Mr. Chairman, and members of the Subcommittee, I am Dr. John W. McVicar, 
Director of the Office of Biosafety, Centers for Disease Control (CDC). I am 
pleased to present this testimony on the subject of improving the packaging 
and shipping of etiologic agents. 
The Centers for Disease Control strongly supports proper packaging and 
shipping of all biological materials and, in particular, any material that may 
contain an etiologic agent. The current system appears to be working very 
well but improvement may be possible. The packing and shipping of etiologic 
agents, diagnostic specimens, and biological products is regulated by three 
Federal agencies; the Public Health Service (42 CFR Part 72), the Department 
of Transportation (49 CFR Parts 100-177), the U.S. Postal Service (39 CFR 
Part 111). Currently revisions are being proposed for all three regulations. 
Under current requirements, the CDC is notified of packages of etiologic 
agents that are damaged. While these reports do not currently indicate any 
systematic problems in actual practice, a review of those reports suggests 
that problems could potentially arise because of lack of knowledge or 
understanding of the regulations, from difficulties in interpreting them, or 
from disregard of the regulations. To improve the system, CDC proposes a 
five-point program of coordination, education, training, reporting, and 
enforcement . 
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