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UNITED STATES ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY 
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20460 
OFFICE OF 
PESTICIDES AND TOXIC SUBSTANCES 
Dr. William Gartland, Jr. 
Director 
Office of Recombinant DNA Activities 
Building 31, Room 3B10 
National Institutes of Health 
Bethesda, Maryland 20205 
Dear Dr. Gartland: 
We at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) would 
like to respond to your request for comment (JFR, December 7, 
1982) on the progress made with determining the risks of 
recombinant DNA research. It is our opinion that great 
strides have been made to address the initial concerns about 
potential hazards from work in biotechnology, but we think 
there are a number of unknowns still remaining that require 
further inquiry on the part of the research community at 
large . 
The recombinant DNA activities at NIH and the guidance 
provided by the Recombinant Advisory Committee focused at the 
logical beginning — research in academic laboratories and the 
consequences of direct exposures to genetically engineered 
organisms. With time, research activities expanded into 
industrial settings, and we are now beginning to see the 
fruits of their labor in the form of commercial products. 
Not only will we eventually have more chemical products 
synthesized by life forms, but also we will have the develop- 
ment of new agents that will be disseminated to the environment, 
either by willful release or by inadvertant escape. 
It seems to us that there needs to be an expansion in the 
scope of the research dealing with potential public health and 
environmental risks of biotechnology: 
1. More attention needs to be given to the consequences 
of inadvertent release of genomes from laboratories or 
facilities. 
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