- Dear Friends:
-
- Please read the following response from Patricia Doyle
Ph.D. RE: UC Davis Bio-Lab
- and what the proponents behind the scenes aren't telling
you...
-
-
- From: Patricia Doyle, PhD
- Date: Mon, 27 Jan 2003
- To: George Holden
- Subject: No chuckling over biosafety
-
- Hello George - I see some emails from you and will try
to answer each one.
- I did read the one in which you suggest that I might
go to California to
- speak. As you know I have Hepatitis C, end stage and
was subsequently
- infected with Ehrlichiosis (June 2000) and Lyme Disease
(Oct 1999.)
- I will be more then happy to submit a written article
and any information on
- Plum Island that you would like me to provide
-
- I am not sure if I would be able to travel to California.
I had hoped to go last year.
- I have wanted to go to California for some time, but
health problems last year precluded
- me from visiting.I will consider going, if needed.
-
- It is very important for people to get involved in stopping
the upgrade at UCDavis
- as well as the hastily pushed upgrades at other universities
around the Country.
- I use West Nile virus and Lyme Disease as the perfect
example of how far
- viruses and other pathogens can travel. At one time,
my neighbors asked me
- "why I spend so much time and energy fighting the
upgrade at Plum Island,
- since I live in upstate New York relatively far from
the Plum."
-
- Well, Fall 1999, when West Nile Virus was first diagnosed
at horse farms in Suffolk
- Country not far from the Plum, and human infections in
Queens, New York, my
- neighbors felt safe and far removed from West Nile Virus.
It only took a
- couple of weeks and we learned that WNV infected crows
had been found in
- Dutchess County, just under 10 miles from my house.
-
- The same situation occurred with Lyme Disease. Lyme Disease
"emerged" and
- infected a youth who lived not far from the Plum Island
Ferryboat dock. Over the past few years, since 1975, Lyme Disease has been
found in EVERY
- State in the Continental US and in Canada.
-
- We, therefore, must worry about safe operation of labs
wherever they are
- located. Living in close proximity to an unsafely run
lab, or a lab that
- was upgraded with haste or living across the country
from that lab, affords
- the very same risk. There is a "clear and present"
danger from escape of
- pathogens for which there are no known cures, or preventive
vaccines.
-
- It is urgent that people at UC Davis who are trying to
stop the upgrade,
- form a coalition with people from across the US, Canada,
and Mexico. Birds,
- insects and wildlife can vector or act as reservoir for
many diseases.
-
- Remember, whether you live in Canada, Mexico, the Continental
US, Alaska, or
- Central and South America, there is a risk of contagion
should the lab have
- an accident. If a pathogen that escapes the facility
is a vectored disease,
- as was West Nile Virus (spread by mosquito and perhaps,
ticks)
- and Lyme Disease (spread by ticks) it is quite possible
for that disease to
- spread throughout North and South America.
-
- We really need to rethink our position on hastily fabricating
labs. I feel
- that the federal government is using fear of a bioterrorist
attack to push
- through its own agenda. We need to assess the difference
between actual
- risk as opposed to theoretical risk.
-
- I have written about my proposed isocenter health care
centers that would
- diagnose, treat and identify emerging infectious diseases
and victims of
- chemical, nuclear or bioterrorist attack. I believe that
our first line of
- defense is not hastily upgraded labs, a plethora of vaccines,
many of which
- are unsafe and efficacy in doubt, but rather early detection
and treatment of
- victims of terrorist attack. I can send you a copy of
an article that I
- wrote regarding Isocenters.
-
- The question at hand is, "does the US really want
to upgrade labs for the
- purpose of bioterrorist defense" or "does the
US really want to return to
- offensive bioweapons research?"
-
- Thank you,
- Patricia Doyle
-
-
- Background:
-
- Is it safe?
-
- UC Davis officials want to build a Biosafety Level 4
lab, but some scientists and experts aren't so sure it's a great idea...
-
- By Jeff Kearns
-
- Biosafety level 4 (BSL-4) is the classification given
to the handful of laboratories in the world where researchers can safely
handle the planet's deadliest pathogens, things like: Ebola virus, Hantavirus,
Marburgh virus and Smallpox. Biosafety level 4 is the highest classification;
even anthrax spores can be studied in labs that fall into the second-to-highest
classification, biosafety level 3. Level-4 labs, which feature airtight
rooms and ultra-fine air- and water-filtration systems, are designed from
the ground up to contain dangerous microbes.
