The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

Intro

ROBERT MacNEIL: Good evening. Here are the day's top news headlines. A Japan Air Lines jumbo jet carrying 524 people crashed on a mountainside 70 miles from Tokyo. Five more people have died in anti-apartheid rioting in South Africa. West Virginia residents said they were not adequately warned of the Union Carbide chemical gas leak yesterday. Wholesale prices rose slightly in July. Jim Lehrer is away tonight; Judy Woodruff is in Washington. Judy?

JUDY WOODRUFF: After a rundown of the day's news we have three focus segments on the NewsHour this evening. First, a look at the delicate issue of mercy killing provoked by a murder conviction in Florida. Then a report on what's being called a crisis in foster care: there aren't as many temporary homes as there are children who need them. And finally, the poisonous gas leak in West Virginia. We have a debate between an industry representative and a citizens' group over who's to blame.News Summary

MacNEIL: A Japan Air Lines jumbo jet carrying 524 people crashed on a mountain 70 miles northwest of Tokyo today. Darkness and rough terrain hampered the search for any possible survivors. The Boeing 747 was on a domestic flight from Tokyo to Osaka. The pilot radioed there was trouble with a door and received permission for an emergency landing at Yokota U.S. Air Force Base. But the jumbo crashed about 5,000 feet off Mount Ogora. Pilots of two other planes reportedly saw a plane on fire before the crash. If there were no survivors it would be the worst single airliner disaster in history. The aircraft is the biggest of the 747 family, a version designed to carry up to 550 passengers over short hauls.

The burning wreckage was first spotted Monday night by a Japanese military helicopter flying over the mountainside. After daylight Tuesday, Tokyo time, the wreckage could be seen lying in heavily wooded terrain. The place is in a remote part of a mountainrange known as the Japan Alps, and this area can only be reached on foot. Whether anyone survived will probably not be known until rescuers arrive on the ground. There were 12 infants on board. Twenty-one of the names on the passenger list were Western, which left open the possibility that some of those who boarded the flight were Americans. American officials in Japan offered to help in the rescue efforts if they're asked. American manpower could be supplied from any of several American military bases in Japan. The Japanese self-defense force has 700 troops on the way and a party of 260 policemen, volunteers and soldiers was on the mountain as daylight arrived early Tuesday. Judy?

WOODRUFF: More than 5,000 anti-apartheid demonstrators, including movie stars and big-name politicians, converged on the State Department today. They held a prayer session and called on the President to halt all economic and diplomatic relations with South Africa. Civil rights leaders who planned the event kicked off the day with a news conference on Capitol Hill. There, Randall Robinson of the TransAfrica group, which has organized daily protests at the South African Embassy for the past several months, outlined the demonstrators' aims.

RANDALL ROBINSON, Free South Africa Movement: We urge President Reagan to sign the sanctions bill immediately upon his earliest opportunity. We are told now that later this week the South African government will issue a package of reform. We must remember that while the South African government is the most repressive on earth, it is also the most deceitful and the most inclined to delay. And so we say sanctions now. When apartheid has been abolished, then the sanctions may be lifted. But it's time for our nation to get on the right side of this social justice issue.

WOODRUFF [voice-over]: Then Robinson and the other demonstration leaders, including singer Harry Belafonte and New York Mayor Ed Koch, joined a group already gathered at the Washington Monument carrying coffins symbolizing the South Africans killed in violence there since the government's state of emergency went into effect more than three weeks ago. They marched the few blocks to the State Department. There, clergymen led the crowd, which included actor Paul Newman, civil rights leaders and politicians, in prayer and song.

[on camera] Inside the State Department there was no comment on the march. In fact, it took spokesman Charles Redman just six minutes to give the daily briefing, including a restatement of the administration's policy toward South Africa.

CHARLES REDMAN, State Department spokesman: It is up to the South African government to decide what needs to be done in that society. The South African government has important decisions to make and is considering those decisions. We shall not comment on those decisions until they are made public. That said, the U.S. government's views of what is needed in South Africa are well known. They include an end to violence and repression, a restoration of order, and negotiations between the government and black South Africa's leaders which will produce political rights, justice and equality for that country's black majority, leading to an end to apartheid. The situation in South Africa is clearly very serious. It is a time for bold decisions, and it is a time for those who believe in peace to reason together, agree on and build a better future for South Africa.

WOODRUFF: In Santa Barbara, California, where President Reagan is vacationing, White House spokesman Larry Speakes called the situation inSouth Africa "clearly very serious," and added, "It is time for bold decisions." He said the Reagan administration is waiting along with everyone else for an announcement later this week by the Pretoria government about reform moves.

