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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (March 27, 2003)
THE BATTAU! ; can eas weapons kill or injure many it police, firefighters and me:- il personnel could be it d when responding to nek because “the devicem. ictivate when it is In January, the FBI i lice to beware of icks using ricin, a toxic si nce derived from the cast! in plant. That warning fc /ed the arrests last yean tain of 11 North Africann terrorism charges m an alleged elop a ricin weapon. The bulletin came as tinues to interviewIr in the United States at it of about 1,000 a day, 1 of reaching 11,000 by it of this week. a Little or no training is required to assemble and leploy such a device due to its simplicity. — FBI intelligence bulletin released Wednesday Scil Tech TThe Battalion otulinum toxin identified as College Station plausible bioterrorism threat biotech firm fined by Feds By Laura Meckler THE ASSOCIATED PRESS he interviews, focused ot i who have recently to Iraq or have ties to tie military, are intende >ver the identities of rists and spies in is and also to find any Dn that might be forces in Iraq, lie bulletin also repeatedfe s search for Adnan G, El rijumah, a 27-yearJ i-born man who maybeai lida operative. El rijumah left the f lay 2001 for ding to his family, but la' cement officials say tie; it know his whereabouts, Shukrijumah was idem n part by information col- I after Mohammed's cag n Pakistan. lls Off with U3 :e Strong said that I i officials told him in meet- Pyongyang last week that ‘reserved the right” ess spent fuel rods ; say could yield eno ium for several ato within months. Sucl would spike tension even North’s Korea Pi sent a telephone m U.N. Command sa; longer send its del iaison-officers’ meeting at r-Korean border village of ijom. is meaningless to r with the U.S. forces side iss any issue as long as il ; arrogant,” the Nt news agency K the North Korean saying, announcement came as ers from across I convened the country's stamp parliament ted tension over the corn- state ’s suspected nt s program. U.N. Command, \ itored the armistice since of the 1950-53 war, I ediate comment. With e treaty, the Kon a is still technically in a van Meted for scam Wednesday handed ups -level Enron Corp. execu- i generate Si 11 mi ir's failed attempt to start of securities fraud, d March 12 against Kei i free on S500,000 bond t for July 1. on and the video c id business using broad- Jraveheart." At the time, ‘fund Enron Broadband romised profits from the WASHINGTON — Federal fficials fear the nation is vul nerable to a bioterror attack «th a little-known agent that is asy to find and easy to pro- iuce. Just a gram of botulinum oxin — the weight of a single aaper clip — could kill more ban 1 million people. Officials are working both to lug vulnerabilities and to mprove the ability to respond hould an attack occur. “We are making this the lighest priority,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci of the National Institutes of Health, one of the government’s top bioterrorism officials. “We are really mar shaling all available resources.” The toxin, the most poisonous found naturally on Earth, easily infects those who eat it. Experts fear terrorists could poison the nation’s food supply and sicken thousands, making the 2001 anthrax attacks-by-mail seem minor by comparison. The government has only enough antitoxin available to treat victims of a small attack — one official put the inventory at more 1,000 doses. The special treatment needed for children is produced only by a California trogram now in jeopardy because of the state’s budget problems. The issue takes on particular urgency as the United States wages war with Iraq. In 1995, Iraq told the United Nations it made more than 5,000 gal lons of botulinum toxin and had loaded much of it into bombs and warheads. Inspectors believe Iraq’s president, Saddam Hussein, has materials capable of producing twice as much toxin, or enough to kill the world’s human population three times over. Unlike smallpox, the most widely publicized bioterror threat, botulism is not contagious and, with medical treatment, most victims survive. But while smallpox no longer exists in the wild, botulism is easily acquired. It is found in soil and can contaminate poorly pre pared food. About 120 Americans get botulism each year. Roughly three in four are infants, who can get it from trace amounts in honey. Disseminating botulinum toxin would not be particularly difficult, although basic microbi ology skills would be necessary to do it, experts say. Heating food long enough at a high enough temperature kills the organism, but foods like fruits and vegetables aren’t cooked. Milk and other dairy products aren’t heated long enough during processing to kill the toxin. “If it were added to the food supply it could