As legislators consider tighter restrictions for university laboratories across the nation, Duke researchers say they remain largely unworried about the potential for misuse of their most dangerous chemicals and biological agents.
Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.), other lawmakers and the Bush administration are championing a full inventory of each university laboratory conducting research on over 30 select agents. Those agents include anthrax bacteria, the smallpox virus and a wide range of hemorrhagic viruses, as well as several toxins.
Furthermore, Feinstein would require scientists working with select agents to be registered with the federal government and to undergo criminal background checks.
Lawmakers returning to Congress have not yet passed any federal legislation, but last November the North Carolina General Assembly passed a law creating a biological agents registry. Starting this month, each Duke lab must fill out an inventory with the Univeristy's Occupational and Environmental Safety Office, listing whether they have such agents.
"Most pathogen studies here at Duke are mild," said Dr. Thomas Tedder, chair of the immunology department. Tedder said his department's labs do not use any of the select agents listed by the Centers for Disease Control.
In fact, OESO director Wayne Thomann said currently only one Duke lab works with a small concentration of one of the select agents.
"We don't think we're going to find [any additional select agents], but we feel it's part of the process of validation," Thomann said.
He added that there are already strict procedures in place for labs at Duke--researchers must list with OESO what agents they will be working with, even those that the state and possibly federal government may not register.
For example, Dr. David Pickup, professor of microbiology, is one of the world's leading experts on pox viruses and mapped the cow pox genome last year. In addition, a number of labs work with HIV.
Such agents are not considered nearly as hazardous, but special precautions must still be taken, Thomann said.
He noted that in the past, researchers have worked with more toxic agents.
Philip Hanna, former professor of microbiology at Duke, worked with anthrax. He has since left for the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor, but Thomann said OESO were very careful during that transfer.
"We went through a process of notifying CDC and coordinating with the University of Michigan and all of these things were put into place before [Hanna] left," Thomann said. "It was a very structured process."
Dr. Sandy Williams, dean of the School of Medicine, said if federal laws are passed requiring background checks, researchers would most likely have to simply deal with them.
"I think it's expected if you work with agents of potential terrorism," Williams said. "It's something you might have to submit to. I would not consider it a breach of academic freedom."
Dr. Joseph Heitman, associate professor of molecular genetics, said universities must be careful not to go overboard.
"My point of view is that we're in an educational enterprise. We must absolutely have an open door policy," he said, adding that he did not know what to expect from federal lawmakers.
"I try never to anticipate what the federal government may do," he said. "I think what's happened, of course, is that we've had an incident associated with a biological agent. If we had an incident concerning a chemical or radiological material... there would be [even] more federal regulation."
Get The Chronicle straight to your inbox
Signup for our weekly newsletter. Cancel at any time.