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Examining New York's Bioresearch Laboratory

Posted by michael on from the also-a-michael-crichton-novel dept.

Evangelion quotes from a NY Press story about Plum Island: "'Located just two miles off the tip of Long Island and six miles from the Connecticut coastline, Plum Island is home to a Bio-Safety Level 4 (BSL-4) research facility... During the fifth month of [an Engineer's] strike, a three-hour power outage renewed public interest in the island... Without power, the air filtration systems are inoperable. Without power, decontamination procedures break down. Without power, the seals in the pressurized airlock doors start to deflate. According to one report, workers were desperately sealing the doors with duct tape...'"

27 of 437 comments (clear)

  1. BSL-4 labs by BWJones · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Ahhhh, long walk on the beach of Plum Island watching the birds. (all kidding aside, seriously, it is good bird watching there). But, it should be noted that Plum Island is only one of several BSL-4 labs around the country that are publicly acknowledged. Others are located at UC Davis (proposed back in 2000 at least), UTMB in Galviston Texas, One propsed for Boston University, there are two just outside Washington D.C., there is one in Atlanta at the CDC and one in San Antonio. I believe we also have a BSL-4 lab out at dugway proving grounds in Utah as well.

    So, one should know that these facilities are the absolute best place to do research with the kinds of pathogens and chemicals and folks should not be scared at the mere presence of these facilities because of the work they do to help understand disease and potentially, biological weapons that may be used against us. However, we should know about their presence, and we should have contingency plans in place for the surrounding population (aside from "sanitation") should we have problems at these facilities.

    --
    Visit Jonesblog and say hello.
    1. Re:BSL-4 labs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      My father is managing the construction of a new BSL-4 lab in Iowa. The test procedure involves compressing the room to some ridiculous pressure and then making sure it holds it for 48 hours or so. That means every outlet, every electrical conduit, every pipe, etc. must be epoxy sealed. Apparently the CDC had a BSL-4 building that never passed the pressure tests. So all that money later and it just sits empty.

    2. Re:BSL-4 labs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      There's one in Galveston? I'm pretty surprised they'd put one right in the path of so many hurricanes. I'm sure they've taken the necessary precautions, but it does seem like a bit more disaster-prone location than other areas of the country. I mean, why bear the added expense of hurricane proofing critical systems when you could just build it further inland? Sure, there are other disasters that could break the seals on these places all over the country, but Galveston just seems like a strange place for it considering its history.

    3. Re:BSL-4 labs by demachina · · Score: 4, Interesting

      There are probably a wonderful thing when they are used to prevent epidemics and to develop countermeasures for biological attacks. Unfortunately there is always the chance that they are dual use, especially at places like Ft. Dietrick. If they are also being used to reengineer microorganisms to be more effective weapons then they aren't quite as noble as you paint them. The U.S. would like you to believe they stopped developement of bioweapons in 1969 but you would have to be an optimist to believe that is really the case since the U.S. consistently opposes any international effort to verify bioweapons labs are not being used for new weapons research.

      Probably the most disturbing indictment of these facilities is that the Anthrax used in the attacks in the U.S. that followed 9/11 were traced back to the Ames strain of Anthrax which is American in origin and is used extensively at
      USAMRID, Dugway, and Batelle among others. A full list is here:

      http://www.fas.org/bwc/news/anthraxreport.htm

      The Anthrax attacks which have largely faded in to obscurity, unsolved, should be a source of deep concern to American's and the world. They might have been perpetrated by a roque wacko that had access to Anthrax in one of these facilities. Its pretty unlikely they were perpetrated by an Arab terrorist. They could have just as easily been a covert operation perpetrated by a misguided government agency designed to stoke fear of WMD's in the U.S. Coincidentally the Bush administration, right after this used the threat of WMD's as the rationale to attack Iraq though no significant WMD programs have been found there. They will, no doubt, continue to use WMD's as a rationale for preemptive warfare assuming they can get away with it after the bold faced lie the war in Iraq has proven to be.

      WMD's are the perfect rationale for preemptive warfare. You can accuse any country of developing them and its impossible for the target country to prove they don't. Every nation in the world has dual use industrial equipment that can be redirected to chemical and biological weapons production and the Bush administration cynically uses this fact to suggest a target country is a danger because they have tanks thats could be used to ferment biological weapons, for example.

