Judge orders new review of BU biolab. Alternative sites must be weighed

[mom cat]

Judge orders new review of BU biolab
Alternative sites must be weighed

By Stephen Smith, Globe Staff | August 4, 2006

A state judge has ordered further environmental review of a Boston University high-security laboratory where scientists will work with the world's deadliest germs, a decision that marks a potentially important victory for opponents of the controversial facility.


Boston.com
Sign up for: Globe Headlines e-mail | Breaking News Alerts In a ruling made public yesterday, Suffolk Superior Court Judge Ralph D. Gants found that earlier assessments of the environmental impacts of the South End lab failed to adequately consider alternative sites or weigh worst-case scenarios for release of viruses or bacteria. Gants said the decision by the state Executive Office of Environmental Affairs to approve the lab ``was arbitrary and capricious" and ``lacked the necessary rational basis."

snip

The review, written by BU and approved by the state, was insufficient, Gants said. His ruling said the environmental report did not consider whether the lab could be built in a less congested area -- such as a suburban or rural community -- rather than the bustling urban neighborhood where BU's medical school is located. State environmental regulations mandate that alternative sites be weighed, but BU -- which said the site was appropriate because it was convenient to researchers who would work there -- did not consider spots outside the South End, the judge found.

Gants's other key concern was that the environmental review did not adequately evaluate a worst-case scenario for release of a deadly agent, a process required by state law. The BU review considered what would happen if anthrax spores escaped from the lab because of an equipment malfunction. But Gants said the environmental review should have also weighed the potential for pathogens to escape through a ``suicidal, criminal, or terrorist act." The judge said BU's pledges of exhaustive security checks of lab personnel were inadequate, noting that CIA and FBI agents subjected to similar reviews managed to perpetrate safety breaches.



http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/08/04/judge_orders_new_review_of_bu_biolab?mode=PF

[Nikki Stone 1]

1. Why such deadly germs in such a crowded urban area?

:kick:

[mom cat]

2. This has been maddening. The Bio-lab is slated for an area

directly across the street from a major hospital complex and very near a jail. It is also just off the on ramp to I-95 and the tunnel to the airport(the same tunnel that just had the fatal ceiling collapse).It would take no time at all for any release to affect the large hospitalized and incarcerated populations or for it to spread nation wide and/or worldwide. It ia also near a part of Boston that is much less affluent, and highly congested. This is definitely a case of environmental racism.
The stated reason for the placement is proximity to the BU Medical complex, but it is that very proximity that increases the potential risk. It has been sold as a potential source of new jobs and has powerful political support from Mayor Menino and Ted Kennedy, but has very determined local opposition. This is the first real breakthrough for the opposition.

[Nikki Stone 1]

3. If I had a tin foil hat on, I'd say the placement was ideal for biowarfare

against our own people.

:tinfoilhat:

But, my guess is that some investors see a profit and public safety be damned.

[mom cat]

4. Don't completely throw away the tin foil:

1. The lab is to be funded by a grant from Homeland Security. Remember Katrina?
2. Because it will ge a top secret facility, there will be no public knowledge as to what is being developed there. Although the project is being sold as a place to seek cures for diseases and to combat any biological weapons developed by others, we have no guarantee that this lab will not be used to develop US WMD ... and there will be no way of finding out.
3. There are NO federal, state or local regulations regarding safety at a level 4 lab ... none. The permits required are the same ordinary building permits that are requires to build a department store, but nothing about the safe handling of materials there.
4. Boston University has had accidents before at its level 2 lab from which tularemia made it out of the lab. During the application process for the level four lab, they tried to conceal this from the public.
5. Although BU promises to keep people informed of any accident, their past behavior shows that is not how they operate. Furthermore, they will be forbidden from releasing information to the public because it is all classified.
6. There is NO way to secure the area in case of an emergency release of biological agents which , we are told, will be among the most deadly on earth. There would not be a way of evacuating nearby hospital patients and inmates at the local jail ... again: remember Katrina. There are not enough hospital beds and prison cells in the area to absorb these populations. In Katrina, these populations were abandoned. Remember - Homeland Security is in charge.
7. We already know that the US has developed weaponized anthrax, and that it "somehow" got out and was used against Bush's political opponents.Until the guilty face justice foe the murders of the anthrax killer, I do not want more places anywhere that will be working on the development of more deadly biological agents.
8. Boston is one of the most liberal cities in the country, as was New Orleans.I do not want to give anyone any opportunity to devastate our population from either lihop or mihop or just from sheer stupidity which both Boston University and Homeland Security have repeatedly shown.
9. I and my three precious cats live just two miles from this ticking time bomb.