122 
1 DNA can be infectious in mammals. Thus, the insertion 
2 of such recombinant plasmids into El. col i gives the 
3 virus an entirely new route of attack, which could be 
4 dangerous even if the coli itself did not survive after 
5 entering the animal or man. The new route might even 
6 prove to be more efficacious than the normal mode of 
7 infection by the virus. 
g It is therefore not correct to assume that 
9 recombinants containing virus must be less dangerous 
10 than the virus itself. Experimentation on the extent 
11 of the hazard posed by creating a new vector for 
12 cancer virus is surely called for before this type 
13 of work is permitted at all, much less under the 
14 almost totally permissive conditions proposed. 
15 A similar argument applies in the case of 
16 bacterial types which are proposed to be exempted from 
17 the guidelines. Among those are some species which are 
13 plant pathogens, and some which have never proven to 
19 exchange genetic material naturally with certain other 
20 organisms on the list. 
21 The Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee has 
22 recently decided that data on genetic exchange to be 
23 used as the basis for exempting organisms from the 
24 guidelines need not even be published in refereed 
25 scientific journals. Thus, the data need never be 
[ 214 ] 
