NEWS OF THE WEEK
WAR AGAINST AIDS: Reports urge federal policy changes Two independently conceived but remarkably similar strategies for waging the war on acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) were unveiled in Washington, D.C., last week. One came from an Institute of Medicine /National Academy of Sciences committee, the other from the Presidential Commission on the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) Epidemic. Both are seeking to galvanize the federal government's response to the AIDS crisis, which the chairman of the HIV commission, Admiral James D. Watkins, characterized as sluggish, inconsistent, and not properly coordinated. The two bodies came out strongly in favor of federal legislation to ban discrimination based on HIV infection. The Reagan Administration opposes such antidiscrimination laws, and protections for HIV carriers recently were dropped from AIDS legislation working its way through Congress. The two panels also emphasized that HIV infection itself should be recognized as a disease and should be the focus of health care delivery. As many as 1.4 million Americans may be infected with the virus, according to the latest estimate of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC). The IOM/NAS committee outlined a multipronged strategy that includes recommendations for wider access to drug-testing trials by HIVinfected persons; establishment of a federal grant program to help states finance health care for HIV carriers; and improved targeting of public education programs for certain high-risk groups. Similar recommendations were among the 579 in the Presidential commission's draft report, which was prepared by Watkins for consideration by his fellow commission4
June 6, 1988 C&EN
ers. The final version of this report will be given to the President on June 24. Watkins said at a news conference in Washington, D.C., that the commission believes that a total annual budget of about $3 billion is necessary to deal adequately with the AIDS epidemic. The IOM/NAS committee predicts that much more than $2 billion a year will be needed, but no specific figure was given. A 1986 IOM/NAS panel had called for $1 billion of the total to be spent annually on AIDS research by 1990. The current panel notes that the federal government is well on its way toward meeting that goal. To coordinate national efforts to deal with the epidemic, the current IOM/NAS committee repeated the call made by the earlier panel for a continuing national commission of experts on AIDS. The committee praised the efforts of the current Presidential commission, which is now completing its work and is
Cooper: no need for an AIDS czar
expected to disband later this month. The IOM/NAS committee urges that a new commission with a five-year renewable term be formed "to formulate and sustain a coherent national policy. " Watkins went further, saying that the federal law dealing with public health emergencies should be "modernized," and that the President should then declare AIDS to be a public health emergency. Theodore Cooper, chairman of the IOM/NAS panel, said he saw no need for an "AIDS czar." But Watkins believes that C. Everett Koop, because he is the U.S. Surgeon General, should, in effect, be the AIDS czar. Cooper, w h o is chairman and chief executive officer of Upjohn Co., noted that the news from the AIDS research front is "both good and bad." Scientists are making impressive gains in learning how HIV disarms the body's immune system, he said at a news conference. But despite this new knowledge, he added, "we are no closer to having a licensed vaccine against HIV than we were two years ago." And although researchers have been making "an impressive effort" to develop drugs to treat HIV infection and AIDS, he added, "we foresee no breakthrough on the immediate horizon." Public education remains "our best, and in fact only, hope of stemming the tide of this deadly disease," Cooper said. He commended Koop's project to mail a factual brochure on AIDS to every U.S. household. But special AIDS education efforts, he said, must target the gay community (including young people who are just becoming sexually active), intravenous drug users, and high-risk populations within the black and Hispanic communities. Cooper's committee also recom-
mended that mandatory HIV antibody screening be limited to blood, organ, and tissue donors and that funding for basic research in all areas of biology should continue to grow rather than be curtailed in favor of AIDS-targeted research. Since the 1986 IOM/NAS report, the number of Americans with AIDS has more than doubled, reaching a total of more than 62,000, according to CDC. More than half have died. Cooper urged that the special health care facilities that these patients need should be expanded because they are currently in short supply. The current IOM/NAS and Presidential commission reports have received generally favorable reviews from the American Civil Liberties Union and the National Gay & Lesbian Task Force. Both organizations, though, are troubled by some of the commission's recommendations on criminal justice issues. Ron Dagani, Washington
Grace pleads guilty to falsifying information W. R. Grace pleaded guilty last week to supplying false information to the Environmental Protection Agency on the amount of acetone it purchased and used at its Cryovac Division plant in Woburn, Mass. U.S. District Court Judge Joseph L. Tauro fined the company $10,000, the maximum possible for a felony violation, and dropped the second count of the two-count indictment. Several years ago, two of Woburn's drinking water wells were found to be contaminated with toxic chemicals, some of which have been locally linked to leukemia. Eight people who drank water from the wells died from the disease. In a civil suit filed by families of the deceased, a federal jury in September 1986 found Grace liable for polluting the wells. Before a second trial could be held to determine whether this pollution caused the deaths, Grace settled out of court for an amount reported to be $8 million. Separately, EPA was attempting to discover the source of the contamination in hopes of identify-
ing firms that would be responsible for cleanup. In the course of obtaining such information in 1982, Grace reported false information to EPA. Grace admitted to doing this for acetone only, which the Cryovac plant, a food-packaging machine shop, used in the 1960s and 1970s to clean equipment. A company spokesman says, "No acetone was found in Woburn wells or on our property/' Under special conditions agreed to by the judge and U.S. government attorneys, Grace pleaded guilty to only one of 12 specifications in a two-count indictment. The plea came one day before the criminal case was to go to trial last week. The special plea on one part of the first count allows Grace "to maintain that it is not guilty of violating any laws/' says a Grace spokesman. The second count, which alleged that Grace "actively concealed information from EPA, was dropped," a Grace attorney says. The remaining count contained 10 additional specifications, naming chemicals other than acetone. Because the acetone specification was lumped together with 10 others, the government "can't come back at Grace for the other 10 chemicals," the company attorney says. Acting U.S. Attorney Robert S. Mueller disagrees. "We have not dismissed the rest of that count," he says. Lois Ember, Washington
U.S.-Soviet summit expands science ties Last week's summit meeting in Moscow between President Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S. Gorbachev was, as predicted, more successful in terms of symbolism and mood than in reaching specific agreements. However, the sides did sign two arms control pacts and seven bilateral agreements, making modest but concrete additions to the widening network of scientific, cultural, economic, and other relations between the two countries (C&EN, May 30, page 4). Moreover, several U.S. firms gave further impetus to these ties by announcing last week in Moscow
Gorbachev and Reagan con verse during visit to Red Square in Moscow the start of new, chemically related joint projects. The seven new bilateral agreements include extension and expansion of an accord on cultural and educational exchanges, and cooperative efforts in transportation science and t e c h n o l o g y , maritime search and rescue operations, longrange radionavigation systems, fisheries, and peaceful uses of atomic energy. The two sides also agreed on three new steps to expand cooperation under the existing space accord: to permit each side to fly scientific instruments on the other's spacecraft; to expand exchanges of space science data and scientists; and to exchange studies on future unmanned solar system exploration missions as a means of assessing prospects for joint U.S.-Soviet space missions to such targets as the Moon and Mars. "We're delighted. It's just the kind of incremental step we want to expand cooperation with the Soviets," says Peter G. Smith, deputy director of international relations at the National Aeronautics & Space Administration. Gorbachev and other Soviet leaders have called repeatedly for a joint unmanned flight to Mars. However, NASA is taking a step-by-step approach—learning to work together first by integrating June 6, 1988 C&EN
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