Ft. Worth Star Telegram, June 28, 2007
AUSTIN -- Unbeknownst to many Texans, at least a half a dozen facilities in the state are handling biological warfare agents -- including one at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center at Dallas -- according to an organization that disclosed what appears to be an accident with an infectious agent at Texas A&M University.
Edward Hammond, executive director of the Austin-based Sunshine Project, also said that the personnel and funding devoted to biological warfare research have increased by about tenfold in the United States over the last five years. Although the research is supposed to be defensive in nature, the advocacy group says the little-known biological weapons rush in the United States could lead to an accident potentially more devastating than any attack from the outside. Hammond said. "Is such a huge expansion a good idea? I think the answer is no. And at least if we're going to do it, can we have a good regulatory safety system?" Hammond's biological weapons watchdog group Tuesday revealed information it obtained indicating that three people at a research facility at Texas A&M had become infected with a biological weapons agent known as Q fever. The organization alleged that Texas A&M did not report the infections to the federal Centers for Disease Control in a timely fashion as required by law. The CDC says it has begun an investigation. Hammond said Wednesday that it appears that university officials did not notify the CDC of the Q fever infections during a visit by CDC officials who were investigating the Brucella incident. He said that the federal government should impose big penalties in the case, which he said also illustrates why the federal government should improve regulatory oversight of biological weapons labs. Besides Texas A&M, Hammond said, other Texas institutions handling potentially dangerous biological weapons agents include the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, which he said is working on a new national center for biological defense research; and San Antonio's Southwest Foundation for Biomedical Research, which he said has a laboratory equipped to handle the world's most dangerous organisms.