STANFORD UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE
STANFORD MEDICAL CENTER
PALO ALTO, CALIFORNIA 94304

DEPARTMENT OF GENEVICS Area Code 415

4
.

321-1200

February 2, 1969

Besar Senator Nelson:
be

I was plessed to yead of your bill to establish a Public
Health Hsezards Commission. The concerns it speeks to have
been sharec by me for many years, as you may note from the
enclosures. I do not wish to drown your record with redun-
dant peper, but please feel free to'use any or all of these
as statements on behalf of your proposal.

What still puzzles me is ea political question. Why should
we have to have a comzission when there are already government
egencies, e.fe, in the Public Health Service, competent to
spGnsor the seme kinds of enquiry. (If there is a legal in-
pediment, which I doubt is the answerJ, it should of course

be erased.) yhy don't they do the job?

I have mixed feelings about the DDT hearings in Wisconsin,
possibly because of incomplete information. It is of course
obvious that we need (for a change) a vigorous reaction to
the mindless spresding of the stuff all over the landscape,
and I suspect that 90% of the DDT-losd is based on misdirected
applications or thusz if not, on uses for which substitutes
ere available. On the other hend, it may be optimisthe to
accept that the latter is alweys the case, and for this reason
I would fesl easier if DDT usage were licensed and regulated
rather than abolished. Some of the ecological concerns rightly
aroused by the indiscriminate use of DDT would surely be met
by regulation. My real concern is not to protect the agricul-
tural uses of DDT in this country, but its role in public heal th
programs throughout the world. Do WHO experts agree that effec-
tive substitutes for DDT are available (where the overuse of
DDT generally has not already selected for genetically resistant
insects)? If DDT is totally condemned here, we may face a
situation like the hangup on fish-flour:"imperzalist Americans
(via WHO) "will be accused of "poisoning oppressed peoples
by using DDT in mosquito control progrums." If the advantages
of DDT are purely economic, will you halp assure that we in-
ercose our support of WHO to make up the cost difference?

However, I do not have all the technical reports svailable
to me (and would appreciate whatever your staff could help me
get out of the hearings.) Furthermore, I can also understand
the possibility that a demand for proscription may be the only
way to extract resulotion of a hard-sold commodity.

Sincerel:

LT. J. P. KENNEDY, JR. LABORATORIES FOR MOLECULAR MEDICINE, DEDICATED TO RESEARCH IN MENTAL RETARDATION
MOLECULAR BIOLOGY HEREDITY

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