Sprouts, organic farming and many unanswered questions

Government officials point to an organic farm as the source of German deadly E.coli despite the fact that all laboratory tests from the farm's food was negative for the E.coli. 

Epidemilogical evidence was used instead to pinpoint the specific farm as the source of the deadly bacteria from contaminated sprouts.

But the question remains, how did the farm become contaiminated in the first place.  Why isn't there any evidence of the E.coli present now?  Was it a natural contamination or was the E.coli purposely used to contaminate organic food crops?

759 people suffered serious complications from kidney failure from the outbreak.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110610/ap_on_he_me/eu_contaminated_vegetables?om_rid=NR04UT&om_mid=_BN8nRmB8bpM5uO

Deadly E. Coli Strain Kills throughout German_Source Unknown

A highly lethal strain of E. Coli that kills victims by inflicting acute kidney falure has hit Germany.  At least 1500 people have succumbed to serous illness from the biological agent with at least 16 people already dead. 

It is serious.  It is a mystery.

The E. Coli strain has been found to secrete a more potent form of a shiga toxin.  The E. Coli will cling to a person's intestinal wall and release massive amounts of shiga poisons to make people sick, causing amongst other things, sezures and stroke. 

But this new strain of E. Coli also appears to have other behavior that makes it highly unusual, one of which is making it difficult to detect by conventional means. 

E.Coli is a standard microbe used in biological research, both in biomedical and agricultural genetic research. This German strain of E. Coli could have undergone natural or made-made genetic changes to make it more potent.



One of the other main mysteries to this killer strain, is that public health officials cannot trace its source.  They assume it comes from raw vegetables and warn the public from eating raw tomatoes, cucumbers and lettuces.

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/02/world/europe/02ecoli.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha2

Work-Related Death Statistics Remain Flawed

Deaths caused by work-acquired illness are hardly ever counted.  And the government and companies want to keep it that way.  This allows the government to falsely claim that workplace deaths have fallen to lowest level since 1992.  It makes them appear that they are protecting the public. It makes the companies look peachy clean.

Yet death from work related illness are significant. Illness acquired from work are constantly ignored or purposely covered up. 

Chemical exposure can cause respiratory problems, neurological illness, brain damage and cancer.  New emerging technologies such as genetically engineered infectious agents, synthetic biology and nanotechnology can also cause a variety of work-relatted illness.   They all can kill. Yet no accountability is seen in oversight or regulations to assess this large population of work-related illness causing deaths.  The majority are never counted.

Reports that indicate that workplace deaths are low need to be examined carefully.  Many of these reports are a way to hide inefficiencies in protecting workers, as well as, the public, as new dangerous technologies are created which can cause numerous illness and fatalities. Yet they continue to go unreported and undetected.

Below is one such report which does not provide statistics on any work-related acquired illness and fatalities.

Workplace deaths fall to lowest level since 1992
By SAM HANANEL, Associated Press Writer – Thu Aug 19, 12:33 pm ET
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_workplace_deaths


WASHINGTON – The number of workers who died on the job fell by 17 percent last year to the lowest level in nearly two decades, as workers logged fewer hours during the recession, the Labor Department said Thursday.

The 4,340 workplace fatalities recorded in 2009 was the smallest total since the Bureau of Labor Statistics first began tracking the data in 1992. It's the second straight year that fatal work injuries have reached a historic low, following a 10 percent drop in 2008.

High unemployment and layoffs in more dangerous industries like construction played a major role in the decrease, the agency said. The construction unemployment rate is 17.3 percent, nearly double the overall jobless rate of 9.5 percent.

Workers on average logged 6 percent fewer hours last year than in 2008. Employees in construction worked 17 percent fewer hours in 2009 than the previous year.

Labor Secretary Hilda Solis called the decrease encouraging and pledged to continue her agency's stepped-up enforcement of workplace safety laws.

"As the economy regains strength and more people re-enter the work force, the Department of Labor will remain vigilant to ensure America's workers are kept safe while they earn a paycheck," Solis said.

Workplace suicides declined by 10 percent to 237 after reaching a historic high in 2008. But that count is still the second-highest total recorded since the agency began tracking workplace deaths.

