Council Forms Committee To Give Advice on Science

Concerned that it is not adequately in formed about current scientific issues in general and toxic chemicals in particular, the Cambridge City Council last night established a citizens' advisory committee on science.

The council's action came after a two-hour public hearing at which the nine councilors questioned a vice president of Arthur D. Little, a research laboratory which recently opened a hazardous chemical testing facility in North Cambridge.

The new lab has worried both neighborhood residents, who feel that their health may be endangered, and the councilors, who complained that city officials did not participate actively enough in the facility's planning and cannot now exercise control over work being done there.

Little Vice President D. Reid Weedon Jr. told the nine-member body that his company is currently doing research for the Department of Defense on "chemical warfare kinds of chemicals" that can be used in nerve gas weapons.

Although the Defense Department project is the only work now underway. Weedon estimated his firm has bid on "half a dozen" other contracts involving analysis of toxic chemicals, including three other Defense Department jobs involving similar chemicals from the "organo-phosphate category."

"We built this lab to handle hazardous materials," he explained. "We don't know what we're going to work on yet."

But he added that the new lab "incorporates the best standards of safety in the world today," with several levels of redundant security precautions.

"The danger of the lab to the public is far smaller than the danger of a pesticide store." Weedon said, adding that the amount of hazardous chemical used in the lab's experiments "averages about one tablespoonful for each test."

Weedon said that the facility is for analysis, not development, of toxic substances.

No Perfume

But councilors were not satisfied by the company's responses. "It's not Chanel Number Five that you're testing in there," said Councilor Thomas A. Danehy, who lives in the North Cambridge neighborhood.

Danehy, who is a pharmacist, added that Little officials assured him and Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci on a site tour yesterday that syringes of chemical antidote for nerve gas poisoning would be available for employees at the plant.

Asked by Danehy for a "100 percent assurance that nobody could break into the lab or that no chemicals could escape." Weedon said he could not give claims of certainty, but was "personally quite confident of the lab's safety."

Unaware

Other councilors questioned why Cambridge officials were not better informed of the facility's purpose before it went into operation October 14. "I object to being told last week in a press release that this is going on," said Councilor Francis H. Duehay '55.

Duehay complained that he introduced an order last year that called for a set of guidelines for the transportation and storage of toxic chemicals in the city. The order passed unanimously in the city council, but no action has been taken, he said.

"A situation like this demonstrates why we need specific procedures and regulations to watch over the public health in Cambridge," Duchay said.

City Manager Robert W. Healy told the council he had been "remiss" in establishing the monitoring procedures.

Several councilors said the first project of the science committee could be developing such guidelines.