Neighbors fear BU’s Infectious Disease Lab is ‘Gambling with our Safety
Original article from Boston Herald by Mary Markos August 3, 2018
Researchers at a controversial Boston University lab are experimenting with Ebola in the heart of the city and neighbors are sounding the alarm about the threat of a potentially life-threatening slip up.
The first project in Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories will examine how the Ebola virus damages cells in the liver and why it triggers such a powerful inflammatory response, according to NEIDL microbiologist Elke Muhlberger.
Researchers are also experimenting with the Marburg virus, which, like Ebola, can cause convulsions and bleeding of mucous membranes, skin and organs, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“These people are gambling with our safety and we don’t have a say,” said James Allen Fox, president of the Union Park neighborhood association and a criminologist at Northeastern University. Fox, 66, lives just a few blocks away from the lab and said he toured the facility on Albany Street in the South End.
“The design is quite elaborate but there’s always individuals who may — whether it’s because of carelessness or various reasons — compromise safety,” Fox said.
Longtime neighborhood activist Mel King said, “We’ve been opposed to the development of that lab from the beginning. Having that hazardous place in the middle of the city is a huge mistake.”
King, 89, lives a short walk away and said his neighbors, many of them elderly, share his concerns and opposition to the lab.