For the second straight year, commercial fishing was the deadliest occupation in the country, with a fatality rate about 60 times higher than the average rate for all workers.

One of the few sectors where the fatality rate increased was in building and grounds maintenance, where the number of deaths rose 6 percent.

The report is based on preliminary numbers. A final report is scheduled to be released next year.

In other findings:

_Transportation incidents, which accounted for nearly 40 percent of all work fatalities last year, fell 21 percent from 2008.

_Fatalities among black workers declined 24 percent. Black employees also saw a larger decline in the number of hours worked than white or Hispanic workers.

_Workplace homicides declined 1 percent to 521 cases. That is nearly half the all-time high of 1,080 homicides recorded in 1994.

BIOTECH INDUSTRY DENIES INJURED WORKERS RIGHTS_SANDI TREND SPEAKS

Sandi Trend, human rights and public health and safety activist speaks out about the injustices and coverup within the biotech industry against biotech workers.

Her son, David Bell was exposed to harmful biological agents while working at Agraquesta, a biotech company.  Bell immediately became seriously ill and has been denied directed medical care for his work-related exposures. 

Trend spells out some of the problems and fraud that workers face when trying to obtain medical care from dangerous biological exposures at biotech companies.  She emphasizes the lack of workers rights in this industry and the dangers of working in the industry.

See her talk here at the National Conference on Biotechnology, Health and Safety, Labor and the Public:  http://blip.tv/file/3924484

DEAD SCIENTISTS

VERY Bizarre link to "DEAD SCIENTISTS DO TELL TALES":

http://www.stevequayle.com/dead.scientist.news.html

Here is an chronological list of dead scientists: http://www.stevequayle.com/dead_scientists/UpdatedDeadScientists.html

Laboratory Worker Becomes Infected in BL3 Lab

(Picture of Tularemia lesion on Right Hand)

Poor Biocontainment Issues in Laboratories Raises Public Health and Safety Issues

A Fort Detrick laboratory worker has been infected with Tularemia, a bacteria which causes skin lesions, flu like symptoms, pneumonia or typhoid forms of the disease.

Tularemia can penetrate into the body through damaged skin and mucous membranes, or through inhalation. The natural form of Tularemia (i.e, not genetically engineered) typically is not spread from person to person. Rather, it is usually contracted through tick bites or handling diseased animals.

The infected researcher had been working with Tularemia in a BL3 lab at Fort Detrick at the time she became ill around November 23, 2009.

A BL3 (Biosafety level 3) laboratory is a biocontainment level having high levels of containment in hopes of preventing release of dangerous microorganisms into the environment.

How BL3 biocontainment of Tularemia was not maintained and, consequently, caused an illness, remains a mystery.

There is very little regulatory oversight in dangerous BL2 to BL4 laboratories that work on natural or genetically engineered human infectious agents throughout the United States. Worker's rights to a safe work environment are legally limited. This lack of protection for the public presents a serious public health and safety threat which seems to get very little attention and is usually kept from the public’s eye.

http://www.wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=1831256
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tularemia

http://blip.tv/file/2061380

The Plague of Biosafety

The Plague of Biosafety

There is mounting evidence that biosafety is not being regulated efficiently in the biotech and academic laboratories. Despite the fact that the media altogether downplays the public health and safety ramifications of biological research, this is serious stuff. It costs lives in more ways than one.

Recently, University of Chicago Professor Malcolm Casadaban died from the plague bacteria he was studiying. For more on this story click here.

Public Health and Safety has taken a back seat when it comes to biological research and development. Laws and regulations are lacking in this field of research. It is increasingly difficult to obtain information about laboratory aquired infections since institutions are self-policing. Bio-terrorism could easily be produced from a lab in the U.S.

As new emerging disease and chronic illness rise, laboratories, using dangerous genetically engineered organisms and other infectious agents, fail to ensure public health and safety. People with chronic illness or new disease remain to suffer with unexplained ailments, conditions that could be a result of biological research.

