June 7, 1984

The Environmental Protection Agency plans to recommend that the Federal Government for the first time limit the strength of radiation from the antennas of radio and television transmitters because of possible human health risks. New studies have raised a question whether broadcast radiation under certain conditions may cause disorders in the nervous and immune systems. As a result, sources at the E.P.A. and the broadcast industry say, the Federal Government is moving for limitations. Although some scientists disagree with the new studies, Federal officials and some health associations have concluded that prudence calls for increasing the margin of safety. ''It's a long-deferred and very welcome Federal action,'' said Dr. Leonard R. Solon, director of the New York City Health Department's bureau for radiation control. ''The proposed standards are a significant defense of the public health.''

New York State was penalized $58.6 million by the Federal Government yesterday on the ground that the state had failed to correct health, living and safety violations at five of its centers for the retarded and disabled. The penalty, which was announced by the Federal Department of Health and Human Services, was described as the largest of its kind ever imposed against any state. It represented nearly 17 percent of the Federal Medicaid contribution of $329.4 million last year for providing care for New York's retarded and disabled. In a statement, Margaret M. Heckler, Secretary of Health and Human Services, said: ''This is not a bolt out of the Federal blue, cavalierly invoked. For more than 10 years, New York, and indeed all 50 states, have been on notice that in return for a generous, continuous supply of Federal dollars, we expect mentally retarded individuals in state institutions to be treated with dignity and exemplary care.''

-improvement season, time for such things as repairing roofs, adding rooms and replacing windows. Summer, therefore, is also the season for homeowners' problems with less-than-scrupulous contractors, ranging from some who place bricks on a lawn, claiming that they have fallen from a chimney that must be rebuilt, to the capable worker who begins a job but leaves in the middle because the project cannot be finished alone. This year, local enforcement agencies are using new tools to help combat these practices. Both Nassau and Suffolk Counties conducted operations this spring to expose unlicensed contractors and New York City officials are using a recently enacted law allowing them to seize the trucks and tools of such workers. But, these officials say, the best weapon against home-improvement fraud is still consumer caution. ''Year in and year out, home improvement will top the list of complaints,'' said Gary Walker, a spokesman for the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs, which received 1,471 such complaints in 1983 and 631 through April of this year. ''And more problems show up this time of year.''

House and Senate tax conferees agreed today on about $30 billion in tax increases over four years - more than half of their goal of $50 billion in additional revenues. The increases, which are intended to shrink Federal budget deficits, include restrictions on tax breaks in leasing deals by such tax-exempt entities as colleges and municipalities, extension of the 3 percent telephone excise tax through 1987, curtailment of income averaging for individuals and repeal of an interest income exclusion that was scheduled to become effective in 1985. But even as the conference committee moved ahead with its business of reconciling tax bills passed by the House and the Senate, there were new signs that final passage of a tax measure as part of an overall deficit-reduction package of $140 billion to $180 billion through 1987 could get hung up over spending reductions.

Senator Frank R. Lautenberg of New Jersey was having breakfast yesterday morning at his home in Montclair when Walter F. Mondale called. The primary voting Tuesday, Mr. Mondale said, had left him a handful of delegates short of the number needed to sew up the Democratic Presidential nomination, and he was hoping Senator Lautenberg, until then uncommitted, would pledge his support. The Senator, having thought about the matter overnight, said that he would. Then he called Gary Hart to tell him of the decision, and later in Washington Senator Lautenberg said: ''Now is the time for our party to pull together behind a nominee. I believe it is time for Gary Hart to come home to the Democratic party and behind the nomination of Walter Mondale.''