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Bioterrorism

CASE STUDY - The Grave Potential Threat of Bioterrorism
The International Criminal Police Organisation, or Interpol, believes that measures to tackle bioterrorism need to be implemented quickly. At the Asian Bioterrorism Workshop held in Singapore in March 2006, Interpol says there is enough evidence to show al-Qaeda is preparing to engage in biological warfare. Bioterrorism should not be taken lightly. The 11th volume of al-Qaeda's Encyclopedia of Jihad, for example, is devoted to chemical and biological weapons
Image Description: Bacillus anthracis Title of Website: Online Textbook of Bacteriology Website address: http://www.textbookofbacteriol ogy.net/ Location of Image: http://textbookofbacteriology .net/B.anthraciscapsule2.jpeg Permission given via email - kgtodar@facstaff.wisc.edu by Kenneth Todar, from the University of Wisconsin	The anthrax bacillus - could it be used as a potential weapon of terrorism? Over the course of several weeks beginning on September 18, 2001, letters containing anthrax bacteria were mailed to several news media offices and two US Senators, killing five people

Terrorists have used biological agents that readily disperse by air or water or in edible products and can cause terrible diseases as a weapon in many occasions throughout history. The deliberate release of biological agents like bacteria or viruses capable of producing grave diseases and death sometimes in their natural form, but more often selectively or genetically altered, is defined as " Bioterrorism ". Bioterrorists might not only target large population masses but also large and important repositories of resources like water or edible products, they can also target livestock or crops, causing uncontrollable epidemics that could be also transmitted to humans.

There are several documented cases of bioterrorism , some of them dating back to the fourteenth century, when armies putting castles under siege threw the carcasses of animals and soldiers into the castles using catapults and lever mechanisms to inflict disease and death to the people trapped within.

One of the most famous cases involves the British General Jeffrey Amherst, who was leading an army in a series of battles against the Delaware Indians and approved of a plant to obtain bedclothes and other garments from one of the army's makeshift hospitals and offer them as gifts to the Delawares. The clothes had been used by smallpox patients.

Later, during World War I and II, scientists working for the governments of different countries involved in the wars, kept working on and perfecting biological weapons that were, at the time, rather primitive since bacteriology was still in an early stage. Methods of culture of these microorganisms were simple at first: obtain a few infected animals from   naturally affected herds and keep them alive for as long as possible, using it as a living culture of the microorganisms. As the decades went by, however, these methods were made more complex and efficient and by the end of World War II, the United States and Russia had many bacteriologists working on the dangerous strains and assembling an impressive array of biological weapons, by the time of the Cold War, they were already perfecting the spreading methods, creating biological bombs and missiles. When the Cold War ended, however, many of the scientists that had been working on the Russian biological warfare were hired for great sums of money by the governments of different countries.

Then, in 1972 many concerned nations signed the first in its kind Biological Toxin Weapons Convention, putting a ban on that kind of weapons. But even with this ban, in 1979 a terrible epidemic in Russia killed almost a hundred people and the U.S. intelligence forces had reason to suspect that experiments of new biological weapons were being conducted in Russia .

In 1991, Iraq had in its arsenal powerful toxins that cause diseases like botulism in usable weapon form and were developing more.

In other examples both ancient and recent, people have put harmful microorganisms in food or have sprayed them or released them in gas in closed places, the way it happened in the Tokyo subway in 1995.

Classification of Biological Weapons

Dangerous biological weapons can be classified into three groups, according to their toxicity:

Category A

Represent the highest risk to public security, because they are easily transmitted by touch or inhalation and require special medical attention, causing grave illness and almost always, death.

Category B

Are less easy to spread, cause moderate illness and the death ratio is lower.

Category C

These agents are more dangerous than the previous two categories not because they could cause a larger number of deaths or provoke grave illness but for the fact that they are microorganisms that are easy to obtain and are prime subjects for genetic engineering experiments, they could be produced in mass and would then constitute a great threat to public health.

Some of the organisms in all three categories are considered all the more dangerous because the victim won't show any symptoms until days after having contracted the disease, making it more difficult to save his or her life at an advanced stage of infection.

Most Important Diseases Caused by Bioweapons

Smallpox

This disease spreads airborne from person to person, it is difficult to treat, it is caused by a virus. A vaccine has been developed but it is expensive and cannot be used on the population for that reason.

Pneumonic Plague

This disease is related to the Bubonic Plague or Black Death but in the Pneumonic plague the bacterium is inhaled by the victim and in the Bubonic Plague it enters the bloodstream. In consequence, bioterrorist attacks will provoke the Pneumonic form by the use of gas bombs that spread this agent. It transfers easily from person to person by air, when the victim coughs or sneezes. There is a vaccine to prevent the Bubonic Plague but it won't prevent the Pneumonic Plague.

Botulism

Caused by a very potent toxin. Causes death if untreated after 48 hours. It does not spread from person to person. If used in a bioterrorist attack it would be in gas or in food. Does not respond to antibiotic treatment because it is caused not by a bacterium but by a bacterial protein.

Tularemia

Is a very infectious disease. The bacterium that causes it spreads most easily by air, for which aerial bombings and gassing of this agent would be fatal for a population target. is one of the most infectious bacterial diseases known. It requires antibiotic treatment and, as in the case with smallpox there is a vaccine but it is not available to the public. It cannot be transmitted from person to person.

Anthrax

Bacillus anthracis is a rod-shaped bacterium that causes the disease of anthrax, mainly in domesticated herbivores like cattle, sheep and horses, humans can get infected if they come in contact with the sick animals in any way. B. anthracis is found naturally in the soil, but represents little threat to human populations if there are no herds of domestic animals grazing in those areas. This bacterium was discovered and named in the late nineteenth century by Robert Koch, who was able to grow B. anthracis in culture media and studied its life cycle, discovering that this organism is capable of forming endospores, which are resistant capsules or spores (called endospores because they are formed inside the individual organism to be later released) in which the organism itself lives and can withstand adverse conditions and emerge some time later and cause disease.

