Pentagon, CDC investigating live anthrax shipping mishap

Pentagon, CDC investigating live anthrax shipping mishap

Published 8 June 2015

 

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter has announced that the Department of Defense, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is investigating the recent accidental shipment from a U.S. Army laboratory in Utah of live bacterium anthrax samples to fifty-one facilities in eighteen states and three foreign countries. The investigators have already identified the West Desert Test Center (WDTC), the testing area for Dugway Proving Ground, as the source of the mix up.

Pentagon chief Ashton Carter has announced that the Department of Defense, in collaboration with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), is investigating the recent accidental shipment from a U.S. Army laboratory in Utah of live bacterium anthrax samples to fifty-one facilities in eighteen states and three foreign countries.
As theWashington Post reports, the review will include the testing of all spore-forming anthrax in the inventory of the military which had been previously marked as inactivated.
The live samples which were shipped were irradiated at Dugway Proving Ground in Utah, and thought to be dead, but something went wrong in the process. The irradiation process usually involves passing the packages of anthrax under electron beams which kill any live spores. Believing the anthrx samples to have been deactivated, Dugway scientists shipped the samples via commercial shipping services, such as FedEx.
Army Chief of Staff Gen. Raymond Odierno said human error was likely not involved, but Carter, while traveling in the Pacific late last week, said he intends to find out who was responsible.
Carter’s tenure, which began in February, has been marked by challenges – the capture by Islamic State militants of major cities in Iraq and Syria; significant budgetary shortfalls as the Pentagon grapples with the expensive legacy of years of combat in Iraq and Afghanistan.
The anthrax incident is yet another, and unexpected, challenge which also exposes weaknesses in the military’s handling of deadly substances, and with which Carter must now deal.
The review is overseen by Deputy Defense Secretary Robert Work and led by Frank Kendall, the undersecretary of defense acquisition, technology and logistics. The investigators will examine the “the root cause for the failed irradiation process on the live anthrax samples, the biohazard procedures and protocols used, the adherence to those procedures and the identification of systemic problems and steps needed to fix them.”
They have already identified the West Desert Test Center (WDTC), the testing area for Dugway Proving Ground, as the source of the mix up. The center is the main facility for biological and chemical weapons testing for the U.S. Army. The site has five different divisions, with one focused solely on biological threats such as anthrax.
Kendall is expected to begin work on the investigation within the next thirty days.