Military halts shipment of deadly toxins

[mhatrw]

Source: Associated Press

Military leaders have suspended some activities at biological research laboratories to review safety rules for some of the world's deadliest germs and toxins, including how they are shipped through FedEx and other civilian carriers. Defense officials said the action is part of a larger review ordered when a researcher at an Army lab committed suicide last month after being told he would be charged in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people. ...

The Army has six, Navy five and Air Force two labs where biomedical research is done to support counterterrorism efforts, research protection for the armed forces and keep track of infectious diseases across the globe. Employees work with a range of dangerous materials such as anthrax and germs that cause Avian flu and encephalitis.

The review also will be trying to determine whether employees who need to be are enrolled in the so-called Personnel Reliability Program — a system that requires personal screening, drug screening, evaluation of medical and work records and then provides for follow-up through evaluations by supervisors, fellow workers and others. The Army announced early this month that it created a team of medical and other military experts to review security measures at its biodefense labs, including Fort Detrick, Md., where scientist Bruce Ivins worked when he became the suspect in the 2001 anthrax letter attacks. To date, the Army has offered no explanation for how its biosecurity system, which is set up to identify mentally troubled workers, failed to flag Ivins for years.

FedEx spokeswoman Sandra Munoz said she was unaware of any changes in procedures. Shipping of dangerous materials is common, is carried out by a number of companies and is done by universities, research centers and others in the civilian and military world. Accidents happen and there have been cases in which shipments have gone missing, been damaged or lost. In one case reported to the government, plague bacteria that was supposed to be delivered to the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology in 2003 somehow ended up in Belgium and was incinerated safely.

Read more: http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5jiuMej-NB_uebx5yj1Ytq4PKIMWQD92MVTU00

---

[Ian David]

1. Can you photoshop that picture of Jesus so he's knocking on a bathroom stall...

... with Larry Craig inside it?