Camden Green Party member support for Camden Super Virus & Animal Testing Lab
S Chowdhury | 09.02.2009 23:22 | Animal Liberation | Bio-technology | Social Struggles | South Coast | World
There are plans to build a deadly level 3 virus lab and animal testing facility on a Camden Council House estate, Somers Town, alongside St Pancras International [Eurostar] behins the British Library.
The lab has been criticised at government level over funding and by the UK security services MI5.
The lab is opposed by MPs, councillors, local residents, businesses and by people from around the World.
On her website Symons claims that she "was prompted to attend the meet and greet sessions at the Somers Town Community Center by an article in the Guardian newspaper about the lab" ...which we find hard to believe as she did in fact attend not only th early meetings held by the Somers Town Peoples Forum about the lab in November 2007 but joined in with protesters on the steps of Camden Town Hall who were chanting "No to the Camden Death Lab! Yes to the Council Houses!" on November 5th 2007.
She claims on her website that local campaigners "anonymously" put up posters about the meet and greet sessions asking people to attend the meeting. A young Muslim woman was, at the time approached and photographed by a woman from New Zealand [Ms Symons is from NZ] who asked her to remove her veil for a photograph. When the woman refused to do this or to give her name to this stranger she was accused of "putting up the posters behind a veil of anonymity".
Ms Symons has since stated that these posters were "animal rights"posters when they were put there by members of the community as part of a community campign quite openly and claimed that the campaigners are "campaigning anonymously and scaremongering". In fact Camden councillors have themselves raised security questions around the lab at the highest ranks and MI5 have spoken out regarding fears. Scientists from the NIMR have spoken to newspapers including those of Camden and Hendon about security fears concerning pathogen emissions. Foot and Mouth disease was leaked into the water supply form similar govt facility Pirbright in Surrey. Sucah a leak in a residential, built up area so close to major transport hubs would be a disaster.
Symons goes on to say that she met the head of the MRC who she calls "Les" for the first time at the meeting which we find hard to believe. She is an open advocate of the pharmaceutical industry who she calls "Big Pharma".
She went on to say in [the now closed] comments box on the BLISS Lab that "Les" has been given awards for his work. When a local Muslim campigner pointed out that racist Sir Richard Doll has also been given awards for his "contributions to science" Ms Symons retorted said that to call Sir Richard Doll racist was an "extreme" view.
Camden needs council homes in an area where there are 25,000 coucnil homes and 15,000 on a housing waitng list.
Recently a racist Conservaitive Camden Councillor was slammed for his remarks that "Somali and Bengali [who he collectivley described as Pakistani] were bringing TB into the country / community following a TB outbreak at south Camden community School in Somers Town.
Ms Syoms has stated on her website that she "welcomes" the labs and "Les" to the area "given the high incidenceof TB".
A source form the Wellcome Trust in Camden has said that there are plans for compulsory testing among "vulnerable communities at risk from TB" and that the labs planned for Somers Town and Regents Park in Camden would "be contributing to this" and that "clinical trials" would also take place at these "community labs". He would not confirm whether this would coincide with detention and these plans have yet to be officially confirmed.
Pfizer were sued for carrying out illegal, barbaric experiments on African babies and children in Nigeria. Glaxo Smith Kline were also taken to court when cuaght carryong out AIDS experiments on poor Black African Americans.
We should all be very worried about these labs planned for council estates.
S Chowdhury
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