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I am grateful to all the members of the RAC, whatever their views on 
this subject, for subordinating their feelings to the extent that they have 
continued to carry out these important duties. In so doing, they have made 
it possible for all users of recombinant technology in the U.S.A. to do so 
under two important conditions that obtain in nearly all other advanced 
countries of the world. These are: 
0) the determination of appropriate procedures by a single national 
body, responsible for interpreting and developing uniform national 
guidelines, and 
(2) the regulation of a rapidly evolving science without passage of 
special statutes, avoiding inflexibility often attendant upon 
such legislation. 
These important conditions are among those necessary for maintenance 
of parity among the nations for safe use of this technology and access to its 
benefits. It is essential that the RAC, whose deliberations affect the course 
of this field of science throughout so much of the world, not alter these 
conditions by precipitous changes in its procedures, 
Nevertheless, I am sympathetic to this malaise of the RAC, We must try to 
relieve it— and to move NIH back from what some see as a position on the brink 
of regulatory involvement. In thinking about such relief, I note especially 
the rising interests of QSHA and NIOSH in ascertaining any threats to workers 
inherent in industrial scale-ups, FDA and other regulatory agencies have also 
begun to test their reflexes in a similar way. FDA sponsored here this week 
a useful meeting on industrial application of recombination for production of 
biologi cs . 
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