Ooops...well, no one died (that we know of, anyway)...
- From: the 3rd Man <sir_der05@xxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 02 Oct 2007 12:27:25 -0700
This is comforting...with friends like these--who needs terrorists?
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Lab Incidents With Deadly Germs
By LARRY MARGASAK - 12 hours ago
WASHINGTON (AP) - American laboratories handling the world's deadliest
germs and toxins have experienced more than 100 accidents and missing
shipments since 2003, and the number is increasing steadily as more
labs across the country are approved to do the work.
No one died, and regulators said the public was never at risk during
these incidents. But the documented cases reflect poorly on procedures
and oversight at high-security labs, some of which work with organisms
and poisons so dangerous that illnesses they cause have no cure. In
some cases, labs have failed to report accidents as required by law.
The mishaps include workers bitten or scratched by infected animals,
skin cuts, needle sticks and more, according to a review by The
Associated Press of confidential reports submitted to federal
regulators. They describe accidents involving anthrax, bird flu virus,
monkeypox and plague-causing bacteria at 44 labs in 24 states. More
than two-dozen incidents were still under investigation.
The number of accidents has risen steadily. Through August, the most
recent period covered in the reports obtained by the AP, labs reported
36 accidents and lost shipments during 2007 - nearly double the number
reported during all of 2004.
Research labs have worked for years to find cures and treatments for
diseases. However, the expansion of the lab network has been dramatic
since President Bush announced an upgrade of the nation's bio-warfare
defense program five years ago. The National Institute of Allergy and
Infectious Diseases, which funds much of the lab research and
construction, was spending spent about $41 million on bio-defense labs
in 2001. By last year, the spending had risen to $1.6 billion.
The number of labs approved by the government to handle the deadliest
substances has nearly doubled to 409 since 2004. Labs are routinely
inspected by federal regulators just once every three years, but
accidents trigger interim inspections.
"It may be only a matter of time before our nation has a public health
incident with potentially catastrophic results," said Rep. Bart
Stupak, D-Mich., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce
investigations subcommittee. Stupak's panel has been investigating the
lab incidents and will conduct a hearing Thursday.
Lab accidents have affected the outside world: Britain's health and
safety agency concluded there was a "strong probability" a leaking
pipe at a British lab manufacturing vaccines for foot-and-mouth
disease was the source of an outbreak of the illness in livestock
earlier this year. Britain was forced to suspend exports of livestock,
meat and milk products and destroy livestock. The disease does not
infect humans.
Accidents aren't the only concern. While medical experts consider it
unlikely that a lab employee will become sick and infect others, these
labs have strict rules to prevent anyone from stealing organisms or
toxins and using them for bioterrorism.
The reports were so sensitive the Bush administration refused to
release them under the Freedom of Information Act, citing an anti-
bioterrorism law aimed at preventing terrorists from locating
stockpiles of poisons and learning who handles them.
Among the previously undisclosed accidents:
_In Rockville, Md., ferret No. 992, inoculated with bird flu virus,
bit a technician at Bioqual Inc. on the right thumb in July. The
worker was placed on home quarantine for five days and directed to
wear a mask to protect others.
_An Oklahoma State University lab in Stillwater in December could not
account for a dead mouse inoculated with bacteria that causes joint
pain, weakness, lymph node swelling and pneumonia. The rodent - one of
30 to be incinerated - was never found, but the lab said an employee
"must have forgotten to remove the dead mouse from the cage" before
the cage was sterilized.
_In Albuquerque, N.M., an employee at the Lovelace Respiratory
Research Institute was bitten on the left hand by an infected monkey
in September 2006. The animal was ill from an infection of bacteria
that causes plague. "When the gloves were removed, the skin appeared
to be broken in 2 or 3 places," the report said. The worker was
referred to a doctor, but nothing more was disclosed.
_In Fort Collins, Colo., a worker at a federal Centers for Disease
Control and Prevention facility found, in January 2004, three broken
vials of Russian spring-summer encephalitis virus. Wearing only a
laboratory coat and gloves, he used tweezers to remove broken glass
and moved the materials to a special container. The virus, a potential
bio-warfare agent, could cause brain inflammation and is supposed to
be handled in a lab requiring pressure suits that resemble space
suits. The report did not say whether the worker became ill.
