By Daniel Arnaudo
On Dec. 3, a congressionally mandated commission released a report offering 15 recommendations to help the U.S. government improve its ability to prevent and respond to threats of biological and nuclear terrorism. Drawing even more attention and criticism than the recommendations, however, was the commission’s prediction that terrorists were likely to carry out an attack with biological or nuclear weapons somewhere in the world within the next five years.
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WMD Commission Issues Findings
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The statement in the article that no BSL-3 labs are covered by existing U.S. government regulations is incorrect. At present, BSL-3 labs are required to register with the U.S. government if they (1) work with pathogens or toxins designated as Select Agents, or (2) conduct recombinant DNA research with federal funding. An unknown number of BSL-3 labs (ranging from tens to hundreds) fall into neither category and thus are currently unregistered. For example, labs working with dangerous pathogens that are not designated as Select Agents (such as the SARS virus or the West Nile virus), or labs that are privately funded, may not be covered. The Commission's recommendation is designed to fill this gap in the existing oversight structure.
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