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Boston University maintains a web site that puts the proposed BSL4 (Biosafety Level 4) laboratory in its most positive light (http://www.bumc.bu.edu/). It includes the federal NIAID Strategic Plan for Defensive Research, a brief description of a Level 4 lab, and the projected numbers of jobs that the project will create. For example, it estimates 1300 construction jobs and 660 jobs created to operate the facility, ranging from administrators and research scientists to lab animal caretakers. It also points out that Boston University makes payments of over $3 million per year in lieu of taxes to the city of Boston. The introduction to the web site begins:

“In 2003 Boston University Medical Center (BUMC) was awarded a grant from the National Institutes of Health to build one of two National Biocontainment Laboratories (NBLs). The second grant was awarded to the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston. Supporting the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases’ Biodefense Research Agenda, the NBL will be dedicated to study of emerging and reemerging infectious diseases whether they occur naturally or are introduced deliberately through acts of bioterrorism. Receipt of the grant award by BUMC, a consortium of Boston Medical Center and Boston University, represents a major step forward in solidifying the New England area’s reputation as the biomedical research hub of the nation.”

The Sunshine Project with offices in Europe and in Austin, Texas, is a lead activist group advocating openness in biodefense research (http://www.sunshine-project.org/biodefense/). On May 3, 2004, for example, the group filed a federal complaint against nine research centers for failing to comply with federal rules concerning public access to information and, with this complaint, called for a halt to federal funding. The Sunshine Project maintains that, "The huge upswing in research on biological weapons agents has triggered a deterioration in public disclosure."

The Council for Responsible Genetics has organized a project "Boston University Biodefense," to inform and to mobilize resistance to the proposed laboratory (http://www.gene-watch.org/bubiodefense/). The Council web site includes a policy statement and updates on news and activity.

Alternatives for Community and Environment (ACE) has taken up the cause of protesting the planned Boston University biosafety laboratory (http://www.ace-ej.org/). ACE took the initiative to petition Boston University for documents pertaining to the BSL4 lab and called for BU to engage in public debate. In April it offered a point-by-point critique of BU's assertions about the safety and value of the laboratory. The ACE web site also offers the 2003 ordinance proposed by Boston City councilors Chuck Turner, Felix D. Arroyo, and Maura Hennigan to prohibit the BU BSL4 lab.

In January 2002 the National Institutes of Health announced their proposal to build a BSL4 lab at the government's Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML) campus in Hamilton, Montana, a site developed during World War II. This provoked a response from Women's Voices for the Earth (http://www.womenandenvironment.org/rockymtnlabs.htm), Friends of the Bitterroot (http://www.friendsofthebitterroot.org/) and the local Coalition for a Safe Lab in protest of the project. The justifications for the RML facility included its remoteness from any heavily congested area and the need for the West Coast to have a laboratory analysis capability closer than those in Maryland or Atlanta in case of an outbreak of emerging infectious disease or a bioterrorist attack.

In October 2002 seven advocacy groups led by the Sunshine Project issued a joint press release protesting the plans for new Level 3 and Level 4 biodefense laboratories, with special reference to those envisioned at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Davis, California, and Galveston, Texas (http://www.trivalleycares.org/labprfin.pdf).