Document a42w3QbKgxrDden4vN1R3vkGY

NEWS AND COMMENT dieldrin or DDT, no judge has actually outlawed the use of these pesticides, br acknowledged that Yannacone's constitutional theories have validity. In DDT: The Critics Attempt general, judges have held that it is within the discretionary authority of state and local agencies to decide To Ban Its Use in Wisconsin whether or not to use pesticides, and that for the courts to interfere would be improper. In the present Wisconsin case, how ever, EDF has not had to test far-out legal concepts. For a 1943 Wisconsin Madison, Wisconsin. For the past year and a half DDT and other per sistent pesticides have had a persistent enemy in the Environmental Defense Fund, a fledgling Long Island-based organization founded in the fall of 1967 (Science, 22 December 1967). EDF has tried to prevent local and state agencies from using DDT or dicldrin by filing suits in state or fed eral courts (sometimes in both) in New York, Michigan, and Wisconsin. Its success in court has been limited, but EDF is now taking 'advantage of an administrative hearing procedure pro vided by the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, and this may give EDF its best chance yet to win a ma jor victory. For 3 weeks in December and Janu ary EDF, led by Victor J. Yannacone, Jr., a 32-year-old attorney from Patchogue, Long Island, had its scien mercial agriculture for 1 year, but this was not done to condemn this pesticide as a pollutant. Rather, it was done largely to ease the fears of dairymen and livestock and food-crop growers that their products might be found to have DDT residues exceeding accept able tolerance levels and be declared unmarketable.) . EDF's scientific witnesses, some ten of them altogether, included fisher}' and wildlife biologists, botanists, an organic chemist, a pharmacologist, and an en tomologist. A frequent tactic of at torneys for the agricultural chemical in dustry was to try to show, through cross examination, that EDF witnesses were testifying outside their areas of scientific competence. Yannacone in sisted, however, that these witnesses were not to be pigeonholed as narrow specialists; they were, he said, investi gators belonging to an "environmental statute allows private citizens to petition a state agency for a ruling on how, or whether, laws or regulations (in this instance, the water quality standards) which it administers apply to a particu lar question (such as the charge that ';DDT is a pollutant). The Department of Natural Resources' willingness to rule on the anti-DDT petition, presented by EDF on behalf of two Wisconsin con servation groups, is itself significant; had the department wished, it no doubt could have found reason to reject the petition. That the petition was not rejected reflects the widespread concern felt within the state about DDT. U.S. Sena tor Gaylord Nelson and a number of other prominent Wisconsin politicians have been advocating an outright ban on DDT. Conservation groups, which are politically potent in Wisconsin, en courage this attitude. Also, there is the tific witnesses testifying on ecological effects of DDT. It built up its most comprehensive case to date against this pesticide which it regards as an en vironmental contaminant that should be science community" whose members stay in close touch and use teamwork to understand ecological problems. Nesting Failures fact that even some farmers, especially among the dairymen, feel DDT should be banned, although the Wisconsin Farm Bureau Federation does not agree. banned. The testimony ranged widely but The water quality standards which When the hearings (now in recess much of it focused on reproductive the department will interpret, subject to for a month or longer) are resumed, failures in certain species of birds, such court review, would seem to give EDF the agricultural chemical industry will as the bald eagle and peregrine falcon. a real possibility of getting a favorable present its defense. The industry may EDF witnesses related in detail how, ruling. According to these standards, a well be viewing the EDF challenge after years of scientific detective work substance shall be regarded as a pollut- j uneasily. For, while a ruling in EDF's by researchers in the United States and ant if its use results in public health favor would apply only in Wisconsin, abroad, these failures were traced to problems or in "acute or chronic [in- it would mean that a public agency had DDT or its metabolites. jury] to animal, plant, or aquatic life." concluded, on the basis of scientific In previous EDF cases Yannacone (Wisconsin is one of 7 states which testimony given subject to cross ex has gone into court asserting the novel now have federally approved water amination and rebuttal, that DDT was doctrine that citizens have a constitu quality standards. According to Bern a serious environmental pollutant. tional right to an environment un Wright, acting chief of the Federal