The U.S. army announced on Thursday, Sept. 3, that they will be investigating nine military laboratories following the reported problems that they have been encountering with regards to biologic pathogen handling. These lapses involved the contamination of a Utah laboratory with different toxins, including the deadly anthrax.

Anthrax or Bacterium anthracis, were discovered outside of the main containment area at the Dugway Proving Ground. Nonetheless, these locations are still considered secured and the pathogens have remained inside special laboratory containers. After this discovery, the commander in the said area has ordered the staff to implement decontamination interventions of the biosafety unit and has since been confirmed cleared.

Between March 2014 and April 2015, erroneous shipments of the live anthrax bacteria were said to have occurred, thus a safety review had been commanded this year. The laboratories where the pathogen had been shipped include 11 states in the U.S., as well as international locations such as Australia and South Korea. Nonetheless, the Pentagon iterated that the general public is in no way at risk.

During an investigation performed in July 2015 following the Dugway incident, the results revealed that systemic setbacks with irradiation and testing protocols utilized for 10 years were found, says Robert O. Work, the secretary of Deputy Defense. Nonetheless, the main source has not been determined. Finding out that more than 50 percent of the anthrax samples contain live spores, when it had already been believed inactive is a massive problem; they are shocked by the detected failures, adds Work.

Now, a safety review, which must be performed immediately by all nine Defense Department laboratories, has been ordered by John McHugh, the Army secretary. These laboratories are involved in the handling of toxic agents and are required to come up with a report within 10 days, as stated in the memorandum.

Aside from the safety review, the said memorandum also commanded the temporary halt of shipping and handling of dangerous agents in the Dugway, alongside three other centers including the Naval Medical Research Center Biological Defense Research Directorate, the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases and the Edgewood Chemical and Biological Center.

According to the statement released by the Defense Department, the interventions included in the memo shall remain effective while the investigative measures and safety review are still ongoing, and that it shall only be lifted when the Army has deemed that operations may be safely resumed. Should exemptions be necessary, the authorities will perform judicious review of the circumstances and may only be approved when appropriate by the Army Secretary.

Photo: Kat Masback | Flickr