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dangerous event also occurs naturally is not sufficient rationale for 
allowing its deliberate duplication in the laboratory, without safe- 
guards. For example, we would never allow the dissemination of as- 
bestos into the environment simply becuase it already occurs naturally. 
IV-B-l-e. See section II-D of these comments for EDF’s position 
on the nature of "appropriate notice and opportunity" for public com- 
ment. 
IV=B-2 . The role of the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee (RAC) 
involves assessing the risks and benefits of proposed recombinant DNA 
experiments. Section III of PRG-NIH, is one large exercise in deter- 
mining acceptable levels of risk posed by recombinant DNA experiments. 
The determination of. acceptable risk levels is not a purely scientific 
function. Necessarily, such an exercise is value laden. No contain- 
ment provisions are foolproof and the more effective the containment 
equipment, the higher the cost. The selection of an appropriate con- 
tainment level for a particular experiment is, therefore, the result of 
weighing the potential harm caused by release into the environment of 
the biological material used in the experiment against the cost and 
inconvenience of containment measures. 
It can reasonably be expected that persons of varying backgrounds 
and attitudes towards environmental protection, the value of basic 
knowledge, and the applied benefits of recombinant DNA experimentation 
will differ on the level of risk society should bear in order to allow 
particular experiments to go forward. In addition, both the risk and 
benefits of recombinant DNA experiments will be borne by the population 
at large, and not solely by those individuals in the research sciences. 
The researcher is often fond of relying on "the desire of the people 
for scientific discovery" to argue for increased funding and lowered 
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