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BIOLOGICAL WARFARE
AND ANTHRAXAnthrax has been favored by terrorists since the start of this century, mainly because it is easy to create (all one needs is a lab and the proper bacteria cultures) and can be used to infect food supplies which can then pass on the bacteria to thousands of people.
For instance, in 1915, Dr Anton Dilger, a noted German-American Physician, established a small biological agent production facility at his northwest Washington, DC home. Using cultures of Bacillus Anthracis (Anthrax) and Pseudomonas Mallei (Glanders) supplied by the Imperial German government, Dilger produced an estimated liter or more of liquid agent. He reportedly passed the agent and a standard inoculation device to dock workers in Baltimore who used them to infect a reported 3500 horses, mules and cattle destined for the Allied troops who were waging World War 1. Several Hundred military personnel were infected.
Today, Anthrax is more popular than ever because of its low cost of production and the fact that it can easily be mass-produced. What is even more disturbing is the ease with which Anthrax can be weaponized. It is extremely stable and can be stored for long periods of time as a dry powder and can thus be loaded in a freeze dried state into munitions or aerosol with crude sprayers.
Some scientists maintain that Anthrax is even more dangerous than chemical agents like Sarin. In theory, if the spores were distributed appropriately, a single gram could kill one third of the US population. They were quick to point out though that an attack of such a magnitude would technically not be feasible but more realistic small scale scenarios still pose huge casualties. It has been postulated that a single ounce of Anthrax, if leaked into the air conditioning system of a domed stadium could infect 80,000 people within the hour and a terrorist attack on the New York Metropolitan area might result in an estimated 600,000 deaths. If Anthrax were able to spread from person to person through the air, the death toll would be much worse.