Reedley places temporary ban on future biomedical labs

REEDLEY, Calif. (KFSN) -- Reedley city leaders have adopted a temporary ban on future biomedical labs in an effort to prevent private companies from operating without oversight.

During a meeting Tuesday night, the Reedley City Council unanimously decided to enact a temporary moratorium on establishing any new uses concerning warehousing and or laboratories with biosafety levels 2-4 within the city.

The CDC categorizes businesses that deal with infectious diseases in terms of biosafety hazards 1,2,3 and 4. Think of 1 as things that are not infectious at all to humans. Think of 4 as Ebola and anthrax, so worst of the worst," explained City Manager Nicole Zieba.

The concern is that another private lab could come to the City of Reedley, bringing with it potentially hazardous materials.

Prestige Biotech and Universal Meditech Inc. were operating inside a building on I Street in Reedley.

Inside, city officials found biological agents, samples of bodily fluids, infectious diseases, COVID and pregnancy tests and nearly 1,000 mice.

The companies had no permits or permissions.

"In this process, we've been going through with our 850 I Street laboratory, we've learned a lot. One of the things we learned is privately funded research and development labs don't have a lot of government oversight," said Zieba.

The new moratorium goes into effect immediately and will last until the city amends its zoning code within the next six months.

The new zoning code will place restrictions on what items labs can have - and where the labs can be located.

"We don't think for one minute that changing our zoning code would have done anything with 850 I Street. They were illegal in every way, shape and form, but in learning what we are learning, we want to make sure legal labs are structured appropriately in Reedley," Zieba said.

Zieba says the city is working with federal partners to ensure an illegal lab never happens here again.

Currently, there are no federal guidelines on private labs like the one we saw here a few months ago.

Until those guidelines are set, this will help prevent a Reedley lab repeat.

The ban in Reedley will not impact any federally regulated labs like Quest Diagnostics or medical clinics.

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