Specifically at issue in the hearings spoiled by pollutants such as DDT. By Water Pollution Control Administra is the question whether DDT is a pol its pioneering effort, EDF has hoped to tion's water quality standards branch, lutant within the meaning of the water establish important legal precedents DDT would fit the definition of a pol quality standards administered by the and to cut out for itself a role in "con lutant under most, if not all, state stan Wisconsin Department of Natural Re servation law" analogous to the roles dards upon a showing that it is harm sources. The department could not the American Civil Liberties Union ful to aquatic life.) ban all use of DDT in Wisconsin, but and the Legal Defense Fund of the -- One of the prime movers behind the it could forbid all use of it resulting in NAACP have played so successfully in DDT hearings was Mrs. Lorrie Otto, water pollution. civil rights law. a Milwaukee suburbanite and DDT foe (The Arizona Pesticide Control Board But, although in some instances EDF of long standing who has been known recently banned use of DDT in corn- has delayed or prevented the usp of to store dead robins in her freezer for 548 SCIENCE, VOL. 163 DSW 201142 STLCOPCB4059206 use as evidence in her anli-DDT ap pearances before her village boar' ist year she joined the Citizens Neural Resources Association (CNRA), a rela tively small but sophisticated Wisconsin conservation organization to which a number of academic people belong, for the purpose of proposing that EDF be invited to Wisconsin to do battle against DDT. Her proposal was readily accepted, for CNRA had for some time viewed DDT as a major environmental threat. Moreover, CNRA knew of EDF from its earlier pesticide suits in the Mid west, which had received substantial press coverage. The Wisconsin division of the Izaak Walton League joined CNRA in petitioning for the hearings, and last fall these organizations raised nearly $20,000 to pay EDF's expenses (Yannacone is receiving no fee), the air fares and other expenses of witnesses, and the like. Also, a volunteer organi zation of about 60 people, a third of them University of Wisconsin scientists and graduate students, was set up to support the hearing effort in various ways, such as carrying on the literature search and providing quarters for EDF people and out-of-town witnesses. Ecologists "Build a Wall" The hearings began in December in the Assembly chambers of the State Capitol, but were moved later to the less formal atmosphere of a hearing room of the Department of Natural Resources. The hearing examiner, Mau rice K. Van Susteren, while conducting the hearings impartially, seems as in trigued as anyone by what EDF is try ing to do. "A legal case is like a wall, and you have to put it in brick by brick," he remarked to a Science re porter. "Usually, the scientist has been interested only in his own brick. Now ecologists are trying t<5 put all the bricks together." The hearings' most striking person ality is Yannacone, a dynamic, exuber antly aggressive individual who usually impresses scientists by his quickness in grasping scientific material. His style would go over poorly in a dignified Wall Street law firm. For example, at a meeting of the Littoral Society last fall, Yannacone, as the guest speaker, asked rhetorically what was the course of last resort in dealing with polluters and other despoilers of the environment. Then, grasping a revolving blackboard, he whirled it about so that it pro claimed, in large block letters, SUE THE BASTARDS! " FEBRUARY 1969 Nixon Panel Repots on Environment Conservationists who fear that the Nixon Administration will be insensitive to environmental problems can draw some solace from a confidential report prepared by a Nixon task force on Resources and the Environment. The report, which was made available to Science last week, urges that "improved environmental management be made a principal objective of the new Administration." What's more, there is reason to believe that the report's principal recommendations--includ ing the appointment of a special presidential assistant for environmental affairs--will receive a sympathetic hearing from key officials of the Nixon Administration. The environmental task force was one of many advisory panels set up after the November election to prepare reports on domestic issues for the incoming Administration. The reports have been kept under wraps by the Nixon forces, but a few have been leaked to the press. There is no certainty that any of the recommendations will be acted on, but the report on environmental problems may carry particular weight, for it was pre pared by a group" headed by Russell E. Train, president of the Conserva tion Foundation, who last week was named Under Secretary of the Interior, a position from which he will presumably be able to lobby effec tively for his group's recommendations. The environmental task force report, which was largely written by Train