EBOLA IN THE BACKYARD
It seems that the folks in Davis, California are not all that excited
about having a new Levil 4 high security infectious diseases laboratory
placed on the campus of the University of California-Davis (UCD). Last
night the city council approved a statement saying the lab is unwelcome.
Davis council members unanimously approved a letter stating that the lab
proposal has caused "divisions within our city" that likely
will not be lessened by more information on the proposal. The letter,
which will be sent to UCD Provost Virginia Hinshaw, the National
Institutes of Health and area elected officials who have publicly
supported the project, asks University of California and federal
officials to find another location for the facility. Davis Mayor Susie
Boyd announced last Friday that she had reversed her position and now
opposes the project because of the divisiveness it has stirred.
UCD and several other institutions in the nation are competing for
federal funds to build a $200 million biocontainment laboratory to study
infectious diseases such as anthrax, plague, hantavirus and Ebola.
One concern of Davis residents is the potential for terrorism. Samantha
McCarthy, a member of a Davis community group called Stop the UCD Biolab
Now (SBN), says, "Post-9-11 terrorism makes not only the lab a
target, but our population a target," she said. "This makes it
inappropriate, even for those who believe it is an important
undertaking."
There are also questions about the management expertise of the UC
Regents. Those concerns are not without merit. UCD has a record of
disregarding environmental laws. A few years ago UCD was cited for
illegally burying radioactive Beagles and other radiological materials
into a pit adjacent to Putah Creek, resulting in the designation of the
site as a Superfund Site (LEHR site). Local environmental activists had
to sue UCD to compel clean up of its landfill that polluted Putah Creek.
In both these cases, UCD officials resisted complying with environmental
laws and citizen suits were necessary to enforce the laws. Although
environmental reviews are typically done before projects are funded the
university doesn't plan to conduct an environmental review until it gets
initial approval for the project.
A petition circulated by SBN states, "A disaster at this lab could
devastate our town, our capital region, and our livestock and crops.
History reveals that toxic containment facilities are inherently
dangerous, and most increase the likelihood of injury and early death to
nearby residents."
Graduate Students Against the War, a UCD group, is concerned that the lab
will be used for the production of biological weapons despite the
University’s assurance that it will not. The group cites the refusal of
the Bush Administration to sign the recent protocols for the 1972
Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) as an alarm bell. The
group writes, "Indeed, as the Bush administration marches off to
war; as it openly discusses developing and using new types of nuclear
weapons; as it abrogates, disparages or refuses to sign international
treaties or protocols — the BTWC protocol, the nuclear non-proliferation
treaty, the anti-ballistic missile treaty, the international court of
criminal justice treaty, the Kyoto accords on global warming; in short,
as it openly proclaims its contempt for international law, we can simply
assume that Davis’ biodefense center will be used for bioweapons research
and development."
The debate ratcheted up earlier this month when a monkey escaped a
University of California medical research lab and was never found. The
monkey, a rhesus macaque, disappeared from the California National
Primate Research Center, which would supply animals to the proposed U.S.
Biosafety Level 4 lab to study diseases with no known cure, such as the
Ebola and West Nile viruses. "If they can't manage these monkeys
when they've got level two and three diseases, how will they manage
monkeys with level four diseases?" asked Joshua English. Dr. Dallas
Hyde, director of the primate center, said he could understand why the
incident has fed fears, but he said the security level of the primate
center and the lab would be quite different. "Animals that go in
there don't come out alive," he said.
Despite all the opposition UCD will submit today an application to the
National Institutes of Health to become one of two sites designated as
new regional biosafety laboratories. UCD is one of a handful of
institutions vying for the $200 million facility.
"If (the university goes) forward, we'll be in front of the
bulldozers. We'll be marching," said former Davis Mayor Julie
Partansky, an opponent of the lab. Sources: Davis Enterprise, BioMedNet,
The California Aggie (UC Davis), Stop The UCD BioLab NOW!!!, Sacramento
Business Journal, Sacramento Bee, Globe News, SF Chronicle
The Oread Daily provides daily (Monday-Friday) progressive, left,
anti-racist, anarchist, commie, activist, environmental, Marxist,
revolutionary, etc. news and information from around the US and around
the world. Web Site Address/URL:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/OreadDaily/
Subscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Unsubscribe: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
