UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, LOS ANGELES 
UCLA 
SANTA BARBARA • SANTA CRl'Z 
OFFICE OF THE CHANCELLOR 
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA 90024 
January 26, 1983 
Dr. William J. Gartland, Jr. 
Office of Recombinant DNA Activities 
National Institutes of Health 
Room 4A52, Building 31 
Bethesda, Maryland 20205 
Dear Dr. Gartland: 
I 
Your letter to Chairperson, Institutional Biosafety Committees (IBCs) 
has been referred to me for response. 
As Executive Secretary to the IBC I conferred with UCLA's Biosafety 
Officer, Kathleen Peterson, and the brief comments below reflect our adminis- 
trative views. 
H 
Neither I nor Ms. Peterson has any problems with the revised Guidelines, 
except that the format employed to disseminate the information, namely the 
Federal Register, is very difficult to read. 
Due to the modified Guidelines, the process of compliance has been 
greatly reduced as it relates to time involvement on administrative levels. 
The current recombinant DNA containment needs as outlined by RAC are 
being met here without known difficulties. In general, UCLA does not disagree 
with the most recent Guidelines, and the Biosafety Officer maintains this campus 
under the principle that the risk of dealing with an agent or its genes in the 
recombinant process is regarded to be at the same level of risk as dealing with 
the whole organism. 
UCLA's IBC is intended to be a general biosafety committee and has just 
now undertaken the chore of developing policies and procedures for safe handling 
of etiologic agents including a medical surveillance program. The Committee meets 
when deemed necessary; Dr. Dexter Howard, Chair of the IBC, however, has recently 
BERKELEY 
LOS ANCELES 
SAN DIECO • SAN FRANCISCO 
[ 588 ] 
