Fwd: Bio-Defence Mania Grips United States

[Guest guest]

Mon, 14 Jul 2003 14:51:37 +0100

 

Bio-Defence Mania Grips United States

press-release

 

The Institute of Science in Society

Science Society Sustainability

http://www.i-sis.org.uk

 

General Enquiries sam

Website/Mailing List press-release

ISIS Director m.w.ho

===================================================

 

Bio-Defence Mania Grips United States

*********************************

Suddenly, bio-defence is the buzzword in hundreds of universities, government

laboratories and health departments across the United States. Does it make the

United States and the world a safer place? Dr. Mae-Wan Ho m.w.ho

reports.

 

The complete document with references

(http://www.i-sis.org.uk/full/BDMIUSFull.php), is available in the ISIS members

site. Full details here (http://www.i-sis.org.uk/membership.php)

 

A few scattered reports appeared in the Boston Globe in January 2003 that Boston

University Medical Centre plans to build a $1.6 billion biological weapons

research facility in the city centre. In February, a proposal went to the

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious diseases (NIAID), the federal

institution charged with developing ‘centres of excellence’ in biological

defence research. These Biosafety Level 4 (BSL4) facilities - designed for

research on the most dangerous pathogens, such as Ebola virus, for which there

are no known cures or treatments – are the centrepieces of the Bush

administration’s strategy to counter bio-terrorism.

 

There are currently four BSL4 facilities in the country: two outside Washington

DC, one in Atlanta, and one in San Antonio. On 20 March, a package containing

the West Nile virus exploded in a Federal Express building in Columbus, Ohio,

exposing workers to possible infection, and the offices had to be evacuated. In

December 2002, power failed for three hours at an infectious disease laboratory

at Plum Island, New York, undermining the containment systems and workers had to

resort to sealing the doors with duct tape as air compressors failed.

 

Peter Shorrett, Director of Programs of Boston-based Council for Responsible

Genetics (CRG), said, " One high-level government scientist recently said to CRG

that the siting of this facility could create a recipe for disaster. " Modelling

systems at the US Army and Federal Emergency Management Agency predict a ten to

twenty mile downwind dispersion radius in case of an accidental or intentional

release of biological agents contained in the Boston University facility,

thereby exposing millions of local inhabitants to dangerous infectious agents.

Researchers exposed to biological agents could also pose a risk to residents.

According to federal guidelines, Level 4 pathogens pose " a high risk of exposure

and infection to personnel, the community and the environment. "

 

There is also a danger that researchers will be trained in precisely the

techniques needed for bio-terrorism. The post-September 11 anthrax attacks have

been conclusively traced to the federal bio-defence laboratory in Fort Detrick,

Maryland, according to Peter Shorrett and others.

 

As part of $6 billion-plus expansion of the US bio-defence program, some 40 new

and upgraded ‘hot zones’ have been proposed across the country. These involve

not only the established bio-weapons research labs such as Fort Detrick National

Institute of Health, and Department of Defence facilities, but also the

Department of Energy’s former nuclear weapons installations such as Los Alamos

National Laboratory in New Mexico and the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory

in California, as well as the Centers for Disease Control, and biomedical and

genomics research departments in top universities: Harvard, John Hopkins,

University of California, University of Illinois, University of Texas.

 

This new generation of bio-defence research will be subject to little oversight.

Under the newly formed Department of Homeland Security (DHS), much

defence-related research and development will be exempt from the Freedom of

Information Act and the Federal Advisory Committee Act, and hence there will be

little or no mandatory public disclosure. Originally, much of NIAID was to come

under the DHS umbrella; this was blocked by Congressional Democracts, but could

change during the current legislative session.

 

After the revelations in 2001 of three previously classified projects in the

United States, one of which involved the production of a genetically engineered

anthrax strain resistant to existent vaccines, and another the development of a

model bioweapon delivery system, arms control experts and health and safety

watchdog groups are deeply concerned that secrecy at these labs will undermine

US compliance with the Biological Weapons Convention. It would serve to further

blur the fuzzy distinction between defence and offence research, result in

covering up accidents, and risks to surrounding communities.

 

" The problem with bio-defence research is that it is hard to distinguish from

bio-weapons research, " said Ed Hammond at the 7th Bio-devastation conference

held in St. Louis Missouri May 16-18, 2003. " In order to create vaccines against

deadly biological agents, you have to create the biological agents themselves.

