• Dr. Kavita Berger, biosecurity expert

    Project BioShield, launched in 2004 with a $5 billion funding from Congress, aims to encourage the development of vaccines against bioterror agents; the project has divided the scientific community with regard to the direction of R&D effort funded by the project; some scientists in the field argue that the development and stock-piling of vaccines for known diseases, such as polio, plague, botulism, and anthrax, is a waste of funding — funding which could, and should, be used to develop a universal vaccine which would counteract not only known bioterror agents, but yet-unknown agents, also called “designer pathogens”

  • Disgraced doctor had secret businesses to exploit vaccine fears

    Disgraced doctor Andrew Wakefield, who used fraudulent data to “prove” a relationship between vaccination of children and autism — triggering a health crisis in 1998 — has been revealed to have planned to benefit from his fraud: in a prospectus to investors, from whom Wakefield was trying to raise an initial 700,000 Pounds, he predicts the investors could make up to 28 million Pounds($43,367,082; 33,290,350 Euros) a year from the diagnostic kits his company would sell to parents who Wakefield had intentionally scared with his “revalations” about the source of autism

  • Aussie "inland tsunami" now threatens Brisbane

    The flood zone in northern Australia covers an area larger than France and Germany combined; incessant rain and wide-spread floods have destroyed infrastructure and severely hampered economic activity; the worst is yet to come: Brisbane river has broken its banks, sparking fears that the city — Australia’s third largest and home to two million people - will be flooded by Thursday; public health experts fear that outbreaks of Ross river virus — a debilitating disease transmitted by mosquitoes, which is endemic in Queensland — will increase

  • Randall Larsen, executive director of the WMD Commission

    Critics point out that Project BioShield, created in 2003 to address the lack of medical countermeasures to deal with chemical, biological, radiological, or nuclear terrorism agents, is yet to deliver a single vaccine to any of the known bioterror agent; they also point out to the cancellation of a $877.5 million contract with an inexperienced San Francisco company to develop an anthrax vaccine as emblematic of the program; Randall Larsen, executive director of the WMD Commission, argues that “There are always going to be problems when you’re making a new stealth bomber, nuclear powered submarine, or pharmaceutical for biodefense—- “; he also points out that the EPA R&D budget is about half the budget of the Marine Corp. marching band

  • U.S. moves to address antibiotic resistant bacterial diseases

    Antibiotic resistant strands of bacteria are on the rise and threatening the efficacy of existing drug treatments; scientists fear a time when antibiotics will be useless to stop infections due mutations caused by the overuse of antibiotics; legislation has been introduced at the federal and state level targeting the overuse of antibiotics in farm animals to help reduce the prevalence of super bacteria; an FDA study found that 80 percent of all antibiotics produced in the U.S. went to farm animals

  • California mandates vaccinations after worst Whooping Cough epidemic in 60 years

    In 2010 California experienced the worst epidemic of whooping cough since 1947; the disease killed ten and infected more than 7,800 people; to avoid another outbreak a new California law requires children in seventh to twelfth grades to be vaccinated against Whooping Cough; the outbreak may have been the result of decreases in vaccinations among children

  • Food packaging indicates food freshness

    An estimated 8.3 million tons of household food — most of which could have been eaten — is wasted in the United Kingdom each year because retailers and consumers question whether the food is safe to eat; researchers at Glasgow’s Strathclyde University are developing a plastic indicator that alerts consumers to food that is starting to go off; the new indicator will change color to provide a warning when food is about to lose its freshness

  • K-State doctoral dissertation examines food bioterrorism

    Terrorist “chatter” and information gleaned from informants have led DHS to warn restaurants and hotels that terrorists are planning to use biological agents to contaminate food in readily accessible areas such as salad bars, cafeteria food displays, and more; a Kansas State graduate student writes a dissertation on how restaurants in country clubs protect themselves against this risk; he finds that they do not do much

  • New U.S. food safety law goes into effect

    On 15 December the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) issued its first estimate since 1999 of the toll of food-borne diseases in the United States: 48 million people sick each year, 128,000 hospitalized, and 3000 deaths; in the biggest overhaul of food safety in the United States since the 1930s, President Barack Obama yesterday signed a law giving the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) more power to inspect and shut down food producers yesterday, President Obama; critics say the law does not go far enough

  • Edible optical tags to combat counterfeit drugs

    A Hawaii-based company offers a new way to combat counterfeit drugs; affix a tiny, readable tag to each pill; the tags are made from clear, 100 percent silicon dioxide, which has been safely used as an ingredient in food and drugs for decades; they are both edible and biologically inert

  • Wastewater treatment lowers pathogen levels

    New analysis shows that pathogens levels in municipal water have dropped since the implementation of federal regulations on treating sewage in 1993; these treatment guidelines have proven to be extremely effective with 94 percent to 99 percent of all pathogens in biosolids eliminated after wastewater treatment

  • U.S. not ready for bioterrorism

    New report finds that if a major disease incident or bioterrorism attack were to occur today, the United States would not be ready for it; significant local, state, and federal budget cuts have had a negative impact on public health departments’ ability to maintain staff capabilities, and their ability to respond to crises

  • Feds warn of food-borne, other poison-based threats

    U.S. federal authorities believe a food-borne attack on the U.S. homeland is unlikely, but they are still urging businesses and local law enforcement to keep watch for such an attack and a smorgasbord of other poison-based threats, including the possible contamination of skin products or even handrails at public places

  • U.S. water contains large amounts of the carcinogen hexavalent chromium

    Drinking water in thirty-five American cities contains the carcinogen hexavalent chromium; in twenty-five of those cities, the levels exceeded the goal proposed in California, which has been trying aggressively to reduce the chemical in its water supply, a probable carcinogen; the chemical compound was first made famous in the hit 2000 Hollywood movie “Erin Brockovich”

  • Mosquito-repelling light barriers will reduce spread of malaria

    Malaria accounts for 20 percent of all childhood deaths in Africa; a Columbia University experimental physicist is developing a “light shield” consisting of light barriers that can repel mosquitoes by throwing off the insects’ ability to navigate and detect humans via light and heat