BIOTECH WORKER AND PUBLIC SAFETY

Former Pfizer scientist, Becky McClain, went public about having been infected by a genetically engineered virus in 2002-2003 at the Pfizer lab where she worked.  In April 2010 a federal jury awarded McClain $1.37 million, ruling that the pharmaceutical giant had violated her free speech and whistle-blower protections.  McClain, an AHB Board member, now works to raise awareness about lab worker rights and public health and safety as Director of the Injured Workers National Network.  She is the recipient of the 2010 Nader Trust Joe A. Callaway Award for Civic Courage.

See also:  

Council for Responsible Genetics video on Biolab Health and Safety

RECOMMENDED READING

"A Roach in the Kitchen,"  Genewatch Interview with Becky McClain

"A Cruel and Unusual Corporation:  Becky McClain's Crusade Against Pfizer,"  Ralph Nader

"A Pfizer Whistle-Blower is Awarded $1.4 Million," New York Times

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION/ARTICLES ON INJURED LAB WORKERS AND NEED FOR BIOTECH SAFETY REGULATIONS:

Laboratory-Acquired Meningcoccal Disease -- United States, 2000

One Person Dead After Exlosion at Menlo Park Lab

Airflow Problems Plague CDC Bioterror Lab

Cowpox Infection in US Lab Worker Called a First

Risk Assessment of US Agro-Bio Safety Lab Found Wanting

"A Synthetic Biology Lab in Berkeley," GeneWatch, June-July 2011, Jeremy Gruber, Tina Stevens, Becky McClain

Worker Safety in Biological Laboratories, a report by the Council for Responsible Genetics

Same School, New Infection?  For the second time in two years, a University of Chicago researcher falls ill to a laboratory-acquired infection.
Lab Project Suspended at U of C After Researcher Gets Sick

A Synthetic Biology Lab in Berkeley

UCLA to Hold Grand Opening of Global Biolab

Information about Maryland Biolabs Scarce

Safety Rules Can't Keep Up with Biotech Industry

Fatal Laboratory-Acquired Infection With an Attenuated Yersinia pestis Strain—Chicago, Illinois, 2009, The Journal of the American Medical Association 

Biotech Awareness:  The Case of David Bell

Researchers Must Be Wary of Infections

Give Them and Inch:  Why Don't private biolabs like Pfizer's live up to the National Health Institute's guidelines?  Because they don't have to. By Michael Siciliano,GeneWatch, March-April 2010

SARS in the City by Lynn C. Klotz