It not only increases the chance of acts of bio-terrorism, accidents are bound

to happen. "

 

Dangerous biological agents are created even in apparently legitimate research

to find vaccines against major diseases. Researchers have created a deadly

chimera monkey-human AIDS virus, or SHIV, that kills in days, which is routinely

used as a challenge virus to test vaccines against the human aids virus HIV.

 

The University of California at Davis (UCD), too, wishes to build BSL4

laboratory. Some BSL4 labs, including that proposed by UCD, deliberately infect

animals with disease. In February, UCD’s proposal came under intense fire from

community activists. UCD only consulted its neighbours in the final days before

submitting its BSL4 proposal, when it sought a letter of support from the Davis

City Council.

 

Davis citizens were angered when the story that a monkey had escaped from the

UCD’s primate breeding facility, which rears animals for bio-defence

experiments. University officials have covered up the incident for ten days,

until a whistle blower leaked the story to the local paper. UCD says that the

rhesus monkey – which remains at large – is disease-free. But why did the

University keep the escape secret then?

 

" This incident did a lot to draw attention to UCD’s proposal for a BSL4 lab, and

may have dealt it a death blow, " said Nancy Price of the campaign to Stop the

UCD Biolab Now! But she has still to find any of the scientists involved who

would speak to her.

 

Davis Mayor Susie Boyd said she personally supports UCD, but because of

community opposition, has joined opponents on the City Council and ‘disinvited’

UCD’s project from the city. UCD’s workers allied in the Professional and

Technical Employees Union also decided against the BSL4 proposal. The Union

represents laboratory workers and animal handlers.

 

Some academic institutes are keeping even the fact that they are seeking a new

bio-defence lab a secret, such as the New York State Department of Health’s

Wadworth Center and Rensselaer Polytechnic Insititute.

 

At the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston (UTMB), officials are

quietly retreating from a pledge made in 2001 that their BSL4 facility will not

conduct classified work and will be " wide open and above board " .

 

In early February, a group of non-profit watchdogs began sending a series of

open letters to proposed bio-defence labs asking them to commit in writing, to

policies that prohibit all classified research and ensure transparency of their

operations.

 

They are calling on bio-defence labs to make a " no secrets " pledge. So far they

have contacted four proposed BSL4 bio-defence labs – UCD, UTMB Rocky Mountain

Labs in Hamilton, and Boston University. Elements of the pledge include a

commitment to not conduct classified research or permit it in their facilities,

and to operate completely transparent biosafety committees.

 

ISIS has consistently said that there is no effective defence against

bio-weapons, particularly in the era of genetic engineering. This level of

investment in bio-defence laboratories is not only a public hazard on a global

scale, it is a phenomenal waste of public money that should have been spent on

providing much needed health prevention and healthcare, and dealing with real

health threats from infectious and chronic diseases.

 

Vaccines themselves, the main bio-defence agents, though enormously profitable

for the pharmaceutical industry, could actually be major threats to health (see

" Health & the fluid genome " ISIS miniseries

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/AVWTU.php).

 

The complete document with references

(http://www.i-sis.org.uk/full/BDMIUSFull.php), is available in the ISIS members

site. Full details here (http://www.i-sis.org.uk/membership.php)

 

===================================================

This article can be found on the I-SIS website at http://www.i-sis.org.uk/

If you would prefer to receive future mailings as HTML please let us know.

If you would like to be removed from our mailing list - please reply

to press-release with the word in the subject field

===================================================

CONTACT DETAILS

The Institute of Science in Society, PO Box 32097, London NW1 OXR

telephone: [44 20 8643 0681] [44 20 7383 3376] [44 20 7272 5636]

 

General Enquiries sam

Website/Mailing List press-release

ISIS Director m.w.ho

 

MATERIAL IN THIS EMAIL MAY BE REPRODUCED IN ANY FORM WITHOUT PERMISSION, ON

CONDITION THAT IT IS ACCREDITED ACCORDINGLY AND CONTAINS A LINK TO

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/

 

 

 

@

 

Alternative Medicine/Health-Vitamins, Herbs, Aminos, etc.

 

To , e-mail to:

alternative_medicine_forum-

 

Or, go to our group site at:

alternative_medicine_forum

 

 

 

SBC DSL - Now only $29.95 per month!