A section in the article purports to address the use of animals in medical research. Several pieces of misinformation crept into this section. Since Western New York has several major medical re-search facilities, it is important to set the record straight.
      The two point to be understood are that: (1) Draize and LD-50 tests are not per-formed at any of the local medical research institutions, and (2) the pressure to per- form such tests on commercial products comes both from federal agencies charged with protection of the public health and the liability case law sys-tem of the courts.
     In response to exposure of questionable research practices, such as those in the University of Pennsylvania's head jury clinic in 1984 and 1985, Congress and the states have created several systems of standards of humane care of laboratory animals and monitoring of laboratory animal medical research.

     The animal research labo-ratories of the university and its affiliated hospitals are in-spected at least twice each year by USDA inspectors, at least once annually by state Health Department inspec-tors, and at least twice each year by inspectors from our own Laboratory Animal Care Committee.      While no system of regulation is perfect, the current system is vastly superior to the under-regulated system prior to 1985.      All researchers recognize that ill, uncomfortable, de-pressed animals do not produce data that are scientifically valid. Hence, there is a strong inherent motive in animal re-search for animals to be kept healthy and normal. Rather than make it so expensive to achieve such a healthy state that a countermotive is provided to the researcher, animal activists should work with researchers.
Richard T. Hull, Ph.D.
State University of Buffalo