14 
effects on even a small segment of the environment on the 
public, not to mention the potential for a global disaster. 
But the presumed need or right of private industry to protect 
its marketing and patent priorities by secrecy is in conflict 
with the spirit of the Guidelines, in which all projects, at 
the very least, require an impartial peer review as well as 
scrutiny by an institutional biohazards committee. 
The hearings held by the Senate Subcommittee on Health 
of the Committee on Labor and Public Welfare, held on 22 Sept. 
1973, illustrated, to the concern of many present, including 
the committee chairman, Senator Edward Kennedy, that willing 
compliance with the NIH Guidelines would probably not be 
forthcoming. The failure of General Electric to send a repre- 
sentative to the hearing was disturbing to many. General 
Electric is known to be using recombinant DNA techniques to 
develop petroleum degrading bacteria, and to add genes for 
cellulase to E. coli as a means of providing a new source of 
carbohydrate . 
There is an irony here which disturbs those of us who 
have been contending with the questionable integrity and compe' 
tence of private research and development in industry. The 
basic research on recombinant DNA supported by NIH and NSF is 
probably the most competent one will find in this cohntry. 
The motivation and goals of such research are the acquisition 
Appendix K — 68 
