• Epidemic, bioterrorism study in Las Vegas

    A research project in Nevada looks to help hospitals and public health officials do a better job of quickly identifying the sources and pathways of influenza, E. coli, and other contagious pathogens that can quickly spread through a population; the project will also help in designing ways to cope with a bioterror attack

  • Texas A&M scientist tracks origins of bootleg honey from China

    The United States has imposed a 500 percent tariff on honey from China two years ago because the Chinese government is subsidizing Chinese honey makers so they can drive U.S. producers out of the market; the practice has almost ruined the market for domestic U.S. honey; China is trying to get around the anti-dumping measure by putting labels such as “Product of Thailand” or “Product of Indonesia” on Chinese honey; a Texas A&M honey specialist stands in their way by doing melissopalynology — the study of pollen in honey

  • Former colleague defends Bruce Ivins using back-of-the-envelope math

    A former colleague of Bruce Ivins, who, according to the FBI, was behind the 2001 anthrax attacks in the United States, says the FBI was wrong: it would have taken Ivins at least a year of dedicated work to grow the total amount of anthrax spores contained in the eight letters, and that could not have been done in secrecy; other scientists dispute this assertion

  • Ricin: the most potent -- and readily available -- bioterrorism weapon

    Ricin is of particular concern when it comes to bioterror agents: ricin is not only deadly, but it is also easy to obtain; it is a natural ingredient in the seeds of castor oil plants, which are used in the industrial production of brake fluid, varnish, soap, ink and other products; researchers offer ways to protect human cells from ricin

  • Smart plastic to be used in food packaging to monitor freshness of food

    New type of smart plastic could be used for packaging supermarket products or transporting produce; the new material has sensors embedded in it which will be used for measuring basic parameters such as temperature and humidity and more advanced markers that indicate produce quality; the new smart packaging will also measure the amount of hexanol — an indicator of deterioration in food — in the vapors emitted from foods

  • Food safety products: global demand to reach $2.9 billion in 2014

    Two trends have contributed to a sharp increase in the number of people who fall victim to food-borne illnesses in the United States and other advanced economies: the centralization of food production and distribution domestically, and the rapid growth of imports of food stuffs and food ingredients from countries in which health and safety standards are weak or are not being enforced; companies which offer food safety products and solutions benefit

  • More delays in opening Fort Detrick BioLab

    DHS’s new BioLab at Fort Detrick, Maryland, is hobbled by a series of flaws and glitches which have prevented researchers from moving into the facility years after it had been dedicated; the most serious problem was the placement of valves that allow access to HEPA filters in biosafety level 3 lab; the filters must be decontaminated or replaced every few years, but the valves to let workers into the air ducts were too far from the filters

  • Allowing for important medical research while keeping medical data private

    Algorithm developed to protect patients’ personal information while preserving the data’s utility in large-scale medical studies; a Vanderbilt team designed an algorithm that searches a database for combinations of diagnosis codes that distinguish a patient; it then substitutes a more general version of the codes — for instance, postmenopausal osteoporosis could become osteoporosis — to ensure each patient’s altered record is indistinguishable from a certain number of other patients. Researchers could then access this parallel, de-identified database for gene-association studies

  • U.S. not ready for clean up effort after a bioterror attack

    The small 2001 anthrax attack in the United States cost hundreds of millions of dollars in decontamination costs, and some of the facilities attacked could not be reopened for more than two years; a large-scale biological release in an American city, though, could potentially result in hundreds of thousands of illnesses and deaths and could cost trillions of dollars to clean up

  • HHS IG: U.S. needs more FDA food inspections

    Federal food inspectors are conducting fewer reviews of food manufacturing plants, with many facilities going more than five years without being checked; the reason: budget cuts since 2001 have shrunk the workforce at the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA); an estimated 76 million people in the United States get sick every year with food-borne illness and 5,000 die

  • Farmers are first line of defense against agroterror

    A rogue crop duster, someone tossing an infected rag over the loafing lot fence, or an upset employee with access to a food processing facility could conceivably commit an act of agroterror with widespread and dramatic consequences

  • Tularemia bacteria detected in Columbus, Ohio; no bioterror attack suspected

    BioWatch sensors in Columbus, Ohio, last week picked up higher than normal presence of the bacteria tularemia — a bacteria which may be used in bioterror attacks; Columbus Public Health officials continued to emphasize that people are not at risk and there is no suspicion that bioterrorism was attempted here

  • ACLU blasts Michigan prosecutors for bioterrorism charge against HIV-positive man

    Prosecutors in Michigan are charging an HIV-positive man with violating the state’s bioterrorism law for biting his neighbors during an altercation; the ACLU claims the statute behind the state’s bioterrorism law was not intended to cover an HIV-person biting another person; prosecutors charged the man with assault and later added a bioterrorism charge on claims he was trying to use the virus as a weapon

  • Students design innovative wastewater treatment process for removing pharmaceuticals

    More and more pharmaceuticals end up in countries’ water supply; four Canadian chemical engineering students have designed an advanced wastewater treatment system which would remove 90 percent of pharmaceuticals and endocrine-disrupting compounds (EDCs) using commercially available technology

  • Synthesized polymer neutralizes both biological and chemical weapons

    Biological tissues to respond rapidly and appropriately to changing environments; this logic was applied by University of Pittsburgh researchers: they have synthesized a single, multifunctional polymer material that can decontaminate both biological and chemical toxins