City Council plans hearing on BioLab
South End News
February 7, 2008
by Justin Rice
staff reporter
Even the staunchest supporters of Boston University’s Bio-safety Level 4 Laboratory, better known as the BioLab, are questioning the proposed infectious disease facility. District 5 City Councilor Rob Consalvo filed a hearing order on Jan. 30 regarding recently raised concerns about the risk associated with the lab.
“Obviously there’s been new decisions and my constituents want us taking a responsible look at the issue,” said Consalvo, whose district covers Hyde Park, Roslindale and part of Mattapan. “That doesn’t mean I’m going to change my position, I’m still a supporter. I just want to dot the I’s and cross the T’s and have the City Council take a look at the impact of these new rulings and how it changed the project.”
Consalvo filed the order just one day before news broke last Thursday that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) filed documents in federal court revealing an environmental review of the BioLab will take longer than expected. The review might not be completed until spring of 2009, meaning the lab can’t proceed with its Level 4 plans until the review is complete.
According to the NIH’s filing, April 30, 2009 is the latest date on which the final environmental assessment could be completed. The federally sponsored project designed to study deadly viruses and germs, was originally expected to be fully functional by fall.
“The NIH is doing additional studies and that clearly adds time to the schedule,” BU spokeswoman, Ellen Berlin, said via email. “As the NIH process is ongoing, it is premature to set a precise opening date.” Berlin said that during the regulatory process for the BioLab, Boston University Medical Center (BUMC) submitted the required environmental and safety studies in a timely fashion, and reiterated BUMC’s commitment to ensuring the safety of the facility.
Consalvo said he first felt the hearing was necessary after the National Research Council (NRC) gave NIH a failing grade in December for its risk assessment of the lab. He didn’t call the hearing until recently because the Council recessed for winter break shortly after the NRC’s announcement. The hearing hasn’t been scheduled yet, but when it is, it will go in front of the Health and Environment Committee chaired by new At-Large Councilor John Connolly.
The hearing will primarily address questions that have been dealt with in a number of forums in the five years since the project was first proposed, including what sort of safety measures are in place to protect the surrounding community and the workers inside the building; how the pathogens being studied in the lab will be protected during transport; and what is the potential benefit or harm to the community from the lab’s construction. Consalvo said that he is planning to invite representatives of the Police Department, Fire Department, Boston EMS, Boston Public Health Commission, and the Boston Transportation Department, as well as from the BioLab’s administration, BU and the NIH.
Berlin, spokeswoman for BU, said that when a hearing date is set, they will make the appropriate people available. “This hearing is an opportunity to demonstrate the safety of the lab and address concerns that have been raised by the community,” she added.
Some opponents of the BioLab see the latest news about the environmental study and the hearing as an indication that NIH is finally listening to critics who took issue with NIH for maintaining that the lab posed no danger to the surrounding neighborhood, without having conducted appropriate risk assessments.
“It means that BU and NIH have to take us seriously, which I don’t think they were doing,” said Klare Allen, an outspoken activist against the BioLab and coordinator for the Stop the BioLab Coalition. The news about the environmental review not being completed until next year also drew skepticism from Allen, who said that she doesn’t think NIH can put together a comprehensive worst-case scenario report before April 2009. She said that while she’s seen 1000-page environmental reviews for Level-3 labs that cover preparedness coordination extensively, including contingency plans for providing people with diabetes access to insulin, she has yet to see BU present such detailed plans and called BU’s past risk assessments sloppy.
“It will be interesting to see what they come up with,” Allen said, adding that the plans should also address the risk the facility poses not only to the South End and Boston, but to the greater Boston area as well.
Allen was also critical of Consalvo for supporting the BioLab even though she said his constituents were pressuring him against it. Consalvo responded by saying only a handful of constituents – both for and against the lab – have contacted him about the lab recently.
Justin Rice can be reached at jrice@southendnews.com