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U.S. Response: Laboratories Not Prepared to Analyze Chemicals U.S. public health laboratories are not prepared to handle many dangerous chemical weapons agents, according to a study released yesterday by the Association of Public Health Laboratories (see GSN, Jan. 24). “We have almost nothing in place if an event occurred tomorrow,” said Scott Becker, the association’s executive director. Despite extensive efforts to upgrade equipment, personnel and security, many laboratories do not have the capability to identify some of the most dangerous agents, according to the report. On a 10-point scale to measure chemical response capability, 37 laboratories rated themselves at a four or below and nine laboratories rated themselves at a five or six. Only eight of the facilities indicated that they have chemical response plans. “The big fear in the lab community is the unknown sample somebody cooked up that may contain multiple agents,” said Jim Pearson, director of Virginia’s division of consolidated laboratory services. “You could have a powder that somebody says is anthrax, and here it’s some chemical agent that blisters. It affects your staff and puts you out of business,” he added. State officials said that in the case of a suspicious illness or a mysterious gas, they would be forced to wait for results from a laboratory, the Washington Post reported. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has given money to five states to test clinical samples in the case of an attack, the Post reported. Officials hope to extend that plan to 10 more states, according to Dayton Miller, associate director of the laboratory division at the CDC’s National Center for Environmental Health (Ceci Connolly, Washington Post, Feb. 7).
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