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1 presently a Special Assistant to the Undersecretary of 
2 State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology, 
3 and v/ho was a participant in the March 197 7 Academy 
4 of Sciences Recombinant DNA Forum. 
5 Risk is a relatively objective determination 
6 of the probability of something coming about. Safety 
7 is a much more subjective blending of notions of risk 
g with what is deemed acceptable by the population which 
9 would have to bear the risk. In other words, even if 
10 the various risks associated with DNA experimentation 
11 can be determined once and for all by an authoritative 
12 body, the question of safety involves many value issues 
13 which can only be articulated and developed by those 
14 members of the public which might oe exposed to such 
15 risks, and have the potential of access to the benefit 
16 of the activity. 
17 None of us lives in a risk-free society, but 
18 all of us in our everyday life have to cope with notions 
19 of risk, and I think in effect the NIH begins to recognize 
20 in the guidelines some of these concepts. And I am refer- 
21 ring al so to the laboratory safety monograph. But I don't 
22 think, as I said, that there is a clear distinction between 
23 risk and safety. For instance, on page 33084 of the 
24 regulations, there is a statement that safety involving 
25 recombinant DNA molecules depends primarily on the 
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