Via Daily Kos, the Houston Chronicle featured a story on October 2 recounting numerous accidents that have occurred in biological laboratories around the nation involving exposure by employes to extremely dangerous viruses and bacteria as well as the accidental release of dangerous organisms into the environment. As one would expect, the Bush administration has suppressed information about some of the most serious of the accidents on grounds of national security. According to the Chronicle:

American laboratories handling the world's deadliest germs and toxins have experienced more than 100 accidents and missing shipments since 2003, and the number is increasing as more labs do the work.

No one died, and regulators said the public was never at risk during these incidents. But the documented cases reflect poorly on procedures and oversight at high-security labs, some of which work with organisms and poisons that can cause illnesses with no cure. In some cases, labs have failed to report accidents as required by law.

The mishaps include workers bitten or scratched by infected animals, skin cuts, needle sticks and more, according to an Associated Press review of confidential reports submitted to federal regulators. They describe accidents involving anthrax, bird flu virus, monkeypox and plague-causing bacteria at 44 labs in 24 states. More than two dozen incidents were still under investigation.

The Federal Government is now deciding whether or not to relocate the biological facility on Plum Island to a site near Flora, and state officials are trampling each other in a lemming-like rush to convince the Department of Homeland Security to put it here.

According to the Government Accountability Office publication, High-Containment Biosafety Laboratories: Preliminary Observations on the Oversight of the Proliferation of BSL-3 and BSL-4 Laboratories in the United States, the risks created by such labs are significant:

According to the experts, there is a baseline risk associated with any high- containment. With expansion, the aggregate risks will increase. However, the associated safety and security risks will be greater for new labs with less experience. In addition, high-containment labs have health risks for individual lab workers as well as the surrounding community. According to a CDC official, the risks due to accidental exposure or release can never be completely eliminated, and even labs within sophisticated biological research programs—including those most extensively regulated—have had and will continue to have safety failures. In addition, while some of the most dangerous agents are regulated under the CDC-USDA’s Select Agent Program, many high-containment labs work with agents not covered under this program. Labs outside the Select Agent Program also pose risks, given that many unregulated agents can cause severe illness or even death (see appendix IV for a list of some agents, but not select agents, recommended to be worked on in high-containment labs). These labs also have associated risks because of their potential as targets for terrorism or theft from either external or internal sources. Even labs outside the Select Agent Program can pose security risks in that such labs represent a capability that can be paired with the necessary agents to become a threat. While the United States has regulations governing select agents, many nations do not have any regulations governing the transfer or possession of dangerous biological agents.

Putting the facility in Flora is a bad idea. We don't need dangerous microorganisms cultured and kept here. One nasty accident (and human beings and institutions are prone to accidents by their very nature) and we could be faced with a Katrina-sized health disaster. And we know by experience how much help Mississippi will be getting from the Bush administration (or any other Republican administration) if that disaster comes about. The facility should be located on an island away from the mainland U.S.

Houston Chronicle: Accidents rise at labs handling deadliest germs

Previous posts in the JPBlog:

What is a "National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility"?

Update: "National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility"?