US Military Halts Shipment of Deadly Toxins
August 21, 2008 by national
Filed under Stories of Interest
U.S. 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 civilian delivery services.
Defense officials said the action is part of a larger review ordered when a researcher at an Army laboratory apparently committed suicide last month after being told he would be charged in the 2001 anthrax attacks that killed five people in the United States.
Navy and Air Force officials told The Associated Press on Thursday that they are temporarily halting shipments of dangerous biological agents to and from their medical and research labs.
They also said that during the review, they will not allow anyone to handle such materials inside their labs unless the employee is enrolled in a special program to do so or is monitored by someone who is enrolled.
The Army has six, Navy five and Air Force two labs where biomedical research is done, and employees work with a range of dangerous materials such as anthrax and germs that cause Avian flu and encephalitis.
