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1 soon delegated to a more qualified and representative 
2 body, they are going to be made de facto by commercial 
3 interests alone. 
4 Experience shows that commercial decisions 
5 have a way of becoming economic necessities that are 
6 independent of their intrinsic value. Witness the 
7 difficulties of phasing out the manufacture and use 
0 of carcinogenic insecticides like Mirex and Chlordane, 
9 and nitrite in bacon. 
IQ Nonetheless, once an unforeseen hazard is 
H identified in these technologies, they can, in principle, 
12 be halted. Not so with recombinant DNA technology. Once 
13 a dangerous recombinant escapes and finds an ecological 
14 niche, it is likely to be impossible to eradicate. We 
15 therefore recommend not just basic research, but that 
10 industrial and other applications involving recombinant 
17 DNA should be universally regulated by the force of law 
18 in the public interest. 
19 Turning to the proposed revisions of the NIH 
20 guidelines, we would like to point out that not only are 
21 some of them potentially dangerous and unwarranted, but 
22 they have been arrived at by unscientific methods that 
23 would never be judged acceptable for the establishment 
2 4 of even the most insignificant scientific fact. They are 
25 therefore all the more unsuitable for the establishment 
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