[CPEO-MEF] BIOLABS: "Hundreds of safety incidents with bioterror germs reported by secretive labs"

[Lenny Siegel <lsiegel@cpeo.org>]

Hundreds of safety incidents with bioterror germs reported by secretive labs

by Alison Young
USA TODAY 
July 1, 2016

Laboratories reported more than 230 safety incidents with bioterror viruses and bacteria last year, hundreds of workers were monitored for potential exposures and a handful of labs had their permits suspended because of violations that raised “significant concerns for imminent danger,” according to a report released Thursday by federal lab regulators in response to a White House call for greater public transparency.

Background checks by the FBI stopped 16 individuals that posed security risks – including six convicted felons, two fugitives and a person found to be a “mental defective” -- from working in labs where they’d have access to pathogens such as those that cause anthrax, Ebola, plague and botulism, the report said.

But in their first-ever public report, regulators continue to keep secret the identities of the labs that had serious safety accidents and faced enforcement actions when working with what the government calls  “select agent” pathogens because of their potential to be used as bioweapons.

The report even keeps secret the widely reported name of the Army’s Dugway Proving Ground lab in Utah, which last year was discovered to have been mistakenly sending specimens of live anthrax – labeled as killed – to dozens unsuspecting labs across the country and around the world. The report only describes the lab as an entity of the federal government and doesn’t name the type of live pathogen that was shipped.

...

For the entire article, see
http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/2016/06/30/lab-safety-transparency-report/86577070/

--

Lenny Siegel
Executive Director, Center for Public Environmental Oversight
a project of the Pacific Studies Center
278-A Hope St., Mountain View, CA 94041
Voice: 650/961-8918 or 650/969-1545
Fax: 650/961-8918
<lsiegel@cpeo.org>
http://www.cpeo.org

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