Laboratory Aquired Infection Leads to Death at Univerisity of Chicago

USA. Plague Bacteria May Have Killed Chicago Researcher - cbs2chicago.com
Sep 19, 2009 3:45 pm US/CentralPlague Bacteria May Have Killed Chicago ResearcherUniversity Of Chicago Insists The Public Is Not In DangerCHICAGO (CBS)

A University of Chicago researcher died Sunday, Sept. 13 from an infection which may be from a weakened strain of the bacteria that causes the plague, a University of Chicago Medical Center news release said.The Chicago Tribune identified the researcher as 60-year-old Malcolm Casadaban, a professor who was studying what school officials call a weakened strain of the bacteria in a school lab.The researcher was studying the genetics of harmful bacteria, including Yersinia pestis, a weakened strain of the plague bacteria. An initial autopsy showed no obvious cause of death except for the presence of the bacteria. Cultures of the researcher's blood grew the weakened strain of the bacteria, but whether it is the cause of the fatal illness remains unknown, the news release said.The researcher died at the University of Chicago Medical Center's Bernard Mitchell Hospital.Dr. Kenneth Alexander, chief of pediatric infectious diseases at the U of C Medical Center, said the public has "nothing to fear at this point.""What has become a mystery in this case is why this gentleman appeared to have succumbed to an organism which is not normally fatal in humans," Alexander said.People exposed to the bacteria typically develop symptoms within two to 10 days--none of the potential contacts reported any illnesses, the news release said.The strain is not known to cause illness and has been used in some countries as a vaccine to protect against the plague. It has been approved by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for laboratory studies.The plague is rare in the United States but remains a problem in the developing world where up to 3,000 cases are reported every year, the release said.Medical Center officials notified the Chicago Department of Public Health as well as the researcher's family, friends, colleagues and anyone else who may have had contact with the researcher.

http://hygimia69.blogspot.com/2009/09/usa-plague-bacteria-may-have-killed.html#comment-form

read full article here: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/1780803,CST-NWS-plague20.article

Also see:http://www.examiner.com/x-7707-Infectious-Disease-Examiner~y2009m8d4-What-is-the-difference-between-bubonic-and-pneumonic-plague

Biotech Worker's Rights DENIED

Biotech worker, David Bell is denied Health and Safety Protections and Workers' Compensation after exposure to Agraquest's biological agents.

Below is a complaint written by David Bell's mother to the Commission on Health and Safety and Worker's Compensation in California.


August 27, 2009
Commission on Health and Safety and Workers' Compensation
1515 Clay St,
Oakland, CA 94612

RE: Complaint

California is NOT protecting employees rights to work in safe and healthy
environments nor are injured employees given the right to know of the hazards they
have been exposed to.

California employers, who willfully violate Federal and state laws are not held
accountable, they are given the green light to continue to violate the law and there
misdeeds of fraud and concealment are hidden under the umbrella of protection
within the corrupt California worker’s compensation system.

My son, David Bell worked as a laboratory Assistant Researcher/Microbiologist (to
obtain lab hours for his Bachelor of Science Degree) for one of these employers,
Agraquest Inc. (AQ) a biotechnology company that discovers, screens and
experiments with known and unknown microorganisms, AQ searches the world for
microorganisms; and brings them into the U.S., mostly in soil, They receive
microorganisms from “microbe hunters” and other biotech companies; not known is
whether they were natural or mutations and had been genetically modified. At last
count there were over 23,000 microorganisms in AQ’s “microbe collection”.
David also worked with and was exposed to larvae and live insects.

After 5 months and 9 days at AQ, after vomiting and being sick for days David had
purulent bloody pus draining from his nose. He told his supervisor he was sick and
clocked out. He then went to Immediate Care Medical Clinic; was placed on the broad
spectrum antibiotic Zithromax and told to see an ear, nose and throat specialist. This
he did; now the left side of his face and teeth were numb. He was scheduled for the
first, of what would become four major sinus surgeries only seven ( 7 ) days after
seeking emergency medical care. He’s had countless other sinus procedures in
physicians offices through the years.

David stopped producing enough B-cells for an intact immune system; for 3 years,
every 28 days he was hooked up to an IV pump receiving IMMUNOGLOBULIN
infusions at the hospital; each lasting up to 7 hours.