MacNEIL: In South Africa, five more people died in violence over the weekend, bringing the week's death toll in anti-apartheid rioting to 67. In Johannesburg, police tear gassed and whipped white and black students urging a consumer boycott of white businesses. Here's a report from James Robbins of the BBC.

JAMES ROBBINS, BBC [voice-over]: The students, predominantly white, deliberately shouted their defiance at police, knowing what to expect after the beatings delivered to Cape Town students on Friday. All gatherings of this kind are illegal, and the police enforced the law with vigor once again. Tear gas was thrown into university buildings, but the police themselves had no defense against the effects. And violence in the townships spread today to Mamaloti(?), just north of the capital, Pretoria. This is the scene of the latest boycott against white businesses. Already the destruction is widespread, with reports of roadblocks set up to prevent blacks unsympathetic to the protest leaving for work. One more area of fresh confrontation with the security forces.

MacNEIL: In Paris, a man with a rifle entered the city's central mosque and held an official hostage for nearly five hours until he was shot and killed by police. The hostage was not hurt, but another mosque official was wounded. The rifleman had demanded a plane to take him to Algeria.

In Beirut at least 14 people were killed and more than 75 injured in heavy fighting along the line dividing the Christian and Moslem sections of the city. It started when Shiite Moslems captured 65 Christians and held them hostage until a Shiite who'd been kidnapped was released.

WOODRUFF: Union Carbide defended itself today against criticism of its emergency procedures at a plant where a poison gas leak occurred over the weekend. At a news conference in the small community of Institute, West Virginia, Carbide officials promised to investigate the source of yesterday's aldicarb oxime leak which forced more than 3,000 area residents either to flee or seal themselves inside their homes. But they conceded their workers had at first mistakenly assumed the leak was not a problem. Here is a report from Nell McCormack of public station WPBY in Huntington, West Virginia.

THADD EPPS, Union Carbide spokesman: Fifteen of the 28 people hospitalized yesterday were released earlier today. More are expected to be released later today or tomorrow. All 13 who remain hopitalized we are told are in satisfactory condition. We have no reason to believe that there'll be any long-term health effects from their exposure. In all, there were 134 people seen at hospital emergency rooms, according to hospital officials who have spoken to our plant physician. Union Carbide Corporation will assume responsibility for medical expenses for all 134 people.

HANK KARAWAN, plant manager: Further inspection of the tank confirms that earlier reports that there were about 500 gallons of aldicarb oxime dichloromethane mixture in the tank. It is now suspected that the material overheated when steam entered a jacket on this vessel which resulted in a pressure buildup. This caused three gaskets on the tank to fail. In addition, a safety valve on the tank opened and discharged materials into the emergency vent system. Further investigation showed that a rupture disk in the emergency system also opened, discharging material. We want to reemphasize that there was no MIC released in this incident.

NELL McCORMACK, WPBY [voice-over]: Hank Karawan, a plant manager, said Carbide followed the proper community emergency plans. But area residents strongly disagreed.

Dr. BARBRA ODEN: People were smelling this odor at 9:15 in the morning, and we didn't get any warning. The emergency whistle didn't go off until 10 o'clock. We have two whistles. One is the fire siren -- it goes up and down. The emergency whistle stays at a high pitch. That whistle did not go off until about 10 minutes after 10.

REPORTER: Are you scared to live here now?

Dr. ODEN: Well, we really don't know, you know. But how can you get up and move like this? You know, we're not young people.

WOODRUFF: Later in the NewsHour we'll look further into what happened in yesterday's gas leak. Meanwhile, more than 200 people in Arizona had to be evacuated from three towns today after a freight train carrying toxic substances derailed and caught fire. The train was traveling through northwestern Arizona about 30 miles northeast of Kingman when 27 cars went off the track and burned, releasing clouds of possibly poisonous smoke into shifting winds. There were no immediate reports of injury. Arizona public safety officials said they were told the train was carrying containers filled with various hazardous chemicals, including cyanide, alcohol, ammonia and sulfuric acid.

MacNEIL: In economic news, wholesale prices rose 0.3 of a percent in July, largely due to rising food costs. Wholesale prices had been declining in recent months, and for the first seven months of the year the wholesale price index has risen 1.4 . The White House said that was very good news and that there's no sign of any pickup in inflation.

The Chrysler Corporation and the auto workers opened contract talks today, with the union saying it wanted equality with General Motors and Ford workers. Chrysler's UAW workers' pay and benefits lag behind those in the bigger companies, because the union made concessions to help the number three car maker avoid bankruptcy. The talks begin after a year of record profits for Chrysler.