      As much as the U.S. likes to get on the high horse about WMD's its still a fact that the U.S. has more of them than anyone and has used them in the past to kill large numbers of innocent civilians by nuking two cities in Japan full of civilians in particular.

      --
      @de_machina
    4. Re:BSL-4 labs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

      I'm aware of tornados, but you know what? I've lived in west Texas all my life and I've never actually seen one, although they have indeed cut swaths of destruction through nearby towns before. I'm not suggesting there's anyplace 100% safe, nor am I suggesting the facility in Galveston is inherently unsafe. I am, however, surprised that I've never heard of it, especially because I would expect a lot of protests over such a facility being built anywhere, let alone in the hurricane capital of the Texas coast. I suppose that could've happened before my time, but I don't even know where to start looking for information about it. Maybe after work tonight I'll try a Google expedition.

    5. Re:BSL-4 labs by canajin56 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Yes, and they are almost certain that this Anthrax came from Ft. Detrick, since that exact strain was used there, and some was missing. Additionally, one Lt. Col. Philip Zack was spotted by security cameras entering the facility after hours, and after he had been FIRED one year earlier for racially-motivated harassment against an Egyptian researched named Dr. Assaad. One day before the Anthrax attacks, the FBI was sent an anonymous letter warning that Dr. Assaad was a nutcase, and planning some sort of biological attack on the USA. They investigated him, but determined it was an attempt to frame him. But they NEVER investigated WHO was trying to frame him. Odds are it was the same person who initiated the attacks. (How else would he know?)

      So what we have is somebody who was FIRED over his hatred of an Arab, who was spotted illegally entering a secure facility shortly before the Anthrax used in the attacks WENT MISSING, and they received a letter implicating this same Arab immediatly before the attacks began. Additionally, the letters sent with the anthrax were written so as to frame Arabs. However, forensic analysis revealed that the person who penned them writes in English, and was faking an Arabic "accent" on the penmanship (Or whatever it is called when your penmanship is affected by the script you first learned to write in) Also, the letters told the people to take antibiotics. Why would terrorists trying to kill somebody do all they can to help save them? A real terrorist wouldn't say it was Anthrax at all, let alone recommend a treatment. Some have said "Well penacillin wouldn't help, you need Cipero!" That is completely untrue. The people who make Cipero would like you to believe it is the only antibiotic that works, but it is not. There are many antibiotics that are effective. Penicillin is, and is FAR cheaper.

      --
      ASCII stupid question, get a stupid ANSI
    6. Re:BSL-4 labs by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      When this was going through the process, before it ended up going to Texas, one of the disgruntled workers at CNPRC (the primate lab) brought a gun to work. UC Davis swept that under the table.

      And they went about 2 weeks before the lost monkey made the news. I suppose they're trying to keep up the fine UC system that keeps Los Alamos in such great tradition: missing computers containing sensitive information, misused funds and lax controls.

  2. Redundant power supply by Underholdning · · Score: 2, Interesting

    We host some servers. If they do not have power, the customers goes apeshit (and I blame the guy that doesn't speak english). That's it. No one has died (yet). Still, we have two seperate diesel power generators in underground concrete shelters. Why is it that a small hosting company has more power supply redundancy than a level 4 biological lab?

    --
    Underholdning.info
  3. The Cobra Event by DR+SoB · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I recently read a book named "The Cobra Event" by Richard Preston. It was one of the best book's I've ever read, it was about germ warfare, and most of it was based around real technology (such as Viral Glass). I won't say anymore, so I don't ruin the book, but I strongly recommend it.

    No this is not off-topic. The last few chapters of the book, all take place on Plum Island, and they talk in detail about the facilities on this island. Great reading, and it made it better after I read this article.

    Amazon link:

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/034540997 3/ qid=1079625306/sr=2-1/ref=sr_2_1/002-0266613-02360 18

    --
    Mod +5 Drunk
    1. Re:The Cobra Event by DR+SoB · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I posted that since I knew it would get a rise out of some people.. Here:

      "
      b) Detection of botulism:

      We have been developing a generalized optical testing system for

      adenosine triphosphate using the luciferase enzyme encapsulated in a sol

      gel glass matrix. This makes a solid state sensor rather than a wet

      chemical sensor. These techniques could be applied to other agents to

      make faster more automated sensing.

