... AND ANOTHER RADONIC IRONY

Virtually all of EPA's former research on the health effects of radon in indoor pollution have been cut from the 1982 budget, contrary to recent recommendations by a National Academy of Sciences committee, and under protest from many scientists and several Congressmen.(*)

Well, don't expect this newsletter to squeal and object to budget cutting.

But frankly, we would have expected a little more political savvy from Mr Stockman or Mrs Gorsuch, or their advisors. For a few hundred kilobucks (peanuts in Washington, especially compared to the solar subsidy in tax breaks), they could have sat back and quietly chuckled as the very Hon. Richard Ottinger and his subcommittee on energy conservation sweated it out whether to abandon environmental protection, or condemn energy conservation, or cut the budget, or admit that the majority of his committee helps give the conservation-minded citizen a radiation dose that he would get from 10,000 nuclear plants within 50 miles of his energy-efficient home.

* "Indoor Hazards," Nature, 10 Sep. 81; "EPA radon-hazards funds cut," Physics Today, Aug. 81, p.9