WASHINGTON – The Army is moving forward with caution on the proposed biodefense center at Fort Detrick.
The Medical Countermeasures Test & Evaluation Facility is planned for construction in 2014, but before it breaks ground – or even designs the building – the Army is working to find and minimize the dangers the facility might pose to the surrounding areas.
The National Research Council, advisers to the nation on science, engineering and medicine, met Monday to discuss the risk assessment plans for Fort Detrick’s new lab, which will inform the eventual building design.
The Army’s plans provided many of the details missing from previous reports, but were still lacking some of the expected additions.
The plans didn’t include any mention of the future building’s ability to withstand natural disasters or a series of disastrous events, a criticism the committee made clear at the last meeting in March. The risk-assessment contractors, BSA Environmental Services, were receptive to the need for these kinds of analyses, but said they would have to wait until the building design had been approved.
It’s a bit of a chicken or the egg conundrum. The risk assessment is intended to make the building design safer. But the risk may not be possible to assess in full until there is a building design.
For now, the work plan will determine the possible pathways that a disease might take to spread to either laboratory workers or community members. The BSA team is considering possible exposure through inhalation, ingestion, animal bites or skin diseases, or contact with infected air, water, food, or soil.
Six pathogens will be used at the facility, said John Beaver, president of BSA Environmental Services. Anthrax, Ebola, Marburg, plague, brucellosis, and several forms of equine encephalitis will be tested on non-human primates and rodents, said John Beaver, president of BSA Environmental Services.
There had been concern among the committee members that previous assessment reports were too broad and that the public wasn’t being made aware of exactly which potential hazards would be in their community. Those concerns were quelled at the meeting by announcing the six types to be used in testing.
“These are not surrogates. These are not just representative of the pathogens that will be tested. These are the six,” Beaver said.
Before they are brought to Fort Detrick, Beaver and his team will consider possible hazards like accidental or intentional release, spread of diseases through transportation vehicles, or illnesses acquired by laboratory workers.
They will only assess the risk of spreading these diseases, though, if a leak or outbreak is determined to be possible. “We will ask not just if exposure is possible, but if it’s possible at a level that would pose a health risk,” said Margaret Coleman of the BSA risk-assessment team.
The committee suggested broader categories of risk, instead of the current two categories of ‘unlikely’ or ‘possible.’ Committee Chair Charles Haas said he would be more comfortable with a range of likelihood for any leak from the facility, and the risks associated with it.
The difficulty is in figuring out how many people could be affected and in what way. “We know humans are all different in how they respond to exposure. We can say something is low-risk, but we can’t say it could never happen,” said Ed Eitzen, another member of the BSA team.
Committee member Leonard Siegel, executive director for the Center for Public Environmental Oversight, asked the risk-assessment team how Fort Detrick will deal with pathogens outside these specified six.
A report released on June 14 by an advisory panel to President Barack Obama identified 11 microorganisms as Tier 1 – or most dangerous – biological agents, the type that are planned to be tested at the Fort Detrick facility.
“The Tier 1 agents include all the agents on your list, but in addition there are five others,” said committee member Nancy Connell. “So DHS (Department of Homeland Security), and the administration, is considering these agents as crucial.”
Bio-terrorist activity – or new policies – could force the facility to accept new hazardous materials. The committee pressed on that issue, asking for answers on how Fort Detrick would keep workers and community safe.
Barbara Reynolds of BSA Environmental Services said the plans created now will be implemented by internal assessment teams at the facility in the future. “Before you crack a vial, that agent goes to your biosafety committee for assessment of risk.”
Reynolds calmed worries that anthrax studies would bring the disease to the facility in powdered form, which is easily spreadable. Though they’ll be using anthrax, it will be in liquid or cake form, she said.
Her colleague, Eitzen, also dispelled concerns over testing of the Variola virus, or small pox. “Because of the politics and community concerns, Variola will never be at Fort Detrick,” he said. “I think you can take small pox off your list of worry. That work will continue to be done at the [Centers for Disease Control and Prevention].”
The risk assessment plan is expected to be completed by October.