WOODRUFF: And finally in the news today, engineers looking for the cause of the early shutdown of one of the space shuttle Challenger's engines last month say they found what they thought they would find: a broken sensor which incorrectly told a computer one of the engines was overheating. The next shuttle mission with new engine sensors is in two weeks, when the Discovery is scheduled to deploy three satellites and repair one already in space. Mercy Killing

MacNEIL: In Florida, Governor Bob Graham and a state clemency board are expected to announce soon whether they will free an elderly man who was convicted of shooting his wife in an alleged mercy killing. In a moment we debate whether the court should be lenient or tough with mercy killers. But first a glance back at the Florida trial which has brought this simmering issue again into the news. Gilbert said the killing was an act of love, but a jury found him guilty of first-degree murder. The Gilbert case is by no means unique, but it's become something of a rallying point for both sides of a growing and emotional debate. Was this really a case of mercy killing, and what kind of precedent is the clemency decision likely to have? Those were central issues at a clemency hearing in Tallahassee last week. Here's an excerpt, first from the state side, then from Gilbert's.

KELLY HANCOCK, Assistant State Attorney [August 8, 1985]: Emily Gilbert's doctor testified that she was improving. These are the reports that came out during the testimony, that she was improving and she was then termed -- indicated that she was coming on very well. Furthermore, there was testimony that she could have lived approximately five to 10 years longer. The testimony at trial was that the defendant told Detective Sheff and Dr. Onley that he had thought about it for about a month, about doing it. The testimony was on that day that in fact they went to lunch together, they came back; he had to go to his board meeting. He told her to stay in the condominium; she said she would. He goes down to the board meeting and Emily comes down to get him. Emily interrupts his board meeting and at that time he decides that -- to take her upstairs. He takes her upstairs, puts her on the sofa, goes gets his gun, loads his gun and comes up and sneaks up behind Emily Gilbert -- and this is important because he sneaked up behind. Emily had no chance, she had no idea what was happening. He said he put the gun approximately three to four inches away from her head and he pulled the trigger. And he said a reason he put it three to four inches away was for the blood would not splatter all over the condominium. He felt her pulse. After feeling her pulse, he felt she was still alive, he then goes loads the gun again, comes up again and shoots her again. And in fact he said it was another three to four inches, and this in fact shows that he was -- his mind, he knew what he was doing, he knew exactly how far away the gun was from Emily when he shot her.

HARRY GULKIN, defense attorney: We had a woman who was dying. She had irreversible deterioration of two diseases. It was the dying cycle. It's like pancreatic cancer. A person may take a year; eventually they die. They watch people die. The question -- and you, members of the Cabinet, have to address the issue, through legislation if nothing else, and this is the type of case that you can use as the forerunner of legislation to say, "All right, look, Roswell, you pulled the trigger -- you didn't pull the plug -- you pulled the trigger; that bullet went into your wife's brain. Now what do we do with you?" She was dying. Whether or not she was going to die the next day or not, we don't know. The doctor said that she had some time to live. But we knew it was terminal. If you grant clemency, which we're obviously asking you to grant, it's not going to precipitate people running out and buying guns and killing loved ones who are ill. I can't believe any of you really think that's going to happen.

WOODRUFF: An update. This weekend, a Tallahassee newspaper poll showed that 63 of Florida residents believe Roswell Gilbert should get a full pardon. For a broader view of the issues we have Derek Humphry, who heads a right-to-die group called the Hemlock Society. Mr. Humphry has written about his own experience with euthanasia. In 1975 he helped his terminally ill wife take her own life. He is now writing a book about mercy killing and joins us from public station KCET-Los Angeles. On the other side we have the prosecutor in the Gilbert case, Kelly Hancock, an assistant state attorney. He joins us tonight from public station KCTS in Seattle.

Mr. Humphry, let me begin with you. You were a confidante of Mr. Gilbert's at the trial. You think he should be given clemency. Why?

DEREK HUMPHRY: Well, first of all, the record. I've researched mercy killing cases in this country back to 1920 and he's the only man since 1920 to get a life sentence. In all cases there has been clemency shown, and this is suddenly a very barbaric sentence which I think is very disturbing.

WOODRUFF: Well, what makes you so certain that he wasn't guilty of murder, which the jury trial did find him guilty of?

Mr. HUMPHRY: He was guilty of murder, yes, and I don't approve of what he did, of that action. But you see, the law, Anglo-American law doesn't permit mercy as a motivation. It should. It's time we came into line with many European countries and said in some murder cases you can consider compassion and mercy. You see, he's getting the same sentence as the Hillside strangler, the Boston strangler, terrible criminals. Should he be lumped in with them? I think not; I think a caring society will say otherwise.

WOODRUFF: Where do you draw the line? What sets this case apart from another killing which is not done with compassion, done with mercy?

