City Council Tone Deaf to Constituents: Biolabs Make Unsafe Neighbors!

Press Release

For Immediate Release

Contact Jeremy Gruber: jgruber@humanebiotech.org, (415) 483-9410

Berkeley City Council Tone Deaf to Constituents: Biolabs Make Unsafe Neighbors!

Berkeley’s Mayor, City Council, and biolab developers continue paving the way for increasing the astonishing amount of square footage (over 20 acres and counting) dedicated to biolabs - despite mounting concern about biosafety and environmental justice.

Last week, the City Council bypassed further deliberation on its “action calendar” and sent zoning change recommendations, necessary for biolab development, straight to the “consent calendar.” This indicated that the issue was, in their minds, uncontroversial and further public comment was not necessary. This audacious move occurred in complete disregard of views expressed to the contrary during public comment, as well as to letters sent to the council each year since 2020.

More troubling is the recent discovery that three council members and the mayor authorized the investigation of measures to relax current restrictions. Shockingly, this authorization is dated September 13, 2022 - well after letters warning of the concerns over biohazards and biosafety had been sent to the city council. If approved, the relaxation would permit biolabs that are more dangerous than those currently placed. If allowed, Biosafety Level 3 labs could “study infectious agents or toxins that may be transmitted through the air and cause potentially lethal infections.” Examples of microbes found in BSL-3 labs include yellow fever, West Nile virus, and the bacteria that causes tuberculosis. Laboratory personnel may require immunizations to work with the microbes they study.

“These biolab compounds are going up in some of the least privileged neighborhoods in the city,” said Berkeley resident and Friends of the Earth Senior Program Manager, Dana Perls.“In the northwest neighborhood targeted for the next massive biolab campus, residents are still grappling with toxic contamination from the now-shuttered Pacific Steel Casting foundry. While developers tout community benefits, we must avoid trading a visible threat for invisible ones.”

For Berkeley Neighborhoods Council member Chris Kroll, it comes down to integrity. “The mayor and city council have shrugged off doing their due diligence,” he said. “We need transparency, accountability, community involvement, and a commitment to keep citizens safe – the stuff of any basic civics lesson.”

Molecular biologist Bryce Nickels, Ph.D. is also a co-founder of the NGO, Biosafety Now! a STEM based international movement to prevent lab-generated pandemics. For Nickels, it makes sense to place what’s happening in Berkley in a broader geographic perspective. “Berkeley’s elected officials are swimming against a rising tide of wider circles of concern,” Nickels said. “Berkeley’s Silicon Valley neighbor San Carlos, banned BSL-3 labs after risks were raised by residents earlier this year, and the state of Wisconsin recently introduced a bill to ban research that could result in catastrophic pandemic outcomes,” Nickels said.

Community activists Nina and Steve Goodale live in Redwood Shores in San Mateo County on the SF Bay Area Peninsula - a region confronting its own boom of commercial biolabs and characterized by the same risk factors as Berkeley’s: dense populations in seismically and environmentally vulnerable neighborhoods. Their solution was to form a biosafety working group to educate municipal leaders and community advocates. Steve Goodale hinted at another: “It’s unwise for elected officials to ignore the rising voices of their constituents – especially in a city with an election coming up.”

For more information visit: Biolab Watch

See: What's Happening in Berkeley Biolabs?

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