bu’s biotech lab
Perhaps some of you have heard about BU’s plan to open up a new lab in the South End. I’ve skimmed the article, and I think it’s a good idea to have a place to study infectious diseases and means of bioterrorism, like anthrax.
But why in the South End? There are so many people who live and work there, and could be affected if something went wrong. Why not go into the western part of the state and build where there’s not a huge concentration of people around? Maybe it’s a convenience factor for BU scientists and students, but you could probably build something that isn’t that far away by car. It just doesn’t appear to me to be a good idea, to build something like that in a densely populated area.
I agree — this thing doesn’t belong in a major city. It reminds me of the monkeys. Harvard moved all of the research on monkeys and apes to a secure location at the New England Primate Research Center in Southborough. This was at least partly in order to make the facility less vulnerable to sabot ague by animal rights activists.
Even if you set aside the desire to protect residents of a densely-populated city from accidental exposure, protecting a facility in a city with a lot of car and foot traffic is a lot harder than protecting an isolated facility in the hills.