Posted on 10/21/2001 4:42:32 AM PDT by Brownie74
ANTHRAX SPORES FOR SALE IN MEXICO
MEXICO CITY — Two germ banks tucked away in the smog and sprawl of the hemisphere's largest city stock dozens of petri dishes filled with anthrax, the bacteria that have sparked a worldwide panic.
But there are no armed guards, no security cameras and no health officials tottering about in germ-proof space suits. In fact, these labs sell, swap or even give away the potentially deadly microbe to those with scientific credentials.
Scientists estimate that germ banks from Bangkok to Buenos Aires, Paris to Perth, keep dozens of strains of Bacillus anthracis, the germ that causes anthrax, and millions of other potentially deadly bacteria on-hand for research purposes.
Visits to several germ centers around the world found that hazardous spores are often shipped out in hard-plastic travel vials to hospitals looking to check a diagnosis or to researchers.
When the Gulf War brought fears of biological weapons pumping germ-laced gas into the Iraqi deserts where American forces roamed, the United States began limiting who could receive hazardous microorganisms from its germ centers.
Since 1997, it has been illegal for laboratories to ship any deadly microbes to destinations in or outside the United States without permission from the Justice Department.
Regulations in many places outside the United States are looser.
"There are suggested guidelines for the way the germ banks of the world should behave," said Fernando Montiel, coordinator of biochemistry at Mexico's National Autonomous University. "But it is left up to each individual country to enforce these rules. Some countries are more strict than others."
In Mexico, the issue is complicated by the fact that the country has an especially high concentration of potent Anthrax spores in its soil. Since 1991, more than 110 people have died from the disease contracted in the Mexican countryside or from infected livestock, according to Hector Villalva, head of the microbiology department at the National School of Biological Sciences, one of Mexico's two germ banks.
"How is it worth it to take extra security measures at laboratories when you can find the same anthrax in nature?" Villalva asked. "The labs are not the problem."
On the wooded Mexico City campus of the biological sciences school, vials of anthrax are kept in an unlocked, closet-sized office marked "private."
In a sealed lab there last week, microbiology professor Jorge Zepeda showed 35 college freshman how to isolate potent anthrax strains in a sealed lab last week.
"This is the bacteria for anthrax," Zepeda said, holding up a red-plastic petri dish containing a collection of translucent cells. "But if I were to open this right now it wouldn't hurt any of us."
Still, he said, "Someone with the expertise, the money and the time to keep trying different combinations could do anything to the bacteria," he said.
China's National Center for Medical Culture Collections distributes harmful forms of anthrax only to scientists with letters of introduction from the Ministry of Health.
Such scrutiny has paid off. One Istanbul University laboratory said it received a suspicious fax three years ago from a British organization it didn't recognize, requesting samples of harmful bacteria.
"It was from two men, one Algerian or Moroccan, one a British citizen," said Bulent Gursel, head of the germ bank. "I found it strange that they wrote to us, since there are many places in Britain where they could have obtained the bacteria."
In England, only laboratories with special government licenses are allowed to purchase harmful bacteria from Britain's Public Health Laboratory service, the country's only collection of infectious diseases.
In Iran, soldiers with machine guns keep an eye on a multilevel state research lab on a side-street off Tehran's main thoroughfare. Lab scientists are tight-lipped about what germs are available inside.
"Germ banks play an invaluable role in the development of new and stronger vaccines," said Zepeda, the Mexico City professor. "But of course they have made mistakes. The system is not perfect."
------ EDITOR'S NOTE: Associated Press reporters in Europe, Asia and the Middle East contributed to this report.
Nuclear, Biological, & Chemical Warfare- Survival Skills, Pt. II
A year ago I might have called you and alarmist but things have sure changed.
It's more a result of the jacked up prices we pay in the US.
Beyond their inherent nastiness & destructiveness, NBC weapons are terror weapons- and that quality is enhanced by lack of knowledge about them. The counter is learning more about them.
As the late Pat Frank noted in "How to Survive the H-Bomb... and Why" a .22 calibre bullet can kill you just as dead as a 20 megaton bomb....
I guess it is like any other drug - your body will build up an immunity to it. I am not really all that worried but I am being cautious.
...and he can, in six months. The sentence is a bit light, IMHO. I think 1 - 2 years is more appropriate for the trouble it causes.
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