Bioterror Threat: Got Milk?
Tuesday, June 28th, 2005USAToday reports: “A scientific article that says terrorists could poison thousands of people through the milk supply  withheld at first at the government’s request  is being published despite continuing objections after the National Academy of Sciences concluded it wouldn’t help attackers.”
The study by Lawrence Wein and Yifan Liu of Stanford University discusses such questions as how terrorists could release botulinum toxin into the U.S. milk supply and what effective amounts might be.Bruce Alberts, president of the Academy, said in an accompanying editorial that a terrorist would not learn anything useful from the article about the minimum amount of toxin to use.
However, following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, some government officials have raised concerns that by obtaining biotechnology data terrorists might be able to engineer deadlier versions of diseases.
Health and Human Services spokesman Bill Hall said Tuesday the agency still feels the material shouldn’t have been published.
“We respect the Academy’s position but we don’t agree with it,” Hall said. The “consequences could be dire and it will be HHS, and not the Academy, that will have to deal with it.”
True.