Inside the BioLab
By Brandon Simes (From South End News), December 17, 2008
South End News was granted access to the controversial Boston University BioLab, officially known as the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory (NEIDL), on Friday, Dec. 12. The tour, led by Dr. Ron Corley, Chair of Microbiology at the Boston University Medical Center (BUMC), shed light on many of the safety concerns inherent with a Biosafety Level 4 lab – one in which dangerous infectious agents are studied.
To enter the premises all visitors and employees must first walk through an airport-like security checkpoint, which includes a metal detector, several dozen feet from the actual building in order to be allowed into the NEIDL.
Surrounding the lab and the initial security checkpoint is a black, “K-rated” perimeter fence that prevents vehicles from ramming through and damaging the building long enough for secondary security measures to be taken. While not aesthetically imposing, the fence can stop large vehicles from reaching the walls of the NEIDL. Two armed security guards inhabit this first level of security. Beyond that, a third armed guard awaits in the NEIDL main lobby. Cameras are stationed in both the lobby and the initial security booth as well as throughout the facility, canvassing nearly the entire building. The guards and the surveillance systems will be overseen by Tom Robbins, former superintendent of the Massachusetts State Police and current Executive Director for Public Safety at BU.
Once past the three security guards iris scanners limit access floor-to-floor, and sensors detect if attempts at piggybacking occur, preventing a person from quickly following behind an employee with access to a given section of the building. This process is repeated several times before access to a Level 2 area is permitted – the lowest level of security at the NEIDL, where scientists study infectious diseases such as HIV and Hepatitis B.
In addition to extensive onsite security, all employees – from cleaners to the directors -will undergo intensive physical, financial, and psychological background checks, according to Robbins. When asked about issues that would prevent a potential employee from being approved Robbins said that while anything found to be dangerous could be grounds for failure of a background check, convicted felons would not be allowed to work in the building under any circumstances. Other red flags that arise during background checks – a minor drug possession arrest, for instance, would be evaluated on a case-by-case basis, said Robbins.
“We can do it in a matter of – if we had to – weeks,” said Robbins of the lab’s background checks, but he added that it “sometimes takes months.”
“We have a good relationship with the FBI,” he continued. “It’s not a time issue with us.”
“Academics are not comfortable with this type of security,” said Corley, who called scientists “individualists.”
“But we’ll watch them,” said Robbins.
“All the time,” added Scott Pare, Deputy Director of Public Safety at BU, to laughs.
“It’s something that we have to learn to get a kind of comfort with,” said Corley of the security presence at the NEIDL.
Robbins said he will oversee the security of the building on a day-to-day basis along with Pare but was unsure as to how often he would hear from Federal oversight, though he said there would be continual input.
According to Corley, the building itself was intended to flow with the current Boston skyline – specifically the John Hancock building’s famous style, as the NEIDL has incorporated reflective metal pieces into its exterior design. Inside, harsh greens, purples, blues, and yellows serve to color code the building and its many laboratories. The design of the space closely resembles other recent additions to Boston University’s Commonwealth Avenue campus such as Agganis Arena, The John Hancock Student Village, and the Photonics Center.
The NEIDL contains three different levels of security – Levels 2, 3, and 4. While Level 2 contains HIV and other powerful viruses, Level 3 contains airborne diseases such as SARS, Tuberculosis, and some forms of influenza. Level 4 contains only “select agents,” such as tularemia, specified after the attacks of 9/11 that could be “weaponized,” said Corley. Select agents do not spread from person-to-person, but harbor tremendous potential for damage, which has sparked controversy in the South End.
The National Institute of Health (NIH), which is partially funding the BU BioLab, has received several poor reviews in regards to its plans and risk assessments of the NEIDL, including a review from a prestigious 10-person panel of scientists who weighed in on the case in Nov. 2007. The panel stated that the NIH’s supplemental risk assessment was “not sound or credible.”
