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U.S. Homeland Security Chief Considers Keeping Plum Island Laboratory at Biosafety Level 3
The Plum Island Animal Disease Center in New York could be upgraded without having its security level increased, the New York Times reported yesterday (see GSN, Aug. 24). Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff originally planned to replace the existing facility with a new $450 million laboratory to study biological terrorism. However, at the request of Senator Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Representative Timothy Bishop (D-N.Y.), Chertoff agreed earlier this month to explore the possibility of maintaining the facility at Biosafety Level 3. Clinton and Bishop are trying to save the laboratory, which employs 200 people and studies foreign animal diseases. The Homeland Security Department in August announced that a laboratory studying biological and agriculture defense could replace Plum Island, but did not specify whether the new facility would be on the same site as the existing laboratory. The facility would be expected to have the top Biosafety Level 4 security status, which allows research on diseases that are fatal to animals and humans and have no known cure, according to the Times. Clinton and Bishop said after meeting with Chertoff that the vast majority of their constituents do not want a Level 4 laboratory on the island. They said that Chertoff did not reaffirm a pledge by former Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge to keep the facility at Biosafety Level 3. They told Chertoff that that work being done at the laboratory was important enough to warrant upgrading the facility and allowing it to continue at its current designation, the Times reported. “The calculus changes dramatically if you get a Biosafety Level 4 that is looking at human diseases and even looking at how animal viruses and pathogens jump from the animal world to the human world, and it just is very hard to justify putting that kind of facility in the midst of one of the most populated areas where workers would be going back and forth all the time,” Clinton said. Clinton said Chertoff “was open” to the idea of improving Plum Island without changing its biosafety level. “He said he was going to be guided by the scientists who he has appointed to look into this,” Clinton said. The Homeland Security Department confirmed that Chertoff is exploring the possibility of keeping the facility at Level 3. “All options are on the table,” said spokeswoman Valerie Smith. “We are open to proposals from officials and groups across the county.” The lawmakers’ effort to keep Plum Island as a Biosafety Level 3 site ensures that it will be replaced, said David Kapell, mayor of nearby Greenport, N.Y. “It is a pipe dream to think that the lab will survive on Plum Island if it is not allowed to expand to Biosafety Level 4,” he said. “Ruling Level 4 out effectively seals its fate and invites any other community out there to steal our lab from us.” Kapell said Greenport’s village board recently passed a resolution in support of turning Plum Island into a Biosafety Level 4 facility (John Rather, New York Times, Oct. 16).
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