Scientists urge careful review of BU biolab
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff
Federal health officials should conduct a rigorous review of potential threats posed by a controversial Boston University laboratory and make sure the surrounding neighborhood is kept fully informed, an elite panel of scientists said today.
The chairman of the panel, Dr. Adel Mahmoud of Princeton University, exhorted the National Institutes of Health to operate transparently, saying "this is essential for credibility and public trust."
Another member of the committee, Vicki S. Freimuth of the University of Georgia, said it was clear from the five-year history of the project that "problems with trust" had clouded the relationship between the community and the leading forces behind the project, BU and the federal government.
Mahmoud and 10 other members of a blue-ribbon panel commissioned by the NIH traveled to Boston to conduct their third meeting regarding the high-security lab BU is building on its medical school campus. The director of the NIH formed the advisory board after his agency's earlier safety review of the project came under intense criticism.
In addition to releasing their preliminary findings, the scientists ventured to the State House on a community fact-finding mission, hearing from more than three dozen speakers who overwhelmingly opposed the lab, which is designed to allow work with the world's deadliest germs, including Ebola, plague, and Marburg.
Heather Spurlock Kennealy, an attorney representing lab foes, said the panel of scientists should consider advising NIH to abandon the centerpiece of the project, a Biosafety Level-4 lab.
"We don't have to go blindly and say we have to have this lab," the lawyer said. "The laboratory will not serve the public health needs of this country."
Backers of the project, primarily representatives of the building trades and higher-education associations, said the $200 million facility would create jobs and burnish the state's reputation as a hub of biotechnology research.
"There is an urgent need in this country to conduct research aimed at finding causes, diagnoses, and cures for the alarming number of recently emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases," said Robert McCarron, senior vice president for government relations at the Association of Independent Colleges and Universities in Massachusetts.
Several speakers criticized the panel for holding its meeting on a weekday, making it impossible for many working residents to attend.
Maryann Colella, who lives in Cambridge, labeled the session "a public health charade."
"All we need is trapezes and dancing ladies," she said.
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Why would anyone want to put a lab that handles the world's most dangerous germs and virus' right in the middle of the most densely populated ares of New England is absolutely ridiculous.
I hear the next project to be approved is a mini nuclear reactor in the middle of the Boston Public Gardens.
As a resident of Roxbury, I reside less than 1 mile from this proposed lab. This lab sits at the nexus of the Southeast Expressway, Mass Avenue and Melnea Cass Boulevard. This area is comprised of homes, businesses, a hospital, hotels and a charter school, the latter of which is less than one quarter mile from the location of this lab. In the event of a catastrophic spill or accidential leakage from the Lab, all or most of the South End would be impacted -- an area with an estimated population density of approximately 16,000+ people per square mile. When this matter was first discussed publicly, I believe the NIH's own website actually recommended that a Level4 Lab should be placed in an area with a population density not greater than 3,500 per square mile. Why is this Lab sited in an area so densely populated as the South End?
As a Safety Manager employed at BU, I guarantee you that deception was a standard in my division to present "the picture" that leadership wanted to hear.
If you didn't do that, someone else would. There is new leadership, so let's all say a prayer that "the messenger is not shot."
Despite the criticism of this newly-formed lab, I find it is pivotal for the development of Boston as a world leader in science and biotechnology. I used to live in Boston when talks of this lab first started, and though I must admit I was slightly nervous about its development, I was proud to be living in a city that houses such an important complex. The Boston area is famed for its plethora of World Class universities and scientific institutions. It just wouldn't be right if such a powerful city didn't have such a facility. It will not only bring thousands of jobs and boost the city's economy, it will also show that we really are the Hub and not just a world leader, but THE world leader in biology and science.
It's BU
Follow the MONEY trail to see who this benefits
Complete insanity. I cannot believe this project has come as far as it has. Massachusetts would still be able to retain its status as a world leader in science and biotechnology if they housed the lab in a sparsely populated area. To locate the lab in the South End is irresponsible and could lead to one of the worst biological disasters of our time. Next thing you know BU will start advertising special deals and incentives for terrorists to come visit the city, or perhaps they should start a terrorist training camp -- they are literally inviting disaster.
As someone who attended that and other hearings on the BU lab, the only people who ever seem to think it's a good idea to build a level 4 bio weapons lab in a densely populated urban area are people who stand to make money off it.
Maryann is right. The whole thing is a joke and the people most affected by this catastrophic proposal have absolutely no say-- they're not even informed of the hearings, not that most would be able to get off work to attend one at 9AM on a weekday anyway.
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