248 
I also would like to speak about health monitoring, because this is 
something that the citizens of Cambridge have asked about, the city where I 
live, and the Cambridge Experimentation Review Board has asked the NIH to 
undertake long-term health monitoring of laboratory workers. It must do 
this just as it has planned research on the safety of the technique using 
model animal or bacterial systems. Neither the health monitoring nor the 
model experiments are adequate by themselves, but both must be undertaken, 
and our experience with recombinant DNA research is limited, so quite 
naturally we have not seen any harmful effects yet. Subtle effects on large 
numbers of laboratory workers will go unnoticed if their health records are 
not kept for a long period of time, and this should be spelled out in the 
Guidelines . 
I think also that as many other people have said, that microbiological 
training is an integral element in dealing with problems of safety also. 
It is not too much to ask, for example, the American Society of Microbio- 
logists, to investigate the possibility of running such a course on labora- 
tory safety, and for the NIH to earmark funds for this purpose, and to ask 
that several members of the laboratory be trained in this way. 
The last question I would like to deal with is the ownership rights to 
new strains of bacteria. Quite briefly, we would ask that strains of 
bacteria which — both host-vector systems and ones containing novel DNA — be 
open to the public, those that are made in NIH-funded laboratories. The 
recent production of somatostatin raises this question, and I think it will 
be worthwhile, both in allowing very open scientific enterprise and making 
sure that individual companies do not make monopoly profits off of strains 
which they have developed partly with the help of laboratories funded by 
public money, and I think the Guidelines are an appropriate place to see 
that this does not happen. 
DR. FREDRICKSON: Thank you. Are there comments or questions? 
Dr. DeRoos . 
DR. DE ROOS: Under the OSHA regulations, there is a provision that 
any employee can request an inspection of a department to determine a 
hazardous condition and require action. I am wondering if you feel it is 
needed to have some additional kind of protection under these Guidelines, 
with that already in place. 
MR. THACHER: Unfortunately, I don't know the OSHA regulations. If 
they do cover recombinant DNA research, and if the Guidelines are something 
which the OSHA thinks it should enforce, then I would be satisfied. Other- 
wise, I would like to see a clearer statement. 
DR. FINKLEA: Dr. Fredrickson, I might answer that quickly for you. 
DR. FREDRICKSON: I could answer for you too, but you may say it. 
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