      "

      Hmmmm? Gel Glass matrix? Sounds odd, I wonder who's doing research with GLASS and VIRAL infections? Read on:

      http://lina.tns.sunysb.edu/AlfredCeramicsDetails .h tm

      Here's WSU's view on Viral Glass, they seem to think it's real:

      "A realistic view of the botox situation is that many of the problems of dispersal were likely solved by the >3,000 US scientists that reportedly worked on biological warfare during W.W. II & the cold war. It is also reasonable to assume that the botox can be fused by common molecular biology technology with other proteins that stabilize it for dispersal without decreasing its lethality or it can be mixed with other protective agents (e.g. trehalose, viral-glass) or that it can be encapsulated in protective material (timed release) that dissolves once it is in the digestive system. It should also be possible to clone the botox gene into common bacteria that inhabit the human gut (e.g. E. coli), which would establish themselves there long enough to produce a quantity of botox sufficient to disable the victim before their immune system responded; a natural condition seen in young babies who ingest the spores in foods like honey. For a chilling description of how this might be done visit the Cal Poly site."

      http://www.slic2.wsu.edu:82/hurlbert/micro101/pa ge s/101biologicalweapons.html

      Perhaps I should read less and get out more, your right... Then again, perhaps you should read more.

      --
      Mod +5 Drunk
  4. Re:Not so bad? by TGK · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Because of the infection rates on some of those bugs. BSL4 is terrifying stuff, it's like working with plutonium that can breed.

    If I remember correctly, to be a BSL4 pathogen a bug must have a high lethality in humans, unresponsive to treatment and vaccine, and a high infection rate.

    Aids, for example, is BSL3 (or is it 2?). Now, HIV if frightening stuff, and while treatment has come a long way recently, its still the stuff of nightmares.

    BSL4 is the stuff of the kind of nightmares you get after watching a Hannibal Lecter marathon while dropping acid.

    Personaly I'd be much happier of BSL4 labs had some sort of fail safe, such that if all proverbial hell broke loose the doors would just shut and seal, and if everyone inside died horribly, well... so be it.

    --
    Killfile(TGK)
    No trees were killed in the creation of this post. However, many electrons were inconvenienced.
  5. Re:credible dope smokers? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Interesting

    I think it's called "gonzo journalism".

    Except, ideally, the gonzo journalist actually DOES something while possibly under the influence and writes about it in unfettered stream-of-consciousness fashion.

    Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas would count, except that HST himself later apologized for it, admitting that most of it was exaggerated to the point of fabrication and that anyone actually trying anything near the level described would still be rotting in prison today.

    However, this is just a bunch of crap. It's not even a book review (n.b. it ends with a reference to a single book; I doubt that this man so much as bought a bus ticket) and it's certainly not journalism. Why was this linked to from /.? It reads like a parody of the style clumsily used by this author.

  6. Labor issues have plagued the facility... by terraformer · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...for years. My parents still live on Long Island and I take the Orient point ferry (docks 100 yards from the Long Island depo servicing Plum Island) and for years there has been one union or another on strike there. You see them every time you take the ferry. The scary thing is that plum island used to be isolated but there are more and more people moving to the North Fork and that ferry is seeing a huge amount of growth these days with the casinos opening up in CT. Any mishap could be disastrous and be totally uncontainable due to the sheer numbers of people every which way on the ferry services through that area. Also, the ferry comes within a half mile of the island on a regular basis. I would imagine that is enough to put the passengers at risk and if any leak is not found immediately then when the passengers dock at CT or Orient they could be off and running infecting everyone else before it can be stopped.

    --
    Who are you? The new #2 Who is #1? You are #617565. I am not a number, I am a free man! Muhahaha.
  7. Re:Scary.. by Fnkmaster · · Score: 5, Interesting
    A more useful question is why on earth is striking allowed at this kind of facility? I mean, I appreciate the right to collective bargaining and unionization, but that right has certain bounds in facilities of national security importance like this.


    I think the public's right to safety from level 4 biohazard's trumps the right of facilities engineers at this place to strike, any day. Whoever let such a situation occur in the first place should be held personally responsible for any injuries or deaths caused by inadequate, incompetent maintenance at this place.

  8. Re:Scary.. by glenrm · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Should you be able to strike if you work at such a facility?

