Proposed Board to Regulate Risky Bio Experimentation

Five professors and administrators have recommended in a letter to Dean Rosovsky that a standing faculty committee be appointed with the authority to regulate "biological hazards" in the facilities of the Faculty.

Walter Gilbert '53, American Cancer Society Professor of Molecular Biology, said yesterday that the recent national growth in cancer research involving tumor cells and viruses that could spread disease if not properly handled has sparked the debate on safety standards for such experimentation.

Screen Hazards

The proposed committee would be responsible for determining which experiments involving "animal cells, viruses, or hazardous microorganisms" are too dangerous to be undertaken in laboratories here.

In addition, the committee would review and approve plans for new facilities in the Biological laboratories in which experiments too hazardous to be carried out in presently available facilities could be undertaken and would establish safety guidelines for the day-to-day operation of such facilities.

Gilbert, a co-signer of the letter, said yesterday that the letter was in response to a September letter from Dean Rosovsky.

Rosovsky's letter to several members of the Biology and Chemistry departments requested their opinion on how to ensure that hazardous experimentation undertaken in FAS facilities be monitored for safety, Gilbert said.

Many researchers at Harvard are interested in doing research in these potentially hazardous areas. Geoffrey P. P. Pollitt, director of the Biological Laboratories, said yesterday.

Gilbert said that the plan, which would expand the range of possible research at Harvard, would convert an area of approximately 1000 square feet in the bio labs into a restricted access area with a separate air supply for research involving potentially hazardous substances.

Gilbert will present the proposal for a committee to the Faculty at their April 8 meeting.