ES&T CURRENTS
INTERNATIONAL Transition to alcohol and other biofuel "will prove possible for Brazil, on balance," predicts Robert Goodrich of the Southern Research Institute (Birmingham, Ala.)· But it will be "a slow, costly, arduous process," he warned. However, without its "Proâlcool" program, Brazil would have perhaps only 67% of its necessary transportation fuel, for example. "Proâlcool" provides loans at advantageous interest rates to help recover agricultural and distillery projects costs. Whether that would work in more developed countries, Goodrich does not judge. There is also a new program, "Prooleo," aimed at making substitute fuels for diesel vehicles.
Kates: did CFC survey The national responses of six countries to the chlorofluorocarbon (CFC) problem were surveyed and a wide range of responses were found. Robert W. Kates and Thomas E. Downing of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., conducted the survey. They found that Sweden and the U.S. were quick to control CFCs; the U.K. and France have been slow; and West Germany and the Netherlands fall somewhere in between. These six countries produce 75% of the world's CFCs. Kates and Downing believe that environmental attitudes, approaches to decision making, and the economics of produc-
tion can account for the range of responses.
WASHINGTON
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EPA Administrator Anne M. Gorsuch is reported to have plans to firebetween 800 and 1500 headquarters staff beginning in March in order to cut the total headquarters staff to between 2085 and 2785 by June 30, 1982, down from the equivalent of 5298 employees when President Reagan came into office. One-half to two-thirds of the reduction would be accomplished by squeezing present employees out of their jobs. Under Civil Service rules, for every person fired, 1.5 people are downgraded, shifted to temporary status, or shifted involuntarily to a different, usually less desirable job. In addition, the EPA staff is quitting at a rate of 32% a year. By June 1982, it is estimated that about 80% of EPA's headquarters staff will have been driven out, fired, or demoted. Because of the high attrition rate, there is no need to fire any employees in 1982 to be at or below this year's employment ceiling. The firings in 1982 will bring the number of employees down to the low levels of the proposed 1983 budget. Administration officials justify the reduction in staff on the grounds of "management efficiencies" or "reorganizations." Firing civil servants in 1982 to accommodate a 1983 budget not'yet submitted to Congress is illegal. The White House has formed a cabinet-level work group to look at the issue of acid rain and provide advice to the Cabinet Council on Resources and Environment. The work group will keep abreast of acid rain research and evaluate new information to determine whether it sheds new light on the administration position. Some observers felt the work group was
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formed because the administration realizes that the acid rain issue is a serious one and because of the possibility that acid rain-control legislation may be passed by the Senate. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) launched a review of the policy it uses to decide whether a workplace chemical may cause cancer. The agency will also look at the methods it employs to determine which potential carcinogens should be reviewed first and the means used to protect workers from them. Present policy says that chemicals shown to cause cancer in one kind of animal should always be listed as potential human carcinogens. Rejecting the idea of a threshold level, it also states that any dose of a potential carcinogen should be considered dangerous. James Foster, an OSHA spokesman, said no changes were proposed in nine existing or proposed OSHA standards regulating exposure to such chemicals as lead, arsenic, and asbestos. The current policy reconsiderations are designed to incorporate such new developments as the Supreme Court's benzene decision. An Office of Technology Assessment staff paper on long-range transport of air pollutants has concluded that acid rain-control decisions made in the immediate future probably will have to be based on subjective regional perceptions of risks and cost of control rather than hard information on effects. The staff paper does not make policy recommendations, but notes that "both the costs of potential damages and the costs of controls have been estimated to be in the range of billions of dollars annually." The paper suggests that postponing controls may result in increased resource damage that may take "years to recover [from] after pollution is reduced." It estimates the annual costs of acid deposition Environ. Sci. Technol., Vol. 16, No. 3, 1982
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damage in the eastern U.S. in billions of dollars. The paper concludes that "even stringent pollution controls on SO2 might not greatly affect the economics of coal-fired boilers because of the current cost advantage of coal as compared to oil." A poll of congressmen and state governors indicates an ambivalent attitude toward nuclear energy. The poll was conducted by David Aviel of California State University (Hayward). On the one hand, the majority of respondents placed nuclear energy low on their priority list of energy sources, yet felt that federal appropriations for nuclear energy R&D should be increased. A majority believed that the safety record of nuclear energy is adequate, yet also wanted to increase the level of federal regulation. Most respondents also felt that the accident at Three Mile Island had no effect on their attitude toward nuclear energy. A General Accounting Offîce (GAO) report finds pitfalls in the Interior Department's new accelerated offshore leasing program. The report raises a number of questions about Interior's ability to accommodate large increases in lease offerings at the same time appropriations and budgets are being reduced. The GAO report also points out that Interior has not evaluated all likely effects of an expanded program and urges more environmental analysis and reductions in the size of areas offered for sale. In response to a recent court decision, Interior is preparing a document that provides a more detailed balancing of environmental and energy issues, according to agency official Alan Powers.
