Joseph C. Arcos, 83, a retired senior science adviser at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and an expert on how chemicals cause cancer, died Dec. 31 of cardiac arrest at a hospital in Asheville, N.C. He had moved to North Carolina from Falls Church last year.
Dr. Arcos, a native of Hungary, worked in cancer research early on at the University of Wisconsin, the University of Florida and Tulane University Medical School in New Orleans. He joined the EPA in 1979.
Joseph C. Arcos wrote or edited 14 books and 160 scientific papers.
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His research involved the role of enzymes in activating chemicals to become carcinogenic; the analysis of the relationships between chemical structure and biological activities of chemical carcinogens; and the development of innovative methods to predict the carcinogenic potential of untested chemicals and chemical mixtures.
He wrote more than 160 papers in scientific periodicals and wrote or edited 14 books. Perhaps his best-known publication was a seven-volume treatise, "Chemical Induction of Cancer," which received the American Chemical Society's award for creative advances in environmental science and technology.
Dr. Arcos -- along with his wife and research partner, Dr. Mary F. Argus -- joined the EPA to help implement the newly enacted Toxic Substances Control Act.
Relying on his predictive expertise, he made a crucial contribution to the agency's structure activity team, which evaluates the toxic potential of thousands of new industrial chemicals. He initiated and served as the first scientific director for the development of two major computer programs for assessing the carcinogenic potential of chemicals.
As Dr. Arcos noted, even someone with no chemistry background can use the programs to determine a substance's carcinogenic potential.
Joseph Charles Arcos was born in Nagykanizsa, Hungary, and received advanced degrees in chemistry and chemical engineering from the University of Cluj in Transylvania, Romania, the College of France and the University of Paris.
He was founding editor of Environmental Carcinogenesis & Ecotoxicology Reviews, associate editor for the journal Cancer Research and section editor for the Journal of the American College of Toxicology. He served on the editorial advisory board of Global Bioethics.
At his death, he was clinical professor emeritus at Tulane's medical school, a senior science adviser with the EPA and a fellow of the American College of Toxicology.
Since retiring from the EPA in 1998, Dr. Arcos increasingly turned his attention to ecology and to what he saw as the interactive complexity of the accelerating global environmental crisis.
His research and writing led him to the belief that the environmental crisis is actually a crisis of values. He maintained that belief systems, myths and aspirations conspire to create a disdain for ecology and are the root cause of accelerating environmental degradation.
Argus remembered her husband saying: "If the pope would make it a sin to pollute, that would be a great help."
His last major book, the social and political critique "Voices of the Gathering Storm: The Web of Ecological-Societal Crisis," will be published this spring.
His marriage to Martha F. Arcos ended in divorce.
Survivors include his wife of 44 years, of Brevard, N.C.; a son from his first marriage, John T. Arcos of Long Beach, Calif.; and two granddaughters.
