Lax Security Found at Many College Labs

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON -- Government investigators found widespread potential for bioterrorism mischief at many college laboratories funded by the Agriculture Department, including an unlocked freezer supervised only by a college lecturer and containing a biological agent for a plague more severe than the Black Death.

snip>

The chief finding: Many of the labs don't keep track of their biological, chemical and radioactive materials -- and those that do rarely are accurate.

Only two of the institutions had a centralized database for a summary-level inventory of biological agents or chemicals at their labs. Just five had formal procedures for reporting missing pathogens.

Buildings housing the labs commonly lacked alarm systems, surveillance cameras, keycard devices and sign-in sheets or the use of ID badges. Doors were not always locked, locks were left unchanged even after keys were lost or stolen and cleaning staff in many cases had access to the labs after hours when no one was around.

In one case, inspectors found an unlocked freezer containing seven vials of Yersinia pestis, considered one of the highest-risk materials, which had been stored since 1981. It causes bubonic plague, or Black Death, and pneumonic plague, an airborne pathogen even more severe that infects the lungs and is almost 100 percent fatal within 48 hours of symptoms.

http://www.newsday.com/news/politics/wire/sns-ap-bioterrorism,0,6943866.story?coll=sns-ap-politics-headlines

WMD Beta Phi?

This always seemed to me the most convincing reason not to consider bio/chem as causis belli. Forget unfriendly govts- the stuff can be cooked in schools!

[realFedUp]

1. There's a John Grisham novel in here somewhere...

[WindRavenX]

2. Trust me- security is a joke in our labs...

We steal blocks of metal salt and throw it in the Charles River- bloody good explosive fun :D
We're just bored college kids wanting to see a show of Na + H20. Others may want to cause harm...