In a report released today, the NIH said that BU’s South End infectious disease lab (which will have a BSL-4 facility, the highest security level lab for work with pathogens) doesn’t pose a threat of disease transmission to neighborhood residents and would likely be just as safe in the South End as if it were located in a less densely populated area.

The lab, now under construction, has been mired in controversy over the last four years. South End residents have filed lawsuits in federal and state courts to try to stop the construction, saying that it will be a high health and environmental risk to them.

As a result of the federal lawsuit, the NIH undertook an additional environmental review and it released that report today. The NIH asked researchers from SUNY Buffalo to do computer simulations of accidental release of pathogens (Ebola, Sabia virus, monkeypox virus and Rift Valley fever virus) from the lab and to compare disease transmission in 3 locations: Boston, Peterborough, MA or Tyngsborough, MA (where BU owns land).

It even found that having the lab in a more rural setting would elevate the risk of transmission of Rift Valley fever virus; it’s mosquito-borne and livestock help spread it.

Massachusetts’s highest court is scheduled to hear the BU biolab case next month.

Update (Aug 24): The Globe quotes critics saying that the study didn’t include more contagious pathogens and so didn’t fully capture the risk of the lab. The article says that the NIH will hold a public meeting on Sept. 20 about this report.