Bioterrorism

Bioterrorism is defined by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) as “the deliberate release of viruses, bacteria, or other germs used to cause death in people, animals, or plants.” Although it is not a new phenomenon, it has increasingly become a topic of international public concern, particularly after recent high-profile bioterrorism attempts in Japan and the United States. The ability of biological agents to infect large numbers of people, the difficulty of initially detecting an attack, and the threat that these agents will create widespread population disruption and panic present a unique set of challenges. Smallpox and anthrax, followed by plague, are generally considered to be the most likely biological agents. However, a host of other agents, including toxins produced by bacteria as well as viruses and bacteria, may also be deployed. International efforts to control bioterrorism began in 1925 with the Geneva Protocol. In 1972 a convention known as the Biological and Toxin Weapons Convention (BTWC) prohibited the development, production, stockpiling, and acquisition of biological and toxin weapons. Since then, the majority of the world's countries have signed on to the convention.

The use of biological weapons is far from new. In fact, one of the earliest incidences of bioterrorism is thought to have occurred in the 6th century b.c.e. when Assyrians poisoned enemy wells with rye ergot, a fungus that can cause convulsions if ingested. In 1346, plague broke out in the Tartar army while it was besieging the city of Kaffa in Crimea. Reportedly, the Tartars hurled the bodies of plague victims over the city walls, causing an epidemic that forced the city to surrender. It is postulated that infected Kaffa residents may have been the source of the black plague that subsequently swept across medieval Europe. In the 1700s, during the French and Indian wars, the British reportedly gave blankets that had been used by smallpox victims to Native Americans, igniting smallpox epidemics that decimated the Native American population.

Biological weapon use and development in the 20th century include the 1915 use of glanders bacteria and anthrax by German undercover agents to inoculate livestock from the United States bound for Allied countries. From the 1930s through 1945, the Japanese set up a biological warfare testing center, known as Unit 731, in occupied Manchuria. Here, thousands [Page 238]of prisoners and Chinese nationals were used as experimental subjects for developing and testing biological weapons. During the early 1940s, the Japanese dropped plague-infected fleas over China and Manchuria, causing outbreaks in these areas.

Smallpox and anthrax are often considered the most threatening biological agents because of their relative ease of production.

In 1942, both the United States and United Kingdom (UK) began biological weapon research programs of their own, at Camp Detrick, Frederick, Maryland, and Gruinard Island off the coast of Scotland, respectively. Testing of anthrax spore dissemination through conventional bombs on Gruinard Island resulted in contamination so great that the entire island eventually had to be decontaminated with formaldehyde and seawater. The UK bioweapon development program was eventually terminated, and in 1969, President Richard Nixon signed an executive order to stop all offensive biological and toxin weapon research and production.

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