result in a signifi cant number of very serious ill nesses,” said Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest. Botulism causes paralysis, starting at the head and moving down the body. Victims become limp, and at the beginning they can’t move their eyes, facial mus cles or vocal cords. They have trouble swallowing. Eventually, the paralysis moves through the Deadly toxin In the United States, more than 100 people contract botulism each year, after exposure to minute amounts of botulinum toxin. Officials fear the toxin, which occurs naturally, could fall into the hands of terrorists. One gram of purified toxin could kill more than 1 million people. Acetylcholine SOURCE: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention How nerve cells normally work Neurons release a chemical called acetylcholine, which transmits signals to nearby neurons. How botulism attacks the body The toxin binds to nerve endings and stops the release of acetylcholine, leading to muscle paralysis which starts from the head and moves down the body. Emily Brannan/AP central nervous system, and patients must be put on ventila tors to keep their lungs pumping. It’s the same paralysis that makes Botox (short for botu linum toxin) an effective tool for smoothing wrinkles. A tiny, purified amount injected into people’s faces temporarily par alyzes the muscles beneath the skin. Botox is also used to treat certain nerve disorders. But in larger — though still tiny — quantities, it can be deadly. Botulinum toxin has never been used successfully as a weapon, although the Japanese cult-Aum Shinrikyo tried and failed to disperse it in aerosols at least three times in the early 1990s. Experts still fear both small- and large-scale attacks. They cite, as an example of a small attack, cult follow ers spreading salmonella on salad bars at 10 Oregon restaurants in 1984, sicken ing about 750 people. If even a few people were exposed, “that could cause panic and terror,” said Michael Doyle, director of the Center for Food Safety at the University of Georgia, who is advising federal officials on this issue. By Alex Dominguez THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON — The United States Department of Agriculture has given a $3.5 million no-interest loan to ProdiGene Inc. after the company said it could not afford to pay cleanup costs and fines for mixing soy beans with a genetically engineered corn. The department had cited the College Station, Texas- based company for failing to completely remove the corn — designed to produce a pig vaccine — before growing soybeans in a Nebraska field. As part of a settle ment, ProdiGene agreed to pay nearly $250,000 in fines and $2.7 million to reim burse the government for burning the soybeans, held in a Nebraska warehouse until they were incinerated. Agency officials had said the expensive fines were a warning to other potential violators. At the time, they did not mention the loan. Department spokes woman Alisa Harrison said, “There was not an intent to mislead anyone.” The department came up with the payment plan because ProdiGene’s finan cial statements showed it lacked the money to pay the fines, she said. Russell K. Burbank, the new president and chief executive of ProdiGene, declined comment. The company does not have to begin making pay ments until next year. Also, it can make quarterly install ments without interest for two years. Gregory Jaffe, biotech director at the Center for Science in the Public Interest, obtained copies of the agreement, which he said show the department “gave the company a sweet heart deal.” “I think it sort of sends the wrong message to the industry,” Jaffe said. Jaffe said the company is saving about $600,000 in interest because of the terms of the loan. Taxpayers are paying about $500,000, he estimated. The Nebraska incident in November marked the sec ond time that ProdiGene was caught mixing test corn with a crop headed for the food supply. A similar mishap occurred in Iowa this September. Join Us! We Have Openings on Our Team for Student Bus Drivers Now Accepting Applications for Fall 2003 Contact: Transit at 845-1971 Deadline for Applications: Wednesday, April 2 fl TEXAS A&M UNIVERSITY Transportation Services FLEET PARKING TRAFFIC TRANSIT As an engineer in the U.S. Air Force, there’s no telling what .you’ll work on. (Seriously, we can’t tell you.) United States Air Force applied technology is years ahead of what you’ll touch in the private sector, and as a new engineer you’ll likely be involved at the ground level of new and sometimes classified developments. You’ll begin leading and managing within this highly respected group from day one. Find out what’s waiting behind the scenes for you in the Air Force today. To request more information, call 1-800-423-USAF or log on to airforce.com. V U.S. AIR FORCE CROSS INTO THE BLUE