By Paul Basken

Washington

Federal auditors are raising new questions about the rush by universities and government agencies to build hundreds of new high-security laboratories to study biological pathogens.

Federal officials encouraged the expansion of the labs after the anthrax attacks in 2001, fearing the country wasn't adequately prepared to handle either an accidental or intentional release of a pathogen that could cause widespread sickness or death.

But the U.S. Government Accountability Office, in a report to Congress released Monday, said various agencies of the federal government have been encouraging the lab expansion since 2001 without making a comprehensive assessment of the needs and risks.

For most of the past 50 years, the nation had only two laboratories rated as Biosafety-Level 4, or "BSL-4," meaning they had the secure facilities to handle the most dangerous pathogens, the GAO said. Since the anthrax attacks in 2001, with the federal government spending $1-billion a year on research into dangerous pathogens, seven new BSL-4 facilities have come under construction, including labs at Boston University and the University of Texas at Galveston, the GAO reported. Another is at Kansas State University. And there are another 1,362 laboratories with a BSL-3 rating, about a third of them at universities, the GAO said.

The possible danger from so many facilities is highlighted by several security breaches, including the fact that the anthrax attacks of 2001 are believed to have been perpetrated by a scientist at the government's own biodefense labs at Fort Detrick in Frederick, Md.

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce is expected to pay even more attention to the laboratories tomorrow when it holds a hearing to study the GAO report and consider possible steps the government can take.

The GAO, in its report, is recommending that federal officials make a governmentwide evaluation of the high-security laboratories and take steps to deal with a series of specific security issues raised by the labs.

The review work is necessary, the GAO said, "to ensure that the United States will have facilities in the right place with the right specifications."