STATE OF NEW YORK 
DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH 
OFFICE OF PUBLIC HEALTH 
TOWER BUILDING • T H E GO VERNO R N ELSO N A. ROCK E F ELL ER EMP I R E ST ATE PL A Z A • ALBANY, N.Y. 12201 
DAVID AXELROD, M.D. 
Commi ssioner 
WILLIAM F. LEAVY 
Executive Deputy Director 
November 23, 1982 
Dr. William J. Gartland, Jr. 
Office of Recombinant DNA Activities 
Building 31, Room 4A52 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Maryland 20205 
Dear Doctor Gartland: 
This is in response to your recent request for information on how well 
local IBCs are functioning under the current NIH guidelines. We have 
experienced no particular problems. Our IBC meets whenever necessary, 
to date this has been essentially biannually. The IBC has no responsibilities 
beyond overseeing recombinant DNA activities. This is by choice of the 
institution which has appropriate committees to oversee chemical, radiation, 
and general safety. 
One suggestion our IBC would like to have considered concerns those 
recombinant DNA experiments that are reviewed on a case-by-case basis by 
the NIH. In such circumstances, we believe it would be helpful if the 
rationale underlying the assignment of levels of physical containment, as 
well as the level at which the decision was made (i.e., by the RAC, by a 
subcommitte, or by one or more individuals within ORDA) were communicated 
to the local IBC along with the decision itself. 
Sincerely , 
Leo J. Grady, Ph.D. 
IBC Chairman 
cc:IBC Committee Members 
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