NEWS: Report Warns of Threat to Milk Supply - 6/29/05 Washington Pos

[Guest guest]

Hmmm... Another argument that all of ISKCON's Deities should get their

milk from cows that will never be slaughtered.

 

It's quite interesting that the article notes that the US officials made

a last-minute attempt to halt the publication of the report.

 

ys

 

hkdd

 

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Washington Post

 

Report Warns of Threat to Milk Supply

Release of Study Citing Vulnerability to Bioterrorism Attack Was Opposed

by U.S. Officials

 

By Rick Weiss

Washington Post Staff Writer

Wednesday, June 29, 2005; A08

 

About a third of an ounce of botulism toxin poured by bioterrorists into

a milk truck en route from a dairy farm to a processing plant could

cause hundreds of thousands of deaths and billions of dollars in

economic losses, according to a scientific analysis that was published

yesterday despite efforts by federal officials to keep the details secret.

 

The analysis by researchers at Stanford University, posted yesterday on

the Web site of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences,

seeks to quantify security weaknesses in the nation's milk-supply chain

and makes recommendations for closing those gaps.

 

Although some suggested changes are underway, federal officials felt the

material had enough potential for misuse to warrant a last-minute effort

to halt publication. That effort, which delayed the report's release by

a month but ultimately did not keep it from becoming public, proved to

be as contentious as the publication itself. It has assured the report's

place in the scientific canon as one of the first test cases of how to

balance scientific freedom and national security in the post-Sept. 11 era.

 

Study leader Lawrence M. Wein, whose previous research had forecast the

likely effects of terrorist attacks involving anthrax and smallpox, said

he was surprised by the government's push to block publication, which

involved a flurry of phone calls and meetings with officers of the

National Academies. The organization advises the federal government on

matters of science and publishes the journal.

 

Last fall, Wein said, he briefed high-ranking officials of the

departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services, along

with dairy industry representatives, on his work.

 

"It was clear the dairy people were nervous about this paper coming

out," Wein said. But when federal officials did not follow up, he said,

he assumed they had concluded -- as had every reviewer at the National

Academies -- that the information in the article was publicly available

and easily obtained through a Google search.

 

Bill Hall, a spokesman for HHS, said yesterday that his department still

opposes publication but was not in a position to block release of the

data, which are not classified.

 

"We don't see eye to eye on this," Hall said. "If this ends up being the

wrong decision down the road, the consequences could be quite severe and

HHS will have to deal with it, not the National Academies."

 

The analysis by Wein and graduate student Yifan Liu considered what

might happen if terrorists poured into a milk tanker truck a couple of

gallons of concentrated sludge containing as much as 10 grams of

botulinum toxin, a potent bacterial nerve poison now popular in low

doses as a wrinkle eraser.

 

Because milk from many sources is combined in huge tanks holding

hundreds of thousands of gallons, the toxin would get widely distributed

in low, but potentially lethal, concentrations and within days be

consumed by about 568,000 people, the report concludes.

 

The researchers acknowledge that their numbers are very rough. But

depending on how thoroughly the milk was pasteurized (which partially

inactivates toxins) and how promptly the outbreak was detected and

supplies recalled, about 400,000 people would be likely to fall ill,

they conclude.

 

Symptoms of botulism food poisoning arise within hours and progress from

cramps, nausea and vision problems to paralysis and death by

asphyxiation. Although only 6 percent of victims would generally be

expected to die, the death rate could easily hit 60 percent, they

conclude, because there would not be nearly enough mechanical

ventilators or doses of antitoxin to treat so many victims.

 

Children could be hit first and hardest, because milk goes directly from

processing plants to schools, avoiding the grocery-distribution system.

 

"They'd be the canaries," Wein said.

 

The report concludes that the most efficient ways to reduce such risks

are to insist that latches on tanker trucks have locks; improve

pasteurization processes; and develop tests that can detect

contamination before milk is delivered to outlets -- changes, the team

concludes, that are likely to cost just a few pennies per gallon.

 

Publication was scheduled for the week of May 30, but was abruptly

postponed days before that date when HHS officials contacted the

National Academies with concerns that the paper might inadvertently aid

terrorists, according to an accompanying editorial written by Bruce

Alberts, president of the Academies.

 

Those concerns were discussed in detail on June 7, after which the

Academies decided to publish. By then, a preprint of the article had

been widely distributed to journalists as part of the journal's standard

procedures, and the New York Times had published a summary by Wein in an

opinion piece.

 

Barry R. Bloom, dean of the Harvard School of Public Health, who oversaw

an independent review of the paper earlier this spring, said he is

convinced that the report did more good than harm by quantifying the

risks posed at each point in the milk-delivery system -- a difficult job

that now allows the industry and regulators to concentrate security

efforts where they are most needed.

 

"This paper didn't just slip in with no one thinking about it," Bloom

said. "But science depends on openness and the free exchange of ideas.

And being aware of threats gives us a better chance of protecting

against them than not being aware of them and having only the terrorists

aware of them."

 

A national security directive signed by President Ronald Reagan and

still in force demands that fundamental scientific information remain

openly accessible unless it is formally classified.

 

Chris Galen, a spokesman for the National Milk Producers Federation in

Arlington, criticized the Academies' decision, saying the information

"could inform someone with malicious designs on food safety, even just

as a prank."

 

The need for improved pasteurization "is something that has already been

addressed" by the industry, he said, as has the need to keep locks on

truck latches.

 

He acknowledged, however, that those improvements, encouraged by the

Food and Drug Administration in recent years, are not mandatory. And

although he said the newer standards are being "widely followed," he

conceded he had no data to indicate what proportion of dairies and milk

processors are adhering to the tougher recommendations.