CONGRESSIONAL RECORD -- SENATE

June 21, 1968

Page 18244

CREATION OF CONSUMER PROTECTION AND ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SERVICE IN HEW

Mr. MUSKIE. Mr. President, I was pleased to note the release by the President on Saturday of the report by the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare on the "Role of the Federal Government in Bringing High Quality Health Care to All of the American People." The creation of a Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service will provide an important focus for problems of environmental quality. The new Service will have three branches -- the Food and Drug Administration, the National Air Pollution Control Administration, and the Environmental Control Administration.

Mr. President, the most important aspect of this far-reaching reorganization is the increased emphasis which will be given to environmental quality.

With ever-increasing dangers from air pollution, new attention must be given to the prevention and control of dangerous contaminants in the atmosphere. The National Air Pollution Control Administration will provide a more prominent role for air pollution control which will serve the national interest well by making more visible the Federal activities in this sphere, thereby creating a continuing public awareness of the dangers of air pollution. In addition to this, by raising administratively the level of air pollution prevention and control programs, the needs of air pollution can receive more important priorities within the overall health programs of the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare.

I wish to underscore my strong feelings that the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare is the most appropriate Department for our air quality program.

The selection of Mr. Charles C. Johnson as the new head for the Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service is a wise choice. He is a career Public Health Service officer who has wide experience in the areas he will be asked to direct. He has recently served, during a leave of absence, as the assistant commissioner for environmental health in New York City. Mr. Johnson was the man responsible for planning, developing, implementing, and evaluating all environmental health programs and activities for New York City. This experience will serve him well in his new office.

As assistant commissioner in New York City, Mr. Johnson served as the city's health department representative on its air pollution control board, the air pollution control medical advisory committee, and the mayor's emergency control board. In addition, Mr. Johnson represented the city health department on the mayor's consumer council, the interdepartmental sewerage council, and the New York City water advisory committee.

Previously, during his 20 years as a Public Health Service officer, he served as the environmental health officer for the Indian health program and as a member of the Surgeon General's task force on the organization of the National Center for Urban and Industrial Health, a program which he will now have under his direction. We are fortunate to have as the Administrator of the Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service a man with such impressive credentials and wide-ranging experience.

The Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service will have three main components:

the Food and Drug Administration, the National Air Pollution Control Administration, and the Environmental Control Administration. Within the last 2 years, the Food and Drug Administration has modified its policeman posture. It is seeking the advice of industry on proposed new regulations. It is encouraging self-regulation by industry of its own activities. In addition, the Food and Drug Administration is encouraging the States to assume much of the routine surveillance of industry practices.

Beyond these changes, the Flammable Fabrics Act, to name just one example, has given important consumer protection responsibilities to the Food and Drug Administration.

The Environmental Control Administration will be composed primarily of the program elements of the National Center for Radiological Health and the National Center for Urban and Industrial Health. As the environment in which we work and live is more completely understood, the need for protection of this environment is apparent. Focusing the solid waste disposal program, the occupational health program, and the radiological health program, to name just a few responsibilities of this new Administration, will bring necessary new attention to the protection of the consumer in his environment.

Mr. President, the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, Hon. Wilbur Cohen, summed up very well the role that the new Administration will be expected to play in our rapidly changing society in his report to the President:

Man's environmental milieu consists of three generally differentiated aspects: the environment of air, water, land, and stress; the environment of home, work, school, etc.; and environment of the products man consumes and uses. Contaminants are present in each of these three environments. Moreover, technologic change is producing an increasing use of chemicals and synthetics in fabrics, in household products, as well as in food. Technology likewise is adding to the contamination of the air and waters and man's working and living environments.

If the Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service can cope with these problems, as I believe it can, the national interest will benefit immensely. For this reason, I commend the President and the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare for establishing the Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service.