Scientists call for review of germs at BU laboratory
An elite panel of scientists recommended yesterday that federal health authorities conduct the most extensive safety review so far of a controversial laboratory being built by Boston University.
The most dangerous germs require further study, the blue-ribbon panel told the director of the National Institutes of Health, adding that additional assessments should compare outbreak situations in urban, suburban, and rural environments.
The panel also recommended that the studies consider a number of emergency situations - including accidents and attacks - rather than one "worst case" scenario.
Dr. Elias A. Zerhouni, the NIH director, created the panel to advise his agency on further safety reviews. The panel will now consider how to improve community relations.
Conservation Law Foundation attorney Eloise P. Lawrence, whose organization sued to block the laboratory, said the analysis of the most dangerous germs is a step in the right direction, but one that should have happened years ago.
"What we really hope is that people will pay attention to the answers, if they're honest," Lawrence said.
The report is the latest chapter in an ongoing dispute between BU's National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories and the residents of the Albany Street neighborhood in which it is being built.
Ellen Berlin, spokeswoman for BU, said in a statement that the "deliberative approach to this process is necessary and appropriate."
