Richard Preston outlines bioterrorism threat in ISU speech
November 18, 2001 By TAMMY JOHNSON
of the Journal Star
NORMAL - Illinois State University President Victor Boschini had high praise for an author who visited the school last week.
"He's brilliant, he's funny and he scared the hell out of me," Boschini said.
Investigative journalist Richard Preston, author of "The Hot Zone" and "The Cobra Event: A Case Study in Biological Terrorism," both books on bioterrorism, warned students, faculty and administrators about the real threat of bioterrorism in the United States.
Preston's words may have failed to instill a real sense of fear in Americans a few months ago, but the large crowd remained dead silent Tuesday after he wrapped up the last of several true stories on deadly viruses.
While Preston focused largely on the global threat of smallpox, he also addressed questions about the latest anthrax scare.
He criticized the government for wasting time after the first anthrax outbreak. Lives were lost unnecessarily, he said, because officials assumed natural causes were behind the anthrax.
He also was "outraged" when "The Cobra Event," a 1997 novel on biological weapons and terrorism, failed to generate enough attention from government officials.
Instead, the book was paid lip service, he said. "At some important level, the government wasn't getting it."
"The Cobra Event" centers on a young doctor who works with a secret FBI team to stop bioterrorism in New York City.
Preston said his novel and the current anthrax situation have several parallels.
For example, the attacker in Preston's novel is a serial terrorist. Similarly, the FBI believes one person - likely someone with a scientific background - is responsible for mailing the anthrax.
Although the novel is fictional, it is backed by three years of research. Preston said he decided to turn the project into a novel when some of his most important FBI sources refused to talk unless they remained anonymous.
Preston's earlier book, "The Hot Zone," was a best-selling nonfiction book that eventually led to production of the movie "Outbreak."
"The Hot Zone" documents a natural outbreak of the Ebola virus near Washington, D.C., in 1989.
Preston said he wondered why the government knew so much about the deadly virus. He later learned the former Soviet Union had Ebola stored in missiles aimed at the United States.
But smallpox is a far greater threat, he said, and the former Soviet Union was thought to have large amounts of it as well.
North Korea, Iran and Iraq also have experimented with smallpox as a weapon, and Syria, Israel, India, China and Pakistan also may have researched the possibility of using it.
The highly contagious virus has a one-in-three fatality rate, Preston said, adding that one person with smallpox would constitute a global emergency.
To make matters worse, little of the vaccine is available, although there is a concerted effort to make more, he said.
Smallpox is expensive and difficult to use as a biological weapon, Preston said. Anthrax, on the other hand, is a good biological weapon because it's cheaper and requires less skill to make.
In addition, with the help of silica - a substance found in potato chips to keep them from getting soggy and sticking together - anthrax in its powder form dissipates into the air.
Despite his warnings, Preston left audience members with a few positive words and some suggestions for the future.
The United States has the most powerful biotechnology in the world and is working on technology that would instantly detect viruses such as smallpox and anthrax, he said.
More funding for such research and increased respect for public health officials would further protect Americans from bioterrorism.
He said the public health community needs additional money to better prepare itself for the emergence of diseases.
ISU freshmen Nicole Wenzel and Lauren Zajac said Preston's warnings put a bit of a scare into them, but not because of the recent anthrax cases. Instead, they are frightened by the idea that other countries may have stockpiles of the bacteria.
"I'm more scared of smallpox than anthrax because there isn't a cure and there are limited vaccines," Wenzel said.
David Williams, ISU associate vice president of Information and Technology, said Preston believes it's his mission to warn Americans about smallpox.
"And he's good about putting it into lay terms so it gets people's attention," he said.
http://www.cbs11tv.com/StoryDisplay.asp?StoryID=7056
BEAUMONT - An industrial waste incinerator in Port Arthur will destroy anthrax-impregnated material from terrorist mailings, the site manager said Tuesday.
Art Mathes, general manager of Onyx Environmental Services, said for a report in Wednesday's Beaumont En-terprise that the material is expected to arrive within two weeks. Mathes said the materials will be decontaminated before being shipped to Texas.
"Our facility has been contacted by several professional remediation companies acting on behalf of the U.S. government or private enterprise," Mathes said in a statement.
He declined to name the government agencies or companies.
Mathes said Onyx will accept and destroy the materials in the national interest. He did not say how much waste the facility will handle.
In a letter to U.S. Rep. Nick Lampson, D-Beaumont, Mathes assured him that all applicable federal regulations will be followed.
Lampson said in a statement Tuesday that he wants President Bush to ensure the safety of the material before it is shipped to Jefferson County.
"We have seen missteps in the handling of anthrax-contaminated materials," Lampson said.
"I don't want to see another occur because we did not take the time to see this is done properly. We don't know what works and what doesn't. How can they assure us this material is decontaminated?"
Mathes said the national Centers for Disease Control and Prevention require all generators of hazardous wastes and debris to decontaminate the material before transportation.
"In accordance with our hazardous waste-handling policies, prior to shipment to our facility, these wastes will be treated with disinfecting solutions and procedures approved by the Centers for Disease Control that render them noninfectious," Mathes said.
"They pose no risk to our employees, the surrounding community or the environment."
He also said the U.S. Transportation Department requires that a licensed hazardous-waste carrier bring the material to Onyx's industrial rotary kiln on Texas 73 west of Port Arthur and south of Port Acres.