INC NEWS - STOP NBAF, background info & more action desired

[Laura Drey]

Stop the the National Bio- and Agro Research Facility (NBAF)

Phone calls and emails are needed immediately to North Carolina State
Representative W.A. ³Winkie² Wilkins, who represents northern Durham County
and all Person County, because he is sponsoring a bill to appropriate $25
million for National Bio- and Agro Research Facility.

The link to the bill is
http://www.ncga.state.nc.us/Sessions/2007/Bills/House/HTML/H2635v0.html

Urge North Carolina State Representative W.A. ³Winkie² Wilkins to withdraw
his bill. Representative Wilkins¹ phone number is 715-0850. His email is
Winkiew at ncleg.net  Contacting Representative Wilkins is the first step. If
you have more time it would be good to begin to lobbying our other House of
Representative members.

Durham¹s North Carolina State Representatives
North Carolina State Representative Larry Hall 733-5872 Larryh at ncleg.net
North Carolina State Representative Paul Luebke 733-7663 Paull at ncleg.net
286-0269 (work) <mailto:paull at ncleg.net>
North Carolina State Representative Mickey Michaux 715-2528  596-8181
Mickeym at ncleg.net  <mailto:paull at ncleg.net>
 
What is the Proposed ³NBAF?²

Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League¹s (BREDL) web page states that the
organization is ³convinced that the purpose of the proposed National Bio and
Agro-defense Facility would be to create and test biological weapons
(emphasis added)....

The US Department of Homeland Security¹s threat assessment targets Smallpox,
Bubonic Plague, Botulism and Ebola. These are pathogens which may be
³weaponized.²  They are not agricultural diseases. They are microbes and
toxins which cause human illness and death.

Department of Homeland Security labs will engage in acquiring, growing,
modifying, storing, stabilizing, packaging and dispersing biological agents..
These activities are by nature dual use‹both defensive and offensive.²

For more information about the NBAF go to Blue Ridge Environmental Defense
League (BREDL) fact sheets about the
biological-weapons lab <http://www.bredl.org/pdf2/WhyNBAFisaweaponslab.pdf>

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.

Also see GNAT¹s web site www.nobio.org

Spread the word.

Thanks,

Laura Drey 

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