| (Article information
from Associated Press)
Materials that could be used for bioterrorism often are kept
in insecure areas and aren't well-monitored by university
research labs funded by the Agriculture Department, federal
inspectors say.
Trying to reduce post-Sept. 11 opportunities for terrorist
attacks, the department's inspector general found an alarming
potential for biological agents, chemicals and radioactive
materials could be readily obtained from college laboratories
that receive some money from the department.
The money generally is used to pay for agricultural studies
of those materials. Some of the specimens include diseases
and bacteria, such as anthrax and the plague, which could
harm people.
In one case, an unlocked freezer contained a biological agent
for a plague more severe than the Black Death. Seven vials
of Yersinia pestis, one of the highest-risk materials, had
been stored there since 1981. It causes bubonic plague, or
Black Death, and pneumonic plague, a far more severe, airborne
pathogen that infects the lungs and is nearly 100 percent
fatal within 48 hours of symptoms.
The last inventory for the freezer was in 1994, and it was
incomplete.
Inspectors also said they discovered the freezer wasn't in
a research lab. Rather, it was in an area of the university
controlled solely by a lecturer of undergraduate science.
He destroyed the vials after government inspectors raised
concerns, the report said.
One lab outfitted for a researcher working with some of the
most high-risk biological agents was found in a building 30
yards from the university's football stadium, open for bathroom
use during night games. Many people have keys, but sometimes
the doors remain unlocked.
Another lab that held a pathogen that causes a severe and
often fatal contagious disease in swine never had a complete
inventory and could be accessed at any time by graduate students
without documentation.
The inspector general's office, after evaluating 104 labs
at 10 universities and a private institution during the summer
of 2002, urged the White House and the Homeland Security Department
to take a closer look at the dangers and issue a set of standards
governing security of hazardous materials. The report did
not name the labs for security's sake.
The inspector general's office recommended the White House
impose new standards to:
-Create a central database of all biological materials stored
at an institution.
-Write procedures for checking backgrounds of lab workers
and report missing pathogens.
-Study potential risks at all labs and improve security based
on those assessments.
Only two of the institutions reviewed had a centralized database
summarizing inventory of biological agents or chemicals at
their labs. Just five had formal procedures for reporting
missing pathogens.
Buildings housing the labs commonly lacked alarm systems,
surveillance cameras, keycard devices and sign-in sheets,
inspectors said. Some did not require the use of ID badges.
Doors were not always locked, locks were left unchanged even
after keys were lost or stolen, and cleaning staff in many
cases had access to the labs after hours. |
