AthensFAQ | For Athens Quality-of-life

Updated:
Thursday August 28, 2008

ANTHRAX CASE RENEWS QUESTIONS ON BIOTERROR EFFORT

From The New York Times:

With so many people involved, there is insufficient federal oversight of biodefense facilities to make sure the laboratories follow security rules and report accidents that might threaten lab workers or, in an extreme case, lead to a release that might endanger the public, Mr. Rhodes testified.

Mr. Stupak, the congressman from Michigan, remains concerned.
“You have all these universities tripping over each other trying to be high-level biosecurity labs,” he said. “What the nation gets is a very expensive bill, less security and a greater risk to the surrounding communities.” Click here for full story

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FOOT-AND-MOUTH PLAN USED FLAWED STUDY

"The Bush administration has no evidence to support its contention that it would be safe to move research on highly infectious foot-and-mouth disease to the U.S. mainland near livestock, congressional investigators said Thursday....Rep. John Dingell, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said plans by the Department of Homeland Security were not only "baffling, but dangerous." Click Here
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HOMELAND SECURITY WINS CONTROL OVER FOOT-AND-MOUTH RESEARCH

(5/7/08) - "Lawmakers on Wednesday tentatively agreed that national security officials should fully control the expected transfer of research of highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease from an offshore laboratory to the U.S. mainland near livestock...The numbers of livestock in the counties and surrounding areas of the finalists range from 542,507 in Kansas to 132,900 in Georgia, according to an internal Homeland Security study." Click Here
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SCIENTIST'S ATTORNEY SAYS UGA SPREAD FALSE DATA TO WIN GRANTS

(4/18/08)“I can fully appreciate the ramifications it would have on the University of Georgia’s bid to become a national center for agro-bioterrorism research if President Adams were to truthfully acknowledge the role his office has played in the fabrication of scientific data..." Click Here
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CHECK OUR NEWS PAGE FOR THE LATEST COVERAGE.....
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$25M PLUS IN INCENTIVES FOR NBAF

"Georgia officials have offered more than $25 million in incentives to draw a federal research laboratory to Athens....The state of Georgia will provide about $15 million, the UGA Research Foundation $5 million and Athens-Clarke County about $1 million in incentives if Homeland Security picks 66 acres off South Milledge Avenue to build the National Bio- and Agro-Defense Facility. That doesn't include free land valued at about $5.3 million." Click here

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ACCIDENTS AT DISEASE LAB ACKNOWLEDGED

"The only U.S. facility allowed to research the highly contagious foot-and-mouth disease experienced several accidents with the feared virus, the Bush administration acknowledged Friday." (04/11/08) Click here
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BIOLAB PITCH A SECRET

"A University of Georgia-led group is considering spending more money to draw a federal bioresearch laboratory to Athens, but taxpayers might never know."
Click here

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FEDS WANT POWER PLANT FOR NBAF

"The federal government has asked Kansas and other states vying for a new Department of Homeland Security laboratory to commit to building a power plant for the facility, officials confirmed Friday."
Click here

"Georgia officials, including spokesmen for the University of Georgia, Gov. Sonny Perdue and U.S. Rep. Paul Broun, R-Athens, said Homeland Security hasn't asked Georgia to build a power plant as far as they know...." Click here

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DHS RELEASES EIS SCOPING REPORT

FROM THE DHS WEBSITE "The NBAF environmental impact statement (EIS) scoping period occurred from July 31 through September 28, 2007. During that time, the Department conducted eight public meetings in the vicinity of the proposed NBAF sites and in one regional location. The results of this process are documented in the NBAF EIS Scoping Report"

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Against Opposition: Homeland Security Defends NBAF - Oconee Leader ....Click here to read
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Raleigh, N.C. — The City Council voted unanimously Tuesday to oppose a federal bio-defense laboratory proposed for Granville County....click here to read

From The Flagpole:"Davison reiterated that the NBAF proposal will not be debated by ACC Commissioners “on the floor,” and that they will not be expected to take formal action on the matter..." click here to read

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REPORT FROM NORTH CAROLINA'S DHS 2/21 MEETING "Frank allowed and facilitated a format of questions that pressed the DHS for answers to all questions. Having been present at both meetings, I only wish the same format would have been afforded to the concerned residents of Athens. In Athens if the DHS didn’t completely answer a question they were not pressed further and no follow-up questions were allowed...." Click here

WHY WERE NO FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS ALLOWED AT THE ATHENS MEETING? According to a 2/14/08 UGA Press Release "Each person approaching the microphone will be allowed one initial question and one follow-up question."
Click here

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Plum Island: Deadly Diseases on the Move?

AP Video

Edward Hammond of The Sunshine Project
talks about The Myths of NBAF

Click here for Videos

Download a Flyer!
Download and print this informational flyer to spread the word about why we don't want NBAF. Click Here to Download a Flyer.

Download Edward Hammond's Slide Presentation The Myths of NBAF here (.pdf document)

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What is NBAF?

NBAF (National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility) is a potential Department of Homeland Security deadly germ lab that is being proposed for Athens, GA. At 520,000 square feet, approximately the size of five Wal-Marts, NBAF would be one of the largest buildings in Athens. It would be located on 66 acres land of that the University of Georgia is offering up to The Department of Homeland Security. The proposed site is located near the corner of South Milledge Avenue and Whitehall Road - current home of the UGA equestrian complex -between Whitehall Forest and the State Botanical Garden.