- more:
-
- http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2003-01-02/news.asp
-
- No Chuckling Over BioSafety
-
- Re "Is It Safe?" by Jeff Kearns ( SN&R
News, January 2 ):
-
- Response By UC Davis Provost Virginia Hinshaw
- http://www.newsreview.com/issues/sacto/2003-01-23/letters.asp
-
- As citizens we owe it to ourselves
-
- Response: Letter to SN&R (not published to date)
"No chuckling over biosafety" & "Is It Safe?" by
Jeff Kearns ,SN&R News,January 2 )
-
- By George Holden
- International Citizens Activist Network (ICAN)
-
- UC Davis Provost Virginia Hinshaw states that she, "looks
forward to a continued dialogue with her fellow Davis residents and with
the broader regional community" - letters 1/16/02. As Samantha McCarthy,
Davis Activist and organizer of "Stop UCD Biolab Now" and former
City of Davis Mayor Julie Partansky point out, nothing could be further
from the truth.
-
- Provost Hinshaw has been working (to promote the upgrade)
"behind the scenes for quite some time without public dialogue or
dissenting voices." In fact, Hinshaw recently led a group of UC Davis,
city of Davis and Yolo County representatives concerning the safety of
a BSL-4 lab to Winnipeg.
-
- Patricia Doyle, PhD has been involved in investigating
Plum Island - also seeking to upgrade to BSL-4 - since Sept. 1999. She
explains: "A BioLevel 4 facility would entail the use of self-contained
respirator suits to work with deadly pathogens for which there are no known
cures or vaccines. This upgrade would also would enable them to work with
zoonotic diseases. A zoonotic disease is a disease that jumps species barrier.
In other words, a disease of animals that would also infect humans such
as Nipah virus, a new paramyoxivirus that killed 100 people in Malaysia
in 1999 and caused the slaughter of thousands of pigs."
-
- There are a growing number of researchers who believe
that Lyme Disease and West Nile Virus emerged, albeit, accidentally, from
Plum Island. Ehrlichiosis, Babesiosis and tick borne encephalitis - diseases
studied at the Plum - have recently emerged in surrounding areas. If labs
are going to operate and request public approval for upgrades, then it
behooves them to operate with utmost caution and employing the most stringent
biosafety measures.
-
- As you may also be aware, there is a court cases in which
Dr. Thomas Butler of Texas Tech University (also a lab seeking upgrade
to level 4) filed a false police report in which he asserted 30 vials of
Plague (samples from 'Tanzania') were missing. He then claims to have 'destroyed'
the vials.
-
- Dr. Patricia Doyle's sources indicate that the vials
might have been found in Dr. David Smiths on campus office/lab. Dr. Doyle
has not been able to verify that but, if true, the implications are extremely
grave. TTU does have NATO, WHO, HHMI, and SUBCOMM military funding for
some projects.
-
- BTW Plum Island still faces the ongoing strike of essential
personnel and had 2 strange 'power failures' in December. The December
15th failure lasted for 3 hours and ALL Plum's back-up generators failed
as well.
-
- UCD wants to receive the money for its upgrade BEFORE
an EIS (environmental impact study) is even completed. Question: Are the
benefits greater than the risk? The entire Sacramento Valley Region is
at risk. As Citizens, we owe it to ourselves to voice our concerns. Follow
the money...
-
- George Holden
- International Citizens Activist Network (ICAN)
- geope@pacbell.net
-
-
-
- Comment
-
- From Mary Wulff
- Coalition for a Safe Lab
- animals@bitterroot.net
- 1-30-3
-
- Please, have them contact us and/or the Sunshine Project....we
HAVE formed a coalition of coalitions to work on stopping the proliferation
of BSLs across the states...the more people we can get on, the better!
-
- Here is a map of all the proposed upgrades of BL's
-
- http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/blsmap.pdf
-
- or a gif is at:
-
- http://www.sunshine-project.org/publications/blsmap.gif
-
- It's a work in progress... keep your eyes out for updates.
-
- Mary Wulff
- Coalition for a Safe Lab
- P.O. Box 1803
- Hamilton MT 59840
- http://www.oiruco.com
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