U.S. Food and Drug Administration Calls for New Radiation Treatments

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration Friday called for the private development of new treatments to counter exposure to radioactive elements using two new drugs (see GSN, May 19).

The FDA has determined that pentetate calcium trisodium (Ca-DTPA) and pentetate zinc trisodium (Zn-DTPA) help eliminate plutonium, americium and curium from the human body, according to an agency press release.  The FDA is now calling for drug producers to submit marketing applications for treatments using Ca-DTPA and Zn-DTPA because there are currently no such products.

“One of FDA’s most urgent new challenges is to protect Americans from heightened threats of terrorism,” FDA Commissioner Mark McClellan said.  “We are doing all we can to help product developers provide safe and effective countermeasures for biological, chemical, and radiological attacks,” he said (U.S. Food and Drug Administration release, Sept. 12).

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Los Alamos Researchers Develop Quick Dirty Bomb Analysis Technique

Researchers at Los Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico have developed a method for quickly identifying the components of a “dirty bomb” and discovering the culprits behind such an attack, the laboratory announced yesterday (see GSN, Jan. 3).

Before this development, identifying the isotopes used in a radiological weapon was expected to take 24 hours or more, according to the laboratory.  A team led by scientist Bennie Martinez has now developed a method to complete the work in as little as six hours.

“It’s clear the method can identify a variety of radionuclides that might be present in dirty bomb debris,” Martinez said.  “Since the method is fairly simple and uses a minimum of equipment, we believe it could be forward deployed and could provide early data to law enforcement and others following a terrorist event.  We want to help officials close in on the culprits as fast as possible,” he added (Los Alamos National Laboratory release, Sept. 10).

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U.N. Conference on Disarmament Ends 2003 Session With No Progress on Program of Work

The U.N. Conference on Disarmament yesterday ended its 2003 session without reaching consensus on a program of work, according to a U.N. press release (see GSN, Aug. 8).

This is the fifth straight year that the conference has been unable to reach agreement on what to discuss, according to the U.N. release.  Because the conference operates by consensus, a single member can prevent the entire body from formally discussing an issue.

The conference ended yesterday with the adoption of its annual report, which noted that conference presidents had tried throughout the session to reach consensus on a program of work.  The conference has also requested that future presidents continue consultations among member countries before the 2004 session begins.

The conference also scheduled the three parts of its 2004 session: Jan. 19 to March 26, May 10 to June 25, and June 26 to Sept. 10, the U.N. release said (U.N. release I, Sept. 9).  Representatives from Kenya, Malaysia, Mongolia, Morocco and Myanmar will preside over the conference throughout 2004.  Kazakhstan has decided to not assume the rotating presidency (U.N. release II, Sept. 9).

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