2 
a very good argument for the guidelines' effectiveness . More 
important however, is our total ignorance of the long term effects 
of this research on both the public and on the research workers. 
1199 members care daily for patients who have infections. 
Some of these infections are drug resistant, some spread through- 
out the hospital and infect other patients and employees; some 
infections such as influenza cannot be cured by medical science.... 
sometimes patients die of these infections. We should not risk 
adding newly synthesized and badly designed organisms to the 
human burden, as we do not yet have complete knowledge of, or con- 
trol over those organisms which now assault us. 
Research workers, having more proximity would be at even 
greater risk of infection than the general pxiblic. Nothing is 
known about the long range effects of worker exposure to recom- 
binant DNA molecules, eind therefore long term epidemiological 
studies of these workers should be instituted. 
For these reasons District 1199 strongly opposes any change 
in the NIH guidelines, and moreover, would like to see the present 
guidelines mandatory for industry as well as NIH fund recipients. 
District 1199 regrets the eibsence of any labor representation 
on the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee, and questions whether 
the scientific members on the committee's commercial interests 
in recombinant DNA technology have blinded them to the public 
welfare. 
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