IVIILES 
January 12, 1982 
Oary A. WiMn, Ph. O. 
Otraeior 
McroMtovn RMMrcr) 
OiOTHnetogif Qrouo 
William J. Gartland, Jr., Ph.D. 
Director, Office of Recombinant ENA Activities 
Departjnent of Health 6 Hunan Services 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Maryland 20205 
Dear Bill, 
I would like to ccrment on the proposed revision of the Recombinant DMA 
Guidelines that were pjublished in the Federal Register, Friday, December 4, 
1981 from the perspective of one who has been a principle investigator in 
the field, a member of the NIH IBC evaluation forun, a chairman of an IBC at 
a major university, and Director of Microbiology Research of a ccnmercial 
institution. These coninents do not reflect the official position of any of 
the groups with which I have had the pleasure to be associated, but rather 
an overall personal impression of one who has had to deal with the guide- 
lines for the p>ast 6 or 7 years, at both the Federal and the New York State 
level. 
The scientists and concerned individuals at the Asilcmar meeting are to be 
caimended for the unprecedented steps they took in asking for a moratorium 
on potentially hazardous experiments until an assessment could be made of 
the risk. With a great deal of effort and good judgment, the NIH rapidly 
follot^ this meeting by carrying out their responsibility to establish 
guidelines so that individual researchers could apply the very elegant 
techniqxjes of reconbinant ENA to significant research projects. In my 
personal contacts, I have not encountered a scientist who ever believed that 
the experiments were as risky as originally conceived. While many expressed 
reservations of the potential hazards, no one that I know of in the field 
felt that the experiments or the products of recombinant DNA were so hazard- 
ous as to endanger the health and well being of themselves or members of 
their laboratories. Seven years of experience and hundreds of thousands of 
experiments, have not yielded any evidence to indicate that recombinant DNA 
technology is any more harmful then classical genetic experiments that have 
been conducted over the past eighty years. This lack of evidence of con- 
struction of dangerous life foms, is in sharp contrast to the wealth of 
knowledge that has been gained through the application of recombinant DNA 
technology. The ability to be able to proce^ with the research in a 
cautious manner, reflects in no small measure, the fine job you, your staff 
and RAC have done over the years. 
Miles Latxxetones. Inc. 
PO Box 932 
Elkhart. IN 46515 
Phone (219) 262-7785 
TWX 810-294-2259 
Telex 258450 
1655) 
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