Dr. Donald S. Fredrickson 
June 20, 1978 
Page 2 
a sufficiently open hearing and decision making process, within which 
local views can be adequately heard and considered. I do not believe 
that a dramatic delegation of authority is now warranted. I would prefer 
that the guidelines require that local biohazard committees be more 
representative of the interests in their local communities and require 
that meetings and decision making be more open and well publicized. If 
these reforms were adopted, then I would more readily support delegation 
of approval of experiments to them. 
I am also concerned about the number of exemptions from the guidelines which 
have been proposed. I believe that the information on which these proposals 
are based is too uncertain; as you know. Dr. Stanley Falkow, of the University 
of Washington, has strongly objected to many of the suggestions. 
In addition, the Recombinant DNA Advisory Committee has been repeatedly 
advocating reduction of containment levels for a variety of experiments. I 
am afraid that many of these suggestions do not rest on objective and 
scientifically verifiable factual bases. As a result, I do not believe that 
they should be implemented. 
Thank you for this opportunity to express my views. I hope that your decisions, 
when made, are in accord with them. I would appreciate being personally informed 
of the decisions which you do make on these issues. 
Associate Professor 
PLB:rl 
[Appendix A — 325] 