Other reports describe leaks of contaminated waste, dropped containers
with cultures of bacteria and viruses, and defective seals on airtight
containers. Some recount missing or lost shipments, including plague
bacteria that was supposed to be delivered to the Armed Forces
Institute of Pathology in 2003. The wayward shipment was discovered
eventually in Belgium and incinerated safely.
The reports must be submitted to regulators whenever a lab suffers a
theft, loss or release of any of 72 substances known as "select
agents" - a government list of germs and toxins that represent the
horror stories of the world's worst medical tragedies for humans and
animals.
A senior CDC official, Dr. Richard Besser, said his agency is
committed to ensuring that U.S. labs are safe and that all such
incidents are disclosed to the government. He said he was unaware of
any risk to the public resulting from infections among workers at the
high-security labs, but he acknowledged that regulators are worried
about accidents that could go unreported.
"If you're asking if it's possible for someone to not report an
infection, and have it missed, that clearly is a concern that we
have," Besser said.
Texas A&M's laboratory failed to report, until this year, one case of
a lab worker's infection from Brucella bacteria last year and three
others' previous infection with Q fever - missteps documented in news
reports earlier this year. The illnesses are characterized by high
fevers and flu-like symptoms that sometimes cause more serious
complications.
"The major problems at Texas A&M went undetected and unreported, and
we don't think that it was an isolated event," critic Edward Hammond
said. He runs the Sunshine Project, which has tracked incidents at
other labs for years and first revealed the Texas A&M illnesses that
the school failed to report.
Rules for working in the labs are tough and are getting more
restrictive as the bio-safety levels rise. The highest is Level 4,
where labs study substances that pose a "high risk of life-threatening
disease for which no vaccine or therapy is available." Besides wearing
wear full-body, air-supplied suits, workers undergo extensive
background checks and carry special identification cards.
"The risk that a killer agent could be set loose in the general
population is real," Hammond said.
In other lab accidents recounted in the reports, the Public Health
Research Institute in Newark, N.J., was investigated by the FBI in
2005 when it couldn't account for three of 24 mice infected with
plague bacteria. The lab and the CDC concluded the mice were
cannibalized by other plague-infested mice or buried under bedding
when the cage was sterilized with high temperatures.
The lab's director, Dr. David Perlin, told the AP it would be
impossible for mice to escape from the building and said a worker
failed to record their deaths.
"I feel 99 percent comfortable that was the case," Perlin said. "The
animals become badly cannibalized. You only see bits and pieces.
They're in cages with shredded newspaper. You really have to search
hard with gloves and masks."
A worker at the Army's biological facility in Fort Detrick, Md., was
grazed by a needle in February 2004 and exposed to the deadly Ebola
virus after a mouse kicked a syringe. She was placed in an isolation
ward called "The Slammer," but the Army said she did not become ill.
In other previously undisclosed accidents:
In Decatur, Ga., a worker at the Georgia Public Health Laboratory
handled a Brucella culture in April 2004 without high-level
precautions. She became feverish months later and tested positive for
exposure at a hospital emergency room in July. She eventually returned
to work. The lab's confidential report defended her: "The technologist
is a good laboratorian and has good technique."
In April this year at the Loveless facility in Albuquerque, an African
green monkey infected intentionally with plague-causing bacteria
reached with its free hand and scratched at a Velcro restraining
strap, cutting into the gloved hand of a lab worker. The injured
worker at the Lovelace Respiratory Research Institute received medical
treatment, including an antibiotic.
The National Animal Disease Center in Ames, Iowa, reported leaks of
contaminated waste three times in November and December 2006. While
one worker was preparing a pipe for repairs, he cut his middle finger,
possibly exposing him to Brucella, according to the confidential
reports.
A researcher at the CDC's lab in Fort Collins, Colo., dropped two
containers on the floor last November, including one with plague
bacteria.
A worker at Walter Reed Army Institute of Research-Naval Medical
Research Center in Silver Spring, Md., sliced through two pair of
gloves while handling a rat carcass infected with plague bacteria. The
May 2005 report said she was sent to an emergency room, which released
her and asked her to return for a follow-up visit.
.
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