Boston Residents File Claim Against Planned Lab

Minority residents the area Boston University has chosen as the site for a biological research laboratory have filed a discrimination complaint with the U.S. Health and Human Services Department, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 25).

Residents of the city’s Roxbury and South End neighborhoods claim the proposed laboratory poses an unacceptable risk to the community, AP reported.

Laura Maslow-Armand of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, the organization representing the residents, called for the withdrawal of federal funds for the laboratory or for the facility to be built at another location.

Residents claim in the complaint that the neighborhood, with a 70-percent minority population, is already home to a disproportionate number of potentially hazardous facilities and has the highest hospitalization rate in Boston.

Supporters of the laboratory argue that it poses no public health risk, according to AP (Associated Press/TheBostonChannel.com, July 11).

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