- 8 - 
3. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) 
Carolyn Poplin of FDA's Office of General Counsel said that 
current FDA authorities were geared for regulation of 
commercial use of drugs, chemicals, etc. Therefore, FDA 
would not be involved in the regulation of recombinant DNA 
research at this stage of basic research. 
Department of Labor (DoL) 
Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) 
Byung Kwon of OSHA indicated that his organization's authorities 
were broad enough to regulate recombinant DNA in the work place . 
The main gap was in the 26 States without a State OSHA Plan. 
In those States, State and local governments are exempt from OSHA. 
Thus, State universities would be exempt. He noted that it was a 
long and difficult process to promulgate a "standard." Such a 
promulgation is necessary before OSHA can use its enforcement 
powers. Once an appropriate "standard" (the NIH Guidelines, 
for example) was promulgated, he said, trained inspectors would 
be needed. OSHA has no such person now and it would take time, 
money, and personnel to establish such an inspection system. 
Department of Transportation (DoT) 
Mr. Grella of DoT's Office of General Counsel said that the 
Transportation Safety Act of 1974 gave DoT authority to issue 
regulations concerning the transportation of substances which 
create an unreasonable risk to health, safety, or property. 
The regulations, he said, were framed in terms of etiological 
agents. He added that DoT is currently revising its regulations 
and would provide the Committee with an advance copy. 
[ 247 ] 
