18 • The Impacts of Genetics: Applications to Micro-Organisms, Plants, and Animals 
Figure 4.— Applications of Genetics 
AGRICULTURAL 
INDUSTRY 
Plants 
* t 
Animals 
Genetics 
I [ 
Direct use 
as food 
Convert to 
food 
(Increase/Improve Output) 
f 
Direct extraction of 
chemicals 
Production of 
chemicals 
Direct extraction of 
pharmaceuticals 
Production of 
pharmaceuticals 
Micro-organisms 
Genetics 
Micro-organisms 
FOOD 
INDUSTRY 
Micro-organisms 
{Genetics 
Micro-organisms 
CHEMICAL 
INDUSTRY 
Micro-organisms 
Genetics 
Micro-organisms 
PHARMACEUTICAL 
INDUSTRY 
SOURCE: Office of Technology Assessment. 
Institutions and society 
Regulation of genetic engineering 
FINDINGS 
No evidence exists that any unexpectedly 
harmful genetically engineered organism has 
been created. Yet few experts believe that mo- 
lecular genetic techniques are totally without 
risk to health and the environment. Information 
that has proved useful in assessing the risks 
from these techniques has come from three 
sources: experiments designed specifically to 
test the consequences of working with rDNA, 
experiments designed for other purposes but 
relevant to rDNA, and scientific meetings and 
workshops. 
A program of risk assessment was (fstahlished 
at NIH in 1979 to conduct exj)eriments and col- 
late relevant information. It assesses one form 
of genetic engineering, rDNA. On the basis of 
these data, conjectured, inadvertant risk is 
generally regarded as less likely today than 
originally suspected. Risk due to the mani[)ula- 
tion of genes from organisms known to he haz- 
ardous is considered to he more realistic. T here- 
fore, microbiological safety precautions that are 
