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Several new strains of potentially deadly
biological organisms will be used in ongoing testing of an
experimental detection device at western Utah's Dugway Proving Ground.
However, Dugway spokeswoman Melinda Petrie stressed that the new
pathogens and toxins - among them a form of the plague - will be
tested only within the highly secure and remote Baker Test Facility.
"These pathogens will only be used in containment chambers in lab. In
fact, the only outdoor testing we do is with simulants," Petrie said
Thursday.
But a spokesman for the military watchdog group Downwinders said the
Army's testing of real disease organisms under any setting, no matter
how secure, is improper.
"The United States' policy relative to nonproliferation of biological
agents and the use of actual agents instead of simulant is a misguided
policy that causes great concern both locally and worldwide,"
Downwinders spokesman Steve Erickson said.
Downwinders filed in July 1991 a lawsuit in U.S. District Court to
block such tests at Dugway. Attorneys argued over the Army's motion
for summary judgment last April, but Judge Bruce Jenkins has not made
a ruling on the motion for dismissal.
Petrie emphasized that Dugway conducts only defense-oriented tests of
clothing and detection equipment against biological and chemical
weapons and that its laboratories are 20 miles from the nearest
populated area.
Petrie said safety precautions will be the same for the new round of
testing on the Chemical Biological Mass Spectrometer as those used for
trials last spring and summer.
In addition, the new materials will only be "bioprofiled" -
researchers will introduce them directly into the detector and then
immediately use infrared heat to ionize the organisms.
Lab equipment will be sterilized with steam and disinfectants before
their removal from the test chamber, Petrie said.
In April 1993, Dugway officials announced the beginning of tests for
the detector, which is being developed to collect and identify vapors
and aerosols containing chemical and biological agents.
Initial tests involved use of biological materials and simulants in
aerosols and liquid form. Scientists also used various smokes and
fumes in both laboratory and field tests in an attempt to confuse the
detector.
The intent was to make sure the device works under battlefield
conditions.
Last summer, the Army announced the addition of biological agents
including botulinum toxin A, associated with botulism; ricin, a toxic
byproduct from the castor bean; a killed strain of bacillus anthracis,
linked to anthrax; a live vaccine strain of francisella tularensis,
associated with a debilitating bacterial infection; and a vaccine
strain of the encephalomyelitis virus, which causes encephalitis.
Materials added to the experimental biological battery as of Thursday
included additional anthrax strains; brucella melitensis and brucella
suis, both linked to brucellosis; the plague-linked versinia pestis,
additional strains of francisella tularensis. |
