lennart
09-11-03, 17:08
Scientists fear jail in US bio war
Richard Luscombe in Miami
Sunday November 9, 2003
The Observer
Stringent new legislation brought in to improve homeland security could instead be hampering the fight against bio-terrorism in the United States, according to scientists.
Tighter controls implemented earlier this year over samples of viruses, toxins and bacteria that could be used as weapons are interfering with research and those who work with them may even face prosecution, the scientists say.
Their fears are highlighted in an article in this week's New Scientist magazine, which also claims that irreplaceable collections of microbes crucial to the tracing and management of disease outbreaks - terror-related or otherwise - are being destroyed because laboratories cannot meet tight new deadlines to document them.
'Trying to meet the unwarranted burden of what the Government considers 'bio-safety' is not coincident with sound, creative, scientific research,' Professor Stanley Falkow, a respected researcher at California's Stanford University, told US Attorney General John Ashcroft in a letter.
Problems have arisen with the deadlines introduced last February by the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act to an industry that previously saw little regulation. Those working with so-called 'select agents' must now register with and receive security clearance from the US government and all samples must be fully documented and accounted for or destroyed.
The Government appears to have acknowledged at least part of the problem by extending a deadline, due to have been imposed on Wednesday, for more than 9,000 researchers predominantly in university laboratories to receive FBI approval to continue their work.
Even so, one scientist, who did not want to be named, says full compliance is impossible. 'Every single lab involved in select agents has violated the regulations somehow,' he told the New Scientist. 'The FBI can come in and find you out of compliance whenever they choose.'
The scientists highlight the case of biologist Thomas Butler, who faces more than 100 years in jail after reporting the disappearance of 30 vials of bubonic plague bacterium from his Texas Tech University laboratory. The charges include transporting samples within the US without the permit required by the new act.
Butler admitted after interrogation that he had destroyed the vials, but now claims the FBI told him to say this to reassure the public. He said he felt 'tricked and deceived' by the US authorities.
The problems are not restricted to private-sector laboratories. Peter Jahrling of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, admitted that his institute, currently working on producing a vaccine for Venezuelan equine encephalitis, could not meet the deadline to account for each individual sample.
Professor Ron Atlas, a past-president of the American Society for Microbiology, and a biology professor at the University of Louisville, accepts that there have been some teething troubles in implementing the new rules but does not believe they created any increased risk to security.
'I am aware of some scientists who have said they won't work in this area and that some concerns have been raised but I don't see any fear of regulations setting back science,' he said.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1080944,00.html
Dit doet mij denken aan Stalin's zuivering van hoge officieren van het Rode Leger voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Na de zuiveringen was het leger niet langer meer opgewassen tegen een buitenlandse dreiging, een zwakte waarvan het Duitse leger gebruik kon maken.
Het lijkt me niet echt verstandig om de wetenschappers/onderzoekers die bij een eventuele biologische aanval de eerste linie van de verdediging vormen, het leven onmogelijk te maken en tevens onderzoekslaboratoria te sluiten.
Er zijn trouwens ook een hele reeks van wetenschappers in het gebied van biologische oorlogsvoering de afgelopen jaren op onnatuurlijke wijze om het leven gekomen.
Richard Luscombe in Miami
Sunday November 9, 2003
The Observer
Stringent new legislation brought in to improve homeland security could instead be hampering the fight against bio-terrorism in the United States, according to scientists.
Tighter controls implemented earlier this year over samples of viruses, toxins and bacteria that could be used as weapons are interfering with research and those who work with them may even face prosecution, the scientists say.
Their fears are highlighted in an article in this week's New Scientist magazine, which also claims that irreplaceable collections of microbes crucial to the tracing and management of disease outbreaks - terror-related or otherwise - are being destroyed because laboratories cannot meet tight new deadlines to document them.
'Trying to meet the unwarranted burden of what the Government considers 'bio-safety' is not coincident with sound, creative, scientific research,' Professor Stanley Falkow, a respected researcher at California's Stanford University, told US Attorney General John Ashcroft in a letter.
Problems have arisen with the deadlines introduced last February by the Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act to an industry that previously saw little regulation. Those working with so-called 'select agents' must now register with and receive security clearance from the US government and all samples must be fully documented and accounted for or destroyed.
The Government appears to have acknowledged at least part of the problem by extending a deadline, due to have been imposed on Wednesday, for more than 9,000 researchers predominantly in university laboratories to receive FBI approval to continue their work.
Even so, one scientist, who did not want to be named, says full compliance is impossible. 'Every single lab involved in select agents has violated the regulations somehow,' he told the New Scientist. 'The FBI can come in and find you out of compliance whenever they choose.'
The scientists highlight the case of biologist Thomas Butler, who faces more than 100 years in jail after reporting the disappearance of 30 vials of bubonic plague bacterium from his Texas Tech University laboratory. The charges include transporting samples within the US without the permit required by the new act.
Butler admitted after interrogation that he had destroyed the vials, but now claims the FBI told him to say this to reassure the public. He said he felt 'tricked and deceived' by the US authorities.
The problems are not restricted to private-sector laboratories. Peter Jahrling of the US Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, admitted that his institute, currently working on producing a vaccine for Venezuelan equine encephalitis, could not meet the deadline to account for each individual sample.
Professor Ron Atlas, a past-president of the American Society for Microbiology, and a biology professor at the University of Louisville, accepts that there have been some teething troubles in implementing the new rules but does not believe they created any increased risk to security.
'I am aware of some scientists who have said they won't work in this area and that some concerns have been raised but I don't see any fear of regulations setting back science,' he said.
http://observer.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,6903,1080944,00.html
Dit doet mij denken aan Stalin's zuivering van hoge officieren van het Rode Leger voor de Tweede Wereldoorlog. Na de zuiveringen was het leger niet langer meer opgewassen tegen een buitenlandse dreiging, een zwakte waarvan het Duitse leger gebruik kon maken.
Het lijkt me niet echt verstandig om de wetenschappers/onderzoekers die bij een eventuele biologische aanval de eerste linie van de verdediging vormen, het leven onmogelijk te maken en tevens onderzoekslaboratoria te sluiten.
Er zijn trouwens ook een hele reeks van wetenschappers in het gebied van biologische oorlogsvoering de afgelopen jaren op onnatuurlijke wijze om het leven gekomen.