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U.S. Budget: Defense, Homeland Security Get Budget BoostsBy Bryan Bender Bush is asking Congress for $379.9 billion for the Defense Department, a $15 billion increase from the current year, or a 4.2 percent increase. A senior Pentagon official said last week that the budget aims to transform the military by making it faster and more agile, while exploiting dramatic advances in information technology and computer networking. Among the biggest increases would be a 50 percent funding boost for U.S. Special Forces, which have played a central role in the U.S.-led war on terrorism. The elite commandos are slated to receive $1.5 billion more than the current spending level of $3 billion. Substantial new money will also go for revolutionary technologies such as the development of a national missile defense system, the conversion of four trident nuclear ballistic missile submarines to launch conventional cruise missiles (see GSN, Jan. 27), and unmanned air and undersea vehicles. The budget also calls for a nearly $3 billion increase to $12.1 billion in the Navy’s shipbuilding budget to construct a Virginia-class nuclear attack submarine and several other new warships in the coming year. The budget forecasts that fully funding all the weapons systems on the Pentagon drawing board — including three new tactical aircraft programs — will require the department to have annual budgets of nearly half a trillion dollars by the end of the decade. Congressional Budget Office experts have said that it could be substantially higher, on the order of $75 billion more each year until 2009. On the home front, Bush’s budget reflects a large increase for the newest federal agency, the Homeland Security Department (see GSN, Jan. 23). The department is responsible for protecting U.S. territory from terrorist attack and it will be supported by a new military command, the U.S. Northern Command, tasked with supporting domestic security agencies (see GSN, Oct. 1, 2002). Created just 10 days ago, the Homeland Security Department is slated to receive $23.9 billion in fiscal 2004, an 8 percent increase over what was expected. The department is in the process of consolidating all or parts of 22 federal agencies and a workforce of 170,000 personnel. The White House expects a $304 billion budget deficit next year as a result of the federal spending request, up $3 billion from this year’s level. A senior defense official played down talk that the defense budget and related security spending would unduly strain the U.S. economy. “We don’t think this is an undue burden on the economy in any way, shape or form,” the official said. However, he acknowledged that the budget does not take into account the accrued costs of the war on terrorism, a potential war with Iraq or other military operations worldwide. “We don’t know what the costs will be, and any figures you get will be garbage,” he said.
From February 3, 2003 issue.Food Safety: WHO Releases New Guidelines to Better Prevent Food TerrorismBy Mike Nartker “The malicious contamination of food for terrorist purposes is a real and current threat, and deliberate contamination of food at one location could have global public health implications,” according to the report, Terrorist Threats to Food: Guidance for Establishing and Strengthening Prevention and Response Systems. Food supplies could be a tempting and effective method for terrorists to deliver biological, chemical or radioactive materials, according to the report. Food is extremely vulnerable to deliberate contamination and the wide number of food sources makes prevention more difficult. While access to chemical and biological weapons agents is highly limited, toxic chemicals, industrial chemicals and naturally occurring pathogens are all more readily available and could be used for weapons, the report says. A successful attack on a country’s food supply could cause large-scale economic damages well as mass casualties, the report says. For example, trade between Israel and some European countries was disrupted briefly after some Israeli citrus fruit shipments were deliberately contaminated with mercury in 1978. “In fact, economic disruption may be a primary motive for a deliberate act, targeting a product, a manufacturer, an industry or country,” the report says. “Mass casualties are not required to achieve widespread economic loss and disruption of trade,” it adds. Prevention A government-industry partnership is needed to better defend food at all stages of the supply and to communicate all information to the public, according to the report. For example, one measure under consideration by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration is the registration of all U.S. and foreign food facilities that produce food or animal feed for consumption in the United States by the end of this year. Under the proposed regulation, owners of U.S. and international food facilities would be required to submit a registration to the FDA that would include the names and locations of each facility, trade names under which the owner conducts business and the categories of food that each facility handles, according to an FDA press release. “This measure will bolster our ability to regulate effectively the more than 400,000 domestic and foreign facilities that deal with food within our country,” FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan said. “Our ability to efficiently and effectively help protect the nation’s food supply is a critical part in our agency’s counterterrorism mission.” U.S. and foreign food facilities would have until Dec. 12 to register with the FDA under the Public Health Security and Bioterrorism Preparedness and Response Act of 2002. The agency said it plans to have a registration system in place by mid-October to begin accepting early registration. Response Given the high risk countries must improve their public health systems to better respond to acts of food terrorism, the WHO report says. “It is highly unlikely that acts of food terrorism can be completely prevented, and it is even more unlikely, if not impossible, to prevent hoaxes,” the report says. Many countries already have in place disease surveillance systems that are capable of detecting outbreaks of foodborne diseases, provided they are large enough and severe enough to cause people to seek medical attention, according to the report. To strengthen these systems to respond to food terrorism, they should be linked to other systems that provide related information, such as veterinary health systems and health care workers, it says. For example, pharmacists could report a higher-than-usual demand for nonprescription medicines, such as anti-diarrheals, that could indicate a food terrorism incident. Countries should also routinely monitor chemical, biological and radioactive contaminants in food, which can provide a baseline of contaminant levels and help to detect unusual incidents, the report says. Emergency response plans need to consider food terrorism according to the report. Such plans should consider the ability of disease surveillance systems to detect food safety emergencies and should be tested in exercises for effectiveness in responding to food terrorism, the report says. Swift action and communication by emergency response agencies in the event of a food terrorism incident is crucial to reduce public concerns, according to the report. International Response The WHO is also working to improve its International Health Regulations (IHR) to better defend against incidents of food terrorism, which could have international repercussions. “International trade in food, with its rapid, widespread distribution systems, may pose a new international threat to public health, as food that has been contaminated in one country can threaten public health in other countries,” the report says. The proposed IHR changes include a requirement for WHO members to notify the organization of “all public health emergencies of international concern,” as opposed to the current requirement to report only cases of cholera, plague and yellow fever, the report says. This would require WHO members to identify and control high levels of food contamination, as well as infectious and noninfectious diseases, it says. The proposed regulations will also include guidelines for WHO members to implement surveillance and public health response requirements, it says. The revised IHR is expected to be submitted to the World Health Assembly by May 2004.
From February 3, 2003 issue.Radiological Weapons: FDA Calls for New TreatmentsThe U.S. Food and Drug Administration encouraged companies Friday to submit marketing applications for drugs using the mineral compound ferric hexacyanoferrate (II), also known as Prussian blue, to treat people who have been exposed to radioactive elements (see GSN, Dec. 4, 2002). The FDA has determined that 500-milligram capsules of Prussian blue would be effective in treating patients contaminated with radioactive thallium, nonradioactive thallium or radioactive cesium — elements terrorists could use in a radiological weapon, according to an agency press release. Prussian blue works by binding with radioactive particles while in the gut, causing them to be expelled. Currently, there are no FDA-approved treatments for internal thallium or radioactive cesium contamination. “FDA is working to protect U.S. citizens who may be exposed to radioactive materials released from terrorist attacks using a dirty bomb,” said FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan. “FDA’s guidance to industry and approved labeling for Prussian blue products gives manufacturers critical information necessary for producing an FDA-approved product to counter terrorism,” he added (U.S. Food and Drug Administration release, Jan. 31).
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