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Feds: University labs must tighten controls over bioterror materials

Emergency Management Alert, November 1, 2003

Federal inspectors say university research labs often keep materials that could be used for bioterrorism in insecure areas without proper monitoring, the Associated Press reports.

The Agriculture Department's inspector general found the potential for access to biological agents, chemicals, and radioactive materials from college labs that receive some money from the department. The labs usually use the funding to pay for agricultural studies of materials including anthrax and the plague.

In one case, an unlocked freezer contained seven vials of Yersinia pestis, which causes bubonic plague and pneumonic plague, a more severe, airborne pathogen that infects the lungs and is nearly 100% fatal within 48 hours of symptoms. The last inventory for the freezer took place in 1994, and it was incomplete.

The freezer wasn't in a research lab, but in an area controlled by an undergraduate science lecturer, who destroyed the vials after government inspectors raised concerns. Another lab used for work with high-risk biological agents is open for bathroom use during night football games.

The inspector general's office evaluated 104 labs at 10 universities and a private institution during the summer of 2002, and recommended the White House impose the following standards:

* Create a central database of all biological materials stored at an institution

* Write procedures for checking backgrounds of lab workers and report missing pathogens

* Study potential risks at all labs and improve security based on those assessments

Only two of the colleges reviewed had a centralized database summarizing inventory for biological or chemical agents at their labs, and five had formal procedures for reporting missing pathogens. Buildings housing the labs often lacked alarm systems, surveillance cameras, keycard devices, and sign-in sheets. Some did not require the use of identification badges, some had unlocked doors, and cleaning staff in many cases had access to labs after hours.

To read the report, visit http://www.usda.gov/oig/whatsnew.htm

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