There are at least three forms of this disease: cutaneous anthrax, which is the most common, inhalation anthrax (also known as woolsorters' disease because it affected woolsorters that had to handle the wool of infected animals) and gastrointestinal anthrax. It's important to note that there is no real evidence that anthrax can be transmitted person to person.

Spores of anthrax can be stored dry and kept viable for several years and then loaded into missiles or bombs or put in aerosols. To destroy the spores it is necessary to burn them or boiling at high temperatures for at least half an hour.

Chemical Terrorism

Chemical terrorism is the use of chemical substances as weapons by individuals or groups to threaten, damage or kill innocent victims while pursuing a political, ideological or religious goal.

According to a series of videotapes that were made by the al-Qaeda terrorist organization and that were recently found in a house in Afghanistan, this group had been undertaking experiments with explosives and dangerous chemicals throughout the decade of the 1990s. Some of the footage in those tapes was broadcast by the US television news channel CNN, and it caused a stir in the population of that country and many others in the world, because the threat of a chemical terrorist attack, being hard to predict and bringing about such terrible consequences, causes immediate fear in people.

In the past there have been several examples of this kind of attack, one of the best known is the 1995 Sarin gas attack in the Tokyo subway that caused a dozen deaths and hundreds of people were in need of medical attention. Predicting such an attack is almost impossible. Another big worry is that of the possibility of a terrorist group spreading a contaminating agent in food and water supplies which would bring tragic consequences.

This type of terrorism can be devastating since it is very difficult to control and the attack itself has a longer duration and effect than a bombing attack, for example. In 1997 the OPCW Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons was formed to ensure that the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC) fulfills its goals. According to the OPCW website, the organization is “Determined for the sake of all mankind, to exclude completely the possibility of the use of chemical weapons...”. Indeed, its main objective is the control and eventual ban of all chemical weapons, and the strict control on the production and trade of dangerous chemicals used with industrial and medical purposes to keep them away from the hands of terrorists. This organization also aims at destructing existing chemicals stored as weapons or that could be stored into weapons. All of this backed up by solid laws that should be enforced in every country of the world.

For the prevention and relief of a chemical terrorist attack, it is necessary that all governments maintain a strong public health and preparedness infrastructure that is able to provide fast help to the victims of such an attack. All this together with cooperation from the intelligence and security departments of any nation’s government.

Terrorists might make use of dangerous chemical agents developed as weapons, but they can also use the more easily accessible chemicals used in different industries and commercial laboratories.

Main Types of Chemical Weapons

Chlorine

It’s an asphyxiating gas that causes pulmonary damage. It enters the lungs and in high concentrations it breaks down the mucous cells that line the respiratory system and causes bleeding and subsequent death. Chlorine was the first chemical substance to be used as a weapon in history during World War I.

Phosgene

It shares many of the properties of chlorine, but it is 18 times more potent. Vinyl chloride is also similar to phosgene and chlorine in that it is also a pulmonary agent.

Mustard Gas

It’s an abrasive gas. It enters the body through the respiratory system and also cutaneously. It damages the lungs and causes death. Mustard gas was the most lethal chemical agent used in World War I. It was used by Mussolini in 1936 and it was used by Saddam Hussein in 1983, during the war against Iran. Nitrogen and sulphur mustards are variations of this gas. All are terribly dangerous. They are known as blister agents.

Tabun

Tabun is a neurotoxic agent (ethyl N,N-dimethylphosphoramidocyanidate) that enters the body through the respiratory system and also cutaneously. It affects muscular control, causing death by asphyxiation. It was discovered in 1936 and it was mass-produced by the Nazi army. Later it was used by Saddam Hussein against Iran.

Sarin

Another neurotoxic agent (isopropyl methylphosphanofluoridate). It is rather more potent than Tabun. Sarin was discovered in 1938 and it was mass-produced by the Nazi army. It was later used by Saddam Hussein against Iran and by the sect Aum Shinrikyo, in the 1995 Tokyo subway chemical attack that made headlines around the world.

Soman

Also neurotoxic (pinacolyl methyl phosphonofluoridate), it is even more potent than both tabun and sarin. Soman was discovered in 1944 by Nazi scientists and further developed as a weapon during the years 1952-1956, by US and UK chemists. It is without question the most lethal of all neurotoxic agents. It was used by Saddam Hussein against Iran.

Other potent neurotoxic agents include GF and VX, with properties similar to soman, tabun and sarin.

Hydrogen cyanide and Other Hemotoxins

This is an hemotoxin. It affects the circulatory system, making it difficult for the blood to oxygenate the tissues and eventually causing asphyxia. This is another toxin developed by the Nazi army during the Second World War. A similar compound is cyanogens chloride, that causes the same terrible effects.

Heavy Metals and Other Toxic Compounds

Arsenic, lead and mercury are sometimes used to poison food and water supplies. There are also other compounds, including volatile ones that are used as weapons, similar to chlorine and phosgene, for example benzene, chloroform and a few trihalomethanes. Pesticides and oxidizers, corrosive acids like nitric and sulfuric acids and industrial poisons, both in liquid and gas forms like cyanides and nitriles and even industrial combustibles, like propane and petrol. All of them have been successfully used as chemical weapons causing the deaths of many people.

New chemicals are developed at a rapid pace in different countries, mostly with medical or industrial purposes, but that could be potentially dangerous in case they fall into the hands of terrorists. This is why government agencies must carefully monitor the activities of companies and laboratories that develop these substances and the legal systems of all countries must be ready to control their traffic and use

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