Public Meeting: Activists and Academics Renew Call for Moratorium on Level 4 Bio-Lab Research

BOSTON/Government Center - A dozen community activists scientists lawyers and health professionals joined several members of the Boston City Council today to call for a city-wide moratorium on research involving some of the world's most dangerous diseases. The effect of such a ban would be to stop plans by Boston University to construct and operate a Level 4 Biohazards facility within the walls of its National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory being built on Albany Street in Boston. Level 4 facilities generally are the only labs where highly infectious diseases such as Plague and Ebola are allowed to be studied in the U.S. Many local state and federal officials support the building of the lab including Boston Mayor Tom Menino Senators John Kerry and Ted Kennedy and incoming City Council President Michael Ross. Bush administration officials say these labs are necessary for the purpose of creating defenses against biological attacks. Critics charge that the billions of dollars already spent on and proposed for future bio-defense projects could be used to fight much more common public health concerns such as HIV and asthma. Councilor Michael Flaherty - who has supported construction of the lab in the past - announced today he has changed his mind and will oppose the facility. He admitted making his initial decision to support the lab before important information could be gathered on whether or not Boston University could run the facility safely or the city could deal with an emergency evacuation. Supporters of the lab's safety sometimes refer to it as a "submarine in a vault " according to Flaherty. But he noted how a large snowstorm last winter had shut down city roads for hours and wondered how effective evacuation would be if an outbreak of disease should occur. Several years ago Boston University officials waited two weeks before reporting an outbreak of the Tulerimia bacteria from its Level 3 laboratory which had infected several technicians. Medical research facilities are required to report immediately such outbreaks to municipal health officials. According to Flaherty the city council exercises a measure of influence over the City's Department of Public Health the agency responsible for overseeing research at academic institutions such as the Boston University Medical Center. But he did not tell activists during the meeting whether he would push for a resolution or other council action on the research moratorium. Councilors Charles Yancey and Chuck Turner both of whom attended the meeting today have for years opposed bringing these pathogens to Boston. Several councilors including Sam Yoon and John Tobin sent staff to represent them. Historically the Council as a whole has swung in favor of the lab. Ellen Berlin the primary BUMC spokesperson for issues involving the NEIDL and the Level 4 biolab could not be reached for comment. A message seeking a response to today's city hall public meeting was left on Ms. Berlin's voice mail. The attendees at today's meeting included Dr. David Ozonoff a professor of environmental health at BU's School of Public Health whose office he says sits directly across the street from the proposed laboratory. He believes the government is making a mistake marshalling public health resources for bio-defense. "...these are not organisms of any real importance to public health. In fact very few people around the world and certainly not in this community are sickened by them anywhere. This is a really important point because in practice the bio-defense program has resulted in a dramatic diversion of monies and resources away from the diseases that make most people in our own community sick towards diseases that don't make anybody sick. This is not speculation and it's not theoretical " he said. "The problem became so acute early on that over 750 NIH supported researchers [working on infectious disease research] had to write an open letter to the Director of NIH warning him about the consequences for public health and medical science of what was happening. By supporting research work in laboratories such as this on these organisms it actually took away from others. That was well documented and it's even worse now that budgets are tighter." Commenting on the prospect of a terrorist attack using biologocal agents Dr. Ozonoff said it's extremely unlikely. "The traditional weapons of terror are guns and bombs. They don't have access to novel pathogens. Nobody has access to novel pathogens except under one condition and that is if somebody with the expertise the know-how were kind enough to make a novel pathogen for you; and that's what these laboratories are actually going to do." Other speakers at today's public meeting on the Level 4 biolab included Klare Allen of the Roxbury-based Safety Net organization Mary Crotty and Sandy Eaton of the MA Nurses Association and Laura Maslow-Armond representing the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law of the Boston Bar Association. Ms. Maslow-Armond argued that the siting of the laboratory near the Boston neighborhoods of the South End and Roxbury was an example of environmental racism. [Further details on this meeting plus an audio report will be published soon] EVENT NOTE: A panel of scientists and administrators from the National Institutes of Health the federal agency that funds the laboratory will be holding a public forum on Tuesday October 14 2008 at the Roxbury Center for Arts Hibernian Hall 182-186 Dudley Street in Roxbury starting at 6:30pm. Web Resources: http://stopthebiolab.org/ http://www.bu.edu/dbin/neidl/en/about/news/newsSingle.php?id=115 Bookmark/Search this post with: Delicious Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Newsvine Facebook Google Yahoo Technorati