials who com plained about the city's new air-purity code; and merchants who objected that the city's street-closing program cost them business. The car, of course, was on Mr. Kretchmer's hate-list too. He noted that New York City has a Federal grant to test lowpolluting vehicles, but asserted that llic pollution-free car suggestions are coming, not from Detroit as might be expected, but from private people and small compa nies. "The environmental movement, right up lo the first Earth Day, was a love feast with no enemies," fumed Mr. Kretch mer. "Who could be for pollution? Now the environment movement believes, with Pogc-, that 'we have met llic enemy and he is us.' I am really weary of seeing that Pogo quote on every piece of environ mental lilcraltHfc. It is ipo easy lo blame everybody, because if everyone is guilty, no' one is guilty," Mr. Kretchmer con cluded. CAPCO KIN 0000659