Micro-organism bill raises worries
Advertiser Staff and News Services
Legislators should move more cautiously on a measure that relaxes restrictions on the importation of micro-organisms to the state, a House lawmaker said.
The bill, proposed by the Lingle administration and given preliminary approval by the full House last week, would allow the state Health Department and Tripler Army Medical Center to import restricted micro-organisms for study without review and permit approval by the state Department of Agriculture.
Yesterday was the 23rd day of the 60-day session.
It is intended to allow the agencies to study the micro-organisms and prepare for acts of bioterrorism and other public health emergencies.
"We really went too fast on this," said Rep. Alex Sonson, D-35th (Pearl City-Waipahu) vice chairman of the House Agricultural Committee.
Sonson, who supported the measure with some reservations, said the bill is "so sweeping" that it undermines the purpose of having importation safeguards that already are in place.
"There's a really good reason why we have this safety net," he said. "It's to protect not only humans, but our agriculture — our plants, fauna and all of those things."
Tripler spokeswoman Margaret Tippy said the Army hospital and Health Department lab are the state's two confirmatory labs for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's laboratory response network.
Asked what micro-organisms Tripler would bring in and study, a spokeswoman said, "We can't get into the specifics."
"That was my question, actually," Sonson said. "That was my concern — they are talking about any micro-organism that they would need in the future (for testing). The bill is not specific. It's basically a complete and broad exemption. That's why it does concern me."
Dr. Paul Effler, state epidemiologist for the Health Department, said the bill would remove permitting delays to participating in the CDC program, which sends out unknown samples for labs to identify to improve proficiency.
"It's impossible to say what would be sent in, but usually, they don't send something that is pathogenic," Effler said. "You might use a bacteria similar to one that could be used for bioterrorism, but not likely to cause human illness."
Effler also said the Agriculture Department does not retain physicians and public health specialists to review applications to import micro-organisms, and as a result, the Health Department has been called on to review its own applications.
"Here's a great example. During the dengue outbreak, we had dengue virus isolated from several of the specimens that we sent to the CDC lab," Effler said. "Now, we would like to bring those virus isolates back, to actually study them in more detail. We have to apply for a permit to bring back dengue viruses that were isolated from people in Hawai'i. Yet, there's a permitting process from agriculture that doesn't seem to add any additional security measures."
The Health Department and Tripler still would be subject to Agriculture Department requirements regarding notification, labeling and inspection. But they would be able to transfer micro-organisms between them without Department of Agriculture approval.
Sonson said he will suggest amendments to the bill that would hold the state agencies and Tripler more accountable and remove a provision easing the importation requirements for some private biotechnology firms.
The bill has been referred to the House Finance Committee. If approved there, it would require final approval by the full House before being sent to the Senate, which would then decide whether to take up the measure.
