Document wDbxgJQ2mwZyr748n7EQ7odpJ

oAfrom the desk of DR. A.S. 9/18/74 to Messrs H. Peed "Hlie. Schmidt ^ P. Josenhans / D. Weinstein1' J. McCrory W. Barton For your information .. received SEP 191974 DAVID A. WEINSTEIN UAW DEPARTMENT BOR 007096 II (tvvuM*tte*cfal ^.etten. Vol. 13, No. 18 Main Office GERSHON W. F1SHHEIN. PUBLISHER 1097 National Press Building Washington, D.C. 20045 September 15, 1974 Phone 347-3868 Published twice a month. Rate' S75 per > car. S 115 in combination with Occupational flejlth AjSjlcipi Includes tree engraved binder tar each publication j: CCD it. P3 t-S T * Highlights of This Issue * CUMMIN Exclusive: Wilson Talley to head R&D of EPA............... ......... ...................................... Pag 1 EPA to issue emissions standard for vinyl chloride...........................................................Page 1 Academy of Sciences report sharply criticizes R&D management at EPA..................... Page 2 Auto emissions may account for 4,000 deaths a year, says NAS report......................... Page 3 Commission on Water Quality awards 18 contracts totaling $2.6 million.......................Page 4 Extra: Train and Muskie agree--that water "needs" survey isn't helpful...................... Page 5 HEW awards nearly $3 million to advance technology of health planning.....................Page 5 Michigan considering unusual approach in food service sanitation program...................Page 6 EXCLUSIVE: WILSON TALLEY TO HEAD R&D OF EPA: Wilson Talley, Ph.D., who has been serving since April as study director for Nelson Rockefeller's Com mission on Critical Choices for America while on leave from the University of California Statewide System, will be named Assistant Administrator for Research and Development of the Environmental Protection Agency, ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH LETTER has learned exclusively. He will succeed Dr. Stanley M. Greenfield, * i and inherit a program whose planning and management functions were sharply criticized by a National Academy of Sciences committee (see page 2). Dr. Talley had been serving as assistant vice president for Academic Planning and Program Review for the University of California between December 1971 and the time of his appointment to the Rockefeller commis sion, He received his Ph.D. from Berkeley in 1964 and was appointed leader of the theoretical physics division at the Lawrence Livermore Laboratory in 1971. He has also served as professor of applied science on the Davis campus of the university. In 1969-70 he was a White House Fellow assigned to Robert H. Finch as Secretary of HEW. Other personnel items: William R. Galloway, Jr. has been promoted to director of environmental affairs for Du Pont Co. and vice chairman of its Environmental Quality Committee, succeeding John A. Georges, recently named assistant general manager of Du Pont's Industrial Chemicals Department. Dr. John G. Keller, Associate Director of the Eppley Cancer Institute at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, has been appointed manager of environmental health for Mobil Oil, New York, reporting to Dr. Harry A. Sinclaire, corporate medical director. Dr. jack W. Carlsen, Assistant Secretary of Interior for Energy and Minerals, has been appointed to the Board of Directors of the Electric Power Research Institute. EPA TO ISSUE EMISSIONS STANDARD FOR VINYL CHLORIDE: Based on the recommendations of its task force headed by Glenn Schweitzer, EPA plans to issue a stand- / ard for emissions of polyvinyl chloride and vinyl chloride from factories into the air. {[/ It is anticipated that the standard will call for a reduction rtf nhont 7s-prr(n in emissions of PVC and about_90 percent in emissionsjiLyinyLchloride. The effective date of the standard will depend on which section of the Clean Air Act EPA decides to invoke. Different sections of the Act are related to the degree of hazard. EPA anticipates that compliance with the standard would add about 4 percent to the average cost of the vinyl chloride product. A few months ago EPA, after a preliminary survey of plants, said that no shutdowns of factories would be required on the basis of hazards to health but urged manufacturers to reduce their emissions BOR 007097 pi T / Environmental Letter, September 15, 1974 to the lowest practicable level. The agency now believes that the technology now exists for a substantial reduction in ep-iicsinnc ' EPA is coordinating its standard-setting procedure with that of the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which has an October 5 deadline for proposing'a'pennaneht'standard for vinyl chloride expo sure to workers. ACADEMY OF SCIENCES REPORT SHARPLY CRITICIZES R&D MANAGEMENT AT EPA: A committee of the National Academy of Sciences-National Research Council has issued a report sharply critical of the planning and management procedures of EPA's Office of Research and Development and said they "must be abandoned" if EPA's R&D goals are to be met. In criticizing the management programs of R&D, the blue-ribbon NAS-NRC committee followed closely the draft of a report by the General Accounting Office but not yet released. Excerpts from the draft were published in ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH LETTER of July 15. Here are highlights of the committee's criticisms of the present management system: * Planning is separated from responsibility for execution, thus leading to seyere resentment against performing researchers. * Priorities do not reflect the needs of EPA regulatory and regional offices because of the "vacuum cleaner" approach to soliciting ideas and the system-induced barriers to using common sense in the selection process. * Inadequate attention has been paid to the possibility for trade-offs or modifications in budgeting costs for various projects. * The complexity of the system makes it counter-productive. * Parallel but separate management systems--some in housekeeping and others in program contentmake accountability impossible. * Excessive requirements for detail at all planning levels lead to an oversized headquarters staff and stifle laboratory innovation. * Corrective feedback and flexibility are not permitted under the system. * A long-term program to meet stated goals is missing and this is vital for any scientific venture. * A highly structured mechanism for planning generates a false sense of control. * Relationships between headquarters and field are strained, leading to an apparent state of frustration of the field staff. Among its recommendations were these: 1. The present system be abolished and program responsibilities be delegated to the National Environ mental Research Center directors with manpower and money to go directly to the centers. 2. The center directors should report directly to the Assistant Administrator for R&D instead of to the Office of R&D. 3. The Administrator of EPA be responsible for assembling, analyzing and clearly defining R&D needs and objectives with the participation of other assistant administrators and the research center directors. 4. It is inadvisable, in view of changing environmental problems and the exigencies of the economy, to build a large permanent staff. The committee suggested that it was prudent to have a capability for monitor ing grant and contract work and recommended a careful review of the grant and contract system. The report, pursuant to the request by EPA Administrator Russell Train, was confined to planning and management functions of the Office of Research & Development and did not attempt to evaluate the quality of the scientific work or the personnel. The committee had briefed Train and others at a meeting in Woods Hole, Mass., prior to release of the report. In his letter to Dr. Philip Handler, president of NAS, Train noted that EPA is in the process of imple menting the Academy's recommendations regarding research and development planning. "Your recommendations with respect to Headquarters and Regional responsibilities will serve as a basis for further implementing actions upon appointment of a new Assistant Administrator for Research and Develop ment," said Train, adding that "I very much appreciate the candor in the Academy's report." With respect to organization of ORD, the report said that the Assistant Administrator should have a small staff to perform only staff functions and not to serve as a filter or layer through which the National Environ mental Research Center directors report. BOR 007098