Suit accuses health agency of ignoring bioterror lab dangers

Neighborhood and environmental activists yesterday sued to stall Boston University's construction of a high-security laboratory in the South End, where scientists would work with the world's deadliest organisms, including Ebola, plague, and anthrax.

The lawsuit, which seeks to cut off critical federal grants for the project, represents the latest in a lengthy series of maneuvers to block the lab, already under construction on Albany Street.

The National Institutes of Health, which is underwriting construction of the Biosafety Level-4 lab, is named as defendant in the federal lawsuit, which accuses the agency of failing to adequately consider potential environmental and health hazards of the lab.

Yesterday morning, standing on a playground a few blocks from the project, a dozen activists and attorneys assailed federal health authorities, local political leaders, and BU for locating the facility in a dense neighborhood with a significant population of low-income and racially diverse residents.

''They said the Titanic was supposed to be safe, and an iceberg showed us that was not true," said Charles E. Walker Jr., executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, which drafted the suit with the Conservation Law Foundation. ''Please, federal government. Hear the facts. We're saying it's not safe."

Spokeswomen for the Institutes of Health and BU's School of Medicine declined to comment on the suit.

But in a statement, the lab's director defended the procedures that led to BU being awarded $128 million in federal money to build the research facility, a cornerstone in the Bush administration's campaign to protect the nation against potential acts of bioterrorism.

''The approval process for the laboratory was rigorous and thorough, and Boston University Medical Center complied fully with all federal, state, and local processes and procedures," said Dr. Mark Klempner, the BU associate provost who is presiding over the lab.

The lawsuit, which was assigned to US District Court Judge Patti B. Saris in Boston, emerges as activists still await action on a complaint filed with another federal agency. Last July, the Lawyers' Committee asked the US Department of Health and Human Services to take action against BU, accusing it of discrimination in placing the facility in a neighborhood that activists say already bears an unfair burden from environmentally perilous projects.

The lab has been the target of street marches, sit-ins, and letter-writing campaigns over the past three years. But it has won the enthusiastic support of the region's most powerful elected officials, including Boston Mayor Thomas M. Menino and Governor Mitt Romney.

After BU won a hard-fought competition to build one of two Biosafety Level-4 labs in the nation, the Institutes of Health performed an environmental review, ultimately giving the lab its support. But, in the lawsuit, activists charge that the review failed to sufficiently analyze several safety concerns, including what would happen if a lethal germ were released into the neighborhood.

''Common sense, common knowledge betrays the argument that no accidents will occur in this lab," said Eloise P. Lawrence, a Conservation Law Foundation lawyer. ''The residents need to know what the risk is."

Stephen Smith can be reached at stsmith@globe.com.