Despite state approval of an environmental impact review (EIR) in Nov. 2004, many citizens and advocacy groups have persisted in their efforts to prevent the study of Level 4 pathogens in the lab. A suit from neighborhood activists and environmental groups argued that the state’s certification had been “arbitrary and capricious” and in July 2006 Superior Court Judge Ralph Gants found in favor of the plaintiffs; on Dec. 13, 2007 the state Supreme Judicial Court upheld a lower court’s decision to force the BUMC to complete a new EIR and submit it to the state for approval. The BioLab remains contentious today with its full-scale implementation rapidly approaching.
Despite such potential for harm and past issues, Corley and Robbins remain confident in the security measure in place at the NEIDL. Corley said that personnel with issues from their personal lives would never be assigned dangerous projects, in order to minimize risk. Background checks will be ongoing, and Robbins can shut off access for anyone in the building at a moment’s notice.
Said Robbins, “Big Brother’s here.”
The Level 4 portion of the NEIDL is physically separate from the rest of the building, and accounts for 16 percent of the complex, said Corley. In fact, the third floor, located directly above the most controversial piece of the BioLab puzzle, is devoted entirely to the mechanics of the running the Level 4 floor.
“When we go into Level 4 you’re walking into another building,” said Corley. “It’s a box within a box.”
The second floor, where the Level 4 labs are located, is earthquake resistant, boasting 12-inch thick walls with bulletproof, blastproof glass windows, 14-inch ceilings, and 16-inch floors. Robbins said windows are uncommon in Level 4 labs, but were installed for further security purposes – allowing easier surveillance of scientists working within lab walls.
Once inside Level 4 scientists never work alone, as partners team together for all sessions, guaranteed by an iris scanner system that requires near simultaneous scans of the two assigned scientists. A scientist must then pass through two more blastproof security doors to enter a Level 4 lab, and must wear what is commonly referred to as a “space suit”-a special protective suit with a respiratory device that prevents scientists from coming in direct contact with Level 4 pathogens.
These pathogens, despite their strength and potential danger, are extremely fragile. The maximum amount of time a Level 4 pathogen can live if left exposed and untreated is about 20 minutes, according to Corley.
“One ppm [parts per million] of bleach can kill any Level 4 virus,” said Corley. “All Level 4 viruses can be killed in seconds.”
Once finished with a lab session, which generally lasts about four hours due to the restrictive features of the protective suits, scientists then must spend at least 8 to 10 minutes under a cleansing shower before they may take off their suits-even in the case of a severe health issue such as a heart attack. Under normal circumstances the cleansing showers last much longer. Once the suits are removed the next step is a traditional shower inside a small room contained within the walls of the Level 4 lab. Finally, passing through into the dressing room, scientists change back into their civilian clothes. Before exiting their assigned Level 4 lab, researchers must place any waste material into cook tanks that use a chemical and temperature combination that will “kill anything,” according to Corley.
One of the main reasons for placing the NEIDL in the heart of Boston is the need for first responders at close proximity. In this vein the Boston Public Health Commission sponsored a Nov. “orientation” for first responders, according to BUMC spokesperson Ellen Berlin. More training is set for Feb. in what Berlin calls a “full-scale sort of dress rehearsal without agents.”
“What we’re trying to build here is a culture of safety,” said Corley. “You don’t take stuff out of this room [a Level 4 lab]. Ever.”
Corley did acknowledge that should an employee be willing to go to extreme measures – meaning storing vials within body cavities – it’s plausible that a rogue individual could, with much planning and a healthy dose of luck, sneak a harmful pathogen out of the NEIDL.
“The weakest link, I guess, anytime that you’re dealing with human beings, is human beings,” said Corley, who also pointed out that to this date a security breech has never occurred in a Level 4 lab.
“This is a very safe place,” said Robbins, whose confidence in the building’s security remained consistent throughout the tour.
In looking to the future, Corley hopes that South End residents will come to view the NEIDL as a valuable research facility, rather than an imminent danger with few benefits to the local community. He stressed that that facilities like the NEIDL must be placed in an academic setting and within a metropolitan area for logistical reasons, and that these facilities will prove evermore important as time goes on.
“The reality is we live in a world where these diseases are emerging,” said Corley. “You can’t study them except in a facility like this.”