Posted on 07/01/2005 5:33:06 PM PDT by CHARLITE
The Chronicle for Higher Education is reporting that the National Academy of Sciences has published a paper on how terrorists could kill tens of thousands of people by dropping a few grams of botulinum toxin into a milk truck or storage silo. The Academy published the paper over protests by the US Department of Health and Human Services. The paper, authored by two Stanford University researchers, was scheduled to have been published in the academy's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences a month ago but the academy had held the paper because of the concerns leveled by HHS.
The letter received by the academy from HHS described the paper as "a road map for terrorists" and said that "publication is not in the interests of the United States."
But the academy's leaders decided to run with the paper despite the government's concerns intimating that the benefits outweighed any possible threats.
The paper, Analyzing a Bioterror Attack on the Food Supply: The Case of Botulinum Toxin in Milk, was written by Lawrence M. Wein, a professor of management science at Stanford's business school, and Yifan Liu, a graduate student in computational and mathematical engineering.
A spokesman for HHS in expressing his dismay over the academy's decision said, "Our concern is that if the academy is wrong on this the consequences could be severe and could be dire, and it will be HHS and not the academy that will end up having to deal with it."
The paper describes how individual farmers send their product to centralized processing facilities where milk from many locations is allowed to mix. By contaminating the contents of just one 5,500 gallon tanker truck with the toxin terrorists could effectively poison tens of thousands of people, mostly children.
Pasteurization is capable of destroying some but not all of the toxin.
An associate dean and director of a teaching and research center on veterinary medicine at the University of California, James Cullor, said Mr. Wein should not have submitted his paper for publication. "He put millions of children at risk, not only in this country, but around the world," he said. "And for what? It's an issue that the industry is already working on. In fact, these are issues that the industry taught him about. We all knew this was sensitive information, and we should handle it with care."
Saw this on the news last night. How totally irresponsible.
The enemy within strikes again.
He's not worried, he drinks soy milk.
Damn another edjucated idjit
Why, surely you don't expect Mr. Wein to decline the opportunity to be published, merely because of reactionary rightwing paranoia, do you?
Imagine a scientific journal in 1942 conjecturing how the nazis might construct a fission bomb... only in theory of course.
The one I worry about is the possibility, however remote, that terrorists will disguise themselves as students, and blow up all the university professors on campus -- thereby seriously depleting the supply of highly paid intellectuals in America.
And then I worry about the possibility, however remote, that terrorists will disguise themselves as advertisers, and blow up all the mainstream media people they see -- thereby seriously depleting the supply of highly paid journalists in America.
I hope that is the furtherest thought from the terrorists' minds because imagine all the havoc that would wreak -- if the university professors and alarmist journalists, who already are moaning and groaning about the awful conditions in this country, are sent screaming in flames in their respective workplaces.
Let see, what other possible terrorist acts of unimaginable and unspeakable horrors should we worry and warn the public about? How about those television talk shows...?
Surely the good doc and his protege published their contact info (addresses, phone numbers, work places, close relatives, etc.) so that we can reach them in the event that one of these unfortunate incidents takes place? After all, it's good to have all information, no matter its consequences, available to the general public....?
Liberals...They just don't understand that there is evil in the world.
Come to think of it, the media in my town dredge up the "Deadly Halloween Candy" scare every few years, even though there's never been a case of tainted candy in these parts.
This guy had aleady been given space on the New York Times' Op-Ed page for his thoughts:
OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR
Got Toxic Milk?
By LAWRENCE M. WEIN
Published: May 30, 2005
How terrorists could spread a toxin that causes botulism throughout the nation's milk supply.
What people won't do for fame and fortune.
Only the liberals would call their drive for self-aggrandizement a noble and public service.
How could they possibly understand when they themselves are the evils in the world.
I am glad I am using milk powder. ;)
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