Testimony: Christine Oliver, MD, MPH for the Oil, Chemical 
and Atomic Workers International Union 
Hearings on the NIH Proposed Revised Guidelines 
for Recombinant DNA Research 
Department of Health, Education and Welfare 
Review Committee 
September 15, 1978 
My name is Christine Oliver. I am a physician, board 
certified in internal medicine and a Clinical Associate in 
the Department of Medicine at the Massachusetts General 
Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts. I have a Master of Public 
Health Degree in Occupational Health from the Harvard School 
of Public Health. 
I am currently working with the Oil, Chemical and Atomic 
Workers International Union (OCAWIU) . I am speaking today as 
a representative of the Union and for the Union. 
I wili address today the issue of recombinant DNA research 
as a threat to the collective and individual health of the 
potentially exposed worker, and the Proposed Revised NIH Guide- 
lines as they relate t«"> that threat. I will attempt to put the 
issue into perspective by discussing briefly the health and 
safety situation as it currently exists in many work environments. 
During the past eight weeks I visited five industrial plants 
whose workers are members of the OCAW to assess the health hazards. 
These plants included chemical plants in New Jersey and Louisiana; 
oil refineries in Louisiana; a pesticide plant in Tennessee; and 
a chemical-pesticide plant in Illinois. Each employs at least 
150 production workers. Each is subject to OSHA regulations. In 
each plant the workers are represented by a strong health-oriented 
Union. 
What I found in each plant was an abysmal failure to abide 
by OSHA regulations and the dictates of human conscience to provide 
for the worker a safe and healthful work place. The following are 
examples : 
1. With two exceptions, each company refused 
to furnish the workers with a list of the 
generic names of all the chemicals to 
which they are exposed. And in the cases 
of the exceptions, no data on chronic 
toxicity — such as cancer of the lung, 
cancer of the liver and delayed neuro- 
toxicity — was supplied. 
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