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Massachusetts Nurse :: October
2005
Weapons of mass destruction: let’s
not allow them in Boston!
By Mary Crotty
Associate Director of Nursing
 Political
opposition to the placement of a dangerous “BSL-4” laboratory
next to Boston Medical Center has been growing. The horrendous natural
disaster striking New Orleans and its surrounding areas?compounded
by the utter failure to rescue or respond?struck fear in the heart
of Boston City Council President Michael F. Flaherty recently.
On Sept. 15, less than a week after 200-plus evacuees landed at
Otis Air Force base on Cape Cod, Flaherty withdrew his support for
Boston University’s proposed biological laboratory in the
South End. In writing to Anthony S. Fauci, director of the National
Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, which would fund the
lab, Flaherty called for an immediate halt to the laboratory plan
and announced that, “Building [the lab] would be neither a
responsible nor safe venture.”
Flaherty said he had reconsidered his position after he saw the
‘’total breakdown of government response” after
Hurricane Katrina on the Gulf coast. “Due to the fact that
Boston, indeed the nation, is not prepared for a major disaster,
I must insist that plans for the construction of the lab be halted
immediately.”
Flaherty’s move is a reversal of his previous strong support
for the lab and is politically significant.
The MNA has been working actively to oppose the placement of a BSL-4
laboratory next to the Boston Medical Center campus. MNA organized
an extensive inquiry into the controversy surrounding the lab last
fall. During an evening hearing, presentations by both lab proponent
Boston University and members of the academic health and research
communities opposed to the lab’s location had opportunities
to present their data. Subsequently, the MNA Board of Directors
adopted a formal statement of opposition to the placement of the
laboratory in downtown Boston.
The MNA has subsequently endorsed legislation that will require
regulation of any BSL-4 lab that might end up being located in Massachusetts:
H.4249, An Act to Protect the Public Health and Environment from
Toxic Biological Agents, is sponsored by state Rep. Gloria Fox (D-Roxbury).
MNA staff and board members have attended and provided testimony
in support of Fox’s legislation at the following venues:
- The Boston City Council meeting on March 28
- The Supplemental NIH Review at Faneuil Hall
on April 25
- The Division of Environmental Health, National
Institutes on May 18
- The Joint Committee on Environment, Natural
Resources and Agriculture at the State House on June 9
- MNA also recently met with Rep. Fox, Sen. Pam
Resor (D-Acton) and Rep. Frank Smizek (D-Brookline) to discuss
strategies to secure passage of the bill and amendments to the
bill which have led to recent support for the legislation by the
Massachusetts Public Health Association
- Actively supported a press conference organized
by SafetyNet at Boston City Hall on Sept. 16, followed by a request
for a town meeting with Mayor Menino, who has been working with
Boston University to get this dangerous lab built. Several members
of the City Council joined MNA in voicing their opposition to
the BSL-4 lab.
Flaherty’s reversal in favor of the MNA’s
position on the lab came on the heels of another such move by the
Massachusetts Public Health Association to oppose the unregulated
placement of the lab in Boston.
The Boston mayoral and city council election is set for Nov. 8.
Check the Alternatives for the Community and Environment Web site
at www.ace-ej.org to verify
where Boston politicians stand on this issue and vote accordingly.
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