STATE A federal court ruled that the psychological health of neighboring residents must be accessed before the Three Mile Island Unit 1 reactor is relicensed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It was the first time psychological stress factors had been cited by a federal court in an environmental dispute. Unit 1 was shut down for routine maintenance and refueling when Unit 2 ran out of control on March 28, 1979. NRC has not permitted Unit 1 to resume operation since that time. However, before the 148A
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court decision, NRC had been planning to relicense it, perhaps in February. A first conviction of a corporation under Superfund occurred as Ralston Purina Company pleaded guilty to criminal violations of Superfund, the Refuse Act, the Clean Water Act, and the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act. Ralston Purina was fined $62 000 for discharging 18 000 gallons of hexane, used in extracting oil from soybeans, into the sewer lines in Louisville, Ky. The discharge led to explosions in the sewer system.
SCIENCE The photochemical syntheses of nitrous oxide (N2O) and, from this, other oxides of nitrogen, take place in the upper atmosphere, according to physicists Edward C. Zipf of the University of Pittsburgh and Sheo S. Prasad of the California Institute of Technology's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Previous models assumed that all oxides of nitrogen found in the upper atmosphere originated at the earth's surface. These physicists propose that N2O is produced in the mésosphère by possibly two pathways. These mechanisms would increase the amount of N2O expected at 50 km above the earth's surface by 39% and at 70 km by 192%. Biological effects of chemically dispersed oil on marine shellfish will be assessed by Battelle (Richland, Wash.), under the sponsorship of Exxon Production Research Co. Fate and effects will be determined, as will impacts on coastal ecosystems. The agent under test is a dispersant that breaks oil into microscopic particles that are diluted by ocean currents and wave action, and then biodegraded. Trays of oil and sediment or dispersed oil and sediment are placed in intertidal basins; clams grow in them; clams are also grown in sediment only, as a control. Effects on clams, dungeness crabs (which eat clams), and other organisms will be determined after 3-12 months. Toxic chemicals could cause human behavioral and mental as well as physical problems, Bambi Batts Young of the Center for Science in the Public Interest told the American Association for the Advance-
ment of Science. She said that lead, for instance, could cause distraction, vagueness, and intelligence declines. However, Bernard Weiss of the University of Rochester said that lead is so widespread that no one is lead-free; thus, it is impossible to set up a controlled experiment on effects of small doses, he added. Ellen Silbergeld of the National Institutes of Health said that the brain may have receptors for chemicals previously thought to affect only other body parts.
TECHNOLOGY Slow-rate land treatment "generally reduced" levels of pollutants in wastewater below corresponding levels typically found in secondary treatment effluent, according to EPA's Office of Environmental Engineering and Technology (Washington). Such effects were studied for about 50 pollutants, with soil, crop tissues, and groundwater sites receiving wastewater for 10 or more years. Most of the wastewater was municipal. Crops took up much of the nitrogen and phosphorus, although some nitrate did leach out and exceed EPA drinking water standards in groundwater. In most cases, pathogens seemed to be attenuated below detection limits.
Solar collector being tested A solar collector that, even in cloudy weather, "promises to be highly effective," has been invented at General Electric's Research and Development Center (Schenectady, N.Y.). According to GE, tests indicate that the hot-air collector can accumulate three times more heat