Several of David’s vital organs have been affected as the result of his employment at
the AQ laboratory; respiratory, lungs, heart, liver, spleen and GI tract.
Denied by AQ as being the result of David’s workplace illness and disease were
nineteen (19 ) fungus and bacteria that have been identified in David’s blood, sputum
and/or nose cultures and/or lab results showing levels of antibodies as a result of
exposure; ranging from positive to HIGH POSITIVE. ALL of these fungus and bacteria
are linked to AQ’s products, patents and/or other companies patents that the
scientists at AQ are listed as inventors.

This is David’s medical from 1995-1998; seven ( 7 ) pages total, 1 page is a
Confidential Health Information Form. This is his medical costs after working for AQ
beginning 1999 through 2005 with a cost of over $333,000, mostly paid by medicare
and none by AQ’s workers comp carrier. I stopped calculating after 2005 although to
this day he is still sick and has mucous of every shade of the rainbow coming from
his nose. That is, when he can get it out.

As David’s mother, I swear to you; he has never been sick like this before he went to
work at AQ. He had seasonal allergies, normal colds and flu and he did have a
hernia surgery at the age of 6 because of a car accident.
California has to stop protecting businesses and start protecting it’s workers.

Thank you,
Sandi Trend

cc: file
attachments: Three ( 3 ) photo’s
1) David Bell medical prior to working at AQ; 3 years (1995-1998)
(7 pages ; (1 page is a Confidential Health Information Form) and
comparison to David Bell Medical billings after working at AQ;
(1999-2005)
2) David Bell medical billings after working at AQ (1999-2005)
3) Comparison of David Bell medical prior to working at AQ; 3 years
(1995-1998) and David Bell medical billings after working at AQ (1999-
2005)

Biodefense Industry and It's Public Health Threat

Here is a link to an excellent article on America's Biodefense Enterprise and how it presents problems for public health and safety. It is entititled, "A Dark Winter for Public Health: Meet Homeland security's New Bioterror Czarina, by Tom Burghardt.

Also see: http://antifascist-calling.blogspot.com/2009/08/bringing-bio-war-home.html for more info on our biodefense industry

Gibbs Makes Case for Lab Origin of Swin Flu

Virologist to make his case for lab origin of swine flu

http://www.petersnewyork.com/GIBBS.html

By Peter Duveen

PETER’S NEW YORK, Wednesday, July 1, 2009--The scientist who made headlines in May by positing a laboratory origin for the swine flu that has swept the world will defend his theory in the scientific literature, Peter’s New York has learned. Dr. Adrian Gibbs, a Canberra, Australia-based virologist with more than 200 scientific publications to his credit, said that over the weekend he submitted his latest work on the swine flu to a prominent scientific journal, and is awaiting a response. Gibbs, 75, was part of a team that developed the antiviral drug Tamiflu.

In May of 2009, Dr. Adrian Gibbs of Canberra, Australia, shown here on Bloomberg TV, achieved notoriety for his theory that the new swine flu may have been the result of an error in the vaccine manufacturing process.

