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U.S. Response: Area Residents Oppose New Biosafety Level 4 Laboratories U.S. plans to build at least six new Biosafety Level 4 research facilities, able to work with the most dangerous pathogens to help prevent against biological terrorism, are facing opposition from residents near the proposed laboratory sites, the Los Angeles Times reported today (see GSN, Feb. 24). The United States has four Biosafety Level 4 facilities, located at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Md., the Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research in San Antonio, Texas, and the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md. The NIH facility, however, currently only works with Biosafety Level 3 organisms, according to the Times. Several new Biosafety Level 4 laboratories are set to be open, with one to be installed at the CDC and another at the University of Texas in Galveston. In addition, the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases plans to open large-scale facilities at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories near Hamilton, Mont., and at Fort Detrick. Several other academic institutions and the New York state Health Department are competing to construct two additional facilities. The plans to construct the new laboratories, however, have raised concerns and opposition among area residents worried about possible consequences of an accident. Area residents have been able to block a Homeland Security Department plan to upgrade the Plum Island Animal Disease Center off the coast of Long Island, N.Y., and have also sued to block a laboratory proposed by the University of California at Davis, the Times reported. “The risk is low, but the outcome is total devastation,” said Linda Perry, a Hamilton veterinarian. “If there is an accident, people here are going to lose everything,” she said. NIAID Deputy Director John La Montagne denied that the new laboratories pose increased risks to the public. “Safety is a nonissue,” La Montagne said. “These are highly safe facilities,” he added (Charles Piller, Los Angeles Times, June 25).
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