By Wagdy A. Sawahel

26/09/2001

In response to the recent terrorist attacks on Washington D.C. and New York, newspapers have been warning anyone involved in the crop industry to be on the lookout for suspicious people. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has even formed a task force to try and prevent the possibility of biological warfare from being used against the world through the food chain. 

Biological weapons are called the "poor man's atomic bombs" as they are relatively easy to produce, hide, and use. As a result, they became very attractive for use in terrorist attacks. Notable examples are documented incidents of bio-terrorism in the U.S. and Japan in 1984 and 1995 respectively. 

Because of their intrigue, biological weapons have often been the subjects of novels. For example, the fact-based novels of Richard Preston ("The Cobra Event and "The Hot Zone"), which described outbreaks of the Ebola virus in the nearby surroundings of Washington, D.C. and a bio-terrorist event in New York City, emphasized the necessity of producing and stockpiling the small-pox vaccine to prevent a human disaster waiting to happen.


Biological warfare

Biological warfare is the deliberate spreading of disease amongst humans, animals, and plants. Diseases come about when small numbers of living microorganisms enter into those target populations. These microorganisms multiply, and after an incubation period the symptoms of the disease become apparent. In some cases, microorganisms produce toxins - non-living toxic chemicals - that cause the symptoms. Depending upon the biological agent chosen, the resulting disease can cause the incapacitation or death of the target population.

Biological weapons are among the most dangerous weapons in the world today. They are highly infectious diseases and organisms and some are very contagious. Unlike any other weapons, biological weapons are living agents and know how to replicate. They can make copies of themselves inside the human body. A bio-weapon can copy itself endlessly in people. A nuclear bomb, on the other hand, cannot make copies of itself. From a small point of release, a bio-weapon can jump from one person to another in an explosive chain of lethal infection. A bio-weapon makes no distinction between soldier and civilian, rich and poor, ordinary people and national leaders: we are all equally vulnerable. 


Production of Bio-weapons: The dual-use dilemma

Bio-weapons are characterized by a dual-use dilemma. On a lower scale, a bio-weapons production facility is a virtual, routine, run-of the-mill microbiological laboratory. Research with a microbial discovery in pathology and epidemiology, resulting in the development of vaccines to combat and control the outbreak of diseases, could be intentionally used with the aid of genetic engineering techniques to produce vaccine-resistant strains of diseases for terrorist or warfare purposes. In other words, the strategy for producing bio-weapon is like an egg. The outside part is devoted to peaceful medical research and the hidden inner part, the yolk, is devoted to the production of sophisticated bio-weapons such as powders, smallpox, black plague, anthrax, tularemia, the Marburg virus, and certain brain viruses.

The dual-use dilemma is inherent in the ability to distinctively define between offense- and defense-oriented research and development work concerning infectious diseases and toxins. Whilst progress in immunology, medicine, and the conservation of human power resources are dependent on research on very same agents of infectious diseases, bans and non-proliferation treaties are associated with the research and production of offensive bio-weapons. 


Bio-terroristic attack: The Nightmare Scenarios

The attraction of bio-weapons for use in terrorist attacks is attributed to their low production costs, the easy access to a wide range of disease-producing biological agents, their non-detection by routine security systems, and their easy transportation from one location to another.

Popular scenarios of bio-terrorism, that may have some mythical origins and cinematic Hollywood links, include the use of psychotic substances to contaminate food; the use of toxins and poisons in political assassinations; raids with crude biological cloud bombs; use of dried viral preparations in spray powders; and low-flying cruise missiles adding destruction and havoc with genetically-engineered micro-organisms. Other aspects of bio-terrorism are to dispute agriculture, decimate livestock, contaminate the environment, and seed food insecurity through intentional food poisoning and food infection.

For terrorist purposes, a sophisticated delivery system may not be required. Biological agents can be disseminated by crosswinds with few, if any, indications of hostile intent. Commercially available equipment, such as agricultural sprayers, can be used to attack broad target areas. A single aircraft, for example, can disseminate a line of source agent approximately 200 kilometers long to infect an area of some 200 square kilometers downwind. A vehicle driven across the wind could be used to disperse agents in a similar manner over a proportionately smaller area. After the terrorist attacks in New York recently, all crop dusters in America were grounded.


Recent incidents of bio-terrorism 

Fortunately, incidents of bio-terrorism in the last two decades have been rare. Notable and documented examples are as follows:

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