South End News<\/p>\n
Issue Date: 10\/25\/2007, Posted On: 10\/25\/2007<\/p>\n
by Lou Manzo<\/p>\n
Boston University scientist David Ozonoff sparred with his own colleagues concerning the National Health Institute\u2019s (NIH) risk assessment of Boston University Medical Center\u2019s Biosafety Level 4 Lab (BioLab). During a National Research Council hearing about the report on Oct. 19, Ozonoff described it as \u201cdismissive\u201d and \u201cwrong,\u201d contradicting the testimony of his fellow faculty.<\/p>\n
The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) paid $50,000 to the Washington, D.C.-based Council, which works under the auspices of the National Academy of Science to improve government decision-making and public policy, to review a NIH risk assesment of the BioLab The Council was charged to determine whether the analyses of the assessment were sound, whether \u201cworst case scenarios\u201d were identified, and whether the location of the BioLab in the South End posed a greater possible risk than other sites.<\/p>\n
Suffolk Superior Court Judge Ralph D. Gant ordered the NIH to research a new risk assessment after he deemed the original analysis of risk inadequate on Aug. 6, 2006 because it failed to identify \u201cworst case scenarios.\u201d Some neighborhood activists maintain that the new risk assessment is as inadequate as the previous version, while NIH and BU officials claim that it is thorough.<\/p>\n
Deborah Wilson, assistant secretary of Occupational Health and Safety at NIH, and Dr. Mark Klempner, the director of the BU BioLab, both testified on the merits of the new assessment before fielding questions from the Council.<\/p>\n
Dr. John Ahearne, chair of the 10-person panel of scientists conducting the hearing, seemed to stump all parties with a basic question. After each testimonial, Ahearne asked, \u201cHow do you define \u2018worst case scenario\u2019?\u201d<\/p>\n
Few answers were forthcoming.<\/p>\n
When asked for a definition of \u201cworst case scenario,\u201d Klempner, indicated that he would defer to the NIH. But the NIH refused to answer any questions posed by the panel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere are restrictions under the National Environmental Policy Act that limit what we can say,\u201d said David Lankford, general council for the NIH. The NIH indicated it would respond to the Council\u2019s questions later in writing.<\/p>\n
State officials also had trouble with the question.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere is no definition that I am aware of,\u201d said Deerin Babb-Brott, assistant secretary of Environmental Review for the EEA. \u201cWe are not asking a question grounded in a specific definition.\u201d<\/p>\n
Despite the confusion over the definition of \u201cworst case scenario,\u201d Wilson was confident that the NIH\u2019s risk assessment was sound. She repeatedly said that the NIH was \u201cconservative\u201d in its analysis of over 2500 simulations. In the assessment, the NIH used a strain of sabia virus that has not been documented and assumed person to person respiratory transmission, which also has never happened in nature. When assessing Ebola, the NIH assumed transmission via sexual exposure, although that similarly has never been documented. In comparison to other possible sites for the BioLab in Tyngsborough, MA or Peterborough, N.H, Wilson concluded that the South End was safest.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor diseases that are worked at, there was really no difference in the number of infections across these three communities,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
According to the study, the South End would actually have fewer \u201cnegative outcomes\u201d in an outbreak of Rift Valley Fever because it has a lower population of mosquitoes, which could spread the disease, than the other rural sites.<\/p>\n
Klempner referred to the study as \u201crobust and representative\u201d and said that the BioLab would be equipped to handle any potential risks to safety.<\/p>\n
“The team that is building the NEIDL [National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratory] has extensive experience,\u201d Klempner said. \u201cAll critical systems are designed to be redundant.\u201d<\/p>\n
Klempner also addressed fears that the BioLab will work with smallpox and conduct bioweapons research.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will not study smallpox and are not permitted to do that,\u201d Klempner said. \u201cThere is a widespread misconception that we will do classified research.<\/p>\n
Every piece of research at NEDIL will be peer reviewed and will not be classified.\u201d<\/p>\n
While smallpox is tightly controlled by the Center for Disease Control, Klempner acknowledged to the council that other agents, such as SARS and Avian Flu, will be studied at the BioLab.<\/p>\n
After a short recess, BioLab opponents took the floor.<\/p>\n
Dr. Marc Lipsitch of the Harvard School of Public Health, speaking on his own behalf, stated that the report failed to address worst case scenarios and that \u201carguably the best case scenarios are assumed.\u201d Citing the report\u2019s failure to account for natural strain variation, possible weaponization, genetic modification, human error and the dangers of\u00a0 unapproved experiments, Lipsitch said, \u201cThe model is poorly described, parameters are poorly justified, and sensitivity analyses are lacking.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ozonoff, a professor of Environmental Health at the Boston University School of Public Health, deemed the assessment \u201cincomplete in a troubling way and misleading.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Ozonoff, the assessment\u2019s failure to include dangerous but not BSL-4 classified diseases such as SARS and the Avian Flu was a \u201cglaring omission\u201d because both \u201cagents are transmissible from person to person and likely to be present in the lab.\u201d Furthermore, he criticized the study\u2019s conclusion that the South End location for the project was safer than Tyngsborough or Peterborough.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe transmission rates were not density dependent and I was unable to tell if the contact rates were density dependent,\u201d Ozonoff said. \u201cIt seems to me that in that case the answer was pre-ordained.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ozonoff reserved his harshest criticism of the project when discussing the BioLab\u2019s impact on the surrounding community, citing the negative impact the structure will have on transportation, air and noise pollution.<\/p>\n
\u201c[The assessment] displays a blindness and lack of concern about environmental justice communities that is rightly infuriating to them,\u201d Ozonoff said. \u201cThe idea that neighborhood residents, who have spent years trying to organize a rational development plan, don\u2019t care or won\u2019t be affected by the building but suburban and rural residents will, shows a lack of empathy and insight\u2026 It is seriously incomplete, it is contrived, it is not serious and it is dismissive. And, it is wrong.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Council\u2019s final report is expected by the end of November.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
South End News Issue Date: 10\/25\/2007, Posted On: 10\/25\/2007 by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3183,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1298],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/neidl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/neidl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/neidl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/neidl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3183"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/neidl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/neidl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1660,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/neidl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281\/revisions\/1660"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/neidl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/neidl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/neidl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}