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Friday, April 30, 2004
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By Paul Elias
THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
SAN FRANCISCO — From
Joston to Livermore, Calif.,
hot labs” designed to combat
ioterrorism and house the
rorld’s deadliest germs are
[eing planned and constructed
a huge cash infusion from
|efederal government.
Supporters of the unprece-
jented building boom say the
iew or expanded high-contain-
nentlabs — there are least 18
-are essential to national secu-
ityin a post-Sept. 11 world,
ut as the labs rise on col-
campuses and government
nstallations across the country,
o do concerns about safety
od security.
Neighbors fear that some
lightening variant of Ebola
ms, plague or other deadly
tease could be loosed into
W backyards, and are filing
iwsuits and lobbying politi-
iiansto halt construction.
A growing number of scien-
3ts complain that the $6 billion
Marked by Congress for fight-
n? bioterrorism is excessive, is
doled out with little over
hand is detracting from efforts
Dcombat problems that are much
note deadly — for example,
and malaria, which are
teady killing millions of people.
Others worry that the buildup
rurally threatens national secu-
ty, by arming more people
siihihe know-how to construct
weapons, and perhaps even
arking a new biological arms
re since two of the hot labs are
3 be built inside national
leapons labs at Livermore and
isAlamos. N.M.
Universities in Boston.
Pittsburgh. Texas and elsewhere
ave already won grants to
id labs, some in urban
neighborhoods.
In Boston, activists are trying
halt construction of a $168
lion lab at Boston University,
tohtbuilt in the city’s south end.
Tty fear something akin to
health inspectors suspect
ifirred recently in China: that
iIRS escaped from a Beijing
ioratory and made its way into
sChinese heartland, contribut-
the latest eruption of the
iietimes fatal disease.
“It doesn’t belong there. The
Bioweapons research in your backyard
Plans are in the works to increase the number of high-level
biosafety labs dedicated to biological weapons research.
Existing weapons lab with biosafety level 3 or 4 •
Planned weapons lab with biosafety level 3 or 4 «
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if
1 ♦ V
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As of Oct. 28, 2003
J
irch
SOURCE: The Sunshine Project
health and safety risks outweigh
the benefits,” said Kyle Coring,
an attorney with Roxbury,
Mass.-based Alternatives for
Community and Environment.
Boston’s mayor and
Massachusetts’ governor are
convinced the lab will be well
protected, and provide a boost to
the local economy. Federal offi
cials insist that no deadly germs
have ever escaped from U.S. lab
oratories, and say the planned
facilities will be even more
secure than their predecessors.
Following such objections,
the Bush administration on
Wednesday issued a directive
that addressed oversight and
coordination.
“Under the president’s new
national biodefense directive, all
of our bioterrorism projects and
programs will fall under a coordi
nated and focused strategic plan
that will help maximize our
resources, ensure a common uni
fied effort across all federal agen
cies and address any deficiency
that we discover,” Homeland
Security Secretary Tom Ridge said
at a news conference Wednesday.
But even some backers of the
construction are concerned that
the bioweapons defense program,
while awash in cash, is lacking in
direction and coordination.
“We do need these labs,” said
Ken Alibek, a former top scientist
in the Soviet biological weapons
program who defected to the
United States in 1992. “But I've
AP
never seen any well-defined plan
of what exactly we need, how
many labs are necessary and what
they should be designed to do.”
The government agencies
and colleges involved defend
their projects as necessary to
close the gaps in* national
defense exposed by the anthrax
attacks in 2002. They say more
sophisticated labs are needed to
combat a range of potential
bioweapons — exotic diseases,
for example, and genetically
engineered bugs designed to
evade detection and that can’t be
treated by any existing vaccines.
“We do not have the safe and
effective vaccines and drugs we
need,” said Rona Hirschberg of
the National Institute of Allergy
and Infectious Disease, the NIH
branch driving much of the lab
construction. Hirschberg said
creating vaccines, antidotes and
rapid diagnostic tools are high
national security priorities.
However, no one inside or out
side of government is sure exact
ly how many labs are already
working with biological material
that could be rendered into dead
ly weapons if obtained by terror
ists. Estimates range in the hun
dreds, even as biotech companies
prepare to compete for a new
round federal biodefense grants.
The departments of defense,
health, homeland security and
energy, meanwhile, all have sep
arate plans to fund, expand or
build hot labs.
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