Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO 
81 5 1 6th Street, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20006 Phone 202/638-0320 
Honorable Patricia Harris 
Secretary 
Department of Health, Education & Welfare 
200 Independence Avenue, SW, Room 615F 
Washington, DC 20201 
Dear Mrs. Harris: 
We are very concerned that the National Institutes of Health is 
in the process of lowering safety standards applying to genetic 
engineering research, even though major questions of safety remain 
unanswered (especially in the case of organisms other than weak- 
ened E. coli strains) . We are distressed that this weakening of 
the NIH Guidelines is coming just when major commercial applica- 
tions of the new technology are approaching reality, and no other 
specific regulations or legislation currently exist upon which to 
base technical decisions regarding threats to worker and community 
safety from these new organisms. 
This AFL-CIO Department, comprising 26 national unions, represents 
over one and one-half million professional and technical workers, 
including laboratory staffs and production workers in chemical and 
health related industries. Attached is a copy of a resolution on 
recombinant DNA research which was passed by the delegates to our 
biennial convention on November 13, 1979. 
We ask that you use the authority of your office to prevent the 
premature weakening of the NIH Guidelines for Recombinant DNA 
Research. We also urge that you take the responsibility for over- 
seeing the performance of this research out of the hands of those 
who have a prime responsibility for funding and encouraging it, the 
NIH. 
November 26, 1979 
Sincerely, 
Dennis Chamot, Ph.D 
Assistant Director 
DC/mw 
Enel. 
£380 j 
