Lawrenceville Bio-terror Laboratory Fails Inspection

Allegheny County’s $5.6 million bio-terror laboratory in Lawrenceville has failed an inspection, delaying once again the opening of the facility that was finished in 2007 but has been beset by an assortment of delays, poor construction and breakdowns.

An independent inspector, Larry Milchak, cited the lab for faulty alarms signaling a power failure and poor seals around doors and other areas of the biosafety level-3 lab that could allow contaminated, potentially deadly air to leak out.

The Allegheny County Health Department has moved workers into other parts of the 10,000-square-foot facility and hopes to have the 500-square-foot “Lawrenceville” lab fixed, reinspected and operational in time for the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh Sept. 24-25.

The BSL-3 laboratory is outfitted with special ventilation systems, equipment and safety features that allow it to test for bioterror agents like anthrax, plague and botulism. Passing the inspection allows it to become part of the federal Laboratory Response Network.

Although the lab will have the capacity to handle the worst of pathogens, the bulk of its work will involve regular county testing for infectious disease.

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Should A New Pathogen Lab Be Built In Tornado Alley

Is it a good idea to build an infectious animal disease lab in an agricultural area in Kansas that is within the nation’s Tornado Alley?

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has plans to do just that, but a report draft from the Government Accountability Office (GAO)—obtained by The Washington Post—calls the reasoning for the move not “scientifically defensible,” according to the paper.

The lab in question is the National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility, which studies biological threats that could sicken U.S. livestock. The current facilities—formerly run by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and now also managed by the DHS—are on Plum Island (off the coast of Long Island, N.Y.) and have been in operation for more than 50 years. But, according to the DHS’s Web site, “there is physically not enough room at the Plum Island Facility” to expand research to new diseases.

That’s why the DHS has plans to build a multi-million-dollar new lab in Manhattan, Kan. There, researchers could study novel diseases “that have not been thoroughly characterized before,” the department’s Web site explains—an undertaking tagged as “Biosafety Level 4”—not allowed at level 3-rated Plum Island.

But starting such a sensitive laboratory on the U.S. mainland in a highly agricultural area—and one that is frequently struck by damaging storms—has raised eyebrows at the GAO. After looking into the methods that went into selecting the site, investigators found them lacking.

“Drawing conclusions about relocating research with highly infectious exotic animal pathogens from questionable methodology could result in regrettable consequences,” the GAO report draft noted. Those “regrettable consequences” could include the spread of an infectious disease to U.S. animals—and even humans. The costly 2001 foot-and-mouth disease outbreak in the U.K. was a result of an accident at a similar research facility, the Post reported.

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UK – Terrorists Attempting To Infiltrate Top Bio Laboratories

The security services have intercepted up to 100 suspects posing as postgraduate students who aim to acquire weapons material and expertise.

Dozens of suspected terrorists have attempted to infiltrate Britain’s top laboratories in order to develop weapons of mass destruction, such as biological and nuclear devices, during the past year. Read more