10 
many of the Subcommittee members for assistance. Dr. Robbins said that 
it is clear that the OSKA Act already covers almost all workers except 
some employees of state governments and state universities. Often, it 
is helpful to identify the best practices currently used in an industry and 
to make them broadly available so that all can follow them. Sometimes, some 
of these practices are so clearly better or so important that they become 
an OSHA standard. 
Dr. Robbins said that much openness in the scientific community is 
disappearing. NIOSH is being described as a regulatory agency, and doors are 
closing. As an example, NIOSH wrote to NIH requesting copies of submissions 
made to NIH by private companies for large-scale recombinant DNA projects 
(see page 4 of Attachment C). Following the procedures specified in the 
Guidelines, NIH informed the companies of NIH's intent to release the 
information to NIOSH. The companies objected and said they would prefer 
that NIOSH request the material directly from them. NIOSH agreed to do so. 
Dr. Robbins said, however, that a principle of information exchange among 
government agencies was involved and he might want to come back to this issue. 
Report from FDA 
Dr. Goldberg noted that while OSHA is primarily concerned with process, 
FDA and USDA are primarily concerned with product. Dr. Miller described the 
June 3-4 FDA-sponsored 'State Of The Art Conference on Insulins and Growth 
Hormone." It was reported there by industry representatives that insulin, 
growth hormone, and interferon made by recombinant DNA techniques are showing 
virtually identical biological activity to these products made by conventional 
techniques. This is true even though the growth hormone as currently made 
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