Back in April, when the first cases of swine flu were diagnosed in Mexico, Gibbs examined the genetic structure of the virus that had been posted on a public database. His analysis led him to speculate that the virus may have been the result of a laboratory error. He contacted the Geneva, Switzerland-based World Health Organization with his conjecture, and scientists there scrutinized his findings, concluding, however, that the virus was most likely a product of nature. In a series of email exchanges with Peter’s New York, Gibbs said he was not satisfied with the WHO’s critique, indicating that the basis for it was ambiguous. “The WHO stated that they had no evidence to support my suggestion,” Gibbs said. “They made a very fair statement. However the principle reason for my conclusion remains—that none of the genes of the new virus had been sampled/found/caused epidemics since at least 2000, despite probably coming from at least two different parents on two continents, where other strains had been sampled.” Gibbs said that might have been a coincidence, but the unusual placement of the virus on what what virologists call phylogenetic trees—a sort of schematic family history of the virus--also piqued his interest. On top of that, Gibbs observed that there was a lack of evidence that pig populations in North America, from which the virus is believed to have emerged, had been infected. Only the pigs on one farm in Canada have as yet been shown to have contracted the virus. It has been established, said Gibbs, that swine easily contract the new flu from humans, and spread it among themselves. The absence of infection in the North American swine, Gibbs noted, may be evidence that the swine had already contracted the disease and built up immunity, or that they were vaccinated against viruses that resembled the novel swine flu closely enough for them to have been protected against it. Gibbs said the one Canadian herd that came down with the novel swine flu had not been inoculated, and that the evidence therefore leans toward inoculation as the reason North American pigs are disease free. That, in turn, would support a theory, according to Gibbs, that "the virus in the vaccine may be the immediate progenitor of the new human virus. " Gibbs said he would have been more satisfied if scientists at the WHO had examined the lists of all the vaccines licensed for production in the United States and Mexico and determined that none of them harbored strains from which the swine flu could have descended. He said he had been unable to locate such lists to make the determination himself. Gibbs spells out fairly clearly how he thinks the new virus might have emerged due to a laboratory error. In manufacturing a vaccine, each of the viruses to be protected against must first be bred and then sterilized to prevent their further multiplication. When a subject is inoculated, the body reacts to the “killed” viral fragments and produces antibodies that provide protection against the live virus. Gibbs said that if the sterilization process was not carried out properly, pigs could end up being given live viruses, and instead of being protected, would contract the disease. The live viruses would then have a chance to multiply and exchange genetic material within the infected pig in a process known as reassortment, and a new virus could emerge and spread to humans as a “swine flu.” The study of viruses is overlaid with a complex nomenclature and labyrinthine concepts and arguments in the field of genetics that are unfamiliar to the average layman. But the implications are far reaching, a fact not lost on the general public or on Gibbs. Early this year, the Deerfield, Ill. based drug firm Baxter International Inc. shipped experimental vaccines for human flu that were contaminated with the bird flu. The cocktail of influenzas, if it had not been discovered by alert laboratory specialists in the Czech Republic in February, could have been administered to subjects, after which, some experts feared, the two viruses could have undergone reassortment, producing a new virus that possessed the lethality of bird flu and the communicability of human flu. Bird flu is a deadly disease that kills close to half its victims, but resists spread from human to human. Human flu, on the other hand, is far more benign, but is easily spread through human contact. A recombined virus with the characteristics of each of the two could conceivably wipe out almost half the world’s population. Gibbs steers clear of elaborate intrigues that some believe are behind the new flu’s emergence. “Whenever I’ve thought something has resulted from a conspiracy, it usually turns out to be from a ‘cock-up,’” he said. The importance of establishing whether or not the flu emerged from a laboratory, he emphasized, is “to try to avoid a recurrence.” He did admit, however, that there was a definite risk to the public of escaping pathogens held in government and private facilities. “There are many historical precedents that are conveniently forgotten,” said Gibbs. “The recent Baxter incident seems to have been one.” “The reappearance in 1977 of the H1N1 (virus) last seen in 1950 after a period of non-evolution,” which he speculated could represent “suspended animation in a freezer,” was another instance in which pathogens might have escaped from a laboratory. Gibbs also cited the escape of foot-and-mouth disease from a British government laboratory facility in 2007. Asked if the resurrection of the viral agent for the deadly 1918 “Spanish” flu, which was reconstituted in 2005 by scientists at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for research purposes, was a safe proposition, he answered, “No, definitely not.” “It’s exactly the same principle as should apply to all high security labs,” said Gibbs. “If it ain’t ‘there’ it can’t get out, whereas if it is, then there is always the possibility, however remote, that it might get out.” The 1918 flu, which spread to every corner of the globe in the two years immediately following World War I, had a rate of lethality some 30 to 50 times greater than other strains of human flu. Tens of millions of people died in the pandemic worldwide. While some aspects of his presentation have been updated, Gibbs said his basic premise remains unchanged, and has, in fact, been reinforced by recent additions to the scientific literature. And while the WHO gave the appearance of having put the final nail in the coffin of Gibbs’s theory, in a rare show of scientific honesty for a public institution, it affixed the lid rather loosely, leaving itself room to revisit Gibbs’s hypothesis once it is published. In the mid-May press conference in which the WHO addressed Gibbs’s analysis, which by that time has spread far and wide throughout the mainstream media, Assistant Director Keiji Fukuda praised the virologist who had contributed to the field for more than fifty years of professional work, calling Gibbs “a credible scientist, a credible virologist.” In answer to a reporter’s question about whether Gibbs’s theory had been refuted, Fukuda said: “I think that it is fair to say that in the world of science, nothing is ever totally excluded, nothing is ever ended.” On the issue of whether Gibbs’s theory may actually prove true or not, he said: “We feel very comfortable based on the analyses which have been done, based on the rigor in which it has been looked at, that we are not dealing with a laboratory-created virus. However, I do not expect that the debate itself will stop.” The world awaits Gibbs’s response.