himself, is a strongly worded document that calls on the new Ad ministration to improve the environment because "the real stake is man's own survival--in a world worth living in." The report particularly stresses the need to improve "the declining environmental quality of our urban areas," where most of the population lives. The report suggests "no panaceas, no mammoth new programs." Instead, it urges that existing programs be made to work better through greatly increased appropriations, better coordination, new regional ap proaches, and a strengthened role for industry and for state and local governments. The most far-reaching recommendation calls for the President to ap point a Special Assistant for Environmental Affairs, who would serve as a "focal point" for the government's scattered environmental concerns and who "would evidence dramatically the new Administration's concern for a better environment." Task force members report that Lee A. DuBridge, Nixon's science advisor, is sympathetic to the idea, though he has not said so publicly. The task force also recommended that each federal agency whose activities "significantly affect the environment" should establish a "focal point of environmental responsibility"; and that the present inter-agenev Council on Recreation and Natural Beauty should be broadened into a Council on the Environment, with the Vice President continuing as chairman. "The present fragmentation, piecemeal approach, inadequate coordina tion, and lack of central policy direction and control of [environmental] programs constitute an obstacle to their effective implementation," the task force said. "More than just efficient administration is at issue. Fed eral programs with major environmental impacts, such as highway con struction, should take into account the side effects, such as air pollution, which are the program responsibility of completely separate agencies." The task force recommended against any major reorganization of gov ernment programs without a thorough study, but task force members believe even their relatively modest proposals could bolster the govern ment's efforts to make the world more livable.--Philip M. Boffey The task force included Edward A. Ackerman, Stanley A. Cain, Charles H. Calliscn, Joseph L. Fisher, Loren V. Forman, Charles H. W. Foster. Maurice K. Goddard, Norman B. Livermore, Jr., Charles F. Luce, John H. Meier, H. Byron Mock. Bernard L. Orcll, Nathaniel P. Reed, S. Dillon Ripley. Laurence S. Rockefeller, Lelan F. Sillin, Jr., John O. Simonds, M. Fredcrik Smith, and John \V. Tukey. DSW 201143 STLCOPCB4059207 EDF's other key figure at th .ear- r*- ' ings is Charles F. Wurstcr, Jr., an as sistant professor of biological sciences at the State University of New York at Stony Brook, Long Island. Through extensive correspondence and personal contact, Wurster has managed to build up EDF's scientists advisory committee until now more than 100 scientists are on tap to furnish opinions or testimony (though not all EDF witnesses are com mittee members). George M. Wood- well, chief ecologist at Brookhaven Na tional Laboratory, was the first to head the EDF committee, hut lacking time for it, he passed the job on to Wurster. , "Charlie is very, very bright and re members everything he reads," Wood- well says. "I think,, unquestionably, he knows more about persistent pesticides than anybody in the world." Of the several lawyers representing the agricultural chemical industry the one who has taken the most active part in the hearings is Louis A. McLean, a I deliberate, slow-talking man who ques tions EDF witnesses with an air of kindly forbearance. At the start of the hearings, McLean was himself called to the stand as an EDF witness. Yannacone questioned him about an Victor J. Yannacone, Jr., counsel for the Environmental Defense Fund. article in BioScicnce (September 1967) ; in which McLean had declared that the various organisms, from phytoplankton antipesticide people are compulsive and crustaceans to fish, birds, and types who, while seeking "youth and some mammals. purity in the simple and primitive," ac For example, Kenneth Macek, test tually fear loss of physical powers and ifying in his official capacity as a staff are "preoccupied with the subject of biologist of the Department of the In sexual potency." terior's fish-pesticide laboratory at Though Yannacone likes to play the Columbia, Missouri, told of his re underdog battling corporate giants, search findings that, when brook trout Willard Stafford, a prominent Madison were fed low, sublethal doses of DDT, attorney who has recently joined in the eggs and fry they produced had the DDT defense, says, "In this case, significantly higher mortalities; more it's hard to know which is David and over, the trout were more susceptible which is Goliath." For his part, Wurs to environmental stress (as from ter observes, "At first we were taken changes in water temperature). Also, for a bunch of bird-watchers, but