BIOLOGICAL WEAPONS UPDATE
18 September 2007
In this issue:
Previous editions of Biological Weapons Update are available
at: http://www.basicint.org/update/bwu.htm.
Arms Control
On August 20 the United Nations inaugurated
a new unit to further bolster its efforts to reduce the
threat to the international community posed by weapons of
mass destruction. The Implementation Support Unit (ISU) -
which will help States Parties in their efforts to bolster
implementation of the Biological Weapons Convention - was
launched in Geneva as part of the UN Office for Disarmament
Affairs. The decision to form the ISU was taken in December
2006 at the Sixth Review Conference of the Biological Weapons
Convention, and is a landmark since the Unit is the first
institutional support mechanism created to support global
efforts to curb biological weapons.
The Meeting
of Experts from States Parties to the Biological Weapons Convention
(BWC) was held in Geneva from 20 to 24 August 2007. The
Meeting of Experts is the first part of a four-year program
mandated by the 2006 Sixth Review Conference of the BWC aimed
at strengthening the implementation of the Convention and
improving its effectiveness as a practical barrier against
the development or use of biological weapons. The conclusions
will be drawn in the Meeting of the States Parties (10-14
December).
The Bioweapons Prevention Project produced daily reports
and collected documents, working papers, presentations, and
statements from the meeting. They are available here.
Further reading:
Bio-Safety in U.S. Laboratories
The Dallas Morning News reported
July 28 that at least one Texas A&M University lab employee
exposed to a dangerous infectious agent last year did not
have federal approval to work with it. The records also show
that other high-level experiments were conducted in a lab
not authorized for them. The revelations are the latest in
a mounting scientific scandal at A&M, stemming from the university's
failure to report to the federal government one illness and
several other cases of workers being exposed to "select agents."
In late July Representative Tom Davis (R-Va.) ranking Republican
member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee,
in a letter to committee Chairman Henry Waxman (D-Calif.),
said
the committee should investigate security at the country's
most sensitive biological defense sites. "The integrity of
Biosafety Level 3 and 4 laboratory procedures," Davis wrote,
referring to facilities assigned to work with the most dangerous
diseases, "is emerging as a critical national and homeland
security issue."
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported
August 23 that the number of U.S. university laboratories
conducting research on potential bioterrorism agents has exploded
in a matter of years to possibly more than 400.
Further reading:
- Minimum Security Standards for Safeguarding Biological
Select Agents and Toxins (BSAT)," Chief of Naval Operations
OPNAV Instruction 5530.16, July 20, 2007.
Foot and Mouth Outbreak in the U.K.
An outbreak of foot and mouth disease virus (FMDV) was confirmed
at a farm in Surrey, United Kingdom on 3 August 2007. Preliminary
investigations indicated that the virus may have originated
from the Pirbright site at which two separate organizations
are based: the Institute for Animal Health (IAH) and Merial
Animal Health Ltd (Merial). Click here
for the initial investigative report.
Bio-Terrorism
The July 1 Dick
Destiny blog entry details the activities of former Soviet
bio-weapons expert Ken Alibek who has profited handsomely
by warning of bioterrorist threats since defecting to the
United States. See more in this August 12 entry.
The U.S. Homeland Security Department's three-year-old program
to coordinate surveillance information on bio-terrorism is
at risk of going over budget and falling behind schedule due
to a lack of clear guidance and lack of data, according to
a new report
from the department's Inspector General (IG). Also, the National
Biosurveillance Integration System, which was initiated in
2004, still does not have a plan in place to coordinate development
of the necessary information technology systems, the IG wrote.
The European Commission announced August 13 that a new medical
intelligence system could help the European Union to quickly
detect and deal with an act of biological terrorism or natural
disease outbreak. The MediSys
system conducts ongoing collection and sorting of information
from more than 1,100 news Web sites and 120 public health
sites in 32 languages.
Further reading:
Publications
Protecting
Building Occupants and Operations from Biological and Chemical
Airborne Threats: A Framework for Decision Making, National
Research Council 2007.
Department
of Defense Chemical and Biological Defense Program," Annual
Report to Congress, April 2007.
Report
on Activities and Programs for Countering Proliferation and
NBC Terrorism, Counterproliferation Program Review Committee,
Volume I,
Executive Summary, May 2007.
Mucosal
Immunization with a Novel Nanoemulsion-Based Recombinant Anthrax
Protective Antigen Vaccine Protects against Bacillus anthracis
Spore Challenge, Infection and Immunity, August 2007,
p. 4020-4029, Vol. 75, No. 8.
Neil Davison, 'Off
the Rocker' and 'On the Floor': The Continued Development
of Biochemical Incapacitating Weapons, Bradford Science
and Technology Report No. 8, August 2007.
Catherine Rhodes and Malcolm Dando, The
Biological Weapons Proliferation Threat: Past, Present, and
Future Assessments and Responses, Strategic Insights,
Volume VI, Issue 5, August 2007.
Glen Segell, The
London Ricin Cell, Strategic Insights, Volume VI,
Issue 5, August 2007.
Leonard A. Cole, Bioweapons,
Proliferation, and the U.S. Anthrax Attack, Strategic
Insights, Volume VI, Issue 5, August 2007.
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