Document ZBm95wrk0XK1zyk3XE28MwybZ

A- Ik k>. C Hi Ho / /Ho o H Se/fee H THE NEW YORK TIMES, FRIDAY, MARCH 29, 1985 E.P.A. Proposes Allowing Emissions of Cancer-Causing Substance By PHILIP SHABECOFF plant. The rules changes would set no leases, but the law also permits crimi E.P.A. data. 9padal to Tb* Htir York Tli limit on the amount of the individual nal penalties. David D. Doniger, a lawyer for the WASHINGTON, March 23 -- The Erv discharges. The proposed rules changes were Natural Resources Defense Council, an vtronmental Protection Agency has `Aggressive Enforcement* proposed changing Its rules to allow some controlled air emissions of vinyl chloride, a cancer-causing substance. ' The agency said It was planning the changes to make the rules easier to en force and therefore more likely to pro tect health. Under current rules, discharges of vinyl chloride Into the air are prohib ited except in * `emergencies'* that are hot preventable by the producing plant. If emissions can be prevented, they are not considered emergencies and are Charles L. Elkins, the environmental agency's acting assistant administra tor for air and radiation, said that the change was being proposed "so we can have an efficient, aggressive enforce ment program without having to look at every single incident" Involving the discharge of vinyl chloride. Now, each time there Is such an Incident, the staff of the environmental agency must in vestigate to determine whether or not It was an emergency. Subject to penalties. According to E.P.A. figures, nearly a The agency has proposed that in million pounds of vinyl chloride was stead of prohibiting all but emergency discharged into the air from 1977 to published in the Federal Register in environmental group, said the pro January and the comment period posed rule changes meant that the en ended Monday. Final proposed rules vironmental agency, as a matter of must be Issued and comments must be policy, would permit discharges of a taken before any charges are is put Into known cancer-causing substance Into effect. the air, even though "the best scientific Critics, including environmentalists evidence Is that there is no safe level of and the environmental agency official exposure for any carcinogen." said today that the changes would per mit more vinyl chloride pollution of the 'Screw Down on EmissIons' air and thus increase the threat of can "If the Bhopal accident and all the cer to people In the vicinity of plants. new information about releases in New Vinyl chloride, which Is used In the Jersey and elsewhere have shown any manufacture of plastics and other ma thing this winter, it is that the E.P.A. terials, has been found to cause brain has to screw down on emissions of toxic and liver cancer in humans and is cur air pollutants, not ease controls," Mr. rently one of five toxic air pollutants Doniger said. releases, plants making vinyl chloride be permitted a certain number of dis charges of the substances each year. The number of permissible emissions Would range from four to seven, de pending on the size and location of the 1960. According to an agency official in the office that prepared the proposed changes, who asked not to be identified, none of the discharges were a result of an emergency and they were acciden tal. Fines have been levied for the re regulated by the Environmental Pro tection Agency. There are about 30 plants producing vinyl chloride around the country, in cluding five in New Jersey and one in Niagara Falls, N.Y., according to The official in the E.P.A. office that prepared the changes said that the cur rent rules did take up a considerable amount of time and money to enforce and that the changes would free re sources to concentrate on a variety of other enforcement actions. But the official said that If the t changes were adopted, "There will Test Diagnoses Muscular Disease in Fetuses definitely be more vinyl chloride in the air and are will be able to take much fewer enforcement actions." Wf Tbs AiwcUtad . The first reliable test for the most common kind of muscular dystrophy can diagnose the disease in a fetus as early as the eighth week of pregnancy and identify mothers who are carriers, study says. - The disease, Duchenne muscular dystrophy, afflicts 90,000 to 100,000 American boys and young men who will not survive beyond their 20's, ac cording to the Muscular Dystrophy As sociation in New York. Egbert Bakker, one of the test's developers, puts Its accuracy at 99 per cent and says It can be used In 90 per cent of families In which the Illness has appea red. Mr. Bakker, of the Department of The test relies on the determination of a genetic "fingerprint" characteris tic of each family. in many families this fingerprint will be found only in males with muscular dystrophy and in female carriers. It Is produced by normal genetic variations called restriction fragment length polymorphisms. Entire families including a member with muscular dystrophy must be tested to find the fingerprint. Genetic material Is extracted from the blood and analysis. In a fetus, doctors can obtain a genetic sample using amniocentesis or the newer procedure of chorionic biop sy England. One-third of muscular distrophy cases come from genetic mutations In Individuals who have no family history of the disease, a researcher said. The normal route of Inheritance of Duchenne muscular dystrophy Is through mothers who are carriers, but have no signs of the disease. The sons of carrier-mothers have a 50 percent chance of having the disease and half of a carrier's daughters will themselves be carriers. Duchenne muscular dystrophy Is the moat rapidly progressing and one of the most common forma of muscular dys trophy. "This is not sinister," the official said, "but It just so happens the effect is a loosening of the regulations." Mr. Elkins said that In view of the criticism he had asked the agency's of fice of air quality standard to take an other look at the proposed change "to make sure it Is the best we can come up with." Efforts to reach officials of the Vinyl Institute, the Industry group that rep resents manufacturers of the subject, were unsuccessful. The Institute's pub lic affairs official said that the execu tives who could comment were travel ing and could not be reached. The agency official said that the institute supported the rules changes. Human Genetics at the Slate Univer In a matter of months, researchers sity in Leiden. The Netherlands, is one expect to Isolate the precise gene that of 10 doctors and scientists from five Is defective in muscular dystrophy. countries who are reporting the devel- Then the test will be accurate ion top a io (27 Hx36 Single Dc (7iHx18 2 Shelve. Double 0 Whrdrotx (71 H*36 Hang Ro Combo! I iw 89 Se N MonSunday ' VAB.0001114288 f