Document qaODgz03y3QRbodYmGy8OY1YE

national observer SILVER SPRINGS, MD. ' W. 500,000 J'JL 12 )^7l . Report From Mr. Kretchmer Watchman, What of'Environment? It's Beset--and So Is the Watchman By Nina Totenberg Fi:om Ni:w Voick City Jerome Kretchmer is a muslanlied young lawyer who was put in charge of cleaning up New York City's environment 14 months ago. By now, he ieels he lias been abused by business and industry. Ilis experiences to date have taught him to disiuist the makers of baby powder and electric power alike, he told a panel at the American Bar Association's annua! ............ _...... . meeting here last j week. New York may have a dirtier environment than ; most cities, and Mr. Krelehmor may be | more pohticfliy am- bilious ti,an moM environment watch men; but his ex periences ns admin istrator of the city's I environmental pro tection administra tion perhaps are Mr. Kretcluner typical of the frus trations faced by local environment officials. Mr. Krelchm-.-r cited some particular incidents. During the wees of Barth Day 1070, 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. Krelciuner's agency issued an order setting severe re strictions on the spraying. The next day, he said, the contractors "magically dis covered a.substitute existed." Other con tractors agreed also to use the substitute or to follow the restrictions. But, lie said, most of them "consistently violated both their agreement and tiie 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 test two brands of talcum pow der: they found that the powders ccniained from 5 to 25 per cent pure asbestos that can be l caddy inhaled hy users and their infants, he said. The New York environ ment agency then aske-u the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to run the son of ex haustive tests that Mt. Sinai is not equip ped to inn. I.oca! newspapers declined to publish the city's preliminary findings because the brands were not named, Mr. Kretchmer said. I'.ut the manufacturer of one of the two brands, according to Mr. Kretcluner, told ike press that its products were "total ly us'ws-os-frc-e," a statement that Mr. k-I,-is; rated as "totally truth-Iiec." Here.aft hers at Ml. Sinai Hospital, how ever, said the tests they conducted were limited and inconclusive. But they sug gested that people use other materials, such a corn starch, instead of talcum until the preliminary results that show a poier.'tal kusard can be. clarified. Foes Aplenty Mr. Kretchmer also had unkind words for other segments of business and in dustry: the reai-eslatc managers who fought air-pollution laws that affected apartment-house incinerators; manufac turers who balked al using recycled ma terials; electric-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. ICretchmer's hate-list too. He noted that New York City lias a Federal grant to test lowpolluting vehicles, but asserted that tlic 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 to 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 Pose-, that `we have met the enemy and lie is us.' I am really weary of seeing that Pogo quote on every piece of environ mental nicralurc. It is loo easy to blame everybody, because if everyone is guilty, no one is guilty, tt Mr. Kretchmer con cluded. 3APCO KIN 0001400