Review criticizes safety analysis of proposed Boston bioterror lab
The National Research Council says that a federal study of a proposed Boston University bioterrorism lab failed to consider fully the dangers of the possible release of deadly viruses and bacteria into the surrounding neighborhood
A federal study of a proposed Boston University bioterrorism lab failed to consider fully the dangers of the possible release of deadly viruses and bacteria into the surrounding neighborhood, according to a report by independent scientists released Thursday. A Suffolk Superior Court judge ordered the review after the National Institutes of Health said in a draft study in February that the $178 million lab was not a danger to the South End neighborhood where it is being built. The lab, called the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, would be part of a national group of facilities conducting research into some of the world’s most dangerous germs and viruses, such as ebola and West Nile. The review by the Washington-based National Research Council (NRC) found the federal safety study of the Boston site did not contain sufficient information to compare the risks associated with alternative suburban and rural locations.
“The NIH draft report has serious weaknesses, in particular regarding selection of pathogens and lack of transparency of the modeling, leading the committee to conclude that the draft is not sound and credible,” said committee Chairman John Ahearne, former director of the ethics program of the Scientific Research Society, based in North Carolina. “One of the committee’s main concerns was that the draft assessment does not effectively examine highly infectious agents, and therefore is not representative of a worst case scenario,” the report said. The NRC report did not review the lab’s safety, only the National Institutes of Health’s assessment of potential dangers. Opponents of the proposed lab said the report confirmed their beliefs that supporters of the project failed to consider the risks to a neighborhood whose residents are on average sicker than the rest of Boston. The community around the lab is already troubled by the highest hospitalization rate in Boston and twice the average rate of HIV/AIDS and other ailments affecting the immune system in the city, said Eloise Lawrence, attorney at Conservation Law Foundation that represented members of the community. Lawrence said residents are concerned because they feel that they do not have credible information on the risks related to the laboratory. “That is the point they have been making for four years