    --
    Onward to the Aether Sphere!
  9. Yet another example... by cryptochrome · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ... of why unions shouldn't be allowed anywhere near facilities which have the capacity for posing a serious hazard. Politics are OK in some places. A BSL-4 facility (or a nuclear reactor) is not one of them.

    --

    ---If you can't trust a nerd, who can you trust?

  10. Level 3 is closer than you think by ka9dgx · · Score: 4, Interesting
    Any decent hospital Emergency Room deals with Level 2 all the time (sharps, blood, etc), and will see Level 3 on a fairly regular basis (Tuberculosis, Encephalitis, etc).

    --Mike--

  11. Re:Scary.. by HokieJP · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, Police and Firefighters are government employees (except the volunteers), and government employees are not allowed to strike. These people, as government contractors, may, technically, be allowed to strike, but I'm with you in thinking that they shouldn't.

    I would like to point out, though, that this is yet another downside of the privatization so touted by politicians these days.

  12. Don't you just love the implied... by cnelzie · · Score: 2, Interesting

    ...and sensationalist writing style spit out by this 'reporter'?

    Where's the objectivity?

    I understand that New York, is really close to Detroit in having some of largest populations of people from the Middle East. It is EXTREMELY possible that someone that visited the Nile area and then returned to their home in New York could have brought that virus into the US with them. There are so many scenarios possible it's plain silly...

    This article smacks of the scare-mongering tactics used in such 'reputable' news sources like 'The Metro Times' in Detroit, as well as any number of left/right-wing 'news' sources used to further someone's political agenda.

    It carries just enough facts to seem credible and then adds so much personal opinion and bias that the credibility should be tossed out by any reasonable person. Unfortunately, it is designed to cater to highly emotionally charged people that want to have something to constantly rail against.

    --
    If you ignore the other uses of a tool, does that make the tool less useful, or you less useful?
  13. Re:Scary.. by afidel · · Score: 2, Interesting

    NO.
    Presidential order has stopped many classes of federal workers from striking and private individuals can be forced to cease striking under the Taft-Hartley Act which Bush used to reopen west coast ports. If he can force dock workers whos actions only result in economic impact back to work then surely he has the authority to force safety critical workers as well. Of course it would never be done because that would draw way too much attention to the fact that there is a bioweapons and severly contagious disease facility just miles from long island.

    --
    There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
  14. Re:backup gens? by Dun+Malg · · Score: 2, Interesting
    Hospitals have backup generators. Why not have them there for the essential life-or-death systems?

    They have 3 separate generators. Somehow, all three were happened to fail simultaneously during an engineer's strike. Looks like sabotage by disgruntled workers to me.

    --
    If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  15. Re:Yet another example ... by torpor · · Score: 3, Interesting

    A statement like that kind of destroys all credibility of the author.

    Yeah? Why is that? Because its possible that some of the objections that the Arab community have about America may in fact be true? That they may be applicable? That they may have a point?

    The fact that America's enemies may actually have a point may have escaped some of you, I know ... but just think about it. What exactly is the reason for having such devastating facilities?

    "Protection of the American Homeland".

    Great. Thanks. The rest of the world, dying of new strains of Tuberculosis cooked up in your ivory towers, will be very happy to know that America is protected from its 'enemies' ...

    --
    ; -- the corruption of government starts with its secrets. a truly free people keep no secrets. --
  16. Ken Alibek(ov) by Chitlenz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0385 334966/qid=1079632818/sr=8-1/ref=pd_ka_1/102-04375 66-8960154?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

    Biohazard was written by the head of the Russian bioweaponeering program in the 80s-90s. There are literally pictures of him standing with a bunch of scientists in places like Plum Island (i thiknk its actually in Arkansas at the Pine Bluff facility) during one of the many "goodwill" tours the USSR and the US had during treaty negotiations after the cold war.

    This book is SCARY. Apparently, the chimera virus so easily discounted earlier in this post is very real, and was an attempt to mix ebola and smallpox and seal it in gelatinized capsules to make it airborne and able to survive the explosion of delivery by bombs. Why bother? Because their research was based on whatever was considered INCURABLE in the west. Several accidents in russian experiments are well documented, and show up in old news reports as "food poisoning" or other polically correct reasons for mass deaths in suburban areas. Apparently in one case, someone got drunk and forgot to put the air filters back on at an Anthrax plant and killed a bunch of folx.

