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Mr . CRAIG . How much , or how many press releases went out to the media ?

Mr . STATLER . I would guess on the order of about 500 - 700 fact sheets to the media .

Mr . CRAIG . Fact sheets , OK . Mr . STATLER . And again , that was all information already in the public domain .

Mr . CRAIG . All right . But you did disseminate this , I see it says to consumer protection offices and organizations .

Mr . STATLER . Yes , in addition , I sent them - -

Mr . CRAIG . And the media is a consumer protectionist organiza tion ?

Mr . STATLER . No . I sent it to some 500 - 700 media organizations . I sent it to consumer protection organizations . I sent it to attorney generals of the various States . I sent it to Governor - designees of the various States .

Mr . CRAIG . I see . Mr . STATLER . I sent it to conservative and liberal organizations , from the Chamber of Commerce to the NAM - - Mr . CRAIG . This is not a conservative - liberal issue . Mr . STATLER . I realize that . Mr . CRAIG . You seem to be sensitive to that . Mr . STATLER . No , I am not Mr . CRAIG . You said it twice .

Mr . STATLER . My point is that I think that regardless of where you are on the political spectrum , the American public is entitled to fundamental information that affects their public health and safety .

Mr . BARNARD . My only question is , though , were you speaking for the entire Commission in that information ?

Mr . STATLER . I sent out information that the Commission had al ready put in the public domain .

Mr . BARNARD . But were you speaking for the Commission ? Mr . STATLER . No , I was speaking for myself in terms of —

Mr . BARNARD . Wouldn ' t you gain the impression , though , wouldn ' t you gain the impression that people reading that coming from you would be the fact that the Commission had put their full seal of approval on everything that you had published ?

Mr . STATLER . No , not really , sir , because the cover sheet was from me and that clearly indicated it was from me . The fact sheet was all Commission information . It was information the Commis sion had already disseminated .

Mr . BARNARD . Why didn ' t the Commission disseminate that rather than one Commissioner ?

Mr . STATLER . That is a long and complicated response that that question requires , but the simple response is that under our law we are terribly constricted , unlike any other safety and health regula tory agency , in terms of how fast we can process information relat ing to health and safety that the public deserves to know of .

Mr . BARNARD . My question though , how about after all of your engineering studies and all this other information that you are going to gather , the findings of the Commission is other than what you have disseminated . How do you come from there ?