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workers in vinyl chloride plants, are the guinea pigs for the safety or 
lack of safety of the new technology. 
The danger of these agents, as we have been describing, is unique in 
that they can be spread like a bacteria infection, and unless it can be 
assured that the possibility of danger is reduced to insignificance, we 
would suggest that NIH must withhold funding until that level of safety 
can be at least established. 
We do not propose this lightly. We recognize that many scientists wish 
to do these experiments, and thus far the restraint has been admirable. 
In all facilities from Pi to the P4 level there will be a distinct pos- 
sibility of cross-contamination of cultures — bacterial cultures and cell 
cultures — and even the most expert microbiologist using the most sophisti- 
cated equipment will contaminant a culture. Whether the agent of contami- 
nation is coli or mycoplasma or what have you, the danger is clear. No 
concept of safety within a facility can be centered on one experiment or 
on one experimenter. 
The possibility of multiple interaction is likely and should be weighed 
in establishing safety guidelines. 
Our main concern has been in the area of the mechanics of regulation, 
and I hope you will read our statements. We feel the La Jolla guidelines 
exempt institutions from responsibility and put all of the load on the 
principal investigator. We do not agree. We think that the institution 
must be equally liable, especially in terms of legal suits that the 
employees or communities might bring for experiments gone awry. 
We have too many recent examples of unscrupulous investigators in 
biomedical science to be sanguine about this issue. Victims of error in 
these types of experiments should be able to extract financial compensation 
from both the investigator and the institution if safety guarantees or 
procedures are violated. This creates some pressure on the institution 
to protect custodial and support help as well as other workers who normally 
do not interact with the principal investigator. 
The abuse of these relations at MIT is unfortunate. Our local ad hoc 
safety committee has heard more tales than are worth recounting to you, 
custodians stabbed by uncapped needles, improperly disposed of broken 
glassware and so forth. These are laboratories that have been dealing in 
growing viruses that are known to cause cancer in mammals. 
In a survey which we handed out to 400 workers in the MIT Biology 
Department and Cancer Center, we received 130 replies. Of these, more 
than 75 percent were not given pre-employment physicals, or physical 
examinations in the past two years. More than 80 percent ate or smoked 
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