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Section II 
ANALYSIS OF RESPONSES 
Questions (1) and (2): 
The questions were whether national committees or scientific bodies 
are presently conducting or plan to carry-out experiments, or if 
adressees are aware of any organization or laboratory which is planning 
or conducting experiments to: 
(1) Assess the adequacy or advantages of various forms of 
physical containment designs and equipment; 
(2) Assess the adequacy or comparative advantages of various 
forms of biological containment. 
Comments: 
Seven of the twenty-five answers were positive with regard to both 
questions. 
(i) WHO (Document No. 3) has an ongoing special program on 
Safety Measures in Microbiology. It is presently active 
through four working groups, whose terms of reference are: 
(a) maximum containment laboratories (question 1 of our 
questionnaire); 
(b) development of emergency services; 
(c) laboratory safety elements (which could, in principle, 
relate to question 2 of our questionnaire, but actually 
does not). The response from Mr. V.R. Oviatt, chairman 
of this working group, is considered below; 
(d) transportation of infectious substances. 
(ii) Mr. V.R. Oviatt (Document No. 23) of DHEW/NIH, and 
Chairman of the WHO Working Group on Laboratory Safety 
Elements describes the initial activity of this group, and 
among other items, lists laboratory safety equipments and 
laboratory safety facilities as intrinsic components of the 
program. No mention is made of biological containment. A 
detailed report is expected following the WHO meeting in 
Dusseldorf, at the beginning of April 1978. 
(iii) Dr. M.H. Richmond of UK/GMAG (Document No. 12) stresses 
the desirability of greater concentration among the various 
initiatives with the same general goals as COGENE. In 
particular, Question 1 is close in scope to the EMBO/NIH 
Workshop of March 1977 (see Bibliography Section), of which 
the unpublished report should be made available to this 
working group. In addition, an analysis of the relative 
protective value of the various levels of containment has 
been carried out; design and specification of protection and 
laminar flow cabinets are being scrutinized; the Microbial 
Research Establishment (MRE), Porton Down, England is 
continuously involved in the evaluation of physical con- 
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