5. 
NIH should establish training and 
monitoring programs for laboratory 
workers . 
III . A COMPREHENSIVE RISK ASSESSMENT OF RECOMBINANT DNA RESEARCH 
IS NEEDED 
The recombinant DNA debate is now five years old; 
while some specific risk experiments have been conducted, 
neither NIH nor any private group has proposed or done 
a comprehensive risk assessment. Even though the 
guidelines are based on presumed or potential risks, 
efforts to test these presumptions has been piecemeal. 
While some of the risks are too speculative to be 
evaluated by experiments , many of the risk questions can 
be resolved by more research. A detailed research plan 
must be formulated which explains what the uncertainties 
are, which experiments can resolve them, who will carry 
them out, and how long it will take. Without such an 
assessment we cannot endorse a general reduction in 
containment levels. 
Meetings have been convened to discuss specific 
types of risks (e.g. , at Falmouth and Ascot) , but their 
scope has been limited to a few discreet topics. The 
larger framework into which the Falmouth and Ascot 
deliberations can be placed is missing. At Falmouth 
[A-180] 
