Boston University’s Biosafety Level-4 Laboratory in the South End would house the deadliest pathogens on Earth if it were to become fully operational, but current obstacles and a great deal of public skepticism have lately called its future into question.
‘Dress rehearsal’ safety training exercises were set to begin at the biolab in early fall, The Daily Free Press reported in June. These exercises will entail full-blown experiments using harmless substitutes for substances that might someday actually range from ebola and anthrax to smallpox and the bubonic plague.
A meeting is set to be held on the MED campus Oct. 7 to discuss the nature of the exercises, which are now set to begin in the upcoming months.
Several biolabs operate elsewhere in the country. Two labs are currently in operation at the U.S. Army biodefense center at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md., with a third being planned.
Other BSL-4 labs are open in Galveston and San Antonio, Texas and in Atlanta, where there are two.
New labs are set to open in Fort Detrick, Manhattan, Kan., Galveston, Texas and Richmond, Va., as well as Boston, according to The Boston Herald.
The Herald reported that the Government Accountability Office called Monday for a more comprehensive understanding of the security and oversight on these labs, recommending a single entity to supervise them all.
If its doors are ultimately opened for real research, Boston’s biolab would be in the most populated area of any of its few fellows elsewhere in the country.
City political figures have expressed concern that the proximity of the lab to dense residential areas and urban centers would pose a major threat to citizens.
Mayoral candidate Michael Flaherty, currently a City Councilor-At-Large, told The Free Press earlier this month that he would not support the biolab until a comprehensive evacuation plan for its neighbors was completed.
His former opponents Sam Yoon, also a City Councilor-At-Large, and Kevin McCrea, a South Boston businessman, also told The Free Press they did not support the biolab.
Incumbent Mayor Thomas Menino is the only candidate in the race who has stood by the biolab throughout its development. Campaign spokesman Nick Martin told The Free Press the mayor saw the biolab as part of Boston’s prospective ‘science-based economy,’ but that he would not allow it to open ‘without proper testing.’
The biolab’s controversial status has even engendered changes of heart in some of its proponents. Former Boston University Medical Campus Director of External Affairs Egobudike Ezedi, originally an advocate for the lab, recently switched sides to run for City Council on an anti-biolab platform.
He finished ninth in last week’s primary, just shy of making the general election.
Some Boston residents, particularly those closest to the biolab in Roxbury and the South End, have worked throughout the development of the campaign to stop the biolab from opening.
A website titled ‘Stop the Bioterror Lab’ enumerates the potential dangers of the biolab to the citizenry and discusses ways people can get involved.
A forum to discuss the work of this anti-biolab coalition will take place in Allston tonight.
Look for further coverage in The Daily Free Press tomorrow.
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