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Locals Bring the U.S. Biodefense Programs
Biggest Critic for a Visit
I t's been four months since the U.S.
Department of Homeland Security hosted a
"scoping meeting" in Athens as part of the
Environmental Impact Statement process for
the proposed National Bio and Agro-Defense
Facility, or NBAF. Athens is one of five com
munities which, last summer, the department
selected for a short list of candidates to
replace an aging facility on Plum Island, off
the coast of Long Island, in New York state.
Since then, some local residents have
continued to research the proposed facility,
and have followed news on the proposal from
other short-listed communities. Two of those
people are Athenians Kathy Prescott and Grady
Thrasher, who near the end of 2007 formed a
new non-profit called For Athens Quality-of-
Life, or FAQ. Prescott and Thrasher, a married
couple who both have long family ties to the
Athens area, say the new group is still tak
ing shape, but that they hope it will be, in
Thrasher's words, "a citizen awareness forum"
and, simply, "a vehicle to help inform people."
A full consideration of NBAF's attendant
issues, they feel, has not been a part of
local decision-making thus far. Says Thrasher,
"Kathy and I were sitting here saying to our
selves, how could we have gotten so far down
the road with this, without any responsible
local leader standing up and saying, 'Wait a
minute, let's take a look behind this thing?"’
FAQ's first task has been to bring to Athens
Edward Hammond, the U.S. director of the
Sunshine Project, a small international non
profit founded in 1999 as a watchdog agency
opposed to biological warfare. A primary area
of research for Hammond, and the topic of his
upcoming talk in Athens, is the proliferation
of biodefense tabs in the United States in
recent years.
Flagpole recently talked with Hammond
by phone from his Austin, TX office about his
perspective on projects such as NBAF. Here is
some of what he had to say.
Flagpole: You say that the U.S. biodefense
program has been growing significantly in
recent years. How much of that is a response
to 9/11?
Edward Hammond: There was 9/11, and
the fear about foreign terrorists, but then
there were also the anthrax letters, which hap
pened right after that, which demonstrated
how one could go about killing people with
a biological agent. I think for the biodefense
piogram the anthrax letters were a key thing
that happened, and that catapulted us down
the path that we're on now. Of course-, the
irony of it is that the genetics of the anthrax
that was used in those attacks points to a
U.S. biodefense lab as the likely source.
So, this goes straight to one of the fears
that I have and that some other people have,
and that's that our own biodefense program
is the most likely source, in my opinion, of
a bioterrorism event in the United States.
The program itself poses a threat. We need a
biodefense program, but it should be much
smaller and in much fewer places.
FP: If you had been asked five or 10 years
ago if you expected the Plum Island facility
to be shut down at some point, and for things
to be moved onto the U.S. mainland, is that
something you would have expected?
NEWS & FEATURES I CALENDAR i
EH: That is expected, actually, because sev
eral times the USDA tried to upgrade the lab
to BSL-4, and it was fought off by people that
live near it.... And USDA had been complain
ing about that lab, and conditions at that lab,
for a long time. So it comes as no surprise
that they're talking about replacing it.
It's a bit of a weird situation, you know,
Decause the folks on Long Island want a lab,
but they don't want a BSL-4.... So in a sense,
in New York, they kind of want to have their
cake and eat it too. From my perspective,
really, we don't need NBAF at all. We're already
building more labs than we can use in the
United States. We would be better off if we
just canceled the entire project. And if NBAF
were canceled, it would mean that we would
probably invest the money in bringing Plum
Island up to date.
FP: And you say that there's actually already
some new investment being made in improve
ments at Plum Island, so it might have a sig
nificant upgrade and remain a BSL-3, which is
what the folks around there seem to want?
EH: That's what is happening right now.
FP: That's interesting from an economic
development perspective: They're perhaps in a
better position to say what they want. What we
find here—and it's probably the same in places
like Kansas—are local leaders who seem to be
more ready to take what they can get.
EH: Well, NBAF will not be a motor of eco
nomic development. BSL-4 labs study diseases
that are exceedingly rare.... There's not a
market out there for a product of BSL-4 labs.
One way that you could look at it would be,
if you look at the University of Texas Medical
Branch in Galveston. They've had a BSL-4 up
and running for several years now and have
tried co develop the university there as a
center of research on these exotic and biologi
cal weapons diseases. If you look at what it
has done for the Galveston community, ir's
basically nothing. And if you look at the data
from the University of Texas system on pat
ents and other intellectual property output
from the different University of Texas system
components, UTMB in Galveston iags near the
bottom. If you want to be really simple about
MOVIES I A&E ! MUSIC I COMICS
tY, about one person a year dies of plague in
the United States. There's not a big market for
plague treatments.
...What I think that really goes on is,
elected officials that favor these kinds of
facilities, they say economic development—
what they mean is government grants.
FP: If you look at all the different towns
that are on the site list for a project like NBAF,
you notice a range of different reactions from
those communities. One thing we heard after
the short list came out was that you had towns
that weren't on the short list, because it was
clear they didn't want the facility...
EH: Well, it's weird. You know, it plays
out very differently. There have been labs—
there've been a couple built in Texas—no
problems. There was very little local opposi
tion. In other places—net just for NBAF, for
other biodefense facilities—Madison [WI];
Boston; Davis, CA; Seattle: some places
they propose this, and people just go nuts.
Biodefense labs have been run out of several
towns that way.
FP: That could come down to a lot of fac
tors, but does it come back to the economic
development picture?
EH* Probably the predominant one is... I
don't think that in a lot of places they're con
vinced that this is a good thing. From a safety
and, I guess, a community reputation stand
point, I think there are a lot of communities
that do not want to be known for their big,
spooky biological weapons lab. And this place
would be big and spooky. I think in a lot of
places, they're just like, "No, that's not us..."
You can argue the economic thing—I
tend to think, obviously, that the economic
spin-off from these labs is negligible—you
can argue the economic thing, but I think in
a lot of places they just say that "this is not
an activity that we want associated with our
community."
FP: Are you accused of paranoid spookery
when you say that a facility which federal gov
ernment officials are telling us will be basically
involved in vaccine research and protecting the
agricultural economy is of concern in a wider
rubric of bio-weapons development?
EH: Well, to be honest with you, I don't
hear it that often.... How do I respond? Good
question. I think you just have to go back,
look at the size of this program, look at how
many people, how many labs we're building or
putting into business, do your own assessment
of where the risk lies. And the other point
that goes with that, I suppose, is do you think
it should be okay for the United States to con
duct this kind of research, but to say that it's
not for other countries?
Ben Emanuel
\
WHO: Edward Hammond, U.S. Director of
the Sunshine Project
WHERE: Georgia Center for Continuing
Education Masters Hall
WHEN: Tuesday, Jan. 22,7 p.m.
HOW MUCH: FREE!
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