Infections not listed in BU bid for biolab

If this should be in Environment, please move.

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But BU failed to correct those documents after it determined in November that three lab workers had been infected with the tularemia bacterium, and state and city officials subsequently signed off on the lab based on the outdated reports
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BU also did not inform the public until reporters asked about the illnesses this week, and they asserted that there was no public health threat because tularemia is not spread from person to person. BU officials also said the infection of workers in a lower-security lab was not relevant to the public debate over the high-security facility, which will work with the world's most dangerous pathogens, such as ebola and plague.

But safety concerns are at the heart of opposition to the high-security lab, called a Biosafety Level 4 lab. Critics, including some who live in the South End neighborhood where the lab is planned, say they fear that the potentially lethal toxins that will be studied could endanger residents.

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However, the situation is different at the BRA, according to spokeswoman Susan Elsbree. The BRA considers the environmental report "a snapshot in time" and does not require any updates, even if things have changed, she said. She said the BRA focused on building and zoning issues and left the public health questions to other agencies. However, she said, the BRA believed that "based on our very thorough analysis, the measures in place in a level 4 lab don't allow for this to happen."


..... whistling in the dark while walking past the graveyard.....
I'm afraid to guess what they will be messing with, ramping up and
re-combining and then recombining that result.