10 
1 needs to be an exception to the guidelines, the Director 
2 should be authorized to disapprove or to approve that 
3 proposal. 
4 Thank you. 
5 MR. LIBASSI: Are there any questions from any 
g members of the panel? 
7 Thank you, no. 
8 The next witness is Mr. Leslie Dach. 
9 MR. DACH: Good morning. My name is Leslie 
IQ Dach. I am a Science Associate with the Environmental 
11 Defense Fund. EDF is a nonprofit organization with over 
12 46,000 members that undertakes judicial, legislative, and 
13 administrative actions to minimize human exposure to toxic 
14 chemicals. EDF has been deeply involved in the national 
15 debate on recombinant DNA . In '76 we petitioned the 
15 Department of HEW to use its authority under Section 361 
17 of the Public Health Services Act to regulate recombinant 
13 DNA activities. 
19 Since that time EDF has submitted comments on 
2Q the current NIH recombinant DNA guidelines, and has testi- 
21 f ied before Congress and the Advisory Committee to the 
22 Director of NIH on this issue. 
23 EDF thanks the Secretary for holding this public 
24 meeting. Because of the limited time allotted to each 
25 speaker, I will only be able to touch on a small number of 
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