Word: nih
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...public meetings, the Cambridge City Council imposed in the summer of 1976 a three-month moratorium on all recombinant DNA research, later extended for four more months. The city council also set up a citizens' board to review and evaluate recombinant DNA research, which recommended permitting research following the NIH guidelines. During a stormy session in February 1977, the council approved the recommendation, ending the moratorium...
...have already explored an alternative to legislation. They sent a letter in late May to Joseph A. Califano Jr., secretary of HEW, asking him to consider the possibility of using section 361 of the Health and Public Safety Act, which would enable him to impose the NIH guidelines on all DNA research without special legislation...
Another twist in the effort to regulate DNA research is the recent proposal to make the NIH guidelines more lenient, lowering the containment restrictions on certain viruses used in the research and giving the local biohazards committees more leeway. While the proposals cannot be approved for at least a few months, sources involved in monitoring DNA legislation say the director of NIH has already given tacit consent to the proposal...
Many critics of the proposals, such as Pamela Lippe, legislative assistant for the environmentalist lobby, Friends of the Earth, say the NIH move is purely political, an attempt to soften the standards before any legislation goes into effect. Dr. Bernard Talbot, a spokesman for NIH, denies this charge, saysing the proposals originated a year ago, before the present legislation was drafted...
King is openly skeptical about NIH's motives. He says the director of NIH said in a guidelines meeting he wanted to get the revisions approved before the legislation went into effect. Many observers also question the data upon which the recent proposals are based. NIH cites a lessening of scientists' fears about the danger of recombinant DNA research; many scientists have testified at public hearings they believe they initially exaggerated the potential danger of recombinant DNA research. However, other scientists, including King, maintain that NIH is "weakening the guidelines without any scientific criteria whatsoever." He noted that the NIH...