- 5 - 
accepted, scientific practice, due to the present state of knowledge 
(or ignorance) of the virus and of cancer epidemiology. However, 
cancer virus is to be combined is known to live in people , there 
is no way of knowing in advance if the combination of the two will 
result in an organism capable of causing cancer in humans. 
9. The protocol states that the National Institutes of Health 
intends to make "inactivated bacterial lysates available to 
interested investigators." This means that the E. coli cells 
containing the polyoma cancer genes will be burst open (lysed) and 
will no longer be able to reproduce by themselves . Yet the genetic 
information is still active within such lysates and can be transferred 
to other living cells in which it can then reproduce . The protocol 
implies that the lysates will not be provided P-4 containment — 
the highest form of safety--and will not be subject to the safeguards 
that exist at earlier stages in the genetic combination research. 
Such lysates present at least as much of a hazard as the recombinant 
E_. coli , which are afforded P-4 treatment, in that they can be 
dispersed in dust and air, and because the inactivated lysate is 
able to infect other E.. coli , or might be taken up by the cells of 
the investigator. A real threat to the contamination of the environment 
exists under this portion of the protocol. 
even if the premise were correct, since the E. coll with which 
[Appendix C — 75] 
