After the Asilomar Conference of February 1975 had brought public attention to the potential environmental and health risk of the new technology of genetic engineering, municipal governments in Cambridge, Massachusetts, Berkeley, California, and San Diego sought to regulate recombinant DNA research conducted at universities within their jurisdiction. The municipal regulations adopted by the City of Cambridge went beyond the NIH guidelines on recombinant research in mandating, for example, that Institutional Biohazard Committees review boards that oversaw this research included members representing laboratory technicians (in addition to scientists) and that workers engaged in this research undergo specific safety training.
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