Mr. HUMPHRY: Well, because this was premeditated mercy. I know Mr. Hancock calls it premeditated murder; I would call it premeditated mercy. You see, the law is very rigid, and for centuries we haven't moved to bring ourselves up to date on this. But I think the Gilbert case is going to be a cause celebre to make thinking lawyers say there should be room for mercy.

WOODRUFF: Well, you heard Mr. Hancock say in the tape report we just saw that he'd walked up behind her, shot her from behind.

Mr. HUMPHRY: Yes. Well, yes. It was a premeditated murder, but with mercy aforethought. This is the essential difference, you see.

WOODRUFF: Do you see that difference, Mr. Hancock?

KELLY HANCOCK: No, I don't, Judy. I saw it as a murder, and it was not a mercy killing. I think the facts indicate that he did not solve her problems but he solved his problems, that she became a burden to him and he was not able to cope with her problems, and so he reacted and thus he shot her two times in the head. So I do not look to it as a mercy killing, rather as a murder. And I think the jury concluded that in their verdict, and in fact they indicated through the verdict that they also felt that it was a murder and a first-degree murder.

WOODRUFF: Why do you dispute Mr. Humphry's finding? I mean, what is it about this case in particular that makes you so certain that it wasn't a mercy killing?

Mr. HANCOCK: Because I think the facts indicated, Judy, that the evidence was that she was not in a comatose state, she was not on life-support machines, she was not in her deathbed. It was just the opposite. She'd been out to lunch one hour before, had eaten on her own. She'd gone to a hairdresser approximately three days or four days before that. Several witnesses testified in the trial that they had seen Emily numerous times. And in the last three months generally she was by herself, walking by herself around the condominium. There was another witness that testified that they had seen Emily at the drugstore approximately two weeks before her death, and that at that time she was by herself and she had purchased hair nets. And I think the entire facts indicate that she was not in any condition as what the defense wanted the jury to believe. And I think the jury concluded that in fact Emily was a well-functioning human being. And the doctor testified that she had approximately -- could have lived five to 10 years.

WOODRUFF: Mr. Humphry, the picture that we've just heard Mr. Hancock paint doesn't sound like a woman who w live and who should die, because I don't think we can set those standards.

WOODRUFF: Gentlemen, I'm afraid we'll have to leave it there. Mr. Humphry and Mr. Hancock both, we thank you.

Mr. HANCOCK: Thank you very much.

WOODRUFF: Robin?

MacNEIL: Still ahead on the NewsHour, a heartbreaking look at the shortage of foster care in this country. And on the poisonous gas leak in West Virginia we ask who is to blame. Foster Homes Wanted

WOODRUFF: For our next focus segment we turn to what some are calling a crisis in foster care. Increased public awareness about the problems of child abuse and neglect has led to a need for more foster parents, people who provide temporary shelters for children. But in some parts of the country there is simply not enough foster care to fill the need. Reporter Jeffrey Kaye of public station KCET in Los Angeles has this report on the problem there.

JEFFREY KAYE [voice-over]: It is another busy day in the dependency section of the juvenile court of Los Angeles. In the crowded hallway outside the courtroom, children sit with social workers, foster parents, relatives and guardians, awaiting legal decisions that will change their lives.

GARY POLINSKY, commissioner, Superior Court: The care, custody and control of the minor is taken from the parent and committed to the care, custody and control of the department for suitable placement.

KAYE [voice-over]: This scene is repeated daily in Los Angeles County. This year some 12,000 children will be taken from parents who have abused or neglected them and will be placed in the custody of the county.

Comm. POLINSKY: That no visits for the mother if she's under the influence of any substance, drugs or alcohol.

KAYE [voice-over]: There have always been children whose parents could not or would not adequately care for them. But the problem is now reaching alarming proportions. The number of youngsters in need of placement hasa hobbs, former administrator: Well, I think there are a variety of things that have brought about the crisis. First, there is an increased demand for serving abused and neglected children, because there is a conscious awareness on the public's part now that children are abused and neglected. Consequently, the referral rate, the number of cases brought to our attention, has significantly increased.

KAYE [voice-over]: In the past year alone, the number of child abuse cases referred to Los Angeles County jumped to 75,000, up 50 from the previous year.

LINDA HAMILTON, social worker: The problem is really astronomical. We have so many children that need foster care and we don't have any -- we have very few foster homes that can take them.

KAYE [voice-over]: The Simmons family has been deeply affected by the crisis. Joyce and Melvin Simmons run a foster care home. They take in children on a temporary basis and look after them for weeks or months until more permanent arrangements can be made. During the last 16 years the Simmonses have provided foster care for 200 youngsters, most within the past five years. As one of 3,000 Los Angeles foster care families the Simmonses have been under increased pressure to take more children more often.

