WASHINGTON, DC – As Colorado State University (CSU) announced the opening of an additional BSL-III lab and given our nation’s high security climate, Energy and Commerce Committee Diana DeGette (D-CO) today pressed federal officials about the risks involved in expanding these labs before the Energy and Commerce Oversight and Investigations subcommittee hearing, Germs, Viruses and Secrets:  The Silent Proliferation of Bio-Laboratories in the United States. The purpose of the hearing is to examine the risks associated with the recent rapid proliferation of high-containment biological research labs, known as BSL-III and IV, in the United States.

“While there is some oversight of Federal labs, there is virtually none for non-Federally supported labs conducting this hazardous research,” said DeGette. “It is scary that labs can pop-up overnight without any approval or oversight by any government entity.  Even for Federal labs, there are multiple agencies regulating these activities. We need to consider having one federal agency regulating this dangerous research under one umbrella regardless of how it is funded or who’s conducting it. The advantage of a single Federal agency for oversight of these labs is a uniform system of regulations and guidelines to safeguard the public from any harm.”

No single Federal agency has overall responsibility for the regulation of lab biological research, including assessing the risks of expanding these labs. While BSL-IV labs study lethal agents that have no treatments or vaccines available, BSL-III labs are used to study and handle dangerous biological agents and toxins for which there is a treatment and vaccine. The number of BSL-III labs is unknown.

The recent rapid growth in the number of high-containment labs is directly attributable to a surge in Federal funding for new construction and massive increases in bio-defense research, principally funded by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), an institute within NIH. The accidental or deliberate release of biological pathogens from a high-containment lab can have disastrous consequences, making safety and security at these facilities particularly important. The pathogens, such as anthrax, plague, and smallpox, handled in BSL-III and IV labs present unique difficulties compared to other hazardous substances in that they are often highly contagious, can be transmitted through aerosolization, and can result in serious adverse consequences if released.

Colorado State University recently unveiled a new high-tech BSL-III lab. CSU currently hosts a number of labs on its campus, with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) and the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) each operating a lab. Performing research on some of the world’s deadliest diseases, all of the CSU labs are funded mainly by the National Institutes of Health (NIH). The new facility at CSU is one of 13 new bio labs being built across the country.

Click here complete list of those testifying at this hearing.