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 The contamination at the Dugway Proving Ground Life
Sciences Test Facility in Utah was in "secure areas located outside
the primary containment area," the Pentagon said in a statement on
Thursday. The lab conducted a full decontamination and did not
detect anthrax during re-testing.
Specifically, the deadly anthrax bacteria was found on the floors of
two laboratories, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
said in a statement.
"If proper biosafety procedures had been followed, these surfaces
should have been free of the agent," it said, adding there was no
public health risk.
Secretary of the Army John McHugh on Wednesday directed all nine
Department of Defense labs and facilities involved "in the
production, shipment, and handling of live and inactivated select
agents and toxins" to conduct safety reviews immediately, according
to the Pentagon.
The Army had already suspended production, handling, testing and
shipment of anthrax at all four Defense laboratories that work with
the bacteria. Now, that moratorium extends to critical reagents and
other agents and toxins, the statement said.
Alongside Dugway, the Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center, the
U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases, and the
Naval Medical Research Center Biological Defense Research
Directorate are involved in anthrax research, according to the
Defense Department.
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In late May, officials discovered live anthrax had been shipped to
researchers in the United States and other countries and in July the
Pentagon said the error exposed major problems in how it handles the
killer bacteria.
The Defense Department then conducted a comprehensive review of its
policies and procedures on anthrax, which led to an ongoing
investigation at Dugway. The Pentagon said the CDC had also found
incorrect and incomplete record keeping at Edgewood and the
infectious diseases institute.
(Reporting by Lisa Lambert; Additional reporting by Emily
Stephenson; Editing by Sandra Maler and Doina Chiacu)
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