White Signs Bill Regulating DNA Work

Boston Mayor Kevin H. White late last week signed a proposal passed by the City Council last month that calls for strict, legally binding guidelines for Boston institutions--including Harvard Medical School and its affiliated DNA research.

White's approval comes as the final stage in a long-term struggle by Boston residents and several area politicians to impose mandatory regulations, similar to those passed three years ago in Cambridge, on research they consider potentially harmful to public safety.

The new regulations provide a stricter, more wide-ranging version of guidelines originally set by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), which only institutions receiving federal funding were required to follow.

The regulatons, chiefly supported by City Councillor Raymond L. Flynn of South Boston, were passed by the council July 8 after lengthly debate and revision.

Despite strained relations between the council and the mayor's office on many issues, White's favorable decision on the DNA proposal came as little surprise.

As early as July 9, sources within the mayor's office had predicted that White would "probably" sign the proposal, because David L. Rosenbloom, commissioner of the city's Department of Health and Hospitals and a member of the advisory committee which suggested thee guidelines, is a White appointee.

Long Wak

The mayor's decision was released without a statement, and White's aides declined to comment on why he waited 15 days--the full length of his examination period--to sign the proposal, saying only that "there were certain things the legal department wanted to look at carefully."

Dr. Thomas F. O'Brien, professor of Medicine at the Medical School, had predicted soon after the council's decision that White would sign the proposal.

O'Brien, who along with Rosenbloom, served on the special review committee, said Harvard expected the proposal to be passed and would not oppose it.

The University, along with other institutions in the area, had firmly opposed passage of an earlier proposal, introduced by Flynn last December, which placed "unreasonable" restrictions on the institutions, O'Brien said.

But he called the new proposal was "much more reasonable." The guidelines, as they stand now, will not significantly alter DNA research at the University because Harvard, which receives money from the government, had complied with the NIH requirements.