Boston University has received an OK from the federal government to open an infectious-disease laboratory in Boston’s South End, one of the city’s most thickly settled neighborhoods. Am I the only person who thinks this has disaster-waiting-to-happen written all over it?

Wouldn’t it make more sense to build a facility like this in a more rural part of Massachusetts, preferably surrounded by a large wall?

Boston.com reports.

Federal regulators give final OK to Boston University’s controversial South End bio lab

A decade-long push to open a controversial infectious-disease research lab in Boston’s South End neighborhood is one giant step closer to fruition, with federal regulators signing off on the project.

In a notice published Wednesday in the Federal Register, the National Institutes of Health said that after “careful consideration” it has concluded that Boston University’s National Emerging Infectious Diseases Laboratories, which will work with some of the world’s deadliest germs, “poses minimal risk to the community surrounding the facility.”

The decision clears the way for final state environmental review, which has been in limbo pending the federal decision.

Federal and state lawsuits challenging the project by neighborhood residents and environmentalists also must be resolved.

The NIH decision said analyses by an independent Blue Ribbon Panel, and by an advisory committee comprised of specialists in infectious disease, public health, risk assessment, and biosafety, determined that the risks of infections or fatalities to the public from an accident or planned attack at the facility are “generally very low to only remotely possible.”

The analyses included scenarios such as an earthquake or a lab worker being accidentally pricked by a needle and failing to recognize or report the incident.

“The [lab] will be an important addition to life science research in our region and its work to improve public health will have local, national and global impact,” lab interim director John R. Murphy said in a statement.