Posted on: Monday, June 20, 2005
Residents' mistrust of health lab grows
By Rod Ohira
Advertiser Central O'ahu Writer
Six rooftop exhaust stacks at the state Department of Health Laboratory on Waimano Ridge appear even more ominous as word spreads through the Pearl City community about plans to upgrade the facility's biohazard-safety handling capabilities.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser The feeling of mistrust in the community surrounding Health Department activities on the ridge was heightened with news reports late last year that the University of Hawai'i was planning to build a $25 million Level-3 biocontainment lab on the ridge and that the Health Department was looking to do a $1.5 million expansion of its lab to enhance its "biosafety Level-3" capabilities.
A Level-3 bio-containment lab employs the most rigorous safety measures because it handles the most dangerous substances.
Democratic State Sen. David Ige (Pearl City-Pacific Palisades-Waimalu-'Aiea-Halawa Heights) and Democratic Rep. Mark Takai (Newtown-Waiau-Pearl City-Waimalu) were among those surprised by the news.
It prompted them to take action, resulting in the passage of Senate Bill 1473 this year that requires the Health Department to provide at least 90 days' notice to affected neighborhood boards and legislators for projects at Waimano Ridge, and to obtain approval of the governor for any use of state-owned land under its jurisdiction in the ridge area.
Biosafety Level-1: These are labs such as those found in high schools, where protective precautions amount to hand washing, splatter shields and protection for hands and face.
Biosafety Level-2: These labs are designed to maximize safe working conditions for people working with agents of moderate risk to people and the environment. Biosafety Level-3: These labs are set up for work with infectious agents that may cause serious or potentially lethal diseases when inhaled. Greater attention is given to air movement. Source: State Health Department The project to expand the lab has been put on hold because it will now cost more than $1.5 million to build it, said Roger McKeague, special assistant to the director of health.
"We're looking at making it a Level-3 but we don't currently have a way to do it because various plans have not worked out," McKeague said. "It will make this facility better at what it's currently doing."
The $37 million state laboratory facility, which opened in 1995, is built on 66,000 square feet and houses more than 100 working labs on three floors. Seventy-seven people work at the facility. Water, air, blood, tuberculosis and infectious agent testing, as well as bioterrorism preparedness work, is done at the state lab.
The Waimano state lab was designed for biosafety Level-3 but operates at BSL-2. Its air-filter system is high quality and the facility is secure, officials said.
"The environment of the laboratory is such that the air that comes into the laboratory is filtered before it leaves the laboratory, removing any potentially dangerous agents," said David Horio, state laboratories administrator. "Nothing is 100 percent but I'm 99 percent certain that nothing could escape from here.
"Going to Level-3 makes it better for tests we're already doing and safer for the laboratory personnel who are testing unknown materials every day," Horio added. "It just means additional safety equipment, more filters. We're not knowingly handling Level-3 agents now but we do have unknown agents that could be Level-3."
The key is that from daily lab-test specimens submitted to the Department of Health, personnel could detect West Nile Virus, for example, when checking on a dead bird, or Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) while doing blood tests on a visitor ill with flulike symptoms, or confirming the powder in a bag at a bus stop is anthrax.
Jeff Widener • The Honolulu Advertiser Pearl City resident John Tamashiro, the state Laboratories Division's public health administrative officer, has tried to clear up misconceptions about the lab in the community.
"I was on the Momilani Community Association board and even members on that board thought we were incinerating body parts up here, which was incorrect," Tamashiro said. The lab "has an industrial appearance and it looks kind of sinister even though you don't see any black smoke."
"I think the main reason people have a misconception about us is because we never did showcase the facility, never had a grand opening with the media, politicians and people involved in the project," Tamashiro added.
Davin Takahashi, 42, also a Pearl City resident, decided to take a tour of the facility to see firsthand what was happening on the ridge.
"They seemed to be open," Takahashi said after touring the facility, "but I'm only half-satisfied. I still have a feeling they're hiding something. They said they have filters but I can't see the filters.
"I see the (exhaust) stacks and I don't know how much toxic stuff is coming out. I was talking to a lady there who had to take anthrax vaccine. I asked why and she said in case they find anthrax. So it means that if they have to test anthrax at the lab, it has to pass through Pearl City."
Bruce Anderson, the state health director from late 1999 to 2003, said announcing the siting of the sex-offender facility to the community should have been handled better.
"There was no requirement to notify the community but it would have been a good idea for the department to have engaged the community earlier in the planning process," Anderson said. "The Felix Consent Decree contemplated problems with siting such facilities and, in fact, specifically exempted both the Department of Health and Department of Education from having to go through the normal planning processes, recognizing that would take a long time.
"So part of the situation resulted from not having the normal planning processes in place because of these waivers and special stipulations. The department could have and should have involved the community earlier in the planning process.
"The community never got past the anger of finding out that a sex-offender facility was put in their backyard without consulting them," Anderson added. "A mistake was made in that regard."
Reach Rod Ohira at 535-8181 or rohira@honoluluadvertiser.com.
The frayed relationship between the Health Department and community stems from the siting five years ago of the juvenile sex offender treatment facility on the ridge where the former Waimano Training School and Hospital had been located. The community had no input in the sex-offender treatment facility decision, which ignored a 1993 master plan developed in collaboration with the Health Department to create a "totally integrated community" facility for the developmentally disabled at the site.
The state has stalled plans to expand a Health Department lab to increase its biosafety capabilities, an idea that has upset some residents.
"It's been hard to get information ... we don't want surprises," Ige said. "The community in Pearl City generally works with people, they're not unreasonable. All they've been asking for is to be involved."
Three levels of lab biosafety
"The lab is a benefit because we're able to respond, I think, more quickly than having to send specimens to other laboratories located in other states that may delay treatment and intervention," said Gail Kunimoto, the state lab's chief of microbiology.
Pearl City resident Davin Takahashi examines the food lab during a tour. From left are Wanda Chang, public health chemistry lab manager, and Gail Kunimoto, public health microbiology lab manager.
