Tell National Research Council that Biocontainment Labs Are Cruel and Unnecessary

FROM  New England Anti-Vivisection Society (NEAVS)

ACTION

Contact National Research Council (NRC) and tell them a "high-security disease research laboratory" is cruel, unnecessary, and unproductive.

Frances Sharples
Director of the Life Sciences Board
National Research Council
Division on Earth and Life Studies
Board on Life Sciences
500 Fifth Street NW
Washington, DC 20001
phone (202) 334-2187

INFORMATION / TALKING POINTS

In 2003, Massachusetts citizens were outraged when the National Institutes of Health (NIH) awarded $128 million of taxpayer money to the Boston University (BU) Medical Center for the construction of a high-security disease research laboratory. This BU facility, which is completed but not yet operational, includes a biosafety level 4 lab reserved for the study of the world’s deadliest pathogens, such as the bubonic plague and Ebola virus. Boston University was in the news earlier this year regarding Ebola research they had conducted on monkeys.

On November 5, 2010, after reviewing NIH’s latest risk assessment for operating this biocontainment facility, the National Research Council (NRC) announced that “it cannot endorse [the assessment] as scientifically and technically sound”—especially since it does not adequately address the public health concerns previously raised by NRC. This is the second time NRC has rejected a risk assessment by NIH. They rejected their initial assessment in 2007.

Thank you for everything you do for animals!