BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS UPDATE

26 July 2007

In this issue:

• Biotechnology
• Laboratories
• Terrorism
• United States
• Vaccines
• Publications

Previous editions of Biological Weapons Update are available at: http://www.basicint.org/update/bwu.htm.

Biotechnology

Global Security Newswire reported July 23 that some scientists and entrepreneurs have begun an informal campaign to persuade the federal government to regulate their little-recognized but vital corner of the biotechnology industry. Without supervision, "gene-synthesis" providers could supply terrorists with deadly bioweapons, say these advocates, most of whom own, or head, gene-synthesis companies.

Laboratories

On May 30 Kent State University trustees officially created the Center for Public Health Preparedness. This training lab, on Kent State's main campus, is one of only two nationwide that's funded by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and uses nonpathogenic surrogates and fluorescent powders that mimic real biological agents. The other such lab is at Emory University in the CDC's hometown of Atlanta.

Global Security Newswire reported June 4 that environmental organizations are expressing concerns about U.S. Army plans to renovate a laboratory at the Dugway Proving Ground in Utah to allow it to conduct biological defense research. The Army wants to place up to 25 laboratories within the 32,000-square-foot facility.

On June 26 the Sunshine Project announced that Texas A&M University for one year failed to report that three researchers had been infected with the potential biological weapons agent Q fever. Subsequently the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indefinitely suspended all of Texas A&M University's federally sanctioned research on the most dangerous infectious diseases.

On July 5 the New Scientist reported on near-miss accidents with plague, anthrax, and Rocky Mountain spotted fever over the past five years because of accidents in labs that were working to defend against bioterrorists. According to the Sunshine Project there are now 20,000 people at 400 sites around the United States 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.

On July 20 the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported on an hour-long power outage and the failure of a backup generator system in June at a CDC lab in DeKalb County, Georgia, which has a suite of six Biosafety Level 4 labs, designed to contain the likes of Ebola and smallpox.

On July 11 the U.S. Homeland Security Department announced five sites as finalists for a planned $450 million National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility. Finalist sites for the facility are located in Mississippi, Kansas, Texas, Georgia, and North Carolina. The facility would also be the only laboratory in the country to combine studies of human and agricultural disease with research into vaccine countermeasures for animal diseases and animal pathogens that could spread to humans.

On July 16 the London Times reported that the United Kingdom has applied to build a new biological defense research laboratory at its Porton Down military research facility.

Terrorism

UPI reported that U.S. researchers have developed a system they say can identify terrorists who release bioterrorism agents aboard an airliner.

Researchers in Germany reported May 31 that they had altered the DNA of a disease-causing bacterium to make it capable of infecting a species it usually cannot sicken. Experts said this discovery could improve scientists' knowledge of human diseases but it could also lead to the creation of new bioterrorism agents.

In July police from countries belonging to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations met in Indonesia to discuss the threat of bioterrorism.

Defense News reported July 16 that the European Union has launched a consultative green paper to map out how its 27 member nations can protect themselves against bio-terrorist attack.

United States

On June 7 the Center for Arms Control and Non-Proliferation released an analysis reporting that the U.S. government has spent or allocated over $40 billion to address the threat of biological weapons since September 2001. For FY2008, the Bush administration is proposing an additional $6.77 billion in bioweapons-related spending, approximately $550 million, (or 9%) more than the amount Congress appropriated in FY2007. If the FY2008 request is fully funded, total bioweapons-related funding since FY2001 will exceed $48 billion.

An article in the July 1 Los Angeles Times detailed how Kanatjan Alibekov, aka Ken Alibek, a former Soviet bioweapons microbiologist who defected to the United States in 1992, raised fears, helped shape U.S. bioterrorism policy, and sought to profit.

Vaccines

Publications

The use of drugs as weapons: The concerns and responsibilities of healthcare professionals, British Medical Association, May 2007.

Appendix: The issue of small quantities of biological and chemical warfare agents in the twenty-ninth quarterly report on the activities of the United Nations Monitoring,
Verification and Inspection Commission.

Bioterrorism with Zoonotic Disease: Public Health Preparedness Lessons from a Multiagency Exercise, BIOSECURITY AND BIOTERRORISM: BIODEFENSE STRATEGY, PRACTICE, AND SCIENCE, Volume 4, Number 3, 2006.

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