Residents speak at BU lab meeting

BOSTON. Residents will be able to voice their opinions on the proposed BU Bio-Terror Lab in a meeting Friday held by the National Institutes of Health. The Stop the BU Bio-Terror Lab Coalition has voiced concerns that members of the community, mainly those in the surrounding area of the proposed site in the South End and Roxbury, have been ill informed and underrepresented in previous meetings.

The BioSafety Level 4 laboratory, which will research infectious diseases such as anthrax and the Ebola virus, has seen much opposition concerning the danger of having such a lab built in so densely populated an area.

The NIH is funding the project and has already held two Blue Ribbon Panel Hearings for the laboratory, however the surrounding communities have not been represented, according to the coalition.

The meeting will be held at 9 a.m. Friday, with each resident allowed three minutes to speak before the panel. At 8 a.m., before the meeting, Boston residents will assemble outside of the Statehouse to lobby for more representation.