CDC Labs Slapped With Suspension For Mishandling Bioterrorism Agents

A laboratory operated by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is one of a number of facilities whose permits were secretly suspended in recent years for serious safety violations while working with bioterror pathogens.

According to documents acquired by USA Today after winning a Freedom of Information Act appeal, CDC's own laboratories have also been referred for additional secret federal enforcement actions six times because of serious or repeated violations in how they handled specific viruses, bacteria and toxins that are regulated because of the likelihood of it being used as bioweapons, the CDC admitted.

Before the USA Today won to gain access of the records' relating to the lab suspension, the CDC had continuously denied answering questions regarding its own labs' enforcement histories. The CDC is still closely guarding the names of other labs that have been suspended. They, along with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, are responsible for the Federal Select Agent Program that regulates the labs working with bioterror pathogens, including anthrax, plague, and Ebola.

Medical Daily has mentioned that some are already suspecting, and questioning the motives why CDC have been keeping mum about the subject now that the agency's records are out. "There is no security rationale for withholding the identities of the suspended labs," said Richard Ebright, a biosafety expert at Rutgers University. "The sole rationale is a CYA rationale, in which the CDC seeks to cover its derriere by covering up violations and shielding staff and management responsible from accountability for violations."

CBS News reported CDC saying that three of the violations involved improperly sending inactivated agents to entities that were not approved to get them, two violations concerning the discovery of agents in unregistered locations in the CDC facilities, and one concerned inventory and oversight. Five of these cases were closed after CDC "demonstrated enhanced procedures to prevent future occurrence," according to the agency's statement. One case remains open, but the CDC refused to comment on what it involved.

"None of these violations resulted in a risk to the public or illness in laboratory workers," the agency said. Since 2003, only five labs have been suspended from the Federal Select Agent Program. A letter from the U.S. Department of Agriculture revealed that a CDC-operated lab was suspended from doing select agent research from 2007 to 2010 for a virus handling and transfer violation, however the name of the virus involved was changed.

"The CDC has made great progress in advancing the culture of safety at our laboratories across the country and is committed to doing all we can to protect laboratory workers and the communities around them, while supporting scientific advancement to combat evolving threats," the CDC said.