The Red and Black

Issue date: 8/26/08 Section: News

Media Credit: FRANNIE FABIAN Daniel Mead, an associate research scientist in the College of Veterinary Medicine, has worked in an environment called Plum Island that is similar to NBAF. [Click to enlarge]

Security controls

Inside the Lab

Though many members of the University and Athens community have spoken out in support or opposition of the National Bio and Agro-Defense facility, few know what it's like to work in such a facility.

Daniel Mead, an associate research scientist in the College of Veterinary Medicine, does.

Mead has visited Plum Island three to four times each year since 2000 to perform research as part of an agreement with the Department of Agriculture. If constructed, NBAF will replace the Plum Island facility.

"A facility such as NBAF is needed," Mead said. "We go to the grocery store every day and buy our milk, eggs and meat and probably don't pay much attention to anything other than the price."

"If some of these diseases were introduced in the United States - and most experts agree it's a question of when, not if - we are taking a lot of things for granted that the food supply will be available at a reasonable price," Mead said.

Mead said renovating Plum Island would be "cost ineffective," making NBAF a reasonable solution. The facility is located off the coast of New York, to which researchers are ferried via boat.

"Going to work and coming home on a boat sounds like fun, but in reality it puts a damper on the research," he said.

Inclement weather can interrupt experiments, eliciting evacuations from the island.

Once inside the laboratory, further steps are taken

to prevent accidents and contamination. Researchers entering the facility enter nude and put on work clothes that stay in the facility.

"One of the rules with these types of facilities is, what goes in doesn't come out," Mead said

Mead said Athens is a "great place" for NBAF, which is slated to open in 2013 or 2014. The University is one of six potential sites in the running to host the proposed facility.

"I think the research environment would complement what they want to do."

NBAF also will have numerous benefits to the University community, he said.

"Part of the USDA and the Armed Forces' mission is to train not only veterinarians but the next generations of scientists."

"The collaboration between NBAF and UGA is not a given," he said. "There has got to be a common interest between the parties and a mutual benefit."

Though Mead would not speak for the Department of Homeland Security, he did say that students are allowed to work with researchers on Plum Island.

Numerous Bio-Safety Level-3 laboratories are located in Athens at University and Department of Agriculture facilities. NBAF would also include BSL-4 laboratories, which Mead said are typially reserved for human pathogens without available vaccines.

Laboratories that contain these pathogens have both strong engineering and strong administrative controls. For example, the laboratories have a filtered exhaust system, directional air-flow and access limited to authorized personnel.

Mead said the track record of the Centers for Disease Control and the facility in Canada show that these types of labs are safe.

"For the people who have that fear, I don't blame them," he said.

"I would probably be with them if I hadn't had the experiences that I have now. I have worked in the facilities and continue to work in the facilities. I feel safer in the facility on Plum island than driving home at 5 p.m. traffic the first two weeks of school."

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