Lab woesCDC biolab not ready after 2 1/2 years
A new CDC biosafety lab was supposed to open in the fall of 2005; it is still not open, and legislators begin to wonder why; they note that at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, it took less than seven months for its BSL-4 lab to become operational after construction was finished
In Boston there is a fierce public opposition to the opening of a new biolab on the campus of Bsoton University, but this is not the case in Atlanta: There residents are accustomed to the presence of the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the research work done in the agency’s labs. This is why there is a mystery surrounding the endless delays in opening a new CDC Biosafety lab. Alison Young writes in he Atlanta Journal-Constitution that it is now two-and-half years later, but the suite of Biosafety Level 4 labs — designed to contain the world’s most dangerous germs and supposed to open in the fall of 2005 — still has not been certified as ready to operate. The $214 million building in which the labs are located was completed two-and-a-half years ago. Officials at the Center for Disease Control (CDC) say nothing is amiss, but the delays have raised concerns about potential construction or design flaws in labs destined to handle smallpox and Ebola viruses. “The CDC’s new lab has been troubled almost from its inception,” said Representative John Dingell (D-Michigan), chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, which oversees federal agencies and has been examining bioterror lab safety nationally. “Its history of contracting problems, design flaws and construction delays does not engender confidence and is worthy of a closer look by this committee,” Dingell said this week. CDC officials no longer will estimate when the labs will open. They prefer to say simply: as soon as possible. “Commissioning a lab, particularly on this scale, is a complex process,” said Stephan Monroe, the CDC official who oversees the division of scientists who will work in the unopened labs. “We won’t take any shortcuts, jeopardize our workers or the safety of the public.”
CDC scientists are still able to use other nearby BSL-4 labs, built in 1988. CDC officials say they need the additional lab space to do more experiments, but said work is not going undone as a result of the delays. Construction began in 2001 on the new 368,000-square-foot building — called the Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory — at the CDC’s Clifton Road campus. The building — including the wing containing the BSL-4 labs — was completed in September 2005. CDC officials signed off on the work of its construction contractors at that time. While the BSL-4
