HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) – There are 335 laboratories in the United States registered with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to handle deadly biological agents such as anthrax, anthrax, Ebola and smallpox, the Hartford Courant reported Sunday.
Another 75 labs that come under the supervision of the U.S. Department of Agriculture are similarly registered with the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service, the newspaper reported.
While about a dozen labs were doing active anthrax research before five people were killed in the October, 2001 anthrax attacks, CDC records show that more than 100 university laboratories now report having live anthrax, the Courant reported
Anthrax security
There are now more than 7,200 scientists or lab workers cleared to work with live anthrax, including the so-called Ames strain used in the October 2001 attacks, the newspaper said. That concerns some scientists.
“The huge U.S. investment in biodefense research, including dozens of new high-security labs and thousands of additional researchers, has actually made the biosecurity problem worse,” said Jonathan Tucker, a senior fellow at the Monterey Institute Center for Nonproliferation Studies.
But CDC officials attributed much of the increase to new reporting requirements. Lori Bane of the CDC’s Select Agent Division said many other labs or hospitals stored agents such as anthrax before October, 2001, but were not required to report to the CDC.
Laboratories that must register with the government include universities or colleges, private research companies such as the Battelle Memorial Institute in Columbus, Ohio, and government labs such as the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases in Frederick, Md.
Scientists and lab workers who work in a registered laboratory must undergo a security risk assessment conducted by the Department of Justice. But Tucker said the process is a “superficial vetting” that is far from foolproof.
“It is likely that the newly expanded pool of biodefense researchers with access to dangerous pathogens includes a few sociopaths or people with extreme political views who might be motivated to divert pathogens or toxins for criminal or terrorist purposes,” he said.
In 2004, investigators from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ inspector general office visited 15 university laboratories and discovered that 11 did not comply with federal regulations in at least one of five categories: record-keeping, lab access, training, security and emergency response planning.
At one school, anyone could have gained access to the computer system used to generate electronic key passes to high-security labs. Another university acknowledged it had not taken an inventory of its “select biological agents” in more than eight years.
A January audit by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s inspector general produced similar findings. All 15 laboratories visited had violations ranging from shoddy record-keeping to potentially unrestricted access to labs.
Bane said the labs have addressed their deficiencies.
“When our inspectors go out and find things, we try to work with the laboratories to fix the problems. But if they are severe enough we can take away their registration or not give them one,” she said.
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