Safety

Controversy brews over bioterrorism lab proposal

Emergency Management Alert, January 25, 2005

The University of Washington in Seattle wants to construct a bioterrorism laboratory, but faculty members aren't sold on the proposal.

Last month the university applied to the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for a $25 million federal grant to build a lab that would study bioterrorism agents like anthrax, the Associated Press (AP) reported. In addition to the grant funding, it will cost an additional $22 million to build such a high-security lab for research. NIH is expected to make a decision in September this year.

Some faculty leaders expressed concern over the proposal.

"I don't think anybody objects to the task," G. Ross Heath, an oceanography professor and chairman of the faculty senate, told the AP. "The question is whether it should be sited on a university campus in a large urban environment next to a body of fresh water."

When Heath informed the rest of the faculty group's executive committee, most were "astonished, then outraged that the university could proceed with such a project without discussing it with faculty," he said.

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