BU biolab training exercises set to begin
By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff
The controversial Boston University research laboratory built to study the world's deadliest germs will open its doors to scientists in a few months for training exercises, the university announced this afternoon.
When the researchers enter the South End facility late in the summer or early in the fall, they will not use any bacteria or viruses. Instead, university officials said, the exercises are being conducted to "test safety, health, and operational procedures." Later, emergency response teams -- including police officers and firefighters -- will engage in emergency response drills. The exercises are expected to last six to eight months.
The drills represent another milestone in BU's six-year-long quest to open its National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, which has encountered sustained opposition from neighborhood activists in the South End and Roxbury. Lab opponents sued in state and federal court to halt the facility, and while judges allowed construction to continue, they ordered further environmental reviews.
In April, the federal agency underwriting construction of the lab told a federal judge that the latest environmental review will take a year longer than projected. The National Institutes of Health estimated that it would not be able to submit the safety analysis to US District Court Judge Patti B. Saris until spring or summer of next year. Saris, overseeing a lawsuit filed by residents, then will spend several months more evaluating the findings. If she backs the lab, preparations necessary for scientists to work with deadly agents would take additional time.
For now, the $192 million building is complete but vacant on Albany Street. The centerpiece of the project -- originally expected to begin welcoming scientists in late 2007 or early 2008 -- is a Biosafety Level-4 lab designed to let researchers hunt for vaccines and drugs targeted at the highly lethal germs that cause such diseases as Ebola, Marburg, and plague.
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Has Menino flipped sides on this issue and claimed credit for having fomented the opposition to the Lab? Remember, everything and anything that happens in Boston is his idea. Unless it doesn't work and then its someone else's fault.
We really need new leadership. 17 years is too long for this adorable meglomaniac with no new ideas.
Typical Boston. the opportunity for growth and jobs halted by nerds. i.e. Hanscom Field(save our heritage!!! Ha ha, you moved to that Culde Sac six months ago) and the closing of military bases like Devens and Weymouth without a fight.
Can I ask the obvious question? Are we crazy?
How can you put something this risky, and potentially deadly, in the middle of the city? Please stop this thing.
Does anyone want to wake up to the Globe headline saying "Technician, after big night on the town, opens wrong door. Thousands dead."? Actually, it won't be in the Globe of this happens. Someone else will be doing the writing on this one.
Opposition to such establishments is opposition to progression. BU is one of the world's finest research institutions and is inevitably one of the best suited to operate such a facility. I pity the simpletons that appreciate modern medicine and who would have so clearly stood in the way of its development!
I don't think PoweringNWO gets it. No one is saying don't build a biotech facility for BU.... Build three, if you want to. I don't care. Just don't build it downtown, where some stupid accident could cause a catastrophe. Ooops, is no going to hack it if an accident happens and there are deaths.... You can bet that the first accident in Boston will be the last for BU..... Reputation gone, endowment gone, students gone..... Boston gone... Sounds like a very bad idea to me. A bad bet. Put it on a farm somewhere isolated from people.
Beautiful, B.U, the official school of the Bin Ladens, will now be teaching them Bio Terrorism.
Mark - You do release that there are other biolabs in the city of Boston but not as dangerous as BL4. The people who will be working at this research institute are highly trained and not just anyone can work there. Please find out your facts before you post.
BU Lab Explosion Tonight!
They have started with a bang..."I pity the simpletons" Inherited wealth is the best kind right BU?
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