MELVIN SIMMONS, foster parent: More calls, even when we're filled up. Last night at 11:30 I got a call wanting to know if we happened to have a vacancy. There was a -- they had some kids that needed to be placed.

JOYCE SIMMONS, foster parent: We have maybe two and three calls a week from social workers looking for homes, and there are just no homes available.

KAYE [voice-over]: In addition to the increased numbers of children who need placement, another problem is also straining the system. Of those youngsters who do come to the attention of authorities, more ofthem than ever before are seriously troubled, psychologically and physically.

Ms. HOBBS: We have children who are coming into the system now who are more emotionally damaged, and therefore they are much more difficult to care for. You have more bed wetting, you have more crime, you have more withdrawal, you have more hyperactivity. You have children who are coming into the system who have been more severely physically damaged. Those children require more medical attention. They will come in in a body cast, for example, which is really a management problem for a foster parent.

KAYE [voice-over]: The system also has to cope with a new problem: newborn infants who come into the world hooked on narcotics such as PCP and cocaine. Those who care for them call them drug babies.

Ms. HOBBS: We also have another type of child now which we're seeing at a much higher level, and a very high-risk child, and that's the child who was born to a mother who was using drugs and comes into this world drug addicted and goes into drug withdrawal.

Mrs. SIMMONS: Three out of every four babies that I take are addicted to some form of drug.

KAYE: And what do you do?

Mrs. SIMMONS: I nd that coddling them, binding them -- I usually take them and I'll bind them as tight as I can bind them in a blanket. And we do a lot of walking the floor at night, you know. And just seeing them through. A lot of real close physical contact.

KAYE [voice-over]: Unhealthy infants like this one are almost impossible to place. Often the county has no choice but to send them to Mac Laren Hall, the home for abused and neglected youngsters. This haven is supposed to be a last resort, a place to send kids temporarily in emergencies. It is jammed, filled to its capacity of 320, more than twice the number of children here last year. Some youngsters have been here for a year. Geri Peak is a counselor at Mac Laren Hall.

GERI PEAK, counselor: When a child comes in they need a lot of care, they need a lot of tender loving care and a lot of time spent with them. Well, if the children are coming in one every 30 minutes or every hour, you know, we just don't have the time to do what we would like.

CLARA MEELS, counselor: Most of the cottages are built for a population of 20 children, and right now we're averaging 25 to 26 in all of the girls' cottages, which means that we don't have adequate space, the kids don't get enough individual time, which results in many of our more disturbed children being a lot more neglected.

KAYE [voice-over]: With the system so burdened, social workers trying to place children often have few choices. Many times they have no choice, and as a result youngsters are sent back to their parents.

Comm. POLINSKY: It seems that sometimes we get recommendations on a given day, depending on how many children are in Mac Laren Hall, the department may recommend "return to parent under the supervision of the departme.#9a!p." When you see a case that may be identical two days later and the recommendation is for out-of-parent home, and the only conclusion you can reach, knowing the situation, is that Mac Laren Hall may be overcrowded on that particular day.

KAYE [voice-over]: While the demand for foster homes increases, the county is desperately trying to prevent the homes it already has from dropping out of the system. One simple reason for that attrition rate may be money. Payments to foster parents range from $280 to $500 per month, depending on the youngsters' needs. Many feel the compensation is inadequate.

Ms. HAMILTON: The whole foster care system was set up for a 1950s economy, when a mother could stay home. There's no way that the working -- in most families now that a parent can stay home. You can't afford to do it. And they -- the foster care system was never meant to pay a salary to a person. It was meant only to cover the basic needs of the child.

KAYE [voice-over]: Los Angeles is trying to do something about the foster care crisis. It has embarked on a campaign to recruit and to train foster parents, and it is trying to increase the payments to foster families.

SHARYN LOGAN, foster home program: I mentioned the PCP babies. We have received state approval to pay foster parents who care for infants, you know, in that condition based on medical verification, of course, more money. The schedule D program for foster parents who care for severely emotionally disturbed children, we pay them more money. And we are trying to work with the state to be able to pay more money for foster parents who care for well babies.

KAYE [voice-over]: While Los Angeles officials insist that more money will be needed to overcome the foster care crisis, they are realistic enough not to expect an imminent increase in funding, particularly since 70 of their budget now comes from Washington. But they also warn that spending less on children's services today could prove expensive in the long run.

Comm. POLINSKY: Those children who are abused severely as children tend to come through the system and graduate, as it were, from dependency to delinquency to adult criminal behavior. That's why we need funding, and we need an emphasis on taking care of the young children and their families, and educating them at this level so that we can stop that progression.

