News of the Week Funkhouser also writes in his June memo that McCollister was able to meet privately with OECD Ambassador Katz over the objections of Pep Fuller, head of the U.S. delegation, who had asked to be present. Also absent from that private meeting was Environmental Defense Fund attorney Khristine L. Hall, an official U.S. delegate to the June OECD meeting. In a July 9, 1982 memo, Funkhouser writes to Gorsuch-Burford that: "Don [McCollister] repeated his concern that the [James] MacNeillKing-Bracken-Fuller circuit would determine" U.S. negotiating policy at the so-called high-level meeting in November 1982. MacNeill is a Canadian who directs OECD's environmental affairs program. To bypass this "circuit" Funkhouser writes that McCollister "recommended that we get a small group together at an early date to lay the groundwork ourselves." That group apparently was to consist of EPA's Funkhouser and Todhunter, State's Blanchard, and Dow's McCollister. Absent from the memo is the name or hint of active participation of any privateinterest advisers other than McCollister. King, who had been actively involved in developing U.S. policy on the MPD, was shoved aside as his subordinate Blanchard became more heavily involved. King tells C&EN that Blanchard "was obviously more trusted by industry, and even though he reported to me, he didn't keep me informed." Also, shortly after McCollister "reiterated his serious concerns" (Funkhouser's words) about King to Harry Marshall, State's principal deputy assistant secretary for oceans and environment, and King's boss, King, in government parlance, was "detailed" to the World Bank. King believes that according to civil service rules he was removed illegally from his responsibilities at State. A week before the November OECD meeting, Dow's vice president Etcyl H. Blair—McCollister's boss, and chairman of CMA's International Affairs Group—met privately with Gorsuch to discuss "IAG's attitudes toward OECD chemical matters," Dow spokesman Wakefield says. Gorsuch's appointment 8
May 2, 1983 C&EN
calendar shows no similar meeting with other interested private groups. Wakefield says McCollister may have phrased the memos differently from Funkhouser, but he admits that they are not "misrepresentative of McCollister's attitudes," nor do they show any malicious intent on the part of McCollister toward the formerly involved EPA and State officials. Funkhouser, who is rumored to be the next EPA official to be asked to resign, thinks his memos are "pretty well written," and that McCollister's input as an industry representative was "not only proper but essential." He claims, "If Don McCollister had my ear more than [environmental representatives,] it's because he worked harder at it." Apparently, industry's lobbying efforts effectively convinced Gorsuch to attend the November OECD meeting loaded for bear. Compromise language on the MPD that had been painstakingly worked on over
a 17-month period was not suitable to Gorsuch. She, as head of the U.S. delegation, insisted that it be so diluted that each member country could select its own approach to hazardous assessment of new chemicals. The other OECD delegations caved in on this point. But paradoxically, U.S. chemical companies wanting to market in EEC have to meet MPD standards. The U.S. position at the November meeting was perceived by the other OECD member states as a reversal of an earlier endorsement of the testing system concept. A turnaround that Steven Jellinek, former EPA assistant administrator for toxics and now a consultant to industry, says "soured" the relationships between the U.S. government and the member countries of EEC and OECD. "It left a reservoir of mistrust and concern about whether the U.S. role in future OECD matters will be constructive," he says. D
Chemists elected to National Academy of Sciences At its 120th annual meeting in Washington, D.C., last week, the National Academy of Sciences elected 60 new members. Their election brings total academy membership to 1415. Among the new members, chemists and those in chemically related areas include: Edward M. Arnett, R. J. Reynolds Professor of Chemistry, Duke University. Charles J. Arntzen, director, MSUDOE plant research laboratory, Michigan State University. Richard Axel, professor of biochemistry and pathology, Institute of Cancer Research, Columbia University. Gunter Blobel, professor of cell biology, Rockefeller University. Guilio L. Cantoni, chief, laboratory of general and comparative biochemistry, National Institute of Mental Health. Minor J. Coon, chairman, department of biological chemistry, University of Michigan school of medicine. Ronald W. Davis, professor of biochemistry, Stanford University. Michael J. S. Dewar, Robert A. Welch Professor of Chemistry, University of Texas, Austin. Raymond L. Erikson, professor of
pathology, University of Colorado Health Science Center (moving to Harvard University). Stanley R. Hart, professor of geochemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. William C. Lineberger, professor of chemistry, University of Colorado. Leo A. Paquette, Kimberly Professor of Chemistry, Ohio State University. Murray Rabinowitz, Louis Block Professor of Medicine and Biochemistry, University of Chicago school of medicine. Charles C. Richardson, E. S. Wood Professor of Biological Chemistry, Harvard medical school. Anthony San Pietro, Distinguished Professor of Plant Biochemistry, Indiana University, Bloomington. Phillip A. Sharp, associate professor, Center for Cancer Research, Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Joan A. Steitz, professor of molecular biophysics and biochemistry, Yale University. Sherman M. Weissman, professor of medicine and molecular biophysics and biochemistry, Yale University school of medicine.
