We reported last week that the mayor’s office announced they were planning to build a “bioterrorism and forensics lab” at the site of the former D.C. General Hospital in southeast. We also summarized a Feb. 10 Examiner story where the mayor talked down the proposed lab, but identifying it as a biosafety level 3 lab. (The story is no longer available on the web) Proposals to construct labs with a biosafety level 4 rating — the most secure level, used for anthrax and other diseases — have been met with resistance in Seattle and Boston. It appears as if a similar battle could play out here as citizens learn about the proposed facility. The photo from the CDC shows the suits worn in the most secure labs, as seen in the medical thriller movies you’ve seen.

The mayor’s comments have already piqued the interest of one D.C. councilmember, David Catania, Chairman of the D.C. Council Health Committee, who has announced a public roundtable tomorrow at 2:30 p.m. in the Wilson Building’s 5th Floor Council Chamber to discuss development on the old D.C. General Hospital site.

The labs in Seattle, Boston, and now perhaps D.C. are part of a larger building spree of these expensive, high-tech facilities as public heath dollars are increasingly steered away from other research and towards research related to the threat of terrorism.