WOODRUFF: That report by Jeffrey Kaye of public station KCET in Los Angeles. Union Carbide: Sizing Up Safety

MacNEIL: Yesterday's gas leak at the Union Carbide plant in West Virginia once again raises the specter of Bhopal and renewed questions about the safety of communities near chemical plants. We devote a focus section to those questions tonight. One group that has set itself up as an industry watchdog is the West Virginia Citizens Action Group. It's headed by Perry Bryant, who joins is tonight from public station WPBY in Huntington, West Virginia.

Mr. Bryant, the people in Institute say they were sickened by the gas before the first warnings yesterday. What went wrong in your view?

PERRY BRYANT: I can't tell you. It's puzzling to me that the Union Carbide would not have notified the emergency response people earlier that they did have a leak, so that evacuation could occur in an orderly fashion. We've gone through here in the Kanawha Valley since Bhopal looking at the evacuation plans. But no matter how good the evacuation plans are, it's critical that they be notified in a timely fashion. No matter how good the response is after they're notified, if you don't know -- if people are getting sick in their homes before the Union Carbide notifies emergency response people, it does no good whatsoever. I think in a sense we were very fortunate with the leak that occurred yesterday. It could have been methyl isocyanate or phosgene or even higher concentrations of the material that did leak, and that the response, the emergency response would not have been there, and people -- it could have been far more serious, as I say.

MacNEIL: Methyl isocyanate, just to remind viewers, was the chemical that leaked in India and killed 2,000 people.

Mr. BRYANT: Right. And is produced here.

MacNEIL: And is produced in Institute, WestVirginia.

Mr. BRYANT: That's right.

MacNEIL: Now, in the way -- that's an apparent failure of the warning system, but go now to the safety equipment. As I understand, there was a lot of new safety equipment installed after the Bhopal tragedy. In the way they've described how the leak occurred, does that mean that that new safety equipment broke down?

Mr. BRYANT: That's probably -- more than the lack of the emergency response, more troubling is the lack of the scrubbers and the flares. These are the same to what they call redundant safety equipment that are used with the methyl isocyanate unit, and they did not work in Bhopal.

MacNEIL: Tell us what scrubbers and flares are.

Mr. BRYANT: Well, scrubbers are designed to try to detoxify an emergency release, and then the flares are designed to burn up those that the scrubber doesn't take care of. They were used -- they were not operative in Bhopal, and that's one of the causes of the tragedy there. They did not operate fully yesterday with this unit, and yet those are the same safety devices that are in place to protect us from methyl isocyanate, a release of methyl isocyanate. And you just can't help but think, is this adequate? Do we have enough safeguards?

MacNEIL: Are we talking about equipment that was installed after Bhopal?

Mr. BRYANT: That's right.

MacNEIL: This is new equipment.

Mr. BRYANT: This is new equipment that was installed after Bhopal, is my understanding. And yet it did not function properly -- 134 people would not have gone to the hospital had it been operating functionally and properly.

MacNEIL: Does your group believe in general that there have been since the Bhopal tragedy real changes in chemical plant safety in your area?

Mr. BRYANT: I'm afraid not. We particularly on -- we've seen this release. We continue to see routine air missions. The Institute plant, for example, discharges 147 tons of a known carcinogen, butadiene. Now, this is a routine discharge that occurs day in and day out. Those kinds of emissions have not been reduced. We've not seen the -- we have seen some additional planning on emergency response, but again, that triggering mechanism is far more important than actually the planning that occurs after that. People don't know that -- emergency response, if people don't know that a release has occurred, they can't adequately address the needs of the community. So I -- frankly I'm a little disappointed in the entire response by the chemical industry in the valley. I don't see the kind of progress that I would like to be able to report.

MacNEIL: Well, Mr. Bryant, thank you. We'll come back in a moment. Judy?

WOODRUFF: Union Carbide declined an invitation to appear on our program tonight. An industry-sponsored study group has been looking at ways to reduce the risk to communities near chemical plants. It is called the National Institute of Chemical Safety, and it's headed by Russell Wehrle. He also joins us tonight from West Virginia.

Mr. Wehrle, what do you think happened yesterday?

RUSSELL WEHRLE: It's difficult for us to say because we have only -- it's a very short time to respond. We've only had 36 hours since this happened, and we pretty much have to go on what the press releases are.

WOODRUFF: Well, now, we understand that you're not speaking for Union Carbide, as we said. But do you have any information at this point about whether the warning system failed or any information at all that you could share?

Mr. WEHRLE: No, there seems to be no more information than what's been available in the press. I do feel that once the emergencyplanning people were notified, apparently the procedures went very quickly and there was -- it functioned well; that the county and the city people did get together and get their procedures so that there was help to the people as quickly as possible.

