STAFF EDIT: Biolab Warfare

It wasn’t long ago that Boston University’s biolab in the South End faced only a smattering of opposition from local activists, and little more. But now that the facility is nearly finished and gearing up to train researchers, the political landscape has changed dramatically, as one elected official after another takes a stand against the disease research center.

Politicians represent their constituents, and Boston residents have well-founded concerns that an accident at the biolab could lead to citywide disaster. If BU wants to resolve conflict over the $192 million facility, then citizens’ concerns must be addressed. In order to quell these fears, the city should put together an independent panel that represents locals instead of using out-of-state scientists to review the safety procedures protecting Boston from the unthinkable. If this independent panel can put the minds of worried local residents at ease, then the biolab should open as soon as possible.

The National Institutes of Health, which gave BU the grant to build the biolab, formed a Blue Ribbon Panel last year after the state Supreme Judicial Court ruled that the first NIH environmental review of the biolab was not ‘sound and credible.’ BU professors and Boston residents have publicly complained that the panel did not treat concerned citizens fairly by acting as though the community was ‘ignorant’ on the biolab issue. The city of Boston cannot expect public opposition to cease if residents feel that this supposedly-independent Blue Ribbon Panel is only concerned with its own interests.

The biolab is not going to just go away, no matter how much opposition it faces. But in order for BU to get the biolab up and running, the city must’ address the fears of residents and strive for public representation.