    2 points: someone noted that this is small scale research. This is incorrect, as Ken Alibek notes that weaponized germs have to be produced by the TON in order to keep the stockpile of arms fresh enough for maximum impact. Think about what a TON of ebola would do to anywhere. Second, where did all this shit go? He documents how at least one of the starving workers at a smallpox plant slipped out with a live vial (from a lvl4 facility) to try to sell it as a supplemental income. In lots of cases, noone knows where it all went.

    The upside is that it mostly doesn't work as effectively as it's billed. Spraying an agent would probably only infect a small number of people, since delivery of a live virus is apparently a very hard thing to accomplish effectively.

    -chitlenz

    --
    Imagination is the silver lining of Intelligence.
  17. Cost-Effective Homeland Insecurity by Doc+Ruby · · Score: 2, Interesting

    You'd think that BushCo's invocation of bioterror at every turn would be backed up with support for these bio research labs, and especially their staff. These geeks are the high-tech asset giving us our edge in bioweapons and defense, not the collapsing building they work in. You can bet that they're not cashing in on any Bush tax breaks like their neighbors in Connecticut and the Hamptons. And as geeks, you know it must really be bad out there for them to stoop to such untidy blue-collar tactics as a strike, especially in Republican dominated Long Island. So we should wave them goodbye as they float across the Atlantic to friendlier Europe, with its own rising demand for bioweapons experts, where many of these geeks come from, and many foreigners will find friendlier than The Homeland. And if you get in some sympathetic "Bon Voyage" messages now, they might let you crash at their flats when their debacle happens to you.

    --

    --
    make install -not war

  18. Lyme, Gulf War Syndrome, and HIV... by qtp · · Score: 2, Interesting

    The Connecticut town of Lyme (Old Lyme, and East Lyme as well) is less than ten miles away accross the Long Island Sound from Plum Island (If you were ever in the Navy and pulled out from New London or the Groton Sub Base, then youve been within 150 yardsof the place).

    Mycoplasma Fermentans has been detected in patients of Gulf War Syndrome, Lyme Disease, and HIV in almost all cases. It is often also detected in Multiple Sclerosis patients, and the US Army released instructions to the Veterans Administration shortly after the Korean War that all MS cases developing within two years of a serviceman returning from Korea should be considered to be service related.

    There is a connection that has been noticed by doctors in that area, as well as by doctors treating patients who have lived in that area in other locations.

    There is also at least one patent held by the US Army for this organism.

    It's good that there's covertage of some of the mishaps that occur at these facilities, but it seems that a "mishap" might not be enough to account for the problems that have been connected to the communitioes surrounding Plum Island and are spreading through the population. (Yes, Gulf War Syndrome is contagious, and did "originate" in many veterans who never left the states.)

    --
    Read, L
  19. Re:backup gens? by Dun+Malg · · Score: 2, Interesting
    even if the generators were sabotaged, the damage should have been detected at the next test.

    Good point. The fact that they had three backup power units go bad in a not-immediately-repairable way in the same time frame looks like sabotage, but the fact that such non-functionality was overlooked indicates ineptitude as well. Personally, having seen a LOT of backup generator systems working as an electrician in Las Vegas hotels, I suspect the one-two combo of sabotage-stupidity. There's not much of those generators that building engineering has access to. Fuel tanks, starter panel, and switch gear, mostly. Can't imagine what could've been done to them through "bad maintenance" that could keep them offline.

    --
    If a job's not worth doing, it's not worth doing right.
  20. calculus by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    imagine you are a head of state

    your picture of the world comes from Rush Limbaugh, FOX news, Anne Coulter, etc.

    you know only the following:

    1. minions of satan are going to kill many of your citizens, and you have to do X to stop them
    2. the media, the other political party, most foreigners, and many of your own citizens are commie mutant traitors who want satan to win
    3. a small bioterror attack in your country will kill relatively few of your citizens, and anger the rest enough to want revenge, allowing you to do X (whatever that is)

    what do you decide?

    seriously, imagine this is the only data you had, and you really believed it?

    the problem isn't just dumbass politicos, it's ambitious, conscienceless ideologues and politicos who Believe and Know and then figure that excuses them from thinking