Secretary of Health and Human Services
Marylou Sudders
One Ashburton Place
11th Floor
Boston, MA 02108
 
5/19/2015

Dear Secretary Sudders,  

We are writing to request a meeting with you to discuss our concerns about recent accidents in high containment BSL laboratories and to present some proposals that we believe will minimize risks to the citizens of Boston.

LULAC Council #12113
PO Box 300146
Jamaica Plain MA 02130

May 19, 2015

Chief of Health and Human Services
Chief Felix Arroyo
Boston City Hall
One City Hall Square
Boston, MA  02201

Dear Chief Arroyo,

We are writing to request a meeting with you to discuss our concerns about recent accidents in high containment BSL laboratories and to present some proposals that we believe will minimize risks to the citizens of Boston.

RoxComp Questions Persist - Demand Justice

The last public meeting on the fate of the Roxbury Comprehensive Community Health Center took place on-site there on October 29th. Besides a presentation by the leading contender for the property, Bridge Boston Charter School, many former workers came to bring forward their just demands for back pay. Nothing could or would be done about that until the sale went through, and then they were in line with other creditors.

August 21, 2014

Mayor Martin J. Walsh
One City Hall Square
Suite 500
Boston MA 02201-2013

Dear Mayor Walsh:

We, the undersigned advocates, scientists, environmental justice organizations, civil rights lawyers, religious associations, community activists, union members, organized nurses and city residents, are firmly opposed to the operation of a BSL 4 laboratory in the City of Boston. The risks involved in the manipulation of highly deadly pathogens are unacceptable. The risks far outweigh any possible benefits.

Time to Stop the BU Biolab!

On Wednesday, April 16, 2014 at 4PM the Boston City Council Committee on Government Operations, chaired by Councilors Michael Flaherty and Tito Jackson, will  hold a public hearing in the Council Chambers, which is located on the 5th floor in Boston City Hall on:

AN ORDINANCE REGARDING THE PROHIBITION OF RESEARCH DESIGNATED AS BIOSAFETY LEVEL 4 (BSL4)

Sponsors: Councilors Charles Yancey, Tito Jackson & Ayanna Pressley

David R. Franz, Cheryl D. Parrott & Ernest T. Takafuji, MD, Medical Aspects of Chemical and Biological Warfare, Chapter 19 (undated). Biological agents have been used in war for centuries. After World War I, Major Leon Fox, Medical Corps, US Army, prepared a lengthy report that concluded that biological warfare was no longer a concern because of the development of modern sanitary procedures. However, as he wrote, the Japanese were already developing an offensive biological warfare program involving an extensive list of biological agents, capable of causing diseases such as anthrax, tularemia, plague, botulinum, smallpox, glanders and typhoid. ... The

Mike McGraw, Kansas City Star, July 13, 2012 Downsizing the $1.14 billion federal animal disease lab under way in Manhattan, Kansas, could save money and still protect the United States from foreign animal diseases and terrorist attacks on the food supply, according to a National Research Council study released today. The National Bio and Agro Defense Facility (NBAF) is planned to be built on the Kansas State University campus. The new study, done at the request of the US Department of Homeland Security, found that a downsized biolab - dubbed “NBAF lite” by study group members - could provide adequate protection if some research was farmed out ... New

Jeffrey Bigongiari, Bioprepwatch, July 12, 2012 The US National Institutes of Health recently issued a report concluding that research involving dangerous pathogens at a Boston University laboratory poses negligible risks to the surrounding community. The 1,700 page (sic) NIH final report concerning the National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories on the BU Medical campus comes after eight years of debate, legal challenges and repeated scientific analyses. The NIH commissioned the report under an advisement panel of 16 experts who looked at the risk posed by both lab accidents and malevolent acts. ... NIH