A new rule from Boston’s city council calls for reports, inspections, and possible fines.
Adrianne Appel
A new regulation in Boston will require that all Boston laboratories report their use of chemicals and infectious agents to the fire department.
At-large city councilor Stephen Murphy, who drafted the legislation, said the new rule, in the works for 15 months, is meant to protect first responders in case of an emergency at any of the laboratories. Boston’s city council voted unanimously for it Thursday.
Under the new regulation, more than 5,000 labs in the city—university and commercial—must register with the Boston fire department between January 1, 2007 and April 1, 2007, by informing it in writing of all chemical, infective, radioactive or other hazardous materials on site. The data will be accessible from computers on fire trucks so that firefighters will be able to call it up on their way to an emergency.
Labs must update this information every year and pay an annual registration fee of $500 to $5,000, depending on the size of the lab.
“These are essential elements to making the city safer and the research community safer,’’ Murphy says.
Labs will be subject to random inspections by the fire department. Those that don’t comply with the regulation can be fined $50 to $500 per day.
The Massachusetts Biotechnology Council and representatives of laboratories in Boston were involved in shaping the regulation.
“We didn’t want the ordinance to be overly complex and ultimately burdensome to the labs. We achieved that goal,’’ says Stephen Mulloney, director of policy and public affairs at the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council.
Jack Price, director of environmental health and safety at Northeastern University, says labs are already subjected to many internal audits, as well as federal, state and some city audits. This new rule overlaps with some existing ones, so larger labs and universities are probably already in compliance, he adds.
“We’re concerned about inspections,’’ says Price. “We’re very, very concerned that this ordinance will turn into a punitive situation rather than what it should be: information sharing.’’
“We’re not opposed but we want to be careful that we’re not paying thousands and thousands of dollars [in fees],’’ he says.
A 2005 fire at a PerkinElmer facility in Boston brought home the need for laboratory regulations, Murphy said. The fire occurred on a weekend.
Labs must designate an emergency contact person who knows the layout of the facility and where hazardous materials are stored. Each lab must also make available in an emergency the floor plans of the lab and copies of keys to all labs.
This rule is similar to one that applies to local manufacturers.
Adrianne Appel is a freelance writer in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
(Editor’s note: The city of Boston doesn’t have this ordinance online yet. If you’d like to see it, please email nnbfeedback at boston.nature.com and we can forward you the PDF.)