10-12-2001
		Anthrax scare in Florida kills two FDA workers empty liquid carrying toxic materials in Boca Raton, Florida

On Monday the FBI closed up a building in Boca Raton, FL, where two employees had been exposed to anthrax. The building is owned by American Media Inc. and accommodates such tabloids as the National Enquirer, Globe, Star, and Sun. Sun photography editor Bob Stevens died last Friday of infection, and anthrax bacteria were found in the nasal passages of Ernesto Blanco, a mail handler. According to Newsweek's website, American Media received a letter containing a ``soapy, powdery substance'' a week before the Sept. 11 attacks on New York and Washington; both Stevens and Blanco had touched it.

Stevens lived a mile away from a flight school where one of the suspected hijackers had rented airplanes. That degree of propinquity is unsettling, but lab tests later found that the bacteria in Stevens' blood were not genetically engineered. Inhaled anthrax is highly virulent - 90 percent of victims die in a matter of days. Although the germs were natural, death by inhalation is extremely rare, and the FBI suspects foul play. According to the Associated Press, a mysterious e-mail had been sent to American Media in late August or early September that said, ``I left you a surprise for you to remember me by. Ha ha, just kidding.'' The message was from an intern.

Most cases of anthrax poisoning occur in third world countries where workers are exposed to dead animals or animal products. Infections happen when the skin is broken by rough hides or goat hair. The disease is very treatable within 24 hours of exposure.

Weapons-grade anthrax has been a threat to the United States for a long time. The military vaccinates personnel sent to high-risk regions, although it has recently downscaled the Anthrax Vaccine Immunization Program (AVIP). In June of 2001 a memorandum was sent to all military branches saying, ``Due to the continued delay in the availability of Food and Drug Administration-released anthrax vaccine, the Department of Defense must further reduce consumption of the vaccine until additional FDA-released anthrax vaccine becomes available.'' Only special mission units are allowed the vaccine as of today. AVIP is stalled to allow the FDA to catch up with demands and to allow for a small reserve of vaccine in case of emergency. The anthrax vaccine is made by the BioPort Corporation in Lansing, and is said to be 93 percent effective. The Centers for Disease Control only recommends inoculations for military personnel or people exposed to dead animal material in high-risk regions.

In his recent exposé ``Biohazard,'' Ken Alibek describes the production of weapons-grade anthrax in Cold-War Russia. Together with an army of scientists, he succeeded in mass-producing Anthrax 836, a ``battle strain'' that could be deployed against American populations. He says producing a strain like Anthrax 836 ``means assembling batteries of fermenters, drying and milling machines, and centrifuges, as well as the equipment required for preparing and filling hundreds of bombs.'' Covert production on a Cold-War scale seems out of the clutches of terrorists. The question is, can weak terrorist groups set their sights on America and do unfathomable damage? It is an emerging question in our new era. Alibek describes labs in which ``one vial was enough to produce the munitions for an intercontinental war.'' It is hard to say what resources are available to those who would do great harm. In his concluding statement on Anthrax 836, Alibek's words sound somewhat reassuring: ``Bioweapons are not rocket launchers. They cannot be loaded and fired. The manufacturing technique is, in a sense, the real weapon, and it is harder to develop than individual agents.''