US GETS TOUGH ON BIOLOGICAL SMUGGLING

Canada disease lab worker faces US smuggling charge
13 May 2009
Source: Reuters

SASKATOON, Saskatchewan, May 13 (Reuters) - A researcher at a top-ranked Canadian infectious disease laboratory has been charged with attempting to smuggle vials of biological materials into the United States, Canadian and U.S. officials said on Wednesday.

The researcher, Konan Michel Yao, is alleged to have taken vials of basic biological materials for vaccine development from the National Microbiology Laboratory in Winnipeg, Manitoba, said Renee Robert, a spokeswoman for the Public Health Agency of Canada. Yao did not take infectious pathogens, she said.

"At no time was the health of citizens at risk because the materials seized were non-infectious," Robert said, adding she doesn't know of any similar incident involving the lab.
Yao was apprehended by U.S. officials as he attempted to enter the United States at the Pembina, North Dakota, border crossing on May 5, said Mike Milne, spokesman for U.S. Customs and Border Patrol.

Details of Yao's apprehension and current status were not immediately available.
Yao never had access to Level 3 and 4 pathogens, which include the H1N1 flu virus, HIV and Ebola virus, Robert said. He did have access to a Level 2 laboratory, similar to those at hospitals and universities, which may deal with lower-level infectious agents, she said.
Robert declined to say how Yao was able to get the vials out of the laboratory, but she said the laboratory has "very strict" controls in place.

The lab is Canada's top facility for the identification, control and prevention of infectious diseases and deals with the most deadly infectious organisms, including the Ebola virus, HIV and H1N1 flu. (Reporting by Rod Nickel; editing by Peter Galloway)

JACK BAUER EXPOSED TO A BIOWARFARE AGENT. CAN HE BE SAVED?

A couple of weeks ago, Jack Bauer endured an exposure to a biowarfare agent… which somehow produces a prion agent… which unfortunately, causes mad cow disease.

Poor Jack, our hero. This is serious stuff.

Is the biowar agent scenerio in 24 believable? Could this be a genetically engineered virus carrying a prion?

Genetic sequences encoding prions, no doubt could be cloned into a virus particle...but will its expression produce a functional prion? If so, then the biowar scenerio in 24 may not be that too far-fetched.

Through genetic engineering we can now weaponize virus particles to our liking; we can insert new genes into them to produce toxins. We can also design viruses to infect where naturally they would not.

For example, in research laboratories we can and have genetically designed the HIV virus to extend its tropism. That is, where the HIV virus used to infect only via a needle stick, or blood to blood contact, scientists have now engineer it to infect through inhalation, ingestion or mucosal contact.

So in Jack’s case, here is how it might work. The virus, a non-replicating form which is not contagious but engineered to have broad tropism of infection, infects the lungs, mouth and eyes of our hero Jack Bauer through gaseous exposure. Subsequently, through this initial exposure the lungs, optic nerve and trigeminal nerve become infected. The virus continues to travel up his nerves and into his central nervous system. The virus then integrates into the DNA of the nervous system cells. It now is ready to rock and roll.

The virus, now hiding in the nervous system, starts it production machinery, expressing and pumping out loads of the prion protein. The prion protein then causes normal proteins to fold inappropriately, beginning a chain reacation of neurological insult and neuron death. And poor Jack Bauer our hero begins to shake and loose memory and becomes a MAD HATTER. ARRRRRRHHHHHHHHHHH....

Poor Jack. Someone save him. Will it be adult embryonic stem cells through his daughter's bone marrow? Dear me…More stem cell hype.

I can’t wait to find out how he gets out of this one.

WHAT WAS HE THINKING?

