fense programs. And under the new department, national laboratories such as Los Alamos, Oak Ridge, and Argonne will be managed from Washington, rather than regionally.

According to Schlesinger, R&D programs account for about $5 billion of the new department's $14 billion budget. But, he says, "while the fu­ture of R&D, of course, depends on broader national policies, I would not expect that the department would grow in terms of constant dollars, and I would think the employment levels would be stable or shrinking."

The 18 top appointments at DOE announced last week also include the selection of John F. O'Leary, cur­rently administrator of the Federal Energy Administration, as deputy secretary and Dale D. Myers, cur­rently corporate vice president of Rockwell International, as under­secretary responsible for programs requiring major budget outlays such as energy R&D, and application and defense programs. Charles B. Curtis has been selected as chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Com­mission, which replaces the Federal Power Commission, of which he is also chairman. Schlesinger says he hopes to have nominations for the other top DOE positions submitted to Congress before Oct. 1. •

Red-brown pigment may cause skin cancer Phaeomelanin, the red-brown pig­ment that colors the hair and skin of redheads, may turn carcinogenic when exposed to sunlight, according to a recent finding by researchers at Ohio State University. If supported by further research, this discovery could explain redheads' higher inci­dence of skin cancer.

In work reported at the American Chemical Society's national meeting in Chicago, Dr. Miles R. Chedekel and his colleagues isolated phaeomela-nin's light-absorbing chromophore from its associated proteins. The chromophore then was placed in so­lutions buffered at various pH's, in­cluding the biologically significant region near pH 7, and exposed to ul­traviolet light, including the 305-nm wave lengths fbund in sunlight. In the presence of oxygen the chromophores readily decomposed.

On Sept. 9, Dr. Peter Post and Dr. Zsolt Harsangi of the Cornell Uni­versity medical college in New York reported to the Ohio State group that a crude mix of the decomposition products had proved mutagenic in one run of the Ames test. Such posi­tive results on the Ames test correlate

strongly with carcinogenicity (C&EN, Sept. 5, page 4).

On the other hand, Chedekel cau­tions, these findings are a long way from proving that sunburned red­heads cause their own cancer. To es­tablish that result, the researchers will have to isolate whatever com­pound is causing the Ames test mutations, then develop methods for detecting it in human skin. Even if it is found there, however, it could prove innocuous: The body might break it down before it can do any harm.

And even if this unknown com­pound does prove to be the skin can­cer culprit, it may be possible to re­duce the danger. The chromophore's decomposition requires oxygen, Chedekel says. The pigment absorbs light and transfers its energy to an oxygen molecule, which in its excited state turns back and attacks the pig­ment. /^-Carotene, a compound that already occurs in trace amounts in the skin, is known to quench excited oxygen. Injecting more of it might thus decrease redheads' risk of de­veloping skin cancer. •

Emergency exposure limits set for DBCP Federal regulators finally have begun to take decisive action to prevent further worker health problems caused by exposure to the agricultural pesticide DBCP (l,2-dibromo-3-chloropropane). The first alarms of trouble with the chemical sounded in July with the disclosure that workers at an Occidental Chemical formula­tion plant in Lathrop, Calif., had be­come sterile apparently as a result of exposure to DBCP.

With mounting evidence that workers at other plants were affected by exposure to DBCP, and pressure from environmental groups and or­ganized labor, three federal agencies have proposed drastic limits on the production and use of the compound.

"The agencies are combining their resources and authority to prevent further damage from DBCP to workers, growers, and the consuming public," says Donald W. Riester, acting director of the Food & Drug Administration's Bureau of Foods. "The potential health threat is grave."

FDA is concerned that residues of the compound, used as a pre-emer-gence soil fumigant to kill nematodes (small grublike worms that destroy plant roots), will harm consumers who eat treated vegetables. FDA currently is working out an analytical method for DBCP in foods. Pre­viously, DBCP was believed to break

Fumigants, such as DBCP, are sprayed into soils during tilling

down in soil after application, and was not taken up by crops. Re­searchers in Canada, however, have found traces of the material in rad­ishes and carrots. Studies conducted for the National Cancer Institute in 1973 showed DBCP to be a potent carcinogen when fed to test animals.

Currently, no DBCP is being pro­duced in the U.S. since Dow Chemical and Shell Chemical have stopped production of the compound. The firms, moreover, have asked that ex­isting stocks of the material be re­turned. The Occupational Safety & Health Administration, nevertheless, has decided to impose immediately an emergency temporary standard for DBCP exposure in plants. Under the standard, worker exposure is limited to no more than 10 ppb during an eight-hour work day, and no more than 50 ppb for any 15-minute period. Earlier, 1 ppm was believed to be a safe exposure limit.

The Environmental Protection Agency, meanwhile, has notified firms that formulate technical-grade DBCP into agricultural pesticides that it intends to cancel the com­pounds' registration. This would prevent further use of the compound in the U.S., but not prevent manu­facture for export. D

Ozone might stem red tide's effects When red tide sweeps through the New England or California seaboards, it temporarily wipes out vital shellfish industries and leaves damaged local economies in its wake. Dr. Edward Gilfillan, a chemist at Bowdoin Col­lege in Brunswick, Me., reports that infusing seawater with ozone will decontaminate clams containing the red-tide toxin. Though preliminary, he says, this method shows "promis­ing potential" for offsetting some of red tide's damage.

Sept. 19, 1977 C&EN 5