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BU confirms scientists' illness
Greg Hellman, Daily Free Press
Friday, January 21, 2005
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Boston University officials have not fully disclosed
the dangers of the proposed biological weapons
research lab, said several Boston Cty councilors
and members of Safety Net, a Roxbury tenants'
right group at a City Hall press conference
Thursday.
Councilors At-large Felix
Arroyo and Maura Hennigan and Councilor Chuck
Turner (Roxbury), as well as Safety Net
spokeswoman Rose Arruda, called for greater
accountability and a halt to the lab's
activities after three BU scientists became
infected with a potentially deadly bacterium
from the lab.
The city officials'
comments came in the wake of the announcement
that four Chinese scientists and two Iraqi
nationals may be plotting a "dirty bomb" attack
on Boston.
"If Boston is attractive to
terrorists now, can you imagine what would
happen" with the installation of a bioterror
lab, Arroyo asked.
Turner recited from a
list of 80 health and safety regulations the lab
violated, including the dumping of silver and
the use of mercury thermometers, among
others.
"BU cannot be trusted in terms of
their actions around this issue of the bioterror
lab," Turner said. "The fact that they wouldn't
disclose during the process shows the lack of
integrity that the institution has. We have to
come together as the people of the city to
protect ourselves against BU."
Safety Net
and South End residents filed a lawsuit last
week to prevent the biolab from
opening.
BU is not solely at fault for
the lack of disclosure, however, Safety Net
spokeswoman Rose Arruda said.
"The mayor
knew, the public health commission knew, BU
knew, but none of them told the public," she
said.
Massachusetts Institute of
Technology professor Jeanne Guilleman said she
questioned how informed both the Public Health
Commission and Mayor Thomas Menino were of the
dangers.
"I think there is a lot of
ignorance and inexperience in this whole
commission," she said. "Bioweapons were
developed precisely to target civilians in the
cities. We're into deeper waters here than BU or
public health officials really
understand."
Hennigan said both BU and
the city's actions were a breach of area
residents' trust.
"Particulary in an area
where historically the constituencies do not
have as much political clout, trust has been
violated by BU and most importantly by the
city's chief executive, the mayor," she
said.
Regulating or banning the lab will
require new, stricter legislation, Turner said.
Even such new legislation, however, could not
completely eradicate the dangers the new lab
would pose, he said.
"Our belief is even
with regulations, there are serious concerns of
how the lab will disclose information by citing
it [as] classified information," he said. "The
best way to deal with this laboratory is to make
sure it is not built in the city of
Boston."
Back to Top
Menino and BU's biolab
Joan Vennochi, Globe Columnist
Thursday, January 27, 2005
THE NEW Boston surely doesn't care more about architectural
design than anthrax.
So, why does it look easier to stop a hotel with historic
preservation issues than to stop a biodefense lab over public safety
issues?
For example: A $100 million hotel in the old Charles Street Jail
at the foot of Beacon Hill has been on the drawing board since
September 2002. The project ''has had the gestation period of an
elephant," developer Richard L. Friedman recently told the Globe,
partly due to historic preservation requirements, which include
keeping bars on some windows and an actual jail cell. Other
development projects are stopped in Boston simply because neighbors
don't like the shadows they might cast.
On the other hand, Mayor Thomas M. Menino is determined to
fast-forward a proposal to allow Boston University to build a high
security lab -- called a Biosafety Level 4 lab -- that would bring
millions of federal dollars and hundreds of jobs, along with deadly
pathogens and viruses, to the South End. He is so determined to see
the project through that he was willing to keep quiet about a breach
in a lower security level 2 lab that resulted in three researchers
being infected with a bacterium called tularemia.
The Globe reported recently that BU officials waited nearly two
weeks to notify public health authorities that they had serious
concerns that researchers might have been exposed to a potentially
lethal bacterium while conducting experiments at the level 2 lab.
The university eventually reported suspected cases of tularemia to
the state Department of Public Health on Nov. 9 and to the Boston
Public Health Commission on Nov. 10.
The mayor waited to tell what he knew, too.
On Nov. 15, the state environmental secretary certified that the
level 4 lab proposal met state requirements to disclose all
environmental impacts of the lab. On Dec. 14, the Boston
Redevelopment Authority signed off on the level 4 lab proposal and
the Zoning Commission signed off on Jan. 5.
These state and city regulatory go-aheads were all given without
knowledge of the tularemia infections in the level 2 lab. The state
has reopened the environmental review to determine if the leaders of
the project ''knowingly or inadvertently concealed a material fact
or submitted false information."
At the city level, the approvals stand, since BU had no
obligation to notify them of changes affecting their environmental
review report. But what about the obligation of the mayor of Boston
to the citizens of Boston?
Asked if Menino knew about the tularemia outbreak at the level 2
lab before the BRA and zoning board approved the proposed level 4
lab, spokesman Seth Gitell said, ''That is correct."
Gitell could not provide an exact date Menino learned of the
situation. Kristin O'Connor, a spokesperson for the Boston Public
Health Commission, said executive director John M. Auerbach recalls
''mentioning it to him . . . probably sometime in November." At that
time, the mayor was told that the problem at the level 2 lab posed
no public health risk. On that basis, the mayor concluded there was
no need to inform the public about the breach at the level 2 lab --
nor the city regulatory boards taking up the level 4 lab
proposal.
Boston University was wrong to delay its reporting. But Menino is
wrong, too. Is he so petrified of losing jobs that he is blinding
himself to legitimate public safety concerns?
Some neighborhood groups are continuing to fight the
high-security lab. One group, called Safety Net, recently filed suit
in Suffolk Superior Court alleging that the Boston Redevelopment
Authority, Boston University, and several state agencies violated
state environmental law, which requires extensive review of the
proposal. Some Boston city councilors are also challenging the lab
and the mayor's rush to support it.
''It is always very tempting when you have hundreds of millions
of dollars waved in your face and a good working relationship with
an institution," says Maura Hennigan, a city councilor at large who
is running for mayor. ''But first and foremost the chief executive
of a city has the obligation to first, do no harm."
''What is the huge rush to push this thing through?" asks
Hennigan.
That is a good question. Menino should be pushing to make sure BU
actually has the capabilities to go from a level 2 lab to level 4.
This project has the potential to cast one very dark shadow.
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