Document Nz4x9YKmByxbm8aXbbGKXK9y

FILE NAME: New York State & NY Times (NY) DATE: 1966 May 13 DOC#: NY020 DOCUMENT DESCRIPTION: NYT Article - Mayor to Revive Air Pollution Board By PETER KIHSS , ,, NP8e-w62York Times (1857-Currentfile); May 13,1966; ProQuestHistorical Newsp_a_p_e_r_s_T_h_e_N__e_w__Y_o_r_k_T__u_n_e_s_(_1_85_1_-_2< H/layor to Revive Air Pollution Board By FREEH KIHSS Mayor Lindsay declared yes terday he would revive what he. called the "dormant" Board of Air- Pollution Control as a. policymaker. Be named Robert A. Fax, & 34-yesr-ald chemical engineer, to fid a board post th at bad been-vacant; seven years. Arthur J. Benline, Cenunlstioncr of Air M o tto s control, asserted later, however, that "the board had not been dor* Boaftt" Be b u d its "most im- portant contribution" bad beenthe research agency's working development of a comprehensive group an air pollution. new control cote in 1961. A study of construction The city's air was not only worker deaths, he said, bad pin polluted but turbulent with pointed asbestos dust as a <$&* criticisms yostarday. Oounod- of lung and peritoneal cancer. man Robert A. Low, DemocratLiberal of M anhattan, charged Six lives bad been saved by the Mayor with an "ill-advtsr early detection and surgery, he proposal to cut funds for the said, and steps were being tak Health Research Council. en to reduce a danger to which During a ceremony in Which 400,000 New Yorkers may be be received the Fluidic &m erit H ealth award from Association exposed. of New York City, Mr. Low re A Republican, S tate Senator ported 'remarkable results" by Whitney N orth Seymour Jr. of Ma>hpawi la n fd a memoran dum branding Governor Rocke feller's May 2 a ir pollution pro posals as lacking in leadership and "essentially a mimicry" of Federal action. The Governor, Mr. Seymour contented, failed to grapple with an urgent need for state action against automotive air pollution. The Senator urged state research to develop "new power sources to r vehicles," 8 marketable exhaust control, and controls over dust from tire, brake and road wear, along with highway and traffic plan ning to elim inate urban con- The antipollution board here consists of the Commissioners of Air Pollution Control, Health and Buildings and two mem-, bers appointed by the Mayor for four-year term s. The chart says regular meetings "shall be held a t least once every month." In a statem ent, M ayor Und- say declared he intended to give the *board im por tance" in working w ith Austin N. Heller, a Federal official who is to become antipollution Mr. Fax, the new board mem-' ber, served on the M ayor's task* force on air pollution th a t re ported this week. He is a senior project engineer for tbe Colum bia Gas System Service Cor poration, and designed a ir and w ater pollution controls fo r a petro-chemical complex con structed In Frankfort, Germany. 'Meetings Held BenBne Says Commissioner Benline com mented th at he had notified Mayor Lnidsay early in Janu ary about a vacancy in the nonofficial post since Richard A. Wolff bad become his depart mental deputy in 1959. Mr. Benline said he held frequent tele phone conferences w ith board members; and there had been formal meetings in Now erober, February and March, while the 1964 code work saw as many as three and four sessions a week. t Councilman Low, whose m erit award was for "persistent and productive efforts" against air pollution, said tbe board's 1964 cod embodied "the m ost ad vanced regulations in the United States--the difficulty has been in enforcement." In a ceremony a t the New York Academy of Medicine. 2 B ast 103d 8treet, Mr. Low noted the Mayor's new budget pro-1 posed a 1500,000 cut & thei Health Research Council's $8- \ million budget. Yhe Mayor called this a move "to phase out; of the program th o se j^ a w e b giants which are of. national, rather than local concern." .,- But Mr. Low said "th e d ty 'sl investment in research hast acted as `seed money'." In five years, he said, tbe city had ap propriated $17.7-4niflk>p, which resulted in attracting $97-mflHon in Federal, state and pri vate funds for the program s. W ithout city sxqppcot of health research, Mr. Low cited estim ates th a t "as m any as 200 doctors would leave the city's 1 hospltal-medlcal-school system,' along w ith 480 assisting tech-! nicafpersonnel? in favor of newj medical institutions elsewhere.|