Is your state one of the lucky dozen that stands to gain millions in U.S. Homeland Security Department research dollars and as many as 300 jobs for a new, high-containment biodefense lab? What is a high containment biodefense lab, you ask? It's a place where they grow lethal germs like anthrax so that they can lose them study them in the interest of public safety. Sounds risky, right? It is. The proposed new facility, which will contain the most lethal germs and chemicals in the U.S., will be built to replace an older lab in Plum Island, NY, which was criticzed by government officials for security lapses after the 9/11 attacks. Opponents of the proposed facility in several potential host communities have protested in city council meetings and with "No Bio-Lab" signs. According to the AP news release,

The lab will have the highest-level security rating, BSL-4, meaning it would be equipped to handle the most lethal, incurable disease agents. The lab will be the only one in the country to integrate study of lethal agents that could be used as bioweapons on humans and in agriculture, research on diseases that could be passed between animal and human, and foreign animal diseases.

Coincidentally, the current issue of Science reports on the case of Set Van Nguyen, a senior technician at the Australian Animal Health Laboratory (a biodefense lab), who, in 2001, died almost instantly after stepping into an oxygen-depleted containment room that had been malfunctioning for at least four days. The containment room was used to store lethal pathogens such as a bat virus. No one realized Nguyen was missing until his concerned wife showed up the next day and the staff found his body on the floor of the airlock.