the Macek noted that a colleague, Howard industry is worried now. They've got Johnson of Michigan State University, the money, we've got the science." had identified DDT residues as the The EDF Strategy " most probable cause of heavy mortali ties of coho salmon fry in Michigan The strategy used by EDF in pre hatcheries. senting its case was, first, to have A University of Wisconsin wildlife Wurster and others describe the ecologist, Joseph Hickey, testified on world's ecosystems as interrelated and avian reproduction failures attributed inseparable; then to tell how DDT is to DDT, particularly in birds of prey now present in all regions of the earth, such as the eagle, osprey, and pere having been found far from places of grine falcon. By the early 1960's, its application, even in Antarctica ornithologists in Europe and the where it has been detected in penguins. United States were aware that these Next, they related how DDT, by its birds were experiencing repeated nest broad biological activity, either killed ing failures and that catastrophic de outright or had sublethal effects on clines in population were under way. DDT residues, found in parent birds and in embryos, were suspected as a cause, but an explanation of just what was happening was lacking. In 1965 an international conference on the population biology of the pere grine falcon was held, and after this meeting, Hickey said, investigators began to focus on what had been dis covered to be a widely observed phenomenon: the eggs of the peregrine and some other raptors were often breaking and failing to hatch. A break through occurred in 1967 when D. A. Ratcliffe, a British ornithologist, re ported that an extraordinary change had occurred in the weight and thick ness of the shells of eggs produced by the falcon, the golden eagle, and the sparrow hawk. These birds, their cal cium metabolism having been some how upset, were laying thin-shelled eggs. Hickey and D. W. Anderson, a graduate student, confirmed this by their own comparison of eggshells pro duced in recent years by the falcon, the bald eagle, and the osprey with eggshells of the pre-DDT era avail able in various museums. In this study, Anderson is said to have examined 34,500 eggshells. An explanation of the mystery was now felt to be at hand. For, several years earlier, pharmacolo gists at the Burroughs Wellcome Re search Laboratory at Tuckahoe, New York, had discovered by chance that chlordane (a chlorinated hydrocarbon similar to DDT), which a caretaker had sprayed to put down an outbreak of bedbugs, was inducing enzymes in rats used in their drug research. Rats exposed to chlordane had quickly metabolized the pentobarbital admin istered to them and showed only slight reaction to the drug. DDT an "Enzyme Inducer" Later, it was learned that other chlorinated hydrocarbons, such as DDT, also were "enzyme inducers" in rats, and that the enzymes broke down not only drugs but a number of dif ferent substrates, including estrogen, a female sex hormone. Estrogen is known to play a role in mediating calcium metabolism in birds, causing them to accumulate calcium in the hollow parts of the skeleton, for later transfer by way of the bloodstream to the oviduct, where the eggshell is formed. Thus, Hickey and others, such as Wurstcr, hypothesized that, by break ing down estrogen and upsetting the 550 DSW 201144 SCIENCE, VOL. 16J STLCOPCB4059208 calcium physiology, DDT *and its metabolite DDE) was responsible for the avian reproduction failures that had so mystified them, though experimental evidence of this was lacking. Lucille Stickel, pesticide research co ordinator of the Department of the Interior's Patuxent Wildlife Research Center, in testifying for EDF, has now furnished experimental proof that the presence of sniaH quantities of DDT and DDE in the diets of mallard ducks decreased eggshell thickness, increased egg breakage, and decreased overall re productive success. Similar results were obtained from an experiment in which kcstrals, a species closely related to the peregrine falcon, were fed low dosages of DDT and dieldrin in combination, Mrs. Stickel said. Another EDF witness, Richard Welch, a biochemical pharmacologist with the Burroughs Wellcome Research Labora tory, said that, if one extrapolates from animal data, the prediction would be that DDT would have a biochemical effect on man causing an increase in the metabolism of hormones and drugs. In questioning Welch, Yannacone's purpose was, partly, to stress that the entire world population is presently being used as the involuntary subject of an uncontrolled experiment. Defense not Yet Heard The agricultural chemical industry is yet to be heard from and it may be that the Department of Natural Re sources will find the industry's defense persuasive. Medical experts will be in . vited to testify, and other scientists with special knowledge of pesticides surely will appear in the industry's behalf. Certainly EDF is still