High Security Lab Plans Draw Community Protests in Boston

Part 1: Anthrax, Ebola and other pathogens could be steps away from residents in the environmental justice community of Roxbury, Massachusetts; that’s if the plan for a new, high-security biolab is approved for Boston University’s Medical Center. Officials there say the lab would be airtight, and that researchers wearing moon suits would essentially be working in a bunker within a bunker. But these assurances have done little to lessen community fears of a possible biological escape. Host Bruce Gellerman visits the proposed site and meets with the people on either side of the biolab fence.
Part 2: Living on Earth’s Jeff Young takes us on a tour of the country’s oldest high level biolab at Fort Detrick, Maryland. The scientists there say they’ve worked with scary germs like Ebola and anthrax for 35 years with no real problems.