Archive for the ‘Biological Warfare’ Category
US Air Force Research Laboratory: CONSISTENCY AND REPRODUCIBILITY OF BIOAEROSOL DELIVERY FOR INFECTIVITY STUDIES ON MICE
Here is a Master’s thesis paper from US Air Force Research Laboratory, dated March 2010 and posted here to demonstrate the kind of work being conducted.
What are bioaerosols? Bioaerosols are aerosols made up of particles of biological origin. Included in the category of bioaerosols are airborne viruses, bacteria, fungi, pollen, and organic material produced by biological processes. The paper states there is “concern that infectious organisms could be weaponized in a bioaerosol form and used for biological warfare or terrorism. A great deal of research has gone into examining the weapon potential of bioaerosols and how to defend against potential threats.”
As many readers will be aware already experiments have been conducted before whereby bioweapons have been sprayed into the air over and near populated areas. For example, as the UK Guardian noted a UK government report provided a comprehensive official history of Britain’s biological weapons trials between 1940 and 1979 and revealed that millions were in “germ war tests.”
To read the 2010 Masters paper titled: CONSISTENCY AND REPRODUCIBILITY OF BIOAEROSOL DELIVERY FOR INFECTIVITY STUDIES ON MICE access the pdf file here: http://www.dtic.mil/cgi-bin/GetTRDoc?Location=U2&doc=GetTRDoc.pdf&AD=ADA518394
The paper relates to experimentation done using two nonpathogenic microorganisms: MS2 coli phage virus and Bacillus atrophaeus bacterial spores.
The paper includes:
Creating Bioaerosols
Artificial bioaerosols are generated in the laboratory to simulate naturally occurring bioaerosols, for example to simulate a cough or an intentional release of an infectious agent as a biowarfare agent. The Collison nebulizer is often used to create a bioaerosol from a fluid containing microorganisms. In the Collison, a pressurized (typically 25 to 30 psig) stream of air draws up a liquid by the Venturi effect and jets it as a stream of droplets against the wall of its container. Of these droplets, those that are small enough are swept out of the nebulizer in the aerosol state; the rest return to the liquid reservoir.15,16″
Whole-body exposures have been used on animals as small as rodents and as large as dogs,67 and in the famous Operation Whitecoat, lasting from 1955 to 1973, the US Army performed experiments where humans were exposed to infectious bioaerosols in a 1-million-liter whole-body exposure chamber.72
Bacillus atrophaeus
The genus Bacillus makes up a variety of endospore-forming, Gram-positive rod-shaped bacteria. Bacillus spores are resistant to air-drying and other stresses, and therefore can be found in a wide variety of environments.95 B. anthracis is the causative agent of the disease anthrax and is of concern in bioterrorism defense. Some non-infective Bacillus species are often used as simulants in bioaerosol tests, because of their hardiness and their similarity to B. anthracis.22–24,61,62,65,74,96
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One Response to US Air Force Research Laboratory: CONSISTENCY AND REPRODUCIBILITY OF BIOAEROSOL DELIVERY FOR INFECTIVITY STUDIES ON MICE
Clare Swinney says:Operation Whitecoat
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Whitecoat
Operation Whitecoat was the name given to a medical research program carried out by the US Army at Fort Detrick, Maryland during the period 1954-1973. The program involved conducting medical research using volunteer enlisted personnel who eventually became nicknamed “White Coats”. The volunteers, all conscientious objectors and many members of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, were apprized of the purpose and goals of each project before providing consent to participate in any project. The stated purpose of the research was to defend troops and civilians against biological weapons, and it was believed that the Soviet Union was engaged in similar activities. Although the program no longer exists as it did from 1954-1973, similar medical research for this purpose is still conducted by the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infections Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick.
Experiments
Over 2,300 U.S. Army soldiers, most of whom were trained medics, contributed to the experiments by allowing themselves to be infected with viruses and bacteria that were considered likely choices for a biological attack. Whitecoat volunteers were exposed to Q fever, yellow fever, Rift Valley fever, Hepatitis A, Yersinia pestis (Plague), tularemia (rabbit fever), and Venezuelan equine encephalitis and other diseases. Also referred to as “white coats”[1], the volunteers were then treated for the illnesses to determine the effectiveness of antibiotics and vaccines. Some soldiers were given two weeks of leave in exchange for being used as a test subject. These experiments took place at Fort Detrick which is a US Army research center located outside Washington, D.C.[2]
The volunteers were allowed to consult with outside sources such as family and clergy members before deciding to participate. The participants were required to sign consent forms after discussing the risks and treatments with a medical officer. Of the soldiers that were approached about participating, 20% declined.[3] Much of the testing remains classified and Fort Detrick allows no visitors; not even ex-soldiers who were exposed as part of the tests can visit.
Long-term health effects
No Whitecoats died during the test period.[1] The Army has addresses for only 1000 of the 2300 people known to have volunteered.[4] Only about 500 (23%) of the whitecoats have been surveyed and the military chose not to fund blood tests.[1] A handful of respondents claim to have lingering health effects[4], and at least one subject claims to have serious health problems as a result of the experiments.[1]
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The risks of Operation Whitecoat
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/bioterrorism/2001-12-20-whitecoat-sidebar.htm
By Glenn O’Neal, USA TODAY
12/19/2001 – Updated 10:50 PM ET
The thought of exposing people to Q fever or tularemia could raise a few eyebrows today, but Operation White coat met a rare ethical standard in its day, some ethicists say.
Operation Whitecoat tests were done under the cloud of the Cold War and at a time when people rarely scrutinized workings of the government. It was a time when the government conducted some dubious experiments, such as the infamous Tuskegee experiments in which scientists studied the progression of syphilis in untreated poor black men.
Col. Arthur Anderson, who signs off on all research conducted today at Fort Detrick, Md., the home of the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, says the program was “a model for medical, ethical research for humans.”
Whitecoat volunteers were given a consent form at the Texas medic school where they were first approached, Anderson says.
Once they were at Fort Detrick, the volunteers attended meetings with researchers for further details, and, although they were expected to participate in an experiment at some point during their tour, volunteers did have the option of not taking part in an experiment, he says.
“By the standards of the day, I think it was an ethical, acceptable way to get the information they were looking for,” says Jonathan Moreno, director of the Center of Biomedical Ethics at the University of Virginia.
Moreno says the subject matter of Whitecoat has a lot to do with any queasiness over such experiments.
“I don’t think it is a matter of exposing people to risks,” Moreno says. “It leaves a bad taste in one’s mouth when it involves a biological weapon.”
He points out that what people objected to three months ago
may be changing. For example, current trials to test the effectiveness
of diluted smallpox vaccine may not have been considered before Sept. 11
because of the risks associated with taking a vaccine
for a disease that was considered eradicated.
Paul Root Wolpe, senior fellow at the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania, points out that Operation Whitecoat occurred when people were more trusting of the government and less critical of medical experimentation. Still, many people would have raised their voices against it had they known about it, he said.
“If it (Whitecoat) would have gotten out to the public, I doubt if many people would have thought it ethical,” Wolpe says.