a long way from having won its case, for, even if the department decides in its favor, the industry would no doubt appeal to the courts. But, whatever else may be said, the Wisconsin hearings are a striking in stance of local conservation groups using a legal forum to deal with what they judge to be a major environmental problem. Just as striking is the fact that a state government is providing that forum, though Wisconsin has more of a progressive tradition than most states. Further, the role of the En vironmental Defense Fund in the DDT case clearly has been a key one and, had there been no such organization, it seems altogether possible that nothing would have happened. --Luther J. Carter 7 FEBRUARY W9 NEWS IN BRIEF o NIXON DIRECTIVES: President Nixon last week ordered the Depart ment of Defense (DOD) to prepare plans for ending the draft. He also questioned the NSF cuts in govern ment grants to colleges and universi ties, and called for a restudy of the supersonic transport (SST). Nixon asked DOD to develop a plan for re placing the draft with an all volunteer Army after expenditures in Vietnam had been substantially reduced. He told the Bureau of the Budget that he is "disturbed" over the NSF grant reduc tions which resulted from the spend ing ceiling imposed by Congress. Nixon's draft directive is interpreted as actionoriented, whereas the other tsvo direc tives were described as efforts to elicit information and advice, which may or may not prompt action. NEW NIXON APPOINTEES: Pres ident Nixon has named James E. Al len, Jr., New York State's Educational Commissioner since 1955 and a pro nounced advocate of school desegrega tion, to take over two previously sep arate positions--U.S. Commissioner of Education, and Assistant Secretary for Education in the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare (HEW). Michi gan State University President John A. Hannah was selected to head the Agency for International Development program. Last week, Nixon also named Gerard C. Smith, a former assistant secretary of state, to be director of the Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. AIR POLLUTION CURB: For the first time the Interior Department is allowing reprocessing of imported high sulfur fuel in the United States in an effort to reduce air pollution. On 9 January the department granted three U.S. firms permission to import speci fied quantities of high sulfur fuel oil and to convert it into low sulfur fuels which comply with stricter air pollu tion control regulations. Previously, im ported residual fuel oils could only be sold in their imported state; there was no permission for further processing or desulfurizing in the United States. UDALL HEADS CONSERVATION GROUP: Former Interior Secretary Stewart Udall has announced that he will serve as chairman of the board of The Overview Group, a new private consulting corporation, which will ad vise on conservation problems. Udall says that Overview, initially financed by its major officers, will not engage in basic research, but will seek to ad vise government, industry, institutions, and private organizations on environ mental problems, including the elimi nation of pollution, and the redevelop ment of urban and rural areas. Henry Kimelman, a former assistant to Sec retary Udall, will serve as president. Q ABM SITE SELECTION SUIT: A suit has been filed by Chicago area residents to prevent the Army from constructing an ABM missile site near Libertyville, Illinois. The Justice De partment told Science that the suit filed on 17 January' with the U.S. District Court in Chicago is the first private suit in connection with the contro versial Sentinel Antiballistic Missile System (ABM). Plaintiffs, including members of the Northern Illinois Citi zens Against ABM contest the missile installation for safety reasons. Local opposition to ABM installations has also been reported in Boston, Seattle, Detroit. Los Angeles, San Francisco, and other cities. YALE, DARTMOUTH LIMIT ROTC: Faculty members of Yale Uni versity and of Dartmouth College have voted to reduce the academic status of Reserve Officers Training Corps (ROTC) on their campuses. At Yale, the faculty recommended that no aca demic credit be given for ROTC, that ROTC be considered an extracurricular activity, and that ROTC instructors not have the customary rank of "professor." At Dartmouth, it was suggested that ROTC credits be phased out over a 3year period. Faculty proposals.at both institutions arc recommendations, and they require formal approval by each school's board of trustees. . NEW PUBLICATIONS: 1BRO Sur vey of Research Facilities and Man power in Brain Sciences in the United States, an NAS-NCR survey on re search interests in basic brain sciences, which was sponsored by the Interna tional Brain Research Organization, is available at no cost from the NASNRC Committee on Brain Sciences, 2101 Constitution Avenue. NW, Wash ington, D.C. 2041S. DSW 201145 55i STLCOPCB4059209