WOODRUFF: Once the procedure was set in motion, you're saying.

Mr. WEHRLE: That's right.

WOODRUFF: What about Mr. Bryant's comment just now that he doesn't think chemical companies have done enough since Bhopal to ensure the safety of people who live nearby?

Mr. WEHRLE: Well, there's only been, what, seven or eight months since the Bhopal tragedy occurred, and I think we must remember what our sense of purpose is here. I think all industry now today expects to be more responsible. Each year they're willing to spend more time and effort in being responsible. I think the question to industry comes down as to what is cost effective, and what protection do we really need and what is effective. We formed the National Institute for Chemical Studies right after Bhopal. We're a local group of business people who put our money into it and then the governor funded us shortly after that with additional funds. We now have groups that are studying and going through the valley tonight. Actually there's the first focus group that is studying and getting a reaction of what the people are concerned about. It'll be certainly a stronger meeting than what we expected initially because there will be more concerns.

WOODRUFF: So I understand you to say that the industry should be more concerned with what is cost effective than with necessarily any blanket standard for safety. Is that correct?

Mr. WEHRLE: No, I'm not saying that. I think that the safety, the thing that the National Institute, the first -- our first program was the protection of the health and safety of our citizens here. That is the most important thing for us local people. After all, we all live in this valley, and the chemical companies have been good neighbors for the last 50 years. I think what we want to study is, is it possible for them to continue to be good neighbors? Why not? What areas can we develop with them that will help to improve the safety of the environment for the citizens of this community?

WOODRUFF: Is it your view that people who live in the vicinity of this kind of chemical plant are just going to have to put up with some risk indefinitely?

Mr. WEHRLE: Well, yes, I think there'll be some risk. But what one of our other goals is, is that we want to have this risk -- be assessed what is the risk. One of the things we want to do is to have an informed body politic here who will understand what the problems are, understand what the risks are, will assess them and then it's up to us to decide how do we want to manage them. And by that, that's nice words: assess what the risk is and manage the risk. You know, when you get in an automobile and decide to go on a trip now, you assess -- there are so many automobile accidents on the highway. Are we going to drive or are we not going to go? That is risk assessment and risk management, and we want to approach the chemical problems the same way.

WOODRUFF: Mr. Wehrle, thank you and stay with us. Robin?

MacNEIL: Do you agree, Mr. Bryant, that the chemical companies have been becoming more responsible each year and have been good neighbors?

Mr. BRYANT: I'm cautiously optimistic that the National Institute of Chemical Studies and the Bhopal tragedy may foster a new spirit of cooperation between citizens -- the community and the chemical industry. Certainly the routine emissionsneed to be addressed adequately. They have not been to date. Certainly the accidental releases need to be addressed in a more comprehensive manner. They have not been to date. But I am cautiously optimistic that with working together we can solve some of these solutions, come to some of these solution -- and solve some of the problems that we have here in the valley.

MacNEIL: Mr. Wehrle, do you agree with that, that the chemical companies have not taken care of the routine emissions that Mr. Bryant describes?

Mr. WEHRLE: I really can't judge that except by what's available. I think that the chemical --

MacNEIL: He said earlier that so many tons of known carcinogens are routinely pumped into the air and that nothing is done about it.

Mr. WEHRLE: I don't think there's any question that there are facts that he is aware of there that we have to agree with.

MacNEIL: Yeah. Mr. Wehrle -- sorry, Mr. Bryant, you just heard that that group is doing a study on what the people are concerned about. Tell him your impression of what the people are concerned about. I mean, they need the employment in the area. They live with a lot of risk in the mines in that area all their lives.

Mr. WEHRLE: That's right.

MacNEIL: Knowing the balance of risk, what are they concerned about?

Mr. BRYANT: Well, I think they are concerned about a catastrophic release of methyl isocyanate or phosgene or any other acutely toxic materials that we have stored in high quantities within the valley. I think they are concerned about the routine emissions of known carcinogens, hundreds of tons into the air each year. I think they are concerned about landfilling of hazardous waste and not detoxifying or recycling, reusing hazardous waste. I think they are concerned about the discharge into our streams and rivers in the Kanawha Valley. Kanawha Valley has improved -- I mean, the Kanawha River has improved, I don't want to take that away. But we have not come far enough, and I hope in the future we'll be able to see a greater reduction of exposure to toxics from all these different medias for the people who live here in the Kanawha Valley.

MacNEIL: Mr. Wehrle, if those are the concerns, are the citizens of the Kanawha Valley justified in those concerns or do you think the industry is taking steps that should make them relax those concerns?

Mr. WEHRLE: I don't disagree with any of Perry Bryant's concerns. I think it's an interesting fact that he and I are both on the National Institute board. We're serving together, and we're trying to make this a better community to live. But I would add to his list that there are concerns in this valley for jobs, for economic growth, for the environmental -- the whole quality of environmental life here. They're extremely important to everybody, he as well as I, and everyone else. And I think that this is the thrust of the National Institute is, is that we want to become a model for the nation in addressing these problems: how do you keep jobs in the community? The chemical industry has been an important factor in this valley for many years. When I was a young man 40 years ago, Life magazine ran a big article called "The Magic Valley." We were the chemical center of the world. And so it has been a part of the lifestyle growing up here. That may make us not as aware of the problems until something like what happened today, but still I think we are taking an intelligent, thorough, educated approach to this. And we see this, we know we have problems in this area, and we want to turn them into opportunities for our citizens and for the area.

MacNEIL: How do you -- obviously what most people would be concerned about would be the risk of a catastrophic release of methyl isocyanate or something that could really kill a lot of people. How do you react to his concern there, and especially when he said earlier it appears that the very safety devices installed after Bhopal, the same safety devices which are supposed to prevent a release of not what was released yesterday, but methyl isocyanate, failed? What kind of anxiety does that give you?

Mr. WEHRLE: Well, right after the Bhopal tragedy we held meetings throughout the -- our congressman, Bob Wise, held meetings throughout the county on what the emergency response was. And it's very interesting, we found that there are problems in all three areas. I think the chemical companies needed to upgrade their response. Certainly the public officials, which has the Kanawha Valley Emergency Response Council, which is made up of the publicly elected people. But the other sort of shocking thing is that there was very poor attendance by the citizens of this community at these meetings to find out what to do. I think we frequently find that people want to be spoon fed something quickly when they're in trouble, and otherwise they don't want to work on it. So I would suggest that these three groups -- and this is one of the areas that the National Institute would hope to work in and to become a model in the nation -- would pull toG:8zther and make a better response to anything, be it catastrophic or minor.

MacNEIL: Mr. Bryant, am I understanding you correctly that you still think, in view of what happened yesterday, that the citizens of your area are living with some risk of a catastrophic release of death-dealing gases?

Mr. BRYANT: I don't think there's any question about that. Leaks within a chemical company plant are inevitable.

MacNEIL: And that the safety precautions and warning systems so far instituted don't relieve that risk -- is that what you believe?

Mr. BRYANT: That's right. And we need to force the chemical companies to look at substituting the acutely toxic materials they have, and substituting for that less toxic materials, so when these releases do happen we send 134 people to the hospital but we don't send 200 or a thousand people to the morgue.

MacNEIL: Is that a realistic solution, Mr. Wehrle, to get the chemical companies to use in the area less toxic materials?

Mr. WEHRLE: You know, I don't believe I'm qualified to answer that. But I do think the chemical companies are admittedly prepared to make more effort to mitigate any possibility of something like that. I'm really not qualified to answer that.

MacNEIL: I see. Is there a danger, Mr. Bryant, that if you make things too tough on the chemical companies that they will ship themselves overseas and your people won't have that employment?

Mr. BRYANT: That's certainly a legitimate concern. We've seen exportation of jobs in the past. The Kanawha Valley has some of the oldest plants in the country. There is legitimate concern that the chemical companies are not willing to put the investment into the valley that's needed to make these plants wholesome and yet very productive.

MacNEIL: Is that a legitimate concern, Mr. Wehrle? Are they not willing to put that kind of investment in?

Mr. WEHRLE: Well, the chairman of the board of Union Carbide visited with our group, oh, in February or March and said that they would do all that was necessary to make these plants safe. And that's a very positive statement on his part.

MacNEIL: And you take him at his word?

Mr. WEHRLE: Yes, sir.

MacNEIL: I see. Well, thank you both, Mr. Bryant and Mr. Wehrle, for joining us this evening from West Virginia. Judy?

WOODRUFF: Once again the main stories of the day. A Japan Air Lines jumbo jet carrying 524 people crashed on a mountainside 70 miles from Tokyo. Pictures taken from the air after daylight Tuesday Tokyo time showed the plane still burning in a heavily wooded area about 5,000 feet up on the side of Mount Ogura. The place can be reached only on foot, and a rescue force of some 260 Japanese policemen and volunteers had evidently not arrived when these pictures were taken from the air. There was no sign of survivors.

Five more people have died in anti-apartheid rioting in South Africa. West Virginia residents said they were not adequately warned of the Union Carbide chemical gas leak yesterday. And wholesale prices rose slightly in July.

Good night, Robin.

MacNEIL: Good night, Judy. That's our NewsHour tonight. We'll be back tomorrow night. I'm Robert MacNeil. Good night.