Department of Defense Investigates Mistaken Anthrax Shipment;

An investigation into the United States Army’s mistaken anthrax shipment found “NO EVIDENCE” suggested that in any way, shape or form that the technicians of the lab or the American public was not placed at risk, said, The Army’s investigating official during a Pentagon news conference on January 15, 2016;

(Image courtesy of The DoD andThe Pentagon)

An investigation in which began in July, 2015 and was led by Army Maj. Gen. Paul A. Ostrowski , A Pentagon acquisition official who is appointed to head the investigation stated, There was no single event, no individual, nor group was directly responsible for the inadvertent shipment of active anthrax to labs around the world.

“We did find through evidence that a combination of events including gaps in science, institutional issues and personal accountability when taken together each contributed to this event,” said, Maj. Gen. Paul A. Ostrowski

The United States Army utilizes small amounts of anthrax to test U.S. equipment that is designed to detect or defeat biological organisms, said Army Lt. Gen. Thomas W. Spoehr, who cammands the army’s Biological Select Agents and Toxins Task Force.

The two United States Army Generals stated Dugway Proving Ground, Utah, was the source of the problem, The lab there was responsible for sending more than 180 questionable samples to labs across the United States 50 labs in all 50 states and into nine of the worlds countries.

Spoehr said his task force has made recommendations that will benefit the entire program, not just address the problems at Dugway.

Recommendations will be implemented as quickly as possible; The DoD (Department of Defence) will recommend that the DoD establish an executive agent that will perform routine technical review, harmonization of procedures and integrate the inspections for this program, The Army Surgeon General’s office has been named the executive agent.

DoD will also put in place a process to screen and validate all requests for biological products from outside DoD to see if they are valid and to see if a less-dangerous product can be substituted for what has been requested, the general said.

The department also will put in place a central process “to track and monitor all requests and transfers,” Spoehr said.

Spoehr added saying, includes a new information technology system not tied to the Dugway lab.

“We have – and are – in the process of developing new DoD procedures for the inactivation and testing of bacillus athracis, which, when the underlying scientific research is completed … will serve as our single DoD and Centers for Disease Control validated procedure for this procedure,” he said. Control of the Dugway laboratory has been transferred from the Army Test and Evaluation Command to the Research, Development and Engineering Command, Spoehr said. This also eliminates the lab’s mission of producing biological agents for export.

(Video Courtesy of DoD (Department of Defense) and The Pentagon)

“So that production mission will no longer be conducted at Dugway Proving Ground, it will be done at other laboratories within the DoD,” he said.

And, there will be one DoD inspection program teamed with the Centers for Disease Control rather than the eight teams previously involved.

“The totality of all these decisions will greatly improve the safety in this critically important program for both U.S. government workers and the American public,” the general said.

(Excerpts Courtesy of The DoD/The Pentagon)