[tt] Plague of bioweapons accidents afflicts the US

[Allen Smith]

There's a total of one area of (applied) molecular genetics that has
anything near the safety risks that a lot of Luddites (like, say,
Greenpeace) think all of it does - namely biowarfare (including
"biodefense"). This is particularly the case when one is dealing with
organisms that are transmissible from person to person.

Of course, a lot of "biosafety" groups (although apparently not this
particular one) against various biodefense research sites are NIMBYs (not
wanting said sites to be near them, but not actually caring that much if
they're near someone else). I also note that "New Scientist" has a rather
left-wing, pro-environmentalist (and sometimes, at least for a (popular)
science magazine, pro-Luddite) viewpoint - that being one reason I stopped
subscribing to them - so the report below may be biased. For one thing, the
likely result of people having bureaucratic headaches for _minor_ releases
(things like releases of, say, harmless variants of diseases used for
vaccine research, or for that matter releases of things that are, while not
harmless, present all over the place anyway) is people dropping out of doing
research in the field - this has already happened all over the place,
(including leading to destruction of research material and other such harmful
activities) despite any funding opportunities (themselves limited by
Homeland inSecurity requirements regarding who can do research,
etcetera). At least one scientist has gotten prosecuted for problems with
paperwork (tracking of cultures) as if a release had taken place, when no
evidence of a release was present.

	 -Allen

In message
<8CF6A92CB628444FB3C757618CD2803904ABDFEE at exbe1.cmpcntr.tc.trincoll.edu> (on
5 July 2007 13:14:14 -0400), James.Hughes at trincoll.edu (Hughes, James J.)
wrote:
>
>http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn12197
>
>Plague of bioweapons accidents afflicts the US
>
>    * 12:07 05 July 2007
>    * NewScientist.com news service
>    * Debora MacKenzie
>
>Deadly germs may be more likely to be spread due to a biodefence lab
>accident than a biological attack by terrorists.
>
>Plague, anthrax, Rocky Mountain spotted fever - these are among the
>bioweapons some experts fear could be used in a germ warfare attack
>against the US. But the public has had near-misses with those diseases
>and others over the past five years, ironically because of accidents in
>labs that were working to defend against bioterrorists. Even worse, they
>may be only the tip of an iceberg.
>
>The revelations come from Ed Hammond of the Sunshine Project, a
>biosafety pressure group based in Austin, Texas, US, who after
>persistent requests got the minutes of university biosafety committees
>using the US Freedom of Information Act. The minutes are accessible to
>the public by law.
>
>There are now 20,000 people at 400 sites around the US working with
>putative bioweapons germs, says Hammond, 10 times more than before the
>terrorist attacks of 9/11. Some scientists have warned for years that
>more people handling dangerous germs are a recipe for accidents.
>
>Unreported incidents?
>
>The fears have been borne out by publicised infections of lab workers
>with tularemia, brucellosis and Q fever.
>
>The Q fever incident took place at Texas A&M University, which has now
>been ordered to stop research into potential bioweapons while an
>investigation takes place.
>
>However, Hammond's minutes contain further, previously unreported,
>slip-ups:
>
>* At the University of New Mexico, one worker was jabbed with an
>anthrax-laden needle, and another with a syringe containing an
>undisclosed, genetically engineered microbe.

So what if it's genetically modified? Indeed, it may well have been
genetically modified to be _weaker_ (as in, in research for vaccines...).

>* At the Medical University of Ohio, workers were exposed to and
>infected with Valley Fever.
>
>* At the University of Chicago, there was another puncture with an
>undisclosed agent normally requiring heavy containment, probably anthrax
>or plague.
>
>* At the University of California at Berkeley, workers handled deadly
>Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever, which spreads in the air, without
>containment when it was mislabelled as harmless.
>
>* At the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and at Albert
>Einstein College of Medicine in New York City, workers were exposed to
>TB when containment equipment failed.
>
>As yet, none of the accidents have been serious in outcome. But, Hammond
>fears, more such accidents may go unreported. "Instead of a 'culture of
>responsibility', the federal government has instilled a culture of
>denial" he says. "Labs hide problems, and think that accident reporting
>is for masochists"
>
>Reporting essential
>
>Without stringently enforced reporting rules, he says, labs have every
>reason to cover up accidents. They want to avoid losing research funds,
>and fear the massive official reaction to any accident - such as the
>imprisonment of plague researcher Thomas Butler in 2003. And he claims
>Texas A&M officials have said they now regret reporting the Q fever
>incident.
>
>"I think the answer is to create a level playing field by having clear
>and absolutely mandatory reporting requirements," says Hammond.
>"Eliminate even the possibility of an institution claiming that it does
>not have to report infections."
>
>"The labs will say, you can't do that because then people won't report
>accidents," says Hammond. "Well, I think it's pretty clear that people
>don't report accidents as it stands."
>
>Related Articles
>
>    * Top US biologists oppose biodefence boom
>    * http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7074
>    * 01 March 2005
>    * Infection blunder revealed at animal testing lab
>    * http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn11678
>    * 21 April 2007
>    * Hybrid flu virus in near-miss escape
>    * http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg19325874.900
>    * 20 January 2007
>    * Experts fear escape of 1918 flu from lab
>    * http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn6554
>    * 21 October 2004
>
>Weblinks
>
>    * The Sunshine Project
>    * http://www.sunshine-project.org/
>    * Rocky Mountain spotted fever, CDC factsheet
>    * http://www.cdc.gov/healthypets/diseases/rockymountain.htm
>    * Q fever, CDC
>    * http://www.cdc.gov/ncidod/dvrd/qfever/
>
>Close this window
>Printed on Thu Jul 05 18:12:57 BST 2007
>_______________________________________________
>tt mailing list
>tt at postbiota.org
>http://postbiota.org/mailman/listinfo/tt
>

-- 
Allen Smith			http://cesario.rutgers.edu/easmith/
September 11, 2001		A Day That Shall Live In Infamy II
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Benjamin Franklin