Word: houk
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MIT’s Glass Lab has produced more than 1,000 hand-blown glass pumpkins, ranging in price from $20-$200. Artist Peter Houk oversaw the making of these autumn creations. 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturday and Sunday. Kresge Oval...
Environmental groups still fear that even minute amounts of dioxin, which was an ingredient in the Vietnam-era defoliant Agent Orange, can cause epidemics of cancer. But Vernon Houk, the federal official who recommended the Times Beach evacuation, is no longer sure. Recent studies suggest that the chemical may not be so dangerous. In an interview with the St. Louis Post- Dispatch, Houk declared, "We should have been more up front with the Times Beach people and told them, 'We're doing our best with the estimates of the risk, but we may be wrong.' I think we never added...
...truth, the Environmental Protection Agency has ordered a reassessment of dioxin's risks and, depending on the findings, may relax rules on exposure to the chemical. That will be cold comfort to the displaced citizens of Times Beach. "Houk announced his decision with all the power and authority of science behind him," says Marcel LaFollette, a professor of science policy at George Washington University. "Now he's saying 'Never mind.' A reasonable person would ask the scientist, 'Why can't you make up your mind...
Though many scientists ridiculed the blood tests, Houk used them to contend again that the Pentagon records could not be used to pinpoint exposure to Agent Orange. He recommended canceling the study; the White House Science Panel agreed, and the Domestic Policy Council did so in September 1987. This was after $43 million had been spent...
...Houk insists that his opposition to continuing the project was based solely on rigorous scientific principles. "If we could find a population of people who were exposed in sufficient numbers, we would have proceeded with our study," he says. "We just simply could not find them." Skeptics like Congressman Weiss suspect that the CDC did not want to antagonize the Reagan Administration, which was worried about the huge liability costs if Agent Orange was shown to cause the veterans' ailments. Whatever the reasons for its failure, the decision not to complete the study leaves open a vexing problem: whether Agent...