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NEWSWIRE
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Labs review security plans |
08.26.2008 
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WASHINGTON-- Officials at the new biodefense labs under construction at Fort Detrick are working on their own security plans as the Army reviews its security procedures following revelations that the 2001 anthrax mailings may have been an inside job.
Video surveillance and two-man rules, barring researchers from working in the labs alone, are among the security measures officials for both the Department of Homeland Security and NIAID said are either planned or are being considered for their labs, the Frederick News Post reported.
Personnel security became a high-profile issue on Aug. 6, when federal investigators announced Bruce Ivins, a microbiologist at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, was the sole suspect in the 2001 anthrax mailings that killed five people and injured 17 others. Ivins committed suicide on July 29, and his attorney has maintained his client was innocent.
In the wake of the Justice Department statements, the Army formed a task force to review lab security and personnel procedures at USAMRIID, and the chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, Rep. John Dingell, D-Mich., has said he plans to hold hearings on personnel security at Fort Detrick.
The Department of Homeland Security's National Biodefense Analysis and Countermeasures Center is scheduled to open next year, and it was working on its security and biosecurity plans before the Justice Department made its anthrax investigation announcement, said Pat Fitch, the lab's director.
It plans to be close to finalizing its rules by February, the newspaper report said, and have the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention review them. At the same time, there's legislation before Congress that would change how so-called "select agents," such as plague and Marburg virus, are handled, and those changes could affect any proposed rule.
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| SECURITY DIRECTOR NEWS INFO CENTER |
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