We have always been fascinated with the idea of a tiny invisible toxin or pathogen swiftly causing a global pandemic and forever changing the landscape of human population. Popular novels and movies like The Stand, Plum Island, and The Andromeda Strain bring the fascination to life. Like many other pandemic themed works, these stories place the blame on space suit wearing scientists in underground vault-like labs. Popular fiction aside, how real is the risk? Do high level bio-research labs encourage vital research or raise our risk of exposure? Who regulates and investigates the labs and scientists, and how effective are the rules? I was curious, so I started reading and the answers surprised me.
According to the World Health Organization (WHO), a pandemic is a dangerous, infectious disease that is new to a population and infects humans across a large region. When H1N1 began causing school closings, hog slaughtering, and emergency vaccination programs, I’ll admit the word pandemic made me nervous. My co-workers and I Googled “Zombie Stash” and discussed plans to stock up on water and canned soup. But, the more I read about vaccines and treatment options, I realized that H1N1 was probably not the sort of virus that would cripple the human population beyond recovery. Other, more sinister bugs were lurking out there, and waiting for an opportune moment to attack.
The more I read from the Center for Disease Control (CDC) and WHO, the harder it was for me to sleep at night. Not only were nasty toxins and pathogens turning up all over the world, some of them killed with greater than ninety percent efficiency and had no known treatment or cure. The idea that bio-research labs were collecting and growing these dangerous substances made me more than a little uncomfortable. Popular fiction started to look more and more like a possible reality.
Even after reading thousands of pages of symptoms and treatments, I knew I wasn’t an expert. So I called the president and managing partner of Global Biohazard Technologies, Dr. John H. Keene. His qualifications, degrees, and résumé would fill several pages. I will summarize by saying he is one of the leading experts on bio-safety and bio-security in the world. In addition to teaching, writing, and working with top laboratories across the globe, he has served on committees and boards to provide risk assessment. He now inspects high level bio-research labs worldwide and certifies them based on safety practices and procedures.
To maintain the safe environment, researchers submit to rigorous training and strict scrutiny. It takes six months to a year of background checks and psychological profiles before a researcher is allowed to work in the highest level of bio-containment, Level-4. This is where they study aerosol-transmitted infections with high risk of causing fatalities and little or no known treatment. Even after high-security approval, the scientist must work under supervision for many months and always work with a partner. In addition to self preservation in a physical sense, the bio-researchers also face peer pressure to follow safety rules. No one wants to work with a partner who would put them in danger, and no researcher wants to find themselves on the front page of the paper for a careless accident. Self regulation goes a long way to keep these labs safe. In addition, the 2001 anthrax letters and threats of weapons of mass destruction helped legislators form thorough and comprehensive regulations.
According to Keene, there is an even stronger reason we shouldn’t fret over terrorists stealing from labs or rogue scientists sneaking vials of liquid death out in their briefcase. A good number of the deadly toxins and pathogens are naturally occurring. A good microbiologist, one who could pass the scrutiny to get into a high level lab, could find a sample in nature and grow it in his garage without raising any alarm. I did mention to Dr. Keene that this scenario didn’t help with my personal security evaluation, but he quickly reminded me that my question related to lab security, not overall security.
By the time I’d read the military surety documents and concluded my talk with Dr. Keene, I was convinced that the fictional accounts of lab accidents destroying the world, were very unlikely if not impossible. But I was curious about the bio-researchers who worked in the basements of labs, holding life and death in their hands every day.
Dr. Lisa Hensley is the chief of the Viral Therapeutics branch at the U.S. Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases (USAMRIID) at Fort Detrick, Maryland. USAMRIID is the U.S. Army’s main facility for infectious disease research and defenses against biological warfare. Dr. Hensley’s group specializes in countermeasures against Ebola and Marburg viruses; viral hemorrhagic fevers with up to a ninety percent fatality rate. There is no cure and no standard treatment for these viruses, though her group has developed some promising therapeutic measures.
Dr. Hensley suggests that the type of person who selects this career, “…is careful, observant, and conscientious. They don’t take short cuts and they police themselves. But they are also curious and looking for a rewarding, challenging job that can make a real difference.” Her goal is to get ahead of the curve and to find treatments and vaccines for newly emerging disease agents.
What is a typical day like for a researcher? Before they enter the Level-4 containment lab, they have to suit up. Dr. Hensley must change from street clothes into a jumpsuit, socks, and gloves. Then she puts on the containment suit which fully covers her body, head, and face. The suit is hot and weighs over sixteen pounds. She tries to limit time in it to no more than 4-6 hours before she takes a break, because once the suit is on she cannot eat, drink, or use the restroom. Removing the suit is more difficult than you might think. A chemical shower is required while wearing the suit and is followed by a water rinse. She is then able to remove the suit and take another shower to wash her skin and hair. The decontamination process takes around forty minutes. She follows the lengthy procedure to eat lunch and at the end of the day.
Researchers do not spend every day working with dangerous chemicals in the lab. When Dr. Hensley is working on an outbreak or studying an emerging disease, she often spends 9 hours a day in the containment suit, but other times, she works in an office and does research. Sometimes, she actually travels to see a disease in action and has traveled outside the U.S. nine times this year.
“This job has some nontraditional aspects to it,” says Dr. Hensley. “I’ve ridden a dirt bike through the jungles of Africa and climbed on a jungle barge with a land rover to cross a river where there wasn’t any bridge. There are few jobs with the variety and opportunities this one allows.”
But she also reacts emotionally to the weight of the task, “It is humbling to see the destructive power of these viruses and to experiment with animals and watch the progression—to visit remote areas and see death. It becomes personal to see these things. You have a new appreciation for the danger and appreciate life more.”
Although there is significant risk to humans and animals from emerging toxins and pathogens, I’m happy to say bio-research labs are not the enemy or the likely source of a coming disaster. Rather, they are the gathering place of scientists who work as carefully as possible to keep us safe and secure.
For more information about lab regulations, visit the WHO website at http://www.who.int/en or the CDC at http://www.cdc.gov and search for biosafety. If you’d like to learn more about the most dangerous toxins and pathogens on the planet go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Select_agent for the U.S. biological select agents and toxins (BSAT) list.
Cara Brookins lives near Little Rock, Arkansas where she lives with her four children. She has two published novels in the young adult market and freelances for the Arkansas Democrat Gazette. Currently, she is researching a fiction novel on bio-terror and writing her first nonfiction book for an adult market. Rise is the true story of how Cara and her children built a five bedroom house with their own hands. Visit her website at http://www.carabrookins.com
Sources
Dr. Lisa Hensley. Chief of the Viral Therapeutics branch, USAMRIID. Telephone INTERVIEW. 12 November 2009.
Dr. John H. Keene. Managing partner of Global Biohazard Technologies. Telephone INTERVIEW. 08 November 2009.
The World Health Organization. Laboratory Biosafety Manual – Third Edition. Web. 29 Noveber 2009.
The Center for Disease Control. Biosafety in Microbiological and biomedical Laboratories – Fifth Edition. Web. 02 December 2009.
U.S. Army. Nuclear and Chemical Weapons and Materiel – Biological Surety. Web. 09 December 2009.
