Apartado 315 
1250 Escazu 
Costa Rica 
Jan. 5. 1982 
Dr. VllUaa J. Gartland, Jr. 
Office of Recombinant DNA Activities 
National Institutes of Health 
Building 31 • Room 4 a 52 
Bethesda, Maryland 20205 
USA 
Dear Sirs 
I am happy to answer your request for comments on proposed revision 
of NIH Guidelines for Research involving Recombinant DNA Molecules. 
I am Interested purely as a consumer, and as a private citizen who 
could be affected Iqr possible dangers inherent in recombinant DNA activities. 
I strongly support keeping the flfuidelines just as they are. They should 
continue to be memdatory. None of the requirements should be eliminated. 
Section 11 of the Guidelines should remain as it is and not be simplified 
in any way. Experiments currently requiring P2 or P3 containment should 
continue as such. None of the prohibitions section (l-D) of the Guidelines 
should be eliminated. 
I quote Dr. Sheldon Krimsky as my basic source for concern over the loosening 
of guidelines for recombinant DNA activities. I would like to see, on the con- 
trary, strict guidelines Imposed upon all private gene-research companies 
that are appearing Hlerally all over the world. The guidelines, outside of 
NIH-funded research and certain other federally funded programs are netuSreqdired. 
finihlhii thatethey should be required everywhere! 
Dr. Krimsky says: "The ability to reconstruct mocroorganisms with human, animal 
or plant genes is responsible for industrializing molecular genetics - in much 
the same way atomic fission and the synthesis of organic molecules gave rise 
to our nuclear and chemical industries. If the outlook for future applications 
of recombinant DNA technology is only partly accurate, it is reasonable to anti- 
cipate adverse side-effects. Althou^ the nature smd severity of these hazards 
cannot be predicted now, from oiur knowledge of similar technological revolutions, 
I believe the most serious risks could come from troublesome biological industrial 
effluent: occupational hazards: and imantlcipated effects of biological agents 
purposely released into the en^ronment." 
1)verall, thesystem of controls for university reasarch has been successful. The 
decision-making pirocess at the national level has been open, with participation 
from public interest advocates. It does not appear th^ the public faces special 
risks from recombinant IWA experiments carried out unA^^ NIH guidelines (my note: 
AS THEY NOW EXIST) in research laboratories. But I have far less confidence 
in the safety of large scale nwiliffntil of the technology, aurrently. 
E€»} 
