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Abstract
Picture the scene . . .
| Biological weapons are no longer just in the movies. |
We've seen the same scene over and over in the movies. The evil megalomaniac has trapped our agent in the island fortress. The camera pans to the ventilation system as greenish fumes begin to billow into his cell. We know that without an ingenious plan, our hero will certainly succumb to the noxious vapors and suffer an agonizing last few moments. Amazingly, he always escapes.
Are Scientists the Architects of Destruction?
Real life is a bit different from this fictitious scene. But nerve gases and other chemical weapons, in reality, have been used to terrifying effect in all of the world's major conflicts from this century. Such agents have proved to be available to extreme factions and have been used in terrorist attacks - exemplified by the attack by the Aum Shinrikyo cult on the Tokyo subway. These products, from the best researchers in chemistry of the twentieth century, have gained for their creators the same notoriety that Albert Einstein earned for the atomic bomb.
| Biologists' talents are being exploited for destruction. |
Recent years, however, have seen the focus shift from the physical, tangible world of chemical warfare to a far more insidious and lethal form of aggression. Now it's biologists whose talents have been exploited for their destructive potential.
Historical Hysteria
Biological weapons, curiously, are nothing new. Examples have been cited from before biblical times of water being poisoned with herbs. And history tells us that plague victims were thrown over the walls of besieged Kaffa in Crimea in an attempt to force the inhabitants out. The novelty of late-20th-century biological agents is in their directed development, potency, and deployment.
Mother Nature's Edge
Biological weapons have the edge over conventional and chemical weapons in a number of ways. A biological attack could be difficult to prove. Biological agents, by their very nature, are difficult to recognize as illicit, as they are derived from endogenous flora and fauna. So if a positive identification were obtained, the agent conceivably could have originated from quite an innocent source. Also, it can take days, even weeks, for these agents to take effect, by which time the aggressors would have had plenty of opportunity to flee and cover their tracks.
| Biological attack or isolated natural outbreak? |
A biological attack, then, could appear to be nothing more than an isolated natural outbreak, perhaps at worst caused by carelessness rather than deliberate subterfuge.
Name Them - Shame Them
So what exactly are we talking about? What are biological weapons? When talking about biological agents, we generally are referring to bacteria, viruses, and toxins extracted or derived from biological sources such as bacteria, plants, and marine animals.
| Biological toxins may be up to 100,000 times stronger than chemical agents. |
Toxins have been grouped, in the past, with chemical weapons, but they are now recognized as a distinct grouping. For example, toxins are natural, difficult to make (even on a small scale), and relatively toxic; they are odorless and tasteless; and they actually have legitimate medical uses. All of these properties are in stark contrast to modern chemical weapons.
In claiming a relatively high toxicity, the "top" biological toxin - botulinum toxin - boasts an LD50 (in mice) of 0.001 mg/kg, compared with the chemical warfare agents sarin and soman, which can only claim 100 and 64 mg/kg. Indeed, the most potent chemical weapons still can't get their LD50s below the mg/kg range.
Toxins, like chemical weapons, effect their lethal results immediately. Unlike chemical weapons, though, toxins are difficult to disseminate. Due to their complicated production, they are available in only small quantities. Although effective as tools for close-quarter assassinations, they are not an efficient choice as tools of mass destruction.
Latent, still relatively potent, and available in larger quantities are the far more frightening agents - those that might be used in a real war or terrorist attack. These silent assassins are the bacteria and viruses.
Dead Before You Know It
| It's too late once the symptoms appear. |
Viral and bacterial infections take time to show their presence. Often, by the time they do, it's too late.
For example, the virus that causes Ebola is a particularly nasty one. It kills more than 90 percent of those infected - in a quite horrific manner. It liquefies the internal organs and connective tissues, and blood seeps from every orifice. The victim's death is painful, with violent convulsions. Currently there is no cure for Ebola, nor is there any effective treatment. It is not even very well understood how the disease is spread - possibly through contaminated blood, possibly just from breathing the same air. Linking back to the Aum Shinrikyo attack on the Tokyo subway, 40 devotees traveled to Zaire ostensibly with the intention of securing a supply of the virus, potentially for use in a similar attack.
| Ebola, anthrax, plague, smallpox - any of these could be used as a weapon. |
Thankfully, not all of these weapons are quite so virulent. Examples of agents that can be used as biological weapons include the bacteria that cause anthrax (Bacillus anthracis), plague, tularemia, and brucellosis. Common viral agents cause Q fever, smallpox, encephalitis, and hemorrhagic fever.
