INC NEWS - Tonight National Bio-Agro Defense Lab hearing

[Laura Drey]

Thursday February 21  7 p.m. ­ 10 p.m.

Public Hearing before Department of Homeland Security (DHS)/ National Bio-
and Agro- Defense Research Facility (NBAF)

Department of Defense attending hearing

South Granville High School, Creedmoor. (for map see www.nobio.org)

Locating the lab in Butner will negatively impact Durham.  Having a good
turn out is important.  Stop the NBAF facility, the National Bio- and Agro
Research facility


What is the Proposed ³NBAF?²

The Department of Homeland Security (³DHS²) plans to build a new facility to
research animal and animal-to-human (or ³zoonotic²) diseases, for some of
which there are no treatments or vaccines. The mission of the ³National Bio-
and Agro- Defense Research Facility,² or NBAF, is vague and changing, even
based on DHS¹s own website. The current facility, Plum Island, is on an
island off the coast of mainland New York. Congress enacted a law decades
ago banning study of diseases such as foot and mouth disease on the mainland
U.S. However, some U. S. legislators are now trying to reverse this
long-standing law.

Now the DHS is proposing to build a lab the size of 5 Wal-Marts, just down
the road from significant animal and human populations, including long-term
hospital patients. The Umstead Research Farm, at the border of Granville and
Durham Counties, is one of five locations on the final national list for the
facility. Many of the diseases to be studied can be transmitted by
mosquitoes and ticks, and by lab workers who may not know they have carried
a disease home with them. As the former research director of Plum Island
said, any state with a sizable livestock industry would be the worst place
to site the lab due to the risks to animals there.


For more information go to www.nobio.org



Laura
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