Document text
Machine-read from the scan, so expect some errors. Lines that couldn’t be read are left out.
Page 1
SPECIAL ANALYSIS of 703 Class-A utilities indicates how broadly and deeply first quarter earnings were affected by inflation and regulatory lag. Even the bright performers express doubt about remainder of year. -story on page 8 ; tables, pages 912 power plants have no effect on the health of the people living near the plants. Herbert Schirnmel, co-author of possibly ttle most comprehensive statistical report onthe health effects of pollution, will tell the Air Pollution Control Assn. meeting in Denver this week that other pollutants than sulfur are responsible for the rising death rates from unclean air. "SOz on a statistical basis i s not the villain," the Albert Einstein College of Medicine professor says flatly. Schirnmel and Dr. Thaddeus Murawski, air pollution adviser to the N e w York State Dept. of Environmental Conservation, in updating Schimmel's two-year-old comprehensive study of air-poikition effects found that while sulfur-dioxide levels in New York City dropped 85% to 3/100ths of a part per million, the mortality rate from diseases associated with pollution remained constant. Schimrnel and Murawski's updated study of the almost 7,000,000 deaths in New York City from 1963 to 1972 i s being released a t the APCA "These data are very difficult t o interpret," Schimmel cautioned last week, but he added t h a t he's certain of his conclusion. "Our findings are consistent with the experience of London, for instance," he said. Previous studies, Schimmel explained, had no "controll' for lack of data and were dealing with concentrations of other pollutants as well as sulfur. "The daily SO2 level is an index of the kinds of metereological levels that also trap other kinds of pollution," he said. And he added that he now believes: "Themeasures of parDoes sulfur-dioxide have any health effects at all at concentrations below industrial levels ( 1 ppm and up)?''It's like having chlorine in your water," Schimmel said. "The worst effects of sulfur are probably corrosion and visibility problems -not health." Dr. Murawski, who also intends to go to Denver this week, agreed. "Our study should help in decision-making," he added. Both scientists (Schimrnel i s a physicist and statistical mathematician and Or. Murawski is a physician and epidemiologist) said that one clear implication of their work i s that urban power stations can safely burn higher-sulfur fuels than they have bzen. -Mark Perlgor The Environmental Protection Agency l a s t week launched a national drive against utility air-pollution violations by serving notices of alleged violations on Central Illinois Light (2 plants), Potornac Electric Power (3plants) and Union Electric (3 plants). A high EPA source in Washington said this was the beginning of his agency's full-fledged enforcement campaign against the industry. He said EPA has some 90 power plants under study as not fully complying with state plans already approved by EPA. But of the 90, some 55 are involved in litigation - many of the cases brought by utilities questioning one aspect or another of EPA's approval o f s t a t e implementation plans. This leaves some 35 plants subject to action, and the EPA official indicates that it has not received satisfactory responses from utilities responsible for "at least half" of these 35 as to how they will comply with s t a t e regulations. The indication is that EPA will move promptly on these plants - of which 8 were covered in the first round of notices. A Midwest regional EPA official described the Cilco citation a s "the first case in the country that 'we will be pursuing from s t a r t io finish - since we determined a t previous hearings that the final issues of sulfur-removal technology have been settled." In the notice to Cilco, the utility was given until next month to cut in half the