Remember this story? It’s been kicking around for as long as this blog has been in existence (which is coming up on 10 years). Some of my very first posts were about how it strikes me as a bad idea for Boston University to locate a “BSL-4” laboratory – i.e., one that is authorized to work with the most virulent, most dangerous pathogens – in a densely-populated area like the South End. After several rounds of both state and federal court litigation, some of which I believe is still ongoing, the issue is still a live one; here’s a report of a Boston City Council hearing in April yet again focused on allowing a BSL-4 facility to open. The lab’s defenders are fond of explaining that there will be super-amazing security protocols that will absolutely prevent anything bad from happening, so we needn’t fret.
I bring this up now because of a story out of the CDC (Centers for Disease Control) in Atlanta. Because of human error, something like 80 people may have been exposed to anthrax, and the number could grow higher. How did it happen?
The CDC’s Dr. Paul Meechan told Reuters that the agency’s Bioterror Rapid Response units had been preparing an especially dangerous strain of the bacteria for use in two lower-security CDC labs.
They thought the bacteria had been inactivated, making it safe to handle. But a week later, workers noticed a lab dish containing live, growing anthrax, and they realized they had sent similar samples to labs that were not taking the precautions needed to protect people against infection.
In other words, someone made a stupid mistake. And guess what? As long as people are involved, stupid mistakes can and will be made, and that’s true of BU’s proposed lab in the South End as much as it is for the CDC. It doesn’t matter how tight the protocols are. Sh!t happens.
In the Atlanta case, despite the anthrax exposure, there are not yet any reports of illness, and we all of course hope that it stays that way. But the point for our purposes is that bad things can and do happen in any research facility. Don’t let any biolab backer tell you otherwise.
I have written several times about the stupid lab in Boston, and was beginning to feel that no one else cared about the topic. It drove me up the wall that defenders of this stupid lab would claim that anyone opposed to it was standing in the way of curing cancer, which isn’t even in the ballpark of what is planned for this lab. They are planning for Anthrax, Smallpox and Ebola.
Thanks again.
The middle of the South End is not a great spot for this lab, so I agree with you that the location needs to be changed, but this lab is far from stupid.
Research on various infectious diseases (Anthrax, Smallpox, Ebola) in this lab could alter the way we understand, treat, and prevent future disasters (bio-terrorism).
Massachusetts is a hub for the life sciences/biotechnology, with some of the greatest minds coming from the big name colleges to our own State University system. Texas (San Antonio, Galveston), among other states, already has a few of these types of labs, we certainly do not need to be losing our groomed talent to these places. A BSL-4 lab of our own would almost certainly have a positive effect our local economy.
Perhaps BU can be persuaded to find another location (ex. Monroe has a small population or maybe Fort Devens).
What we have going on here is a stupid location for a great lab.
World-wide. We’ve forgotten the leak of Anthrax in the Soviet Union and the more recent one right here is the US of A. We’ve forgotten that our own government will jump at the chance to test their toys on the citizenry. To believe that super-duper safety systems will protect people is Pollyannaism at its most naive.
We are already killing ourselves and the world with radiation. The same people that rightfully trumpet the dangers of hydrocarbons for energy production have no qualms of supporting the energy of nuclear power plants that poison the soil and sea. Is this how civilizations fail?
“We are in danger of destroying ourselves by our greed and stupidity. We cannot remain looking inwards at ourselves on a small and increasingly polluted and overcrowded planet.” –Stephen Hawking
Granted, I worked with fish not pathogens, but in my experience there is no foolproof way to completely contain living things. Something always gets out, eventually.
several times. I don’t remember who sponsored the polls, but they took place about 10 years ago and IIRC, I was prodded, more than once, about wasn’t it a good thing to have in the city. It almost felt like a push poll designed to support the argument for building the lab. My responses, then, as now, was that the idea of the lab was fine, but the location in a heavily populated area was bad. I also recall the idea of good jobs for Boston being put out there, but really, a facility of this kind is going to require highly educated individuals, I don’t see it as a source of jobs for the average out of work inner city worker.
I worked in biopharm for awhile. I’m familiar with the protocols.
The lab is absolutely necessary, there is no other way to learn to how to manage these dangerous organisms.
The location, in the middle of a major city, is utterly and completely insane.
This is the kind of thinking that leads to building major nuclear power plants within feet of the ocean in an earthquake and tidal-wave prone region. The plants are, after all, designed and engineered with every safeguard known, so that they can withstand any storm, earthquake, or tidal wave without damage.
What could possibly go wrong?