18 
Dr. Healy said many opportunities for public input will exist under the 
FCCSET system. The FDA. and EPA advisory panels hold open sessions. The 
NIH ard the NSF advisory panels are generally open to the public. The 
public will have input into policy at the agency level. 
Dr. Johnson said in his perception public input was being diluted rather 
than expanded by the BSCC proposal. Dr. Healy asked whether Dr. Johnson 
could suggest an alternative mechanism. Dr. Johnson said RAC has provided 
a system of scientific oversight vhich has worked reasonably well; no 
additional regulation of the products of the technology beyond what already 
exists is required. 
Dr. Healy said the existing RAC review system cannot address the need for 
scientific advice on commercial applications in the short time frame speci- 
fied by certain regulatory statutes. In addition, seme mechanism to coor- 
dinate the scientific advice offered to the various agencies is necessary. 
The BSCC is an attempt to provide a mechanism for ccmmunication among 
agencies. Dr. Healy said industry wants a streamlined, coordinated, consis- 
tent review system; however, it appears to resist this FCCSET attempt to 
promote consistency on scientific issues across agencies. 
Dr. W. French Anderson asked how the national ethics cocmmission proposed 
by Senator Albert Gore (D-Tenn. ) would interact with the BSCC. Dr. Healy 
said the BSCC is a coordinating committee for scientific issues; it is not 
anticipated the BSCC will address ethical issues. 
Mr. Mitchell asked whether an agreement has been signed by the agencies 
stating their intention to work cooperatively under the FCCSET mechanism. 
Dr. Healy replied that such an agreement would soon be signed. 
Mr. Mitchell thanked Dr. Healy for speaking with RAC on this issue. 
V. PROPOSED AMENDMENTS OF APPENDIX C-III 
Mr. Mitchell called upon Drs. David Glass and R. Rogers Yocum of BicfTechnica 
International, Inc., to describe their proposal (tabs 1235/III, 1239) to 
amend Appendix C-III of the NIH Guidelines. 
Under this proposal the first paragraph of Appendix C-III would be amended 
to read as follows: 
"Experiments which use Saccharanyces cere vis iae host-vector systems, with 
the exception of experiments listed below, are exempt from these NIH 
Guidelines . " 
This amendment would extend the current exemption to strains other than 
"laboratory strains" of Saccharcmyces cerevisiae . 
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