Anthrax spores, when inhaled, initially produce symptoms common in less severe infections, such as headache, sore throat, and coughing. But in less than a week, respiratory failure has resulted in death.
And this is where the "beauty" of biological warfare comes to the fore.
| Only a few kilos would be required. |
A possible scenario could include an anthrax attack on a small- to medium-size city. A few kilograms is all that would be required, released downwind by aerosol dispersion.
A matter of days after the initial attack, unwitting victims are incubating the disease. Believing they are suffering from nothing more than a cold, they seek no further treatment until the more severe symptoms appear, by which time it may be too late. Even if they seek medical help in time, there may already be many thousands more suffering from the same symptoms. With hospitals soon filled to the bursting point, intensive care is impossible to maintain, and many thousands ultimately die as a result of the attack.
| The perpetrators have the advantage. |
The perpetrators, though, have given themselves a lot of breathing room. By ensuring that their deployment would take a number of days to be recognized, they could have left the country with little, if anything, linking them to the attack. And there is one other benefit to the aggressor in this scenario. Biological weapons do exist naturally in our environment. It is feasible that no evidence will remain to fix conclusively the outbreak as deliberate.
Defense
Defense against a biological attack could present further concerns for a group or nation under threat. Chemical and conventional weapons - even nuclear warfare - have relatively predictable effects. Biological weapons, on the other hand, have widely varying effects. Prevention by vaccination, for example, is therefore very difficult to manage. Many armed forces often vaccinate their troops against common agents such as anthrax prior to, or during, conflicts. Clearly, though, this approach only addresses one disease at a time. To attempt to vaccinate against all biological agents would be impractical, as well as futile. The development of novel biological weapons will always outstrip the development of preventative programs.
Economic Effects
| People are not the only targets. |
People are not the only targets for biological agents, as they usually are with chemical weapons. The direct destruction of life is not the only choice for a terrorist. Looking to the longer term, an effective alternative to attacks on people is one that has a devastating effect on the economy of the unwary victims. For example, a would-be attacker could hire a crop sprayer to spray wheat stem rust fungus over a few fields in the American Midwest. The effect might not be obvious immediately, but certainly by harvest time most of the country - and the world - would be aware that a considerable portion of America's grains were spoiled. The long-term effect would be disastrous. Not only would America's wheat sales be lost for that particular harvest, but the spores produced during infection would cause a domino effect that could have an impact on farming across states for many years to come.
Today and Tomorrow
Unfortunately, biological weapons have a bright future ahead of them. Although banned by innumerable treaties and protocols, the proliferation of these agents is sure to continue as long as there are individuals, groups, or nations willing to consider their use. Indeed, it is likely that more biological weapons will be developed. The expansion of genetic technologies permits an increase in the effectiveness and potency of novel biological agents. Alas, it is legitimate laboratories that do the hard work. The knowledge gleaned from them is used, lacking the discipline it took to achieve it, by those bent on destruction. New biological weapons could, even now, be under development. Weapons with increased effectiveness and ease of manufacture, decreased visibility, and with enhanced dissemination properties could soon hold the world for ransom. This is no film fantasy - the potential is already here.
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Scott G. Ewan is a biochemist working for a multinational health-care firm in a support role in pharmaceutical manufacture.
Susan Wolsborn is Web designer of HMS Beagle.
Strengthening the Biological Weapons Convention and Implications on the Pharmaceutical and Biotechnology Industry - a review of global efforts to eliminate biological weapons. From Current Opinion in Biotechnology, 1998, 9:312-318. Full text available from BioMedNet.
Facing the Global Challenges Posed by Biological Weapons - examines the threat posed by biological weapons, historical attempts to control them, and emerging policy. From Microbes and Infection, 1999, 1:12:1059-1066.
The Threat of Smallpox and Bioterrorism - argues for the destruction of smallpox stocks. From Trends in Microbiology, 2001, 9:1:15-18. Full text available from BioMedNet.
Nuclear Biological and Chemical Medical - a source of medical documentation, training material, audio and video clips, and current news about biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons.
Chemical and Biological Weapons Nonproliferation Project - offers a collection of articles from the Henry L. Stimson Center.
Chemical and Biological Terrorism: Research and Development to Improve Civilian Medical Response - a 1999 National Academies report.
Chemical and Biological Weapons Resource Page - provides extensive news and information related to chemical and biological weapons. From the Center for Nonproliferation Studies at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.
Cal Poly CBW Page - offers an overview of the history of chemical and biological weapons and the efforts to eliminate them.
Center for Civilian Biodefense Studies - an informative site with online publications, news, and meeting information.
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