Click here for Google Map

_{This pastoral setting soon could be home to the world's most deadly diseases.}
Click here for video of proposed site

What kinds of deadly diseases will be housed at NBAF?

We don’t really know. The Department of Homeland Security has provided a list of eight “diseases of interest” as “possibilities for study” for a 500,000 square foot facility that “may change based upon continued threat assessments and risk assessments.” These diseases are:

Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD)

Classical Swine Fever (CSF)

African Swine Fever (ASF)

Rift Valley Fever (RVF)

Nipah Virus

Hendra Virus

Contagious Bovine Pleuropneumonia (CBPP)

Japanese Encephalitis (JE) virus

Also from the Department of Homeland Security website:

“The National Bio and Agro-Defense Facility (NBAF) will research high-consequence biological threats involving zoonotic (i.e., transmitted from animals to humans) and foreign animal diseases. It will allow basic research; diagnostic development, testing, and validation; advanced countermeasure development; and training for high-consequence livestock diseases”

From Science Daily:

"It should be stressed that only about a quarter of zoonotic pathogens are readily spread from humans to humans" says Dr Heeney. "But it is believed that in extreme situations when certain animal viruses transmit to humans they may mutate and adapt to the new host so effectively that they may become almost exclusively spread from humans to humans. This seems to have already happened with measles and the HIV virus."

For more information on zoonotic diseases, read Deadly Contact - How Animals and Humans Exchange Disease from National Geographic here

What is a BSL-4 lab?

“Biocontainment can be classified by the relative danger to the surrounding environment as biological safety levels (BSL). As of 2006, there are four safety levels. These are called BSL1 through BSL4, with one anomalous level BSL3-ag for agricultural hazards between BSL3 and BSL4. Higher numbers indicate a greater risk to the external environment.”

Newsweek 12/06/07 -

"biosafety level 4"—the highest level of lab security. Once inside, the couple will study the world's deadliest pathogens—those with no known cure....

NBAF will be a BSL-4 lab

“Biosafety Level 4 is required for work with dangerous and exotic agents that pose a high individual risk of aerosol-transmitted laboratory infections and life-threatening disease”

Who will guard NBAF?

According to the DHS, there will be "upwards of 50 armed guards" stationed at NBAF

_{Picture of Federal Protective Service Officer. The Federal Protective Service currently handles security at Plum Island.}

May 2007 government investigation identifies
"539 security vulnerabilities"at Plum Island BSL-3 facility,
including "93 classified as high risk"
see full report here

(According to The Georgia Consortium for Health and Agro-Security,
"The number of violations is an indication of how robust this
regulatory process is.")

^{Billboard Campaign - Oak St.}

August 4, 2008 Wall Street Journal Graph

Do we really need NBAF?

Bio-Safety Level 4 biodefense labs are high-containment facilities where research is conducted on lethal pathogens for which there is no known cure or remedy. No one knows exactly how many there are. No one knows how safe they are, and no one knows exactly what types of infectious agents are being researched inside their walls.

That's according to a recent report by the Government Accountability Office, the investigative arm of Congress, which has noted, " ... no one is responsible for determining the aggregate risks associated with the expansion of these high-containment labs." Yet they continue to be built, with no end in sight.

Full report here

Rep. Bart Stupak (D-MI), Chairman of the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee - “…GAO states there is a major expansion in the number of BSL laboratories is occurring both in the U.S. and abroad, but the full extent of that expansion is unknown. No one in the federal government even knows for sure how many of these labs there are in the U.S., much less what research they are doing, or whether they are safe and secure.”

“What we do know is that the federal government has been funding the proliferation of these labs on an unprecedented scale. Over the past five years, NIH has spent more than $1 billion on the construction of new BSL-3 and 4 labs. Given the serious risks associated with these labs, we must ask if all these new labs are necessary.”

Stupak full statement here

High Containment Labs and Other Facilities of the US BioDefense Program

In testimony before a congressional hearing entitled “Germs, Viruses, and Secrets: The Silent Proliferation of Bio-Laboratories in the United States”, Edward Hammond, director of The Sunshine Project, an international watchdog organization that monitors the proliferation of biolabs has said:

"The proliferation of BSL-3 and BSL-4 laboratories across the United States since 2002 is greater than what our country needs and what its safety and security net can absorb," Hammond contends, "No new construction contracts should be issued, and no new labs should open until a comprehensive needs assessment is performed by the Government Accountability Office."

What did the Department of Homeland Security have to say at this hearing?

They never showed.

Congressman John D. Dingell, Chairman Committee on Energy and Commerce “I had hoped that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would be here today to assist us in answering some of these questions. I was surprised and displeased, however, to learn that even though DHS is responsible for homeland security, it declined our invitation to testify on the grounds that they were too busy and otherwise engaged.

Perhaps we need to consider compelling the attendance of the proper DHS officials at our next hearing. That would also provide DHS with an opportunity to explain their proposal to close the Plum Island Animal Disease Center off the coast of New York and move it to the mainland…

“The DHS proposal to close Plum Island and move foot-and-mouth virus to the mainland U.S. is utterly baffling. Foot-and-mouth is one of the most contagious diseases in the world. We know from recent incidents in the U.K. that it can escape from even a high-level biosafety lab. And we know that any release of the foot-and-mouth virus could have a devastating effect on the U.S. livestock industry, just as it did in the U.K. in 2001. Why then would DHS propose to move this Level-3 biolab that works with the most dangerous animal diseases in the world from Plum Island to the heart of farm country?”