Investigators have been unable to gather much information about the recent U.S. anthrax incidents, FBI officials told Congress yesterday.  Meanwhile, anthrax’s reach extended to Siberia, with spores discovered in a U.S. consulate in Russia, according to reports.

The FBI was “pressing hard” to answer many questions relating to the anthrax incidents, including how many people have access to anthrax strains, said James Caruso, deputy assistant director of the FBI’s counterterrorism division.  “The research capabilities of thousands of researchers is something that we’re still trying to run down,” Caruso said.

Caruso’s testimony surprised the senators at the hearing, according to the New York Times.  “The bottom line is this: As of now, you don’t know where the anthrax came from and you have not been able to identify all the people who may have access to it.  Is that correct?” Senator John Edwards (D-N.C.) asked.  Caruso said, “That’s correct.” 

“I’m very surprised by how little people know,” said Senator Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), who has sponsored legislation to improve laboratory security.  Feinstein said the gaps in the U.S. government system to track laboratories that work with deadly pathogens are “just a symbol of a kind of laissez-faire system that is very detrimental to the security of the American people.”  One reason that officials do not know how many laboratories handle pathogens is that not all of them are required to register with the government (see GSN, Oct. 31), according to FBI officials.  “There is no doubt we can make some improvements in the law,” Senator John Kyl (R-Ariz.).

Under federal law, anthrax is classified as a “select agent” and is regulated by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, according to the Times.  Laboratories that ship select agents must register with the CDC when doing so.  Investigators were examining those shipping records for clues, said Justice Department official Jim Reynolds.  “I don’t want to leave the impression that we have no idea where anthrax is,” Reynolds said.

There are loopholes in the law, said American Society for Microbiology President-elect Ronald Atlas.  If a laboratory acquired anthrax before 1997, it could continue to possess the microbe without notifying the government, as long as it did not ship the anthrax, he said.  Atlas said a plan to remove the grandfather clause “makes sense.”

Too much regulation, however, would prevent researchers from studying deadly pathogens, according to Atlas.  “We can’t cripple the biomedical community,” Atlas said.  “You can impose all the biosafety rules you want and the bioterrorists aren’t going to necessarily follow them” (Stolberg/Johnston, New York Times, Nov. 7).   

Anthrax in Siberia

The U.S. Consulate in Yekaterinburg, Russia today confirmed the presence of anthrax spores.  The State Center for Medical-Epidemiological Control in Yekaterinburg found spores inside one of six unclassified diplomatic mailbags received from Washington, the consulate said in a statement.  The source of the anthrax was unknown.

Since it took a second test to detect the anthrax spores, the amount in the bag is likely to be negligible, consulate officials said.  Officials did not know what to do with the potentially tainted mail inside the bag, said a health official.  “By Russian rules, it should be destroyed,” said Igor Romanenko, deputy head of the regional health service.  “On the other hand, it is American property.”

Yekaterinburg was the scene of an anthrax release in 1979, when it was known as Sverdlovsk.  About 100 people died after an accident at a secret germ warfare plant there (Reuters/South China Morning Post, Nov. 7).

Putin Says Russian Pathogens Are Secure

It is impossible for terrorists to steal or buy supplies of anthrax or smallpox from Russia, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday.  “Those materials have been guarded, we guarded in the Soviet Union and Russia, very securely,” Putin said.  “So I exclude that possibility.  I believe this is true of anthrax and smallpox” (Barry Schweid, Associated Press/Washington Post, Nov. 7).  

Some Tests Turn Out to be Negative

New anthrax tests conducted on U.S. Food and Drug Administration mailrooms (see GSN, Nov. 2), a Health and Human Services Department office (see GSN, Oct. 30) and the clothing of Kathy Nguyen, who died last week from anthrax (see GSN, Oct. 31), have all come back negative, officials said Monday.  Preliminary tests had been positive.  “Everything is negative,” said FDA spokesman Lawrence Bachorik.

Initial tests, which can be done in a matter of hours, are not precise, said CDC lead investigator Bradley Perkins.  To confirm whether a site is contaminated, investigators must conduct tests that take 24 to 48 hours (see GSN, Nov. 7), because they involve growing cultures of bacteria found in samples.  The results of the faster, earlier tests are often reported prematurely and that can lead to some people being placed on antibiotics unnecessarily, according to some experts.

The CDC is “trying to find the right balance point,” Perkins said, and added that most findings of anthrax spores in buildings pose little risk to workers (Garrett/Povich, Newsday, Nov. 6).

All recent tests for anthrax at the Pentagon Concourse post office are negative, Defense Department officials said yesterday.  Trace amounts of anthrax had been found earlier in two mailboxes at the post office.  There was no evidence of contamination and no evidence that the anthrax had spread to the customer service area or any other area of the post office, said Pentagon spokesman Dick McGraw.  “Every swab returned negative results,” McGraw said (Jim Garamone, American Forces Press Service, Nov. 6).

Senate Clean-Up Plan Dropped

A plan to clean the anthrax-contaminated Hart Senate Office Building with chlorine dioxide gas (see GSN, Nov. 6) has been abandoned, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said yesterday.  “There are too many dangers inherent with using gas throughout the entire complex,” Daschle said.  A new plan will pump gas into Daschle’s office and Senator Russell Feingold’s (D-Wis.) office, as well as the heating and air conditioning system, while other areas where anthrax spores were found will be treated with disinfectant foam, according to Daschle. He added that he hoped the process would be finished by Thanksgiving week (David Rosenbaum, New York Times, Nov. 6).

Hamas Writer Praises Anthrax

Atallah Abu al-Subh, a Hamas writer, published an article titled “To Anthrax” that encouraged terrorists to continue to use anthrax to create horror in the United States, according to the Jerusalem Post. 

“If I may give you a word of advice, enter the air … the water faucets from which they drink, and the pens with which they draft their traps and conspiracies against the wretched peoples,” he wrote (Al-Risala, Middle East Media Research Institute translation/Jerusalem Post, Nov. 7).

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