The original comment period was for a 45 day period ending on 
August 8, 1988. It was extended to August 22 at the request of a 
medical association to allow time for its thorough consideration. 
Five hundred and eight comments were received during the comment 
period. Seven responses favored the ban. The balance of the 
comments were from doctors, including allergists, pathologists, 
and biologists, from hospitals, laboratories, colleges and 
universities, including departments of biology, pathology, 
medicine, from medical centers, and from associations of 
pathologists and biologists, state and Federal health 
associations, as well as postal unions, one postal employee, and 
individuals. These responses opposed the ban for one or more of 
the following reasons: 
1. The ban would have a negative impact on diagnostic, research, 
and laboratory certification capabilities or proficiency testing. 
2. There has been no prior record of anyone being accidentally 
infected in the handling of at least 100,000 shipments a year in 
the mails in over 25 years. One commenter stated that the period 
of time was 50 years. 
3. Increased transportation costs when shipping with other 
carriers as well as potential lack of readily available 
transportation by other means could reduce or eliminate effective 
response time for diagnostic purposes, and adversely affect 
medical research and education. 
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Recombinant DNA Research, Volume 13 
