Boston Residents Fight Construction of Biolab

by Tracker
5/3/05

Community activists, scientists, and antiwar organizers continue to fight the construction of a bioterrorism research laboratory in Boston’s South End/Roxbury. The proposed lab would research organisms such as anthrax, plague, botulism, tularemia, and viral hemorrhagic fevers (e.g., Ebola) that cause deadly diseases for which there is no known cure, that can be transmitted through the air, and that can be used in biowarfare. Roxbury is the core of the African American community, and other communities of color, including Chinatown, have supported the fight against the lab.

This lab would include construction of a BioSafety Level 4 (BSL4) laboratory, the level required for research on the most dangerous and exotic categories of disease causing agents. The laboratory must give priority to National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases funded biodefense research and biodefense work funded by other agencies and entities. This means that the lab would perform research on agents that can be used in bioterrorism and biowarfare.

The lab in Boston would be the only US BSL4 laboratory in a densely populated urban neighborhood. There are only three BSL4 laboratories in the United States.

Since the spring of 2003, residents of Roxbury active in Safety Net, a project of Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE), and other groups have organized protests, packed hearings, and built alliances.

When Boston University (BU), the “host” of this lab has already demonstrated potential, dangerous failings. When researchers allowed a contagious agent, tularemia, to infect lab workers, BU did not notify the community about the cases. Meanwhile ACE reported that BU has a history of abysmal environmental practices. In less than five years, BU had

• Violated limits on toxic discharges to the sewer 75 times.
• Violated 2 hazardous waste storage and handling regulations.
• Violated health and safety rules 3 times.
• Violated rules for reporting about its biological research activities.
• Received 30 enforcement notices and orders for violating environmental, health, and safety laws and regulations.

However, the State, city, state, and federal, are determined to build this lab. Despite the dangers and BU’s failings, they have pushed the bioterror lab to a final environmental impact hearing, the last regulatory step. Residents meanwhile have threatened to stop construction of the lab “with their bodies.”

An Expert's View of the Dangers of the Biolab.