Fake anthrax warning mailer [Keyser] indicted in Sacramento [CA]“A federal grand jury indicted Thursday a 66-year-old retired teacher from Sacramento who sent 120 letters with fake anthrax nationwide last month to alert the public on the threat of bioterrorism. Marc M. Keyser faces 10 counts of hoax mailings and three counts of mailing threatening communications. Both crimes are punishable by up to 70 years imprisonment. Keyser, who is out on a $25,000 bail, has said he was not sorry for sending the letters with compact discs and packets of sugar labeled as anthrax to media and government offices as well as restaurants because he was just trying to prompt the government to be vigilant in preventing a repeat of the anthrax mail attack in 2001 that killed five people and sickened 17 others.” (Gant Daily, 13Nov08; Source: AHN) http://www.gantdaily.com/news/35/ARTICLE/36511/2008-11-13.html

U.S. Dedicates New Biodenfense Laboratory

A new $143 million U.S. biological defense laboratory was dedicated yesterday and is scheduled to begin full operations in March, the Washington Post reported (see GSN, Jan. 29).The Homeland Security Department's National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center at Fort Detrick, Md., is set to house nearly 150 scientists working to prevent acts of bioterrorism, limit the effects of such a strike and trace lethal material back to its source.The primary offices in the 160,000-square-foot, ship-shaped facility are a forensics testing center for identification of those who carry out an attack using disease material and the Biothreat Characterization Center, which would model potential bioterrorism scenarios and help produce drugs to counter bioagents. See more......http://vets4politics.blogspot.com/2008/10/us-dedicates-new-biodefense-laboratory.html

E. Coli Outbreak in Oklahoma--Toxins and Death

1 Dead, At Least 41 Hospitalized in Okalahoma E. Coli Outbreak

State health officials are confirming a type of E. coli bacteria has been found in 10 patients who were sickened by a severe illness in northeastern Oklahoma.

The outbreak killed 26-year-old Chad Ingle and at least 41 people have been hospitalized and several children are undergoing dialysis because of kidney failure.

Laboratory specimens will be sent to the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further analysis.

Health officials say many who became sick ate at the Country Cottage restaurant in Locust Grove but the restaurant has not been pinpointed as the site of the outbreak.

The restaurant is normally closed on Mondays and voluntarily closed yesterday and today as the investigation continues.

The illnesses are a very severe and bloody diarrhea with symptoms also including vomiting and severe abdominal cramping.

Source: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,411883,00.html)

E. coli confirmed as cause of Oklahoma disease outbreak

August 27, 2008

The Oklahoma State Department of Health has now confirmed that E. coli is to blame for the recent disease outbreak in northeast Oklahoma that has caused one death and 41 hospitalizations.

In today’s news release, state epidemiologist Kristy Bradley said “Our laboratory results indicate that we are dealing with an unusual type of E. coli that produces two different types of toxins. These toxins are responsible for the very severe disease that we are seeing in many persons sickened by this outbreak.”

Local residents have been nervous about food safety in recent days because the state Health Department had released little information about the source of the illnesses. E. coli was suspected to be a cause, but the type of contamination was not confirmed until today.

State officials have referred current laboratory samples to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for further analysis. The state Department of Environmental Quality has received inconclusive results thus far from water quality tests conducted in Locust Grove, home to the County Cottage restaurant where many of the disease victims ate before becoming ill. The Country Cottage continues to remain voluntarily closed while the outbreak investigation continues.

Source: NewsOK.com (http://www.oklahoma-personal-injury-attorney.com/food-poisoning/e-coli-confirmed-as-cause-of-oklahoma-disease-outbreak/)

Bioterrorism Threat Is Ever Present

"The threat of bioterrorism has not subsided," while the challenge of predicting or preventing a major biological attack remains "daunting," Robert Hooks, the Homeland Security Department's deputy assistant secretary for weapons of mass destruction and biodefense, told a House panel two weeks ago.

"The potential for something to happen is much greater now than it was in 2001, simply because of developments of technology and education," D.A. Henderson, who was principal science adviser for public health preparedness to then-Health and Human Services secretary Tommy G. Thompson, said in an interview.

READ MORE: "Modest Gains Against Ever-Present Bioterrorism Threat"