Regulating High Security Bio-Terror Research

In his testimony before the Massachusetts committee, Mark Klem- pner, the provost for research at BUMC, who is slated to co-direct research at the new laboratory, was adamant that Boston University would not conduct any classified research and that “not one nickel has come from the Department of Homeland Security.” 

Similar pronouncements in the course of seeking approval for other BSL4 labs have proved to be dubious. In his article Ho reported that, “Officials at the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (UTMB) are quietly retreating from a pledge made in 2001 that their BSL4 facility will not conduct classified work.” 

The prospect of constructing a laboratory that would conduct research on some of the most deadly biological agents known to humanity—including anthrax and tularemia—in a densely populated urban area, such as Boston, has met with stiff resistance from community activists, public health advocates, peace activists, and others. 

Opponents have pointed out that the neighborhood immediately surrounding the proposed site of the lab is home to about 16,721 people per square mile, over four times as many people as the 3,478 per square mile who live in the immediate vicinity of the next most densely populated BSL4 neighborhood in Atlanta, Georgia  operated by the Center For Communicable Diseases. Lab opponents also charge that situating such a lab in an area that is predominantly Latino and African American is an act of environmental racism. 

Opponents of the lab-regulating bill maintain that passage would preclude the construction of Boston University’s laboratory and would, as Klempner said in his testimony, “have an enormous chilling effect on biological research in this state.” 

Responding to opposing testimony from the hearing, an aide from Representative Fox’s office pointed out via email that, “Cambridge has strict regulations on what type of biological agents can and cannot be studied. They have not suffered from these regulations and, in fact, are arguably the biotech capital of the world.” 

According to records from the hearing, 115 people testified or wrote in favor of the bill and 45 testified or wrote against it. David Ozonoff, a professor of Environmental Health at Boston University, testified that the risk of an outbreak resulting from an accident or an act of terrorism is particularly worrisome because, “unlike chemicals,” biological agents “reproduce themselves and travel in social patterns.” 

Long-time community activist Mel King, who attended the hearing, told Boston Indymedia he had come to support the legislation and he was “opposed to the building of a bioterror lab anywhere.” King was dismissive of BU’s PR friendly “humanitarian” rationale for constructing the laboratory—that it would enable scientists to do life saving research into emerging infectious diseases. “There are places in the world where, if conditions were changed, the problems would not be there. I am particularly talking about poverty. We have the capability to deal with this and we don’t need a bioterror lab, especially in an area that has the highest rate of morbidity of any area in the commonwealth,” King said. 

Fox’s bill enjoys significant support, both among opponents of BU’s proposed lab and people who support the lab but believe that comprehensive state oversight into the goings on at high security biological laboratories might be prudent. 

Klempner maintained that if the bill was passed, “We could not proceed with doing any development until the Department of Public Health and Department of Environmental Protection create a new set of redundant regulations. It would end federal funding for the project.” HR 1397 would provide regulations for the location, construction, operation, maintenance, and security at BSL4 labs. It would require reports regarding current research to regulatory agencies and mandate regular inspection of laboratories. Additionally, the bill would empower a community oversight board for any BSL4 laboratory built in the Commonwealth to help insure transparency of operations and research. The bill would also place a moratorium on the construction of BSL4 laboratories until the structures are in place to carry out state level regulation of the laboratory. 

It was unclear whether the effect of this legislation would per- manently short circuit BU’s plans to construct its laboratory, but it was clear that the project was not the first thing on Fox’s mind during her testimony in front of the committee. “We are talking about regulations,” she said, “because we want to save lives.”