Page 17 of Attachment E 
Question 5: 
Would you inform us if your national committee or scientific body is 
presently conducting or plans to carry-out experiments, or if you are 
aware of any organization or laboratory which is planning or conducting 
experiments to: 
“Develop means for monitoring laboratory personnel for exposure to 
or infection by recombinant organisms or vectors". 
Comments: 
Three countries provided us with comments regarding efforts to 
devise monitoring procedures (U.K., U.S.A. and the Netherlands): 
(i) Dr. M. Richmond (UK/GMAG, Document No. 12) reports that 
machinery for routine epidemiological monitoring is under 
discussion by the UK/GMAG which is considering regular 
and frequent monitoring only only for those involved in 
category IV (P4) work. 
Emphasis is being given to the development of strains 
bearing suitable “markers” (e.g. 5-fluorouracil resistance) 
other than drug resistance involving commonly-used an- 
tibiotics such as tetracycline. 
(ii) Dr. D. Liberman, an NIH contractor (Document No. 16) 
describes efforts to develop techniques for environmental 
and personnel monitoring. Methods of air sampling to test 
for lytic bacteriophages seem feasible. Dr. Liberman notes 
that the need (if any) for monitoring will be determined by the 
Institutional Biohazards Committee with appropriate 
methods incorporated into individual projects. He cites as an 
example a project involving study of insulin genes. In this 
case, arrangements have been made for a local research 
foundation to perform blood sugar and blood insulin 
determinations on a routine basis for all personnel 
associated with the project. 
(iii) Dr. R. Curtiss (USA, Document No. 17) suggests that in some 
cases it might be appropriate to take nasal, facial and wrist 
swabs at the end of a work day and to perform quantitative 
tests for the presence of hosts and/or vectors containing 
suitable "markers”. Curtiss states that such tests should 
prove negative if the individual uses all of the accepted 
microbiological practices and safety equipment, and thus 
would be a spot-check on carelessness or perhaps would be 
useful to verify accidental exposure. He cites, as do others 
(see Petrocheilou and Richmond in bibliography), the 
negative results obtained to date from faecal samples. 
(iv) In the Netherlands (see Document No. 25), efforts are un- 
derway to develop selective tests for identification of E. coli 
K-12 strains used in recombinant DNA experiments. 
In general, it appears that the U.S. approach has been to develop 
systems (EK1, EK2, EK3 — See Document No. 13) which can be tested 
and certified in a standardized way. Systems which prove safe in such 
“worse-case” tests should not require constant monitoring, except for 
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