The People's Protector

Like other black Americans, Charles C. Johnson Jr. has ample reason to worry about the quality of U.S. life. But unlike most people, Johnson has not only a mandate but also the power to do something about it. As head of a little-known federal agency within the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, he is in effect the policeman of the entire U.S. environment.

"C.C.," as friends call him, is the administrator of the Consumer Protection and Environmental Health Service. Under him are the Food and Drug Administration, the National Air Pollution Control Administration and the Environmental Control Administration. An intense activist, Johnson, 48, spends much of his time reminding Americans that "the human environment consists not only of land, air and water that give us life but also includes the food we eat, the drugs we ingest, and all the thousands of products which we consume or use in this complicated world." Johnson and his staff of 231 can use lawsuits to gain compliance with new federal antipollution laws. But he prefers to use his powers of persuasion.

Black Lung Disease. In his campaign to familiarize the U.S. with the real costs of unchecked pollution, Johnson carries his message to businessmen, labor leaders, scientists and engineers, to conferences and conventions. "Man has created a new environment, but he has not created a new man," he argues. Johnson uses more than words to guard man against some of the threats of his self-imposed surroundings. Last spring, for example, after FDA scientists found unusually high levels of DDT in Lake Michigan coho salmon, Johnson helped to engineer a HEW order aimed at phasing out use of the chemical in the U.S.

Too often, public officials shy away from curbing a suspected environmental hazard until a direct, incontrovertible relationship has been established. As Johnson explains: "We have reached the time when we can no longer postpone action while we try to dot every scientific i and cross every scientific t" When he was advised that color TV sets and microwave ovens are a potentially dangerous source of radiation, Johnson quickly alerted the public, then helped to write strict new radiation standards. To combat black lung disease, which now afflicts about 100,000 miners, he established interim limits on the amount of airborne coal dust permitted in a mine shaft, until Congress finally set permanent standards last year.

Staff Abrasive. Fond of mottoes, Johnson keeps handy a printed card that reads: "The only purpose for your activity is to get results." He has always followed that advice. A native lowan and Purdue University engineering graduate, Johnson worked as an assistant commissioner of health in New York City, where he learned firsthand about another environmental hazard: urban decay. His practical experience and accomplishments in New York made him a natural choice to head the environmental service after it was created in July 1968.

Some White House staffers regard Johnson as abrasive, but they are listening to what he says. Among his concerns is the increased use of chemical additives in foods, which Americans now consume at an annual rate of 3 Ibs. per person. He has prodded the asbestos industry to start safeguarding its workers, who now have seven times more lung cancer than the general working population. He created a national surveillance network to learn about other dangers to human health. Cheered by the concern over the environment, he predicts: "The time is ripe for our national policy to recognize that there is something in